The Wire creator, David Simon and producer, George Pelecanos are developing a limited series for HBO titled We Own This City, which is about the Gun Trace Task Force scandal.
Deadline reports the series will be based on the new book We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton.
We Own the City is set in Baltimore 2015. Riots are erupting across the city as citizens demand justice for Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Black man who has died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody. Drug and violent crime are surging, and the city is reaching its highest murder count in more than two decades: 342 homicides in a single year, in a city of just 600,000 people.
However, besides these statistics, a criminal conspiracy of unprecedented scale was unfolding within the police department. Entrusted with fixing the city’s drug and gun crisis, Sgt. Wayne Jenkins and a number of other rogue officers were sent to federal prison for a campaign of misconduct that included robberies, home invasions, stolen evidence, planted evidence and overtime fraud.
With other members of the empowered Gun Trace Task Force, Jenkins stole from Baltimore’s citizens—skimming from drug busts, pocketing thousands in cash found in private homes and planting fake evidence to throw Internal Affairs off their scent. Their brazen crime spree would go unchecked for years.
Among the officers implicated by testimony was Detective Sean Suiter, who was fatally shot with his own gun in 2017, the day before he was to testify before a federal grand jury. Theories point to either suicide or homicide and the case officially remains unsolved.
Casting for the show is reportedly underway now, and Pelecanos previously revealed that he and Simon –
“rounded up the old (writing) crew from The Wire”
If you’ve still never seen The Wire, I recommend that you seek it out. It really is one of the greatest television shows of all time, and Simon’s deep and wide-ranging approach to crime in the city of Baltimore remains incisive, all too relevant, and unforgettable.
