Over this last few months I’ve been reading these two works by David Simon (and Ed Burns, as co-author of The Corner).
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is the story of a year in the life of the West Baltimore Homicide unit, and the inspiration for the cult TV show The Wire. Overall verdict: Very interesting, highly recommended.
What strikes me most from this book is the things TV detective shows get right (the pressure on detectives, the damage to their family lives, the internal politics, the attempts to trick prisoners into confessing, and the black humour) and the things they get wrong (the trustworthiness and value of forensic evidence, the likelihood of a gunfight occurring, the likelihood of a gunshot wound dropping someone instantly, and the chance of actually solving any given murder).
I particularly recommend the Geraldine Parrish case, which would not be at all out of place on Life or The Mentalist. I couldn’t help laughing at the plaintive cry of the hitman with a contract on one of Mrs Parrish’s female relatives, after three or four failed attempts: “Why won’t she die?”
The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighbourhood is the other side of the coin; a year amongst the drug-addicted urban underclass of West Baltimore. Overall verdict: Outstanding journalism, but very depressing.
One can’t help but have a grudging respect for people who every day wake up with nothing but the clothes they’re wearing, and by nightfall manage somehow to scrape together enough money to feed their drug habits. One can’t help but be depressed by the way they live, and give thanks that one doesn’t have to live that way oneself.
The authors’ thesis is that these people have no sense of self-worth, no purpose, and precious little love in their lives; and they will do anything to get it (dealing drugs, teenage pregnancy), or to anaesthetise themselves against the lack of it (consuming drugs). In the absence of any hope of improvement, I’m not at all sure I’d do any better than that myself; the few people highlighted as trying to make a difference work incredibly hard for miniscule rewards, or more often, the hope of a miniscule reward in the far future.
It’s hard to see how more police, more prisons, or tougher laws will deal with all this. Modern Western culture has written off those on the corner as irrelevant; the way to resolve the problem is to change that underlying position. Unfortunately, the authors just document the problem and the approaches that don’t work; they offer no solution, and I don’t see one either.
