Since he has a new show coming out, David Simon is giving interviews again. On Tuesday, Salon talked to the creator of The Wire about his new project “Show Me a Hero” and how it compares to his other shows. Then, at the end, interviwer Sonia Saraiya asks Simon about police brutality.
Simon holds forth on policing in the 21st century, but the interview ends with what really makes him mad.
“What’s happened in Baltimore with that riot was inevitable and understandable — but what drove me crazy about a lot of the immediate response, particularly from outside of Baltimore, was it’s not only inevitable and understandable — it’s good.”
Simon rails against writers from outside Baltimore who said the riots were the only way for people in West Baltimore to be heard. He even had a couple of f-yous for them.
“Right now we’re trying to end this draconian behavior. The optics are such that for the votes and for the consensus you need in the rest of America, what’s playing on CNN and what’s going to play on CNN, inevitably, is the fires and the looting, and the optics were horrible.”
Every week the New York Times seems to have a disparaging article about Baltimore. One even appeared on the front of the Sunday Opinion section. Not to mention all the stories that read “after the riots (1968) the city (wherever) never recovered” It makes me very concerned for Baltikmore’s future.
A quote from the article: “The demeanor of the people writing from London and New York with the dilettante’s stance of saying, “This is how these people get to be heard, and they won’t be heard otherwise,” you know what? Right now we’re trying to end mass incarceration, we’re trying to end over-policing, we’re trying to end this draconian behavior. The optics are such that for the votes and for the consensus you need in the rest of America, what’s playing on CNN and what’s going to play on CNN, inevitably, is the fires and the looting, and the optics were horrible.
Also, I live in a city [Baltimore] that hasn’t recovered from the riots of 1968. L.A. can have a riot, New York can have a riot, London can have a riot, and they’ll be fine in a year. Something bad happens in Crown Heights in New York? Eh, it’s bad for Crown Heights, but New York’s going to go right. It’s the financial capital of the world. London, a world capital. Baltimore is a second-tier city. We just stopped losing population for the first time in 40 years three years ago, and you tell me that the riots are a good thing? Fuck you. Come to Baltimore and say that. I live there. I was particularly incensed at the insouciance with which people were proclaiming that the riot — that when it gravitated from being mass civil disobedience, which I admire in every sense and want to see continue, to what we were seeing — was a good thing. Fuck you. You don’t live here. You don’t know what a riot is. You don’t know what it could do to the civic firmament.”
I think it’s important to read a little more of what David actually said. He speaks from experience and he speaks from the heart (albeit with a voice laced with profanity). The civil disobedience was important and those voices needed to be heard by all of Baltimore, and even the world, but the violence and lawlessness solved nothing. Accountability on ALL parts — the citizens, the police and the governing authorities — that will bring a new and stronger Baltimore.
I never thought the day would come that I would agree with David Simon. As a Baltimore resident, I can say he has honestly and accurately portrayed how the riots have affected the city. I fully believe we will recover but not with any help from the national press and those who condone riots that turn violent and destroy a community.