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. A 2016 Department of. Maryland State Senator Jill P. Carter helps contextualize some of the social and political misdeeds that have led to an environment that so easily breeds institutional misconduct. It opens as Jenkins gives a speech to his unit in which he seems to say the right things that beating on people gets in the way of doing the job and that, in the task force, were not about that kind of brutality. So that's sort of like the sieve through which the rumors come through. FLORIDO: D. Watkins - that's one of the journalists who covers this case as it's playing out and who you feature in the film. That twist alone makes The Slow Hustle a fascinating whodunit, and complicating matters further, it eventually came out that Suiter may not have been as clean as people thought. How do we measure that, how do we quantify that, especially given the deep-seated bad feelings about this department?. Thats a terrible fucking idea. Directed by Tiller Russell, The Seven Five examines police corruption in the 75th precinct of the NYPD. 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. Fenton has spoken to many people in Jenkins orbit and made multiple attempts to contact Jenkins in prison but without success. / Dominic West went on to play Prince Charles in The Crown; Wendell Pierce took on Willy Loman in a London stage production of Death of a Salesman; Idris Elba starred in Luther, Thor and Cats; Michael K Williams burned brightly in Boardwalk Empire and others before his jarring death in September. NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with director and actor Sonja Sohn about her new film, The Slow Hustle. 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. But these challenges continue and I wonder how we will know if the department has fixed itself. Bromwich, a senior counsel at the law firm Steptoe, says by phone: People were promoted without any sense of whether they would be capable of managing people. You get a guy on a wiretap talking to drug dealers about drugs and then you just keep pulling that string.. With no reliable eyewitnesses to the crime, a harried if largely clueless search ensued, most of it predicated on a generic description of a Black man in a dark jacket with a white stripe. Portuguese, Brazil, Chile English, India The presence of a local filmmaking community can have a positive impact on citizens and neighborhoods. Rather than just railing against the GTTF, Watkins spends time discussing the numerous similarities he shares with one of the convicted officers in order to highlight how Baltimores problems are less about individuals than about the environment in which theyre raised and operate. English, Belgium None, it seems, let Baltimore get under their skin as much as Sonja Sohn, who played police detective Kima Greggs the first major portrayal of a Black lesbian on American television on the trail of drug lords in the five-season drama. But after meeting [Suiters wife] Nicole, and beginning to see that there were pieces missing in the investigation of Seans Suiters death, likethis is a cop. Four of them agreed to cooperate with the justice department and testified against the remaining two officers, both of whom were convicted by a jury in February 2018. Now she returns there with The Slow Hustle, an HBO documentary that examines the 2017 death of Sean Suiter, a widely respected Black police detective fatally shot in the head while on duty. The crime drama series is based on Justin Fenton's 2021 nonfiction book of the same name and stars . In workplaces across the country, the culture is changing quite a bit. English, Portugal Im sure those who are involved in policy making are in the midst of looking at how to develop a more nuanced strategy on some other levels because the folks who are in opposition are playing serious chess right now. The film follows Suiters family as it tries to get answers about his death. They told us not just what they did but how and that was very eye-opening testimony. Sonja Sohn, who played Baltimore cop Kima Greggs onThe Wire and who founded a Baltimore-based nonprofit, directs the film. In January, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh fired her police commissioner and replaced him with former Deputy Commissioner Darryl De Sousa, who promised sweeping reforms to the department. Former members of the GTTF. The Slow Hustle exists at the intersection of true crime and social justice documentaries, concerned as it is with a fatal mystery wrapped up in an epidemic of police corruption. With Bomenka around the corner, Suiter approached this figure, shots rang out, and Bomenka raced to the scene, whereas frantic bodycam footage illustrateshe found Suiter lying dead from a gunshot wound to the head. English, Denmark Fenton, who worked as a consultant on the six-episode TV drama, says: It really is just absolutely staggering. Oh, Lord. HBO alum Kary Antholis also serves as executive producer; Bill Zorzi as writer/co-executive producer, and D. Watkins as writer. English, Vietnam When institutions cant solve their own problems, the people suffer. 