‘The Wire’ merges with Baltimore policing’s reality in ‘We Own This City’

“The Wire” producer David Simon, once more working with George Pelecanos, right here adapts a e-book by Justin Fenton, a reporter at Simon’s former stomping grounds the Baltimore Solar, detailing the abuses by Baltimore’s Gun Hint Job Drive, and the way higher-ups regarded the opposite means on malfeasance and complaints so long as arrest charges remained excessive.

Leaping backwards and forwards in time, the six-episode sequence proves slightly disorienting at first because it flits amongst varied characters and tales, with the important thing touchstone being prices filed towards Baltimore officers over Freddie Grey, who died in police custody in 2015. The Grey case introduced federal scrutiny to the division’s actions, with Wunmi Mosaku (“Loki”) taking part in Nicole Steele, an legal professional with the Justice Dept.’s Civil Rights division investigating police corruption, working towards a deadline figuring out the Trump administration may not observe by means of on her efforts.

“You chop time beyond regulation, patrol vehicles go empty,” the world-weary police commissioner (Delaney Williams) warns metropolis leaders, who fidget uncomfortably when confronted by rising crime charges and discovering the cash to impose the mandatory reforms.

Simon’s acquainted staff (together with producers Pelecanos, Nina Ok. Noble and Ed Burns) is joined by director Reinaldo Marcus Inexperienced (“King Richard”), together with a number of acquainted faces from Simon’s previous tasks within the forged.

What’s hanging is how neatly the true occasions depicted in “We Personal This Metropolis” (a line said, overtly, by one of many cops) match with the storylines “The Wire” tackled 20 years in the past, solely right here on the opposite facet of the Black Lives Matter motion and efforts to handle police brutality towards folks of shade, fueled by the ubiquity of cellphones documenting such incidents.

Indicative of regulation enforcement’s inclination to circle the wagons, after one violent encounter Jenkins is reminded to phrase studies with a purpose to keep away from any penalties, with a superior telling him, “The menace to your security can by no means be talked about sufficient.”

As famous, the mission feels slightly messy within the early going, however the items come collectively in a compelling means, illustrating the deep roots of police excesses and the elusiveness of the political will to realize real options.

“I fought this warfare,” Deal with Williams, taking part in a retired detective, tells Steele relating to the drug warfare. “It was misplaced once I obtained there. And I did nothing however lose in my time.”

“We Personal This Metropolis” does not attain the extent that “The Wire” did. But by way of bringing a pointy dramatic eye to big-city policing, Simon and firm just about personal this style.

“We Personal This Metropolis” premieres April 25 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, which, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.