Have you ever noticed that no matter how much people battle for their own rights or the rights of others the war is never really at a complete rest? Well the War on Drugs and the Black Lives Matter Movement are related battles. In HBO’s The Wire, season four and five illustrates a glimpse of the near reality of what occurs in urban Baltimore, Maryland, such as under privileged schools and notorious newspaper articles about its urban neighborhoods. In The Wire, Seth Gilliam plays as former Baltimore Police Sergeant Ellis Carver. Detective Carver’s character recreates the violent behavior of police officers one commonly sees in the news and throughout recent history. Sadly it is because of such behavior that the nation has trouble believing in …show more content…
In season four episode one detective Carver taunts Preston and makes him feel intellectually inferior, simply to make himself feel better and make officer Colicchio laugh. For instance, detective Carver sarcastically states, “So let’s try this again. I say, “Have a good evening Mr. Broadus” to which Preston responded, “And a good evening to you Sergeant Carver. And a very good evening to you, Officer Colicchio.” To which, Officer Colicchio crudely insulted him and deactivate Carver responded, “What the f*** was all that about? You can’t bust every head, Tony. Bust every head, who are you gonna talk to when the s*** happens?” (S4E1). In The Wire, the show illustrates detective Carver as someone who commonly insults people of color in front of his white male police officers, someone who simply cares for black lives when he needs to “talk” to them to garner evidence. Similarly in season one-episode three, African American police officers (such as Detective Greggs and Detective Carver) demonstrated police brutality by repeatedly hitting Preston. For instance, Preston was insulted by the comment of one of the police officers and hits him once and the reaction of detective Greggs and Carver is not to detain him but repeatedly use violent actions enough to break his ribs (S1E3). It is assumed that the police officers reacted that way because they were …show more content…
For instance, in the third episode of season five, Journalist Alma Gutierrez writes a story about three murdered people of color in Baltimore, Maryland but the story does not present itself on the front cover. One then realizes that in the end of the day the lives of people of color do not matter. For instance, Journalist Mike Fletcher tells Gutierrez, “They’re dead where it does not count” (S5E3). Fletcher mentions that if there were white folks in a different sector of Maryland her story would have been on the front page. It is assumed that urban areas are notorious for its crime rates and stories of murdered folks are common. Nonetheless a life is a life, and no matter where a murder takes place it should be known regardless of their skin color. HBO’s The Wire, executive producer and former Baltimore police officer, David Simon wanted to illustrate a deeper meaning and purpose to the show than simply mere entertainment. Simon wanted to demonstrate that there is a huge issue still occurring towards people of color and by doing his passion for the awareness came to life and became a motion picture television series. In The Wire and in real life police officers often arrest people of color for non-violent drug offenses and detective Carver is no different. By commonly arresting people of color and giving them long sentences