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. ReBUILD Metro is a community change organization that revitalizes historically redlined neighborhoods of East Baltimore without displacing their legacy residents. English, Japan And the rumors start to tear Baltimore apart. The Slow Hustle starts with shocking footage of Suiters body being discovered (Oh, my god!, Sean, no! And so being able to make that connection, I think, to those other cases was in the back of my mind. She is the director of the new HBO documentary called "The Slow Hustle." The corruption and civic woes the show details, as in much of Simons work (Treme, The Deuce), are systemic. I said, Where were you? We Own This City Review: Baltimore Police Problems, Rewired, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/24/arts/television/we-own-this-city-review.html. As new evidence emerges, the mystery deepens. Baltimore Police officers found guilty in Gun Trace Task Force corruption case. At this point, its a more nuanced game. The Bachelor Has Two Maryland Contestants. Im not victimising real people if I steal some of their ill-gotten gains, so if I go into their homes and I find $100,000, Ill take $20,000 of it and nobody will be the wiser because these are people who are compromised and theyre not going to complain and, if they do complain, nobodys going to believe them because theyve got criminal records., You take that and you multiply it by a large number of officers who get captured by that culture and what you get is the gun trace task force., We Own This City airs on Mondays on HBO in the US, on Binge and Foxtel Now in Australia, and in the UK at a later date, The Wires Sonja Sohn on her Baltimore documentary: We are seeing multilayered corruption, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. It wasnt a very large initiative, just a handful of officers, a single unit, and they went about their work with little fanfare. 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. As of late March, 76 people had been murdered so far this year, up from 65 over the same period in 2021. Was his death a calculated effort to keep him silent, or was Suiter himself a cop under scrutiny with a past he couldnt face? When we spoke recently, I asked what drew her to Detective Suiter's case. He enjoyed the admiration and respect of his superiors and was given special privileges. By what name was The Slow Hustle (2021) officially released in Canada in English? English, Norway Spanish, Brazil At the center of The Slow Hustle is Baltimore Police Department detective Sean Suiter. Theres been so much rightful attention on police brutality and so we know when an officer shoots somebody theres an injury, theres a death. Anyone can read what you share. The Seven Five, also known as Seven Five Precinct, is a 2014 documentary directed by Tiller Russell, and produced by Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman, and Sheldon Yellen.The film looks at police corruption in the 75th precinct of the New York Police Department during the 1980s. So there was something different. 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. WJZ has covered the real-life Gun Trace Task Force investiga. Director Reinaldo Marcus Green and writer D. Watkins, along with George Pelecanos and David Simon, discuss the importance of accuracy and authenticity when creating this series based on true events. They were working in the shadows, and deployed by the police department as another tool to roam the streets looking for guns.. Coming to the city was was kind of a reckoning with my own self. 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. Local hero and cage-fighting super-cop Wayne Jenkins was federally indicted on racketeering charges, along with six other members of Baltimore's elite Gun Trace Task Force. I was sitting up at CBGBs [music club], the only Black girl with shaved hair, screaming, and I had a zine. The unsolved case also sparked far-reaching implications for a city already grappling with the complexities of policing in contemporary, urban America. Executive producers George Pelecanos, David Simon, cast, and crew go behind the scenes. That produces a culture taken to its extreme, which it was in Baltimore by many, that the ends justify the means, Bromwich continues. And I think that's quite a journey that we're all on here, you know, in this country. But the spirit of those protests also seems reflected in this new story. (And even Pryzbylewski eventually redeemed himself.). Sohn was at home in North Carolina when George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis last year. Its arguments are bold and impossible to miss. We Own This City: Created by George Pelecanos, David Simon. Many residents in the city, especially in Black communities, just don't trust the police. The more I looked into it, the stranger it seemed. The cast and crew explore Baltimore as a character, touching on the real people and locations portrayed in the series. How is this going to be investigated? With candid interviews from members of the Baltimore P.D., Suiters widow and children, journalists, lawyers and political leaders, The Slow Hustle examinesthe continuing mystery surrounding Suiters deathand the multiple theories that emerge in the investigation of the case, including that Suiters death was a calculated murder hit or a suicide. Fenton, 38, who worked for the Baltimore Sun newspaper for 17 years and is now at the Baltimore Banner, a new non-profit newsroom, says: I do definitely wonder if it happens again, if its happening right now, will I know? Watch these additional moments featuring Sean Suiter's family attorney, Jeremy Eldridge. English, English Speaking Africa For HBO: senior producer, Sara Rodriguez; executive producers, Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller. And so I really hope we're talking about not recreating, you know, revamping the system, but I think it's really about creating a new structure for public safety and in a time where Americans across the board are - to some degree, are triggered by law enforcement. What, he asks Steele, is driving the polices actions? The editor, Donna Marino, she had something to do with that. French, French Speaking Africa This series may not change the game. Executive produced byGeorge Pelecanos (The Deuce) and David Simon (The Wire) -- and based on the book by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton --We Own This Cityis a six-hour, limited series chronicling the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force. Here, WWD looks at 11 new documentaries and docuseries to watch in December 2021. Det James Kostoplis testified that, soon after joining the GTTF, he was asked by