The film is about one of the nation's biggest police corruption scandals. With Jon Bernthal, Wunmi Mosaku, Jamie Hector, Josh Charles. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. In a heightened atmosphere of distrust between disenfranchised communities and the police, THE SLOW HUSTLE brings to light the challenges of uncovering the truth and highlights the devastating fallout on ordinary citizens and police officers alike. Last. English, Vietnam And Josh Charles (The Good Wife) plays impressively against type as Daniel Hersl, a bullet-headed task-force thug who makes Jenkins look like a diplomat. It also tracks several local journalists, including Baltimore Sunreporter Justin Fenton andSalon editor-at-large D. Watkins, while they parse the investigation into Suiters death to its official andto many, including Suiters familyunsatisfying conclusion. Police stuffing their pockets and rationalizing it as their just dues was the subject of The Shield (itself inspired by a Los Angeles police scandal), which celebrates its own 20-year anniversary this spring. So there was something different. Many residents in the city, especially in Black communities, just don't trust the. Actor, filmmaker and activist Sonja Sohn is the founder and CEO of the Baltimore-based reWIRED for Change, an outreach program for at-risk youth inspired by her six seasons appearing on HBOs The Wire. Oh, Lord. But at the same time, this was a police officer. You get a guy on a wiretap talking to drug dealers about drugs and then you just keep pulling that string.. We Own This City does not do much to explain Jenkins or complicate his villainy, but it is insightful about how a bad cop learns to be bad more effectively (and how he makes his colleagues worse). English, Portugal He noted that the location of the lethal gunshot indicated that it could have been a self-inflicted wound, but later remarked that if Suiter was trying to cover up a suicide, he wouldnt have shot himself in the head; instead, he would have fired at his chest, which would have made it resemble a murder. 2023 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved. What you might miss is the vivid human tapestry that brings this kind of institutional analysis to life on the screen and keeps it alive in your memory. The Slow Hustle, which debuts Tuesday night on HBO and HBOMax, looks at the death of Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter, who lived in Prince Georges County and who was shot in the head in late 2017, the day before he was due to testify in a federal probe of police corruption. Two former Baltimore Police officers sentenced to a combined 454 years in federal prison for shaking down citizens in the early 2000s had their prison terms reduced to 20 years each by a. This emphasis on numbers and quantity over quality really had a corrosive effect on the police department and influenced the conduct of officers. HBO alum Kary Antholis also serves as executive producer; Bill Zorzi as writer/co-executive producer, and D. Watkins as writer. FLORIDO: The officer shot that day in 2017 was Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter. Jenkins learns stark truths about policing as a new officer. In March 2017, eight members of the GTTF were indicted and arrested on federal charges of robbery, extortion, overtime fraud and selling drugs seized during police operations. You may know her for her role as a Baltimore police detective in the hit series "The Wire." Long history of neglect: why are missing Black people still less likely to be found? As new evidence emerges, the mystery deepens. English, Italy At the center of The Slow Hustle is Baltimore Police Department detective Sean Suiter. English, Sweden It begins with dramatic real-life body-cam footage filmed just after a shooting in the Harlem Park neighborhood of Baltimore. Two Baltimore plainclothes police detectives were convicted Monday of racketeering, robbery and fraud in a trial involving a wide range of criminal . Accuracy and availability may vary. The Baltimore police department, recognising that the problem was perhaps guns more than drugs, wanted to have a smarter approach. Was his death a calculated effort to keep him silent, or was Suiter himself a cop under scrutiny with a past he couldnt face? His report, published in January this year, ran to 515 pages and sought to explain how a scandal of such proportions could begin and continue for years without being detected. Former Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force detective sentenced to 10 years in prison. His elite unit came to be seen by senior commanders as a bulwark against chaos. What are little things like constitutional requirement such as probable cause or reasonable suspicion when Jenkins was quoted as saying that some of the advice he got early in his career was, Never let probable cause stand in the way of a good arrest? That says it all, which was the law was a pesky thing that you could ignore if you couldnt avoid it. I said, Where were you? And that's where D. Watkins comes in to play - someone who's lived on sort of both sides of the track and having, you know, been, you know, a critical, you know, just a social critic and delving into those topics and bringing that perspective. And I think that's quite a journey that we're all on here, you know, in this country. I consider Baltimore to be as much of a home to me as the place where I grew up in Virginia. Suiter died just a day before he was due to testify before a federal grand jury investigating an elite Baltimore police unit, part of one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in recent US history. I was asked by an HBO executive if I was interested in pursuing this topic, if maybe there was a certain kind of perspective or access that I had to offer. