The Wire, Police Reform, and Capitalism | Copaganda Episode 4

Great video! Love you're reading, especially on Simon as a diagnostician, and your take on the end of the show.

Capitalism is always the problem

The best line was from one of the earliest episodes.
Carver says so.ethong to Sonja Sohn's character about the war on drugs. She tells him it isn't a war. Wars are meant to be won.

it’s insane to me in the context of the wealth accrued by billionaires during the pandemic that more of them aren’t simply murdered, ya know? the numbers are out for everyone to see.

Damn its really obvious now that capital has bought the US electoral process

Another privilage of Namond, that is so rare to see in the show, is that the system lets him go. Wee-Bay steps in after meeting Colvin and gets Namond's mom to let him exit the game. For most other characters and all the kids, the system drags them in, both society and the criminals and the people who benefit from the game. If Namond's mom was left to her own devices, she would have pushed and pushed and pushed, because she's used to the benefits of the game. So, special status (money), special education, personal help (Colvin) AND the game rejecting him were needed for Namond to exit. And he had to do some refelctions on his side and have the courge to jump. So so so rare to see that in this show.

Finally! Someone called out that the Bootstrap Aphorism is an impossible task! People talking about bootstraps drives me fucking crazy. I bet he gets that meritocracy is inherently unjust, too

4 years ago!?
Anything changed?

Just a reminder the so called “criminals” are more ethical than the “police.”

Family was in LE, have seen it from both sides, advocating for the homeless and connecting them to healthcare. From people I knew who were Baltimore PD and related positions, the Wire is about as honest as it gets. It's not copaganda. That's like calling the Hateful Eight copaganda. You see how dirty ALL of it is. I spent most of my life in City of St. Louis. Dirty Dirty Dirty.

If you think this show is copaganda, my friend you missed the fucking point

You clearly watched the show, the fact you keep pronouncing Namond Brice’s name the way you do is blowing my mind

Whenever they use the phrase “good police” the character they’re referring to at some point has done some dirty shit.

I'm a liberal white guy so The Wire is my demo. So it's no surprise that IMHBCO, it is the greatest show ever made.
I cannot count how many times I've said "Fill-In-the-Blank is The Wire."
Work, government agencies, private business, public transportation all are reflected by The Wire. If you wonder why a certain moron is running something, just remember Daniels' line about why the gang would promote an underserving underling, "We do."
It makes dealing with incompetence a lot easier because you can understand how it came to be.

The wire is not a cop show. The wire is a show about institutions. The city of Baltimore and its institutions. The police are one of the institutions. It’s not a cop show, because it’s not propaganda driven. David Simon and Ed(?)Burns created a masterpiece

i hate cobnagaad

I would say the biggest takeaway was what a catastrophe the war on drugs has ultimately been. Bunny Colvin expressly says how much it has ruined policing and relations with the community. And hampsterdam is broadly successful, though that experiment is not without tragedy

"we all love Omar the most"
Damm right.

RIP Michael

Can you do a Brother Marzone video

Really good analysis

Marxism is the theoretical part of the ideology. Socialism (I use this term interchangeably with communism) is about supporting, defending and advancing the political and economic interest held in common among the working, farming and defending peoples of the world.

As someone who "pulled his self up by his boots straps" that shit is hard i sold drugs, got into shoot outs, used drugs, and put in work. But i was also book smart and i was teased for me. Peer pressure is real. But i have no friends who are alived or not in jail. I can't just call my friends and chat about old days. Look at the stats just say i have 9 friends. Out of 10 kids born in Detroit, Michigan im the only 1 that "made it" thats 10%. Put that on a bigger scale you can see how hard it is to raise up.

Good shit

I applaud your effort as I'm sure it's genuine. But telling black people you have no choice but to be a criminal because you come from poverty is dangerous and offensive. You always have a choice. And when you know (as most of us do by the time we're 10) that the end result is prison or the grave its really a no-brainer. But everytime you imply it makes no sense to try because the odds are so stacked against you paint the picture that crime is not only necessary for our survival but it is also inherently a trait of black culture. And that's just racist.