Jenkins to go for a ride. In a war, civilians get hurt and nobody does anything. HBO doc The Slow Hustle examines the mysterious death of Baltimore cop Sean Suiter, who was set to testify against police corruption and then was found with a bullet in the head. Jenkins duly tested his colleagues willingness to put personal loyalty to him above their oaths to uphold the law. The convicted officers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven to 25 years. But this type of casual everyday lying, stealing, misrepresenting information, in some cases framing people its hard to prove and for that reason it often went unaddressed., The misconduct continued despite the outcry over Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American man who died of neck injuries suffered in police custody in April 2015. Naturally, Suiters wife Nicole didnt take kindly to the notion that her husband had offed himself in a supposed plan to avoid testifying, and the medical examiner failed to shed conclusive light on the situation. While the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, after a rough ride in a police van, is not depicted, it hangs over everything here, from Black Baltimoreans mistrust of the police to the post-Gray work slowdown by officers. And I have about as much hope that his death will be solved as I do the rest of them. Funding social structures that support the people is just a given. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. 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. His death set off a massive manhunt for the killer, and Suiter gets a hero's funeral. In an act of radical transparency, the Baltimore police department hired an outside investigator to conduct a review. I felt alone and I was happy. Im still worth something., The Slow Hustle is now available on HBO with a UK date to be announced. Scenes for the HBO show based on Justin Fenton's book about the corruption in the Baltimore Police Department Gun Trace Task Force are being filmed outside the vacant Bengies Groceries in the 4000 . The true story of the Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Oh, my god. I feel like the city is a reflection of my own psyche. 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. Accuracy and availability may vary. See the full list of We Own This Citycast and charactershere. Baltimore is rocked by the Freddie Gray protests. The official podcast of the HBO Original Limited Series. This malaise, Sohn points out, goes beyond Baltimore and policing in general. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. African-American police officer Sean Suiter is pronounced dead soon thereafter. English, France Itexamines the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work. He was born in 1980 which, Fenton notes, means that Baltimore has been shrinking and struggling for most of his life. Police Sgt Wayne Jenkins is now serving a prison sentence until January 2039. D Watkins, a local journalist and author who shares the view that Suiters death could have been an inside job, says in the film: What developed for me out of the whole story is this whole idea of Black lives really dont matter. But the GTTFs reign of impunity was cut short when a suburban drug investigation happened to reveal one officers contacts with a drug organisation. In April 2010, for example, Jenkins was involved in a reckless car chase that led to the death of an innocent motorist. With police reform stalled in Congress, and Republicans stoking fear of rising crime in major cities, does she believe the momentum of the Black Lives Matter protests can be sustained? 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. See production, box office & company info, Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall, Bad tidings in the Baltimore Police Department. It's been three years since Baltimore erupted in a series of protests over police violence, exposing deep divisions between the city's police department and the community.The protests captured national attention - prompting a federal investigation - and several high-profile efforts at reform.Now a new scandal is threatening to undermine those efforts, raising questions about the depth of police corruption in Baltimore, and the institutional forces that allow corrupt officers to remain on the street.Fault Lines returns to Baltimore as new details emerge about an elite plain-clothes police unit that, for years, doubled as a criminal gang - robbing residents, planting evidence, and sending countless innocent people to jail.The unit operated with impunity in part because of the way police complaints are investigated.In Baltimore - like many other cities - if a police officer is accused of wrongdoing, the complaint is investigated behind closed doors by the police department's own Internal Affairs Division.Fault Lines investigates how this latest police scandal once again places Baltimore at the centre of a national debate over how and whether police departments can be held accountable to the communities they police.- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/#AlJazeeraEnglish #BaltimorePolice #Fautlines He became a police cadet in 2003, married and bought a house. Watkins is the most outspoken of The Slow Hustles many talking heads, but even he confesses that anythings possible when it comes to Suiter, given that its difficult to ascertain the nature and degree of his involvement with the GTTF. Sonja Sohn directed "The Slow Hustle." 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. SONJA SOHN: I think the one thing that I had to zero in on or hone in on was the fact that there - that this was a Black man who appeared to be murdered, whose murder was unsolved and quite possibly could have been at the hands of law enforcement. English, Romania UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I got one officer down. 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