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. "Adrienne". In July of 2022, the lead investigator into Sean Suiter's death, Sgt James Lloyd was sentenced to one year in jail for using his fellow policemen to harass a contractor working on his home. You know, I think we're already, across the country, not trusting our law enforcement. So you have to think thats making a difference. What it does offer, however, is a forlorn perspective on a major metropolis whose police force has so betrayed the publics trust that the truth is now impossible to determineand, consequently, cynicism reigns supreme regarding the powers-that-be. Momodu Gondo finds himself in an interrogation. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "THE SLOW HUSTLE"). That produces a culture taken to its extreme, which it was in Baltimore by many, that the ends justify the means, Bromwich continues. As Nicole Steele, a civil-rights-division attorney, Wunmi Mosaku does all she can to create a character who feels her mission deeply and who chafes at her departments resistance to real change. The GTTF further damaged the already troubled relationship between police and residents of Baltimore, especially communities of colour. The creators, cast, and crew discuss the rigorous research and attention to detail that went into bringing this true story to life in Baltimore. Officers tell me that its a new day over there and everybodys wearing body cameras all the time, which wasnt the case until pretty late in the investigation of the gun trace taskforce. Jenkins then asked Kostoplis what he thought about investigating a high-level drug dealer, determining where he kept his money and stealing it. THE SLOW HUSTLE follows Detective Suitors widow and local investigative reporters as they work to get answers in the Suiter case and hold the Baltimore Police Department and City Hall accountable. The Slow Hustle contains interviews with Suiters widow and children, lawyers, politicians and investigative journalists, and Baltimore police including former commissioner Kevin Davis. So that's sort of like the sieve through which the rumors come through. Next June it will be 20 years since The Wire began its sprawling Dickensian portrait of Baltimore, Maryland, as a proxy for the decline and fall of the American empire. English, Turkey HBO Documentary Films presents A Blowback Production THE SLOW HUSTLE director and producer, Sonja Sohn; executive producers, Marc Levin, Kary Antholis, Sonja Sohn; supervising producer, Daphne Pinkerson; producer, Mahrya MacIntire. Bringing Jenkins and his ilk to justice does not mean Baltimores problems are resolved. She's also an actor. Discovery, Inc. or its subsidiaries and affiliates. That is the rumour that sweeps like a wildfire through the city and the fact thats the first theory that erupts says something on a larger scale about what could happen if the police dont get their act together and regain the trust of the people., Sohn adds: To me, what Nicole [Suiters widow] and the family are going through is the microcosmic example of what is happening to all of us, that when public institutions and structures dont get their act together, the people suffer and, in this instance, the family suffers.. Courtesy of HBO Max . Copyright 2021 NPR. English, United States Jensen monitors Gondos calls. A still from "The Slow Hustle" courtesy HBO. BALTIMORE A documentary film profiling Baltimore's police department in the wake of Detective Sean Suiter's on-duty death is set to hit television and streaming services next month. We dont always like what we see but we need to see whats in that mirror if were going to actually present truthfully in the world.. Theyre up in that supreme court and they are winning. Jenkins Waynes. English, Singapore There are other theories. Whatever happened to the cast? In 2017, Baltimore was rocked by the federal indictment of Wayne Jenkins, a highly decorated super-cop and leader of. Ultimately, the journey reveals how theculture of corruption within the ranks of the Baltimore police forcecontributed to the destruction of the publics trust and impacted the police departments ability to solve a shooting deathof one of its own. All those season-ending montages seemed to say: No matter how you feel about the end of this or that particular story, the beat goes on. The HBO drama is based on Justin Fentons nonfiction book of the same name. Sohn was born to an African American father and Korean mother who met after the Korean war. 1 Season | 6 Episodes | TV-MA WATCH NOW Executive produced by George Pelecanos ( The Deuce) and David Simon ( The Wire) -- and based on the book by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton -- We Own This City is a six-hour, limited series chronicling the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force. On Wednesday morning, former Baltimore police Sgt. I want to just give the team credit; theyve been making documentaries for 30 years. See the full list of We Own This Citycast and charactershere. They were veritable gangsters, and the fact that Suiter died in this puzzling manner a mere day before he was speaking to the feds about his shady colleagues raised