Started By
Message

How realistic is The Wire?

Posted on 8/30/22 at 10:39 am
Posted by ksdolfan
Houma, La.
Member since Sep 2007
1671 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 10:39 am
From the street corner gangs to the inner workings of police departments and even the inner city schools systems?
Posted by LJBurton
Member since Feb 2005
1385 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 10:44 am to
Posted by BluegrassBelle
RIP Hefty Lefty - 1981-2019
Member since Nov 2010
106250 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 10:49 am to
While the inner city school I worked for wasn’t as bad as the one in Baltimore, it wasn’t far off either.
Posted by ellunchboxo
G-Town
Member since Feb 2009
19289 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 10:53 am to
Idk. Never been in a gang.
Posted by Bawwitdabaw
Member since Dec 2020
546 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 10:55 am to
David Simon was a police reporter for one of the Baltimore newspapers. Ed Burns was a former homicide detective and public school teacher.

I'm sure large parts were embellished for entertainment, however at its core it is very realistic.

Read Homicide: A Year in the Killing Streets and The Corner. Both written by David Simon. A lot of the wire material comes from those books.
Posted by WillyLoman
On Island Time
Member since Dec 2007
1722 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 10:58 am to
Posted by wildtigercat93
Member since Jul 2011
115625 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 11:08 am to
In totality it’s extremely realistic in terms of describing the issues and relationships between each faction and showing the complete vicious circle that makes the problem so hard to solve

Obviously there’s some TV flair every once in a while (Mayor race, drug free zone, serial killer plot etc) that falls far outside of realistic but I don’t think it pulls away from the main goal and picture it’s painting
Posted by Abraham H Parnassis
Member since Jul 2020
2643 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 11:21 am to
I worked for two large metro departments in different states.

Rank and file detectives would likely not have been involved in a Title 3 case. We always had a major crimes unit or joint task force for anything related to electronic intercepts. Occasionally uniform guys like me would get detailed for a week or two, but it was always slack surveillance. Also, we'd remain in uniform plenty of times to effect a car stop on this person or that person, but never for grabbing up the targets. That was always SWAT or SRT.

We did have a guy in uniform who was former BPD and he said the department's inefficiencies were spot on.
Posted by Jsand43
Member since May 2021
882 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 12:09 pm to
His new show, we own this city is pretty realistic as well. Not much action, but a good show.
Posted by ThurlNoonkester
Member since Jun 2022
439 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 12:19 pm to
I don't know how real it was. But I do know I leased the production an empty Sam's Club building in Baltimore for season 2 sets. Like this one:

This post was edited on 8/30/22 at 1:03 pm
Posted by Dire Wolf
bawcomville
Member since Sep 2008
39940 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 12:26 pm to
i had some product get held up at the port of Baltimore for some reason. After about an hour on the phone with random people, i finally figured out that we had to pay a $500 "specialty handling fee" to go our box thru.

It ended up being cheaper and faster to ship to Savannah despite the 200 miles extra on road.
Posted by CP3LSU25
Louisiana
Member since Feb 2009
52570 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 12:55 pm to
quote:

ThurlNoonkester


Damn. Where was the mvp when we needed him back in the day. What a great story
Posted by WaltWhite504
Member since Sep 2021
2108 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 1:10 pm to
When i look outside my door in New Orleans i see Hamsterdam
Posted by CP3LSU25
Louisiana
Member since Feb 2009
52570 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 1:15 pm to
quote:

When i look outside my door in New Orleans i see Hamsterdam


This.

This post will upset the many woke liberal progs on this board.
Posted by Saskwatch
Member since Feb 2016
18002 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 2:28 pm to
quote:

When i look outside my door in New Orleans


When I watch/watched the Wire I think to myself the exact same shite is happening in N.O.

Newspapers turning a blind eye to political grift and incompetency

Police Commander not knowing what to do and eating shite from the mayor

Police force "juking the stats" to make it appear they are doing anything worthwhile.

Little bad arse kids having little to no parenting, not going to school, and wreaking havoc
Posted by saintsfan22
baton rouge
Member since May 2006
78686 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 3:16 pm to
quote:

Seems pretty real.

Dealers gonna shoot up a Natalie Portman movie set


They actually wouldn't have done this on The Wire because it would've brought too much attention. "If you kill a downtown bitch like Natalie Portman the whole world gonna take notice. State police, federals, all of dat"
Posted by AUveritas
Member since Aug 2013
3582 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 3:20 pm to
As someone who moved from 20+ years in law enforcement to teaching, it's the most realistic show about both I've ever seen.
Posted by JW
Los Angeles
Member since Jul 2004
5173 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 3:45 pm to
well ... they actually filmed in some rough neighborhoods and I believe some of the actors were untrained locals.

A friend was the propmaster and still has Omar's Gun.

Posted by wildtigercat93
Member since Jul 2011
115625 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 4:01 pm to
Yeah Snoop and a few others were legit Baltimore gangbangers at one point or another in their lives

Snoop ended up going to prison for murder after the show
Posted by hobotiger
Asbury Park, NJ
Member since Nov 2007
5364 posts
Posted on 8/30/22 at 4:16 pm to
My FBI friend said it was the truest portrayal of law enforcement ever done for TV
first pageprev pagePage 1 of 2Next pagelast page

Back to top
logoFollow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News
Follow us on X, Facebook and Instagram to get the latest updates on LSU Football and Recruiting.

FacebookXInstagram