The Wire

I have been watching all five seasons of HBO’s The Wire and so thought I would write a few words about it. This will no doubt be a bit of a spoiler to those who haven’t seen it yet – so I’d advise you not too read too much further ;)

To my mind, the core subject matter of the series is the decline of the city of Baltimore. The city seems to be in economic decline and, flowing from this, there is rising crime, drug addiction, joblessness and other social problems.

The first season focuses on the police trying to catch the key players in a drug gang. However, in doing so, it casts a light on the disorganised nature of the police department and how its internal tensions, politics and targets stop it working well. In contrast, the drugs gang – the Barksdale Organisation – seem to be better organised and have successfully evaded detection and conviction for ages. It is only due to the wiretaps that some of the more efficient and intelligent police officers are able to get set up that the key players in Avon Barksdale’s organisation can get caught.

The later seasons widen the scope of the series from just the issues of crime and policing. However, in doing so, they still focus attention on the poor internal organisation and morale of the police force. And they also show the importance of drug money and drug dealing in a city where the legitimate economy is declining.

By focusing on the ports, where officials of the port union are conniving at smuggling, the second season of the series not only shows how prostitutes, drugs and weapons can be smuggled into the city but it also shows the decline of traditional ‘blue collar’ jobs. The docks are losing workers and those that remain are getting fewer and fewer hours. Part of the reason why they are willing to co-operate in smuggling is because they are short of money. And, some of the money that is raised from this is then used to give money to corrupt politicians in the hope that attempts will be made to reopen old canals and so kick start a recovery of the docks.

The third season turns attention to the politics of the city. Politics is an expensive business in the city, hence some of the politicians (notably Clay Davis) take direct bribes. Others are more subtly influenced, through campaign contributions that are laundered through what seem like legitimate businesses. Because the legitimate sector of the economy is in decline, drug barons become important figures in the ‘business world’. Characters like Stringer Bell use their drug money to buy properties and other businesses that they can then use to funnel political contributions and bribes to others.

The third season also indirectly makes a case for legalisation of drugs. By creating a zone in which drugs are effectively decriminalised, a police commander – Bunny Colvin – is able to reduce crime in much of his area. However, the idea is killed off by politicians and by police officers above him in the hierarchy.

The kids who become the ‘foot soldiers’ of the drug dealers – and often die – are products of the poor areas of the city. They grow up in poverty. Many of their parents are unemployed and some of them have drink and drug problems. These children then go to a school system that is dysfunctional. The 4th season focuses on the schools and how they are failing many of the poor children of the city. The schools are focusing on ‘teaching to the test’ and abandoning the kids of lower ability. These kids often end up truanting and so get dragged into the world of drugs and crime.

The 5th and final season focuses on the media. The media thirst for sensationalism enables a furore to be created over a fake serial killer. The season also shows how even the ‘good’ police characters are corrupted. Frustrated by the fact that the top brass have made cuts and eliminated the unit that was investigating drug kingpin Marlo Stanfield, the cops Jimmy McNulty and Lester Freeman attribute the accidental death of some homeless people to a serial killer. The journalist involved in writing up the killings also makes some independent exaggerations of his own and claims to have been receiving calls from this non-existent killer.

The series is bleak and pessimistic, but it is redeemed by the good rendering of characters. Many of the characters are shown as 3-dimensional, not as simply good or bad. If anything, even the bad characters are made bad by the institutions and circumstances that they have to work through. For example, the politicians are crippled in what they can do by fear of the media, interest groups, bad publicity and by the need to raise money. The police are crippled by the need to chase stats and this means they neglect high-level work in favour of arrests of street-level dealers and addicts. The journalists are corrupted by the demands of greedy management, fickle readers and the need to make sales rather than report the truth as they see it. And the criminals have become criminal due to family influences and the lack of alternative ways of making a decent living in their part of the city – as much as by their own greed.

If there is a message of the series it is that the decline of cities like Baltimore needs to be made a social, economic and political priority. Unless it is reversed, the standard of services and the quality of life in them will fall further. The drugs war is also critiqued. It is strongly implied that legalising drugs will reduce the opportunities for crime flowing from it. It also gives the message that chasing arbitrary targets causes bad side-effects. This is clearly seen in the case of the police. Their attempt to get crime to look as if it is going down results in lots of inefficiency, dishonesty and the damage of relations between police and public. Quantitative targets do not take account of qualitative issues.

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