22 April, 2024 Siobhan Marie Day 0 Comments 3 categories

Actors Jon Bernthal and Jamie Hector join "CBS Mornings" to talk about their roles in the new HBO limited series "We Own This City." They discussed what it was like to play law enforcement officers and how they each prepared for their part. Photo Credit: CBS Mornings

We Own This City: Jon Bernthal and Jamie Hector on New HBO Series about Baltimore PD…

Jon Bernthal and Jamie Hector stopped by CBS Mornings to discuss their new limited series from HBO, We Own This City, Bernthal is best known for his role as Shane Walsh on The Walking Dead from 2009-2013, where as Hector is known for his role as Marlo Stanfield on The Wire, where Hector first worked with the creators of We Own This City, George Pelecanos and David Simon, who developed the limited series from the 2021 nonfiction book of the same name, written by Baltimore Sun crime reporter Justin Fenton.

Jamie Hector and Jon Bernthal are seen on April 21, 2022 in New York City for an appearce on "CBS Mornings" to discuss their new series for HBO "We Own This City" Photo by MediaPunch/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

Jon Bernthal as Shane Walsh in "The Walking Dead" (2010-22) Photo Credit: AMC Network

Jamie Hector as Drug Dealing Kingpin Marlo Stanfield in "The Wire" (2002-08) Photo Credit: HBO Network

US writer George Pelecanos attends the premiere of HBO mini-series "We Own This City" at The Times Center on April 21, 2022 in New York City. Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

David Simon attends HBO's "We Own This City" New York Premiere at Times Center on April 21, 2022 in New York City. Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • The astonishing true story of “one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation” (The New York Times), from the Pulitzer Prize–nominated reporter who exposed a gang of criminal cops and their yearslong plunder of an American city NOW AN HBO SERIES FROM THE WIRE CREATOR DAVID SIMON AND GEORGE PELECANOS “A work of journalism that not only chronicles the rise and fall of a corrupt police unit but can stand as the inevitable coda to the half-century of disaster that is the American drug war.”—David Simon Baltimore, 2015. Riots are erupting across the city as citizens demand justice for Freddie Gray, a twenty-five-year-old Black man who has died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody. Drug and violent crime are surging, and Baltimore will reach its highest murder count in more than two decades: 342 homicides in a single year, in a city of just 600,000 people. Facing pressure from the mayor’s office—as well as a federal investigation of the department over Gray’s death—Baltimore police commanders turn to a rank-and-file hero, Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, and his elite plainclothes unit, the Gun Trace Task Force, to help get guns and drugs off the street. But behind these new efforts, a criminal conspiracy of unprecedented scale was unfolding within the police department. Entrusted with fixing the city’s drug and gun crisis, Jenkins chose to exploit it instead. With other members of the empowered Gun Trace Task Force, Jenkins stole from Baltimore’s citizens—skimming from drug busts, pocketing thousands in cash found in private homes, and planting fake evidence to throw Internal Affairs off their scent. Their brazen crime spree would go unchecked for years. The results were countless wrongful convictions, the death of an innocent civilian, and the mysterious death of one cop who was shot in the head, killed just a day before he was scheduled to testify against the unit. In this urgent book, award-winning investigative journalist Justin Fenton distills hundreds of interviews, thousands of court documents, and countless hours of video footage to present the definitive account of the entire scandal. The result is an astounding, riveting feat of reportage about a rogue police unit, the city they held hostage, and the ongoing struggle between American law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve.

Justin Fenton is an investigative reporter for the Baltimore Banner. He previously spent 17 years at the Baltimore Sun, covering the criminal justice system. His book, "We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption," was released by Random House in 2021 and became an HBO miniseries. He was part of the Pulitzer Prize finalist team for coverage of the death of Freddie Gray, and was a two-time finalist for the national Livingston Award for Young Journalists for an investigation showing how police were discarding rape complaints at the highest rate in the country as well as a five-part narrative series inside a homicide investigation. He is an Anne Arundel County native, a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park and lives in Baltimore. Photo Credit: The Baltimore Sun

The 2021 book details the very real events depicted in the series of the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department‘s (BPD) Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), and the corruption surrounding it. The GTTF scandal rocked the city of Baltimore, the news broke during the 2015 Baltimore riots after the killing of Freddie Gray, and details the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their federal investigation into the corruption of the GTTF, as well as the seperate investigation by the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, to determine if the rights of the people of Baltimore were violated and betrayed as a result of the corruption that went all the way to top of the BPD, and resulted in the indictment of eight officers in the GTTF unit.

