'Demonstrations Are Necessary': 'The Wire' Creator David Simon On Policing In America
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Former Baltimore journalist and 'The Wire' creator David Simon spoke to CBS New York about policing in America and the war on drugs.
"I think the demonstrations are necessary," Simon said, who was a reporter for 15 years at The Baltimore Sun.
"I want to start here David with your take on what's going on right now in society, people in the streets, more police killings it seems by the week. What are you seeing?" asked CBS2's Maurice DuBois.
"The thing that has changed in a profound way and necessarily for the better is the power of the cell phone, of the smart phone, with its camera, with its video camera," said Simon. "The fact that everyone has one. The city is awash in visual imagery, in an immediate agency."
Simon is best known for creating the hit HBO TV series "The Wire," a drama about drugs plaguing Baltimore's neighborhoods that's told from the perspectives of the cops and drug dealers. Simon believes the war on drugs is at the root of the problems we're facing today and it leads police to arrest Black and brown men for petty crimes and minor offenses.
"A lot of people are saying you know what, people of color and poor people are being over-policed," said Simon.
"To the people who say look, drugs are destroying African-American and Latino communities across the country, you're almost saying it's a victimless crime. What do you mean by that?" asked DuBois.
"It absolutely is a victimless crime. It's a medical condition," said Simon. "The drug war is effectively a war on the poor. It's a means of using social control on people of color and people in poverty by the ruling class. That's all it has ever been. I'm not here to defend drugs. Drugs do an inordinate amount of damage."
Read more of Simon's interview on CBS New York.