'THE WIRE' Writer is fascinated by cops and crimes
David Simon started out as a police reporter in Baltimore.
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
"Charm City" never loses its charm for David Simon.
Baltimore's mean streets are the setting for Simon's HBO drama "The Wire," which launches its third season at 9 p.m. Sunday. The gritty burg was also home to his "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "The Corner."
What up, yo?
"I'm writing what I know," says Simon, 44, who spent 13 years as a crime reporter at the Baltimore Sun. "Blame the Sun. They made me a cop reporter and didn't promote me."
A complicated piece of business, "The Wire" follows three parallel universes -- cops, drug dealers and politicians -- against the backdrop of a drug investigation that involves numerous wiretaps.
Stars include Dominic West, Sonja Sohn, Lance Reddick and Wendell Pierce.
Theme for this season's 12 episodes, in Simon's words: "The concept and nature of reform and the role of political leadership in addressing a city's problems."
His TV work requires heavy lifting, "but so does reading a smart book," Simon says. (He has written two: 1991's "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets" and '97's "The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood.")
Sticking to principles
"The Wire" "is structured like a novel," says Simon, an executive producer. "If people are expecting a cop show, it's almost agonizingly slow. If they're waiting for resolution, they'll be disappointed. ...
"I've never been on a hit. I couldn't construct a hit. I won't do things that make a show viable on broadcast TV, like violence for violence's sake or sex for sex's sake. ...
"I have no interest in 'growing the audience.' I don't care what 'Joe Nielsen' thinks about 'The Wire.' ... Only HBO would put up with someone talking like this."
Since joining the Sun as a cub reporter in '84, Simon has had a thing for cops and crime. Police officers are "wonderful characters." The organized drug trade in Baltimore is "fascinating."
"It's as entrenched and efficient and generational as the Mafia in other cities. Baltimore never had a Mafia family. We've had family-connected drug organizations that go back to the '50s."
Simon is a proponent of decriminalizing drugs -- a story line has a precinct commander designating an arrest-free zone for drugs.
"Drugs are effectively legal in West Baltimore already. We've created an alternate economy. ... We couldn't do worse than what we're doing now.
"People want to get high. They want illicit drugs, and they're going to obtain them. If you insist on making distribution illegal and insist on declaring a war, people taking the risks will be professional criminals."