Right at the start of part 3, I already have an answer. There’s no interest from the majority of the majority to throw away ANY institution. The majority are still white and they aren’t going to relinquish those reins.

And it’s not like having minorities in power structures is leading to change either…*cough* Cop City *cough cough*…

I'm poor so I'm gonna sell crack!!!--black people logic
Work at a dam Walmart and get a CDL selling drugs is NEVER THE ONLY OPTION 😒 ego,greed, and hatred is just as important as "social factors"

Comment for engagement and stimulation of the algorithm. 🎉

I dropped the wire after season 3 cause it made me realize that the people they were arresting were always victims of the system in some way. The cops could be victims too but they joined the system so I lost sympathy for them. I also got tired of them saying “it’s just the game” like that line got so cringey so quickly

Until you have waded in the shit that is a large urban area, controlled for decades by Democrats, and maybe even black majority population, you can't say a fucking thing. There is a reason inner cities are kept in a state of hopelessness and no hope insight. All about the Mighty Dollar.

The Wire is the most cynical show ever on television. The theme for the whole show can be cut down to “The entire system is @#$&ed.”

So the wire is Durarara!!!! but live action

The Wire isnt a cop show my boy

Damn you picked the worst Wire intro song for the video lmao season one or three’s songs are epic

That's what makes him good POE-LEESE

"EXCELLENT" JOB!!!...💪💯

Bruh DID YOU WATCH the wire?! The whole Hamsterdam experiment was a critique of drugs laws... "They didnt look at the laws" oh yes they did!

lol the “political” (c student sociology course) tones in this video are just garbage tbh. No thought at all

It would require them to first admit they did things wrong in the first place….and that will never happen

this series is great and so important. you've convinced me to watch the wire

I'm watching The Wire with my conservative, pro-police, brother in law right now. Our views are diametrically opposed in almost all ways and it's been very interesting to watch this for the first time with someone like him. Each episode takes twice as long to get through because we keep pausing and discussing. However much we disagree on everything, we still both love America's Sweetheart, Omar.

I asked him yesterday what he thought The Game was. To me, from the beginning, it seemed obvious that The Game is capitalism. How it's like this malignant organism that hijacks all resources and fights to the death to resist change, up to and including disguising itself as its own detractors, then profiting from the deceit. His take was that The Game is that of cat and mouse, but not just cops v criminals, but also like the grasping, violent bidding for hierarchy/power present in everyone's lives. It's strange how similar our takes were, while still being so far apart. I think he's missing that the reason many of these people are grasping for power is because without any communal or social support, the only way to be safe is to be powerful/feared, and the only real tool of self-empowerment under capitalism is inhuman, unthinking, uncaring, capital. He just thinks it can't be helped and is the bleakness of all human nature to be selfish and violent and predatory. He was raised catholic, so no surprise there.

When Hamsterdam was brought low and demolished, I was surprised to find out that he was also upset about it, and thought it could have been leading somewhere great. However immediately afterward, when Avon is busted, our reactions were so so different. While I was like, this is so fucking hollow, nothing changed, nothing has been accomplished here, it's just going to be Marlo next, and somebody else after him because none of the actual issues have been addressed, my brother in law was like... well I'm sad Hamsterdam was ruined, but hey at least they caught one murderous bad guy so things are getting better. Smh.

So far the show has started to really highlight a question I have about its world - arguably our world. Would these systems be inherently different if they weren't upheld and run primarily by just men.

"thats what I don't get about the drug trade.. everything else in this country is sold without people getting shot behind it"

Gee, almost like those other things are legal to possess and there are legal ramiffications for stealing those things :o

Is "Better Call Saul" copaganda?

Jimmy had a lot he needed to atone for, but the way the ending normalized the criminal justice system as a means for that penance was... UMMMMM!!!!!

Your voice reminded me of Carcetti’s :)) Great video!

You can’t lift yourself up by pulling up your feet 😂😂😂😂

Baltimore is the protagonist of the wire