Right: NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • The astonishing true story of “one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation” (The New York Times), from the Pulitzer Prize–nominated reporter who exposed a gang of criminal cops and their yearslong plunder of an American city NOW AN HBO SERIES FROM THE WIRE CREATOR DAVID SIMON AND GEORGE PELECANOS “A work of journalism that not only chronicles the rise and fall of a corrupt police unit but can stand as the inevitable coda to the half-century of disaster that is the American drug war.”—David Simon Baltimore, 2015. Riots are erupting across the city as citizens demand justice for Freddie Gray, a twenty-five-year-old Black man who has died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody. Drug and violent crime are surging, and Baltimore will reach its highest murder count in more than two decades: 342 homicides in a single year, in a city of just 600,000 people. Facing pressure from the mayor’s office—as well as a federal investigation of the department over Gray’s death—Baltimore police commanders turn to a rank-and-file hero, Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, and his elite plainclothes unit, the Gun Trace Task Force, to help get guns and drugs off the street. But behind these new efforts, a criminal conspiracy of unprecedented scale was unfolding within the police department. Entrusted with fixing the city’s drug and gun crisis, Jenkins chose to exploit it instead. With other members of the empowered Gun Trace Task Force, Jenkins stole from Baltimore’s citizens—skimming from drug busts, pocketing thousands in cash found in private homes, and planting fake evidence to throw Internal Affairs off their scent. Their brazen crime spree would go unchecked for years. The results were countless wrongful convictions, the death of an innocent civilian, and the mysterious death of one cop who was shot in the head, killed just a day before he was scheduled to testify against the unit. In this urgent book, award-winning investigative journalist Justin Fenton distills hundreds of interviews, thousands of court documents, and countless hours of video footage to present the definitive account of the entire scandal. The result is an astounding, riveting feat of reportage about a rogue police unit, the city they held hostage, and the ongoing struggle between American law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve.

The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is the municipal police department of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Dating back to 1784, the BPD, consisting of 2,935 employees in 2020, is organized into nine districts covering 80.9 square miles (210 km2) of land and 11.1 square miles (29 km2) of waterways. The department is sometimes referred to as the Baltimore City Police Department to distinguish it from the Baltimore County Police Department.

The Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force from left to right: Det. Evodio Hendrix, Det. Marcus Taylor, Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, Det. Jemell Rayam, and Det. Maurice Ward. Photo Credit: Fox Baltimore

Crime reporter Justin Fenton Reporting on CNN about the looting and violence in Baltimore as a result of the Freddie Gray autopsy results. Photo Credit: CNN

Baltimore Sun crime reporter Justin Fenton reporting on the Freddie Gray Autopsy on CNN with Anderson Cooper appearing on his primetime show "AC360" Photo Credit: CNN

A seal reading "Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation" is displayed on the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in Washington, DC, o August 9, 2022. Photo Credit: Stefani Reynolds / AFP

Department of Justice inscription is seen on at the headquarter's building in Washington, D.C., United States on October 20, 2022. Photo Credit: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

A scene featuring the BPD in "We Own This City" (2022) Photo by Paul Schiraldi - © HBO

All eight members of the Gun Trace Task Force were accused in a federal racketeering indictment. The eight officers—Daniel Hersl, Evodio Hendrix, Jemell Rayam, Marcus Taylor, Maurice Ward, Momodu Gondo, Thomas Allers and Wayne Jenkins—were accused of shaking down citizens for money and pocketing it, lying to investigators, filing false court paperwork, and making fraudulent overtime claims.[99][100][101] The amount stolen from citizens ranged from $200 to $200,000.[102] The probe began when the Drug Enforcement Administration started looking into the officers while investigating a drug organization and later involved the FBI. The officers were summoned by internal affairs on the morning of Wednesday, March 1, 2017, and arrested.[103] All eight officers were convicted, and received sentences ranging from 7 to 25 years.[104] The indictment was portrayed on the HBO series We Own This City, which serves as David Simon's spiritual successor to The Wire, another show that follows Baltimore police officers.