immediate suspicions that he was actually the victim of an orchestrated hit. Whats Their Deal? Kostoplis was transferred out of the GTTF soon after. Director Sonja Sohn Stars Umar Burley Jill Carter Kevin Davis Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. e was praised as a positive role model. For every inept, violent Roland Pryzbylewski, there was a Lester Freamon, practicing the patient craft of building a case. See production, box office & company info, Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall, Bad tidings in the Baltimore Police Department. Baltimore's history of police corruption The scandal broke at a time of struggle and high tensions between Baltimore community members and the police department. The phones are smarter; the law enforcement machinery is not. The Feds prepare charges. In workplaces across the country, the culture is changing quite a bit. As he notes, despite numerous different mayors and police commissioners, nothing much has changed in Baltimore over the years aside from the names of those engaging in criminal activity. And with little apparent will to transform police departments (and their cultures of silence and coercion) or the political institutions that support them, it comes across as a deeply rooted malady for which theres no easy cure. Seven Baltimore Police officers indicted on federal racketeering charges So the federal investigation that eventually brought Jenkins and some of his cronies to justice is no spoiler. The Baltimore dialogue still has Old Bay piquancy, and some strong performances kick scenes to life. And so being able to make that connection, I think, to those other cases was in the back of my mind. The crime drama series is based on Justin Fenton's 2021 nonfiction book of the same name and stars . He became a police cadet in 2003, married and bought a house. But unlike that venerated saga, We Own This City is based on the true story told in the journalist Justin Fentons nonfiction book of the same name. I got one officer down. Richard Gonzales. Documentary Crime After Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter is killed in the line of duty, the tragedy soon becomes enmeshed in a widening corruption scandal that threatens to unravel the public's already strained relationship with law enforcement. Obvious answers werent forthcoming, but many came to think that if the latter were true, Suiter might not have been murdered at all; rather, he could have committed suicide, and staged it to look like a homicide so that his family would receive his full post-mortem benefits. And I used the investigative journalists and their journalistic ethics and expertise first and foremost as, I guess, the first sort of filter and sieve through the facts. Sgt Wayne Jenkins was the ringleader and is the central protagonist of the book and TV series. You were filming as this was all playing out in real time. They connect people in need with high quality used furniture and household goods, helping them to establish a sense of pride and stability. Canada We Own This City is still a very good show, with granular realism, a sly sense of humor and fine acting top to bottom. Reports showed that Suiter had been presentand involved in some waywith a 2010 incident in which GTTF members, using unmarked cars, attempted to rob two Black men who subsequently fled the scene, resulting in a car chase and auto accident that killed an innocent motorist. I Got A Monster (2023) Documentary Official Trailer In March of 2017, America's deadliest city was rocked by one of the nation's biggest Police corruption scandals. The city knows that Suiter was going to testify against a group of corrupt cops and there is this history of corruption in the police department in Baltimore, then that lack of trust is amplified throughout this city., So the first theory that folks are thinking is, Of course you guys killed him. English, France The Wire's Sonja Sohn on her Baltimore documentary: 'We are seeing multilayered corruption' The series was shot in Baltimore and brings together several alumni of the The Wire, both on. Read on for more. The Slow Hustle, which debuts Tuesday night on HBO and HBOMax, looks at the death of Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter, who lived in Prince George's County and who was shot in the head in late 2017, the day before he was due to testify in a federal probe of police corruption. And in a war, you need warriors. The presence of a local filmmaking community can have a positive impact on citizens and neighborhoods. The actor-turned-directors new film The Slow Hustle tells the story of a detective who was killed just before he was set to testify in a corruption case. Sonja Sohn directed "The Slow Hustle." After Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter is killed in the line of duty, the tragedy soon becomes enmeshed in a widening corruption scandal that threatens to unravel the public's already After Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter is killed in the line of duty, the tragedy soon becomes enmeshed in a widening corruption scandal that threatens to unravel the public's already strained relationship with law enforcement. Former members of the GTTF. The corruption and civic woes the show details, as in much of Simons work (Treme, The Deuce), are systemic. Sonja, thank you for joining us. D. is what I would call a true son of Baltimore and a voice of Baltimore. 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