The story centers on Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, the leading officer of the GTTF, and one of the eight who were convicted on various corruption charges in 2018 and 2019, Bernthal’s first question from Gayle King is about how he tolerated playing such an arrogant and awful human being, when he’s actually known for being quite the opposite by people who know him. Bernthal explains that with every character he plays, and especially with Wayne Jenkins, you have to find the bit of humanity in that person, and play off of those emotions and draw from that when conveying such a conflicted, and real life character on screen. He was told by David Simon, “You can’t play a monster, here, you have to be human,” and with that Bernthal leaned into the information that despite all of the corruption surrounding Jenkins, he was a really good father. So he leaned into that emotion and related it the feelings he has for his own kids being the center of his universe.

Jenkins joined Baltimore's police department in 2003, first becoming a beat cop and patrolling the streets of Baltimore. During his time on the streets of Baltimore Jenkins was involved in several arrests that resulted in the injuries of the people he took into custody. In Justin Fenton's book We Own This City, on which the HBO series is based, the Baltimore Sun journalist explained that Jenkins would often be "caught in a lie" while giving evidence to a jury, but no complaints were put on his record. It was in 2007 that Jenkins became a part of the GTTF, a new unit of plain-clothed officers focused on targeting suspected criminals believed to have big supplies of guns and drugs, in a bid to reduce the city's high murder rate. However, the focus on quantity rather than quality led Jenkins and the seven other GTTF officers to start planting evidence, take money from the homes they invaded, and even resell the drugs they seized back onto the streets. A two-year federal investigation into the GTTF resulted in all eight officers, and one Philadelphia officer, getting charged with several offenses, including racketeering, in 2017. In February 2017, Jenkins was charged with two counts of racketeering conspiracy; racketeering, aiding and abetting; racketeering; two counts of robbery and aiding and abetting; and two counts of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Then, in November 2017, he was given further charges of destruction, alteration or falsification of records in federal investigations, and deprivation of rights under color of law. When his case went to trial on January 5, 2018 Jenkins pled guilty to one count of racketeering, two counts of robbery, one count of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in a federal investigation, and four counts of deprivation of rights under color of law. Jenkins was given a 25-year prison sentence on June 7, 2018, which he is currently in the midst of serving at a federal prison in Kentucky. Photo Credit: Newsweek

Jon Bernthal as Detective Sergeant Wayne Jenkins in "We Own This City" (2022) Photo by Paul Schiraldi - © HBO

Two of the eight police officers convicted of racketeering in what became known as the Gun Trace Task Force case were sentenced to lengthy prison terms Thursday, WMAR-2News' Brian Kuebler reports. Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, the leader of the task force, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He faced a potential maximum sentence of 30 years. Photo Credit: WMAR Baltimore

Jon Bernthal and Leah Pressman in "We Own This City" (2022) Photo by Paul Schiraldi - © HBO

Jon Bernthal, wife Erin Angle and children attend the premiere of "Finding Dory" at the El Capitan Theatre on June 8, 2016 in Hollywood, California. Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

At the heart of the series is Jamie Hector’s Sean Suiter, the ex-GTTF officer, and now Homocide Detective for the BPD, who is conflicted about his prior involvement, but ultimately agrees to cooperate with the investigation into the GTTF. Hector discusses his unique situation in this role, it is the second time he has been to Baltimore with the creators, and he’s playing a cop this time around, versus the drug dealing kingpin who was causing problems in The Wire, he discusses how Simon also told him to lean back into the role he had just finished playing for seven season’s on Bosch, a Homocide Detective. Hector said while it was familar territory having played Detective Jerry Edgar, but it was unfamilar territory in Simon’s world, which made it all the more interesting an experience to return to work with Simon.

Sean Suiter (October 6, 1974 – November 16, 2017) was a Baltimore City homicide detective who was found dead on November 16, 2017, with a shot in the head, a day before he was scheduled to testify in front of a federal grand jury against corrupt police connected to the Gun Trace Task Force scandal. Photo Credit: WMAR Baltimore

Writers George P. Pelecanos (L) and David Simon of the television show "The Wire" arrive at the GQ Men of the Year party at the Chateau Marmont Hotel on November 18, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. Photo credit should read Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Jamie Hector as Detective Sean Suiter in "We Own This City" (2022) Photo by Paul Schiraldi - © HBO

(L to R) Jamie Hector, and Felicia Pearson in "The Wire" (2002-08) Photo Credit: HBO Network

Genre: Crime, Serial drama, Tragedy, Created by David Simon, Starring: Dominic West, John Doman, Idris Elba, Frankie Faison, Larry Gilliard Jr., Wood Harris, Deirdre Lovejoy, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Andre Royo, Sonja Sohn, Chris Bauer, Paul Ben-Victor, Clarke Peters, Amy Ryan, Aidan Gillen, Jim True-Frost, Robert Wisdom, Seth Gilliam, Domenick Lombardozzi, J. D. Williams, Michael K. Williams, Corey Parker Robinson, Reg E. Cathey, Chad L. Coleman, Jamie Hector, Glynn Turman, Clark Johnson, Tom McCarthy, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Neal Huff, Jermaine Crawford, Tristan Wilds, Michael Kostroff, Michelle Paress, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Theme music composer: Tom Waits Opening theme: "Way Down in the Hole" by The Blind Boys of Alabama (season 1), Tom Waits (season 2), The Neville Brothers (season 3), DoMaJe (season 4), Steve Earle (season 5), Ending theme: "The Fall" by Blake Leyh, Country of origin: United States, Original language: English, No. of seasons 5, No. of episodes 60, Executive producers: David Simon, Robert F. Colesberry, Nina Kostroff Noble, Producers: Karen L. Thorson, Ed Burns, Joe Chappelle, George Pelecanos, Eric Overmyer, Production locations: Baltimore, Maryland, Running time: 55–60 minutes, 93 minutes (series finale), Production companies: Blown Deadline Productions, and HBO Entertainment, Original Network: HBO (2002-08)

(L-R) Honoree David Simon and host Jamie Hector attend the 5th Annual Moving Mountains Honors For The Arts at 404 10th Avenue on June 1, 2015, in New York City. Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage

Jamie Hector as Detective Jerry Edgar in "Bosch" (2014-21) Photo Credit: Amazon Prime Video

Genre: Detective fiction, and Drama, based on the Harry Bosch novel series by Michael Connelly, Developed by Eric Overmyer, Starring : Titus Welliver, Jamie Hector, Amy Aquino, Lance Reddick, Annie Wersching, Sarah Clarke, Jason Gedrick, Madison Lintz, Jeri Ryan, Brent Sexton, Mimi Rogers, Paul Calderón, with Music by Jesse Voccia, Opening theme "Can't Let Go" by Caught A Ghost, No. of seasons: 7, No. of episodes: 68, Executive producers: Henrik Bastin, Pieter Jan Brugge, Michael Connelly, Eric Overmyer, Titus Welliver, Daniel Pyne, Elle Johnson, Jan David Frouman, Henrik Pabst, Mikkel Bondesen, John Mankiewicz, and James Baker, Producers: James D. Boscadin, Mark Douglas, Tom Bernardo, Titus Welliver, T.L. Lankford, Patrick McKee, Rachel Rusch, Tara Duncan, and Jim Mckay, with Cinematography by Eric Alan Edwards, Running time: 39–80 minutes, Production companies: Hieronymus Pictures, Fabrik Entertainment, and Amazon Studios, Original Network: Amazon Prime Video (2014-21)

Jamie Hector (L) and David Simon (standing at right) on the set of "The Wire" Photo courtesy of HBO

(From L) Jamie Hector, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Jon Bernthal, an attendee, David Simon, Nina K. Noble and George Pelecanos attend the premiere of HBO mini-series "We Own This City" at The Times Center on April 21, 2022 in New York City. Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Bernthal and Hector discuss the triggering effect the nature of the series might have on some viewers, corrupt cops, but Bernthal stresses that the conversations need to be had, and that George Pelecanos and David Simon tell this difficult story well, and get all the facts straight in terms of what happened to the GTTF. Hector also mentions that Simon gave him a copy of the book by Justin Fenton, and that it was a thought provoking read, and that Pelecanos and Simon do a great job of portryaing the facts visually, and having the support of Baltimore, the BPD, as well as its residents helped them tell an authentic story of the real-life events.