'The Wire' Actor: 'CNN Trying To Stir Up A Riot On Friday' Because It's Beginning Of Sweeps
BALTIMORE (CBSDC/AP) — An actor from HBO's critically-acclaimed show "The Wire" believes CNN is trying to start a riot in Baltimore on Friday because it's the beginning of sweeps.
Wendell Pierce, who played Baltimore Det. William "Bunk" Moreland on the show from 2002-2008, made the claim on Twitter Thursday morning.
"CNN is trying to stir up a riot on Friday. May 1 is the beginning of sweeps!" Pierce tweeted. "They are trying to make it a self fulfilling prophesy. ITS BAIT."
In an effort to be transparent, authorities have told the community they plan to turn over the findings of a police investigation into Freddie Gray's death to a state's attorney by Friday. Gray's death from a spinal injury a week after his April 12 arrest is what sparked riots Monday — the worst the city has seen since 1968. The report, though, will not be released to the public.
Prosecutors will review the information and eventually decide how to move forward, authorities have said.
Pierce also tweeted about the riots in Baltimore on Monday, calling the rioters "criminals."
"Baltimore. These are not protestors. These are criminals disrespectful of the wishes of the family and people of good will," the actor said.
Pierce also posted that a "great display of rage" would have been going to the Department of Justice and demanding a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Pierce is not the only one from "The Wire" speaking out about what has been happening in Baltimore. Show creator David Simon said in an interview with The Marshall Project that the drug war is a main culprit for the relationship between police and the African-American community in Baltimore.
"I guess there's an awful lot to understand and I'm not sure I understand all of it. The part that seems systemic and connected is that the drug war — which Baltimore waged as aggressively as any American city — was transforming in terms of police/community relations, in terms of trust, particularly between the black community and the police department," Simon said. "Probable cause was destroyed by the drug war. It happened in stages, but even in the time that I was a police reporter, which would have been the early 80s to the early 90s, the need for police officers to address the basic rights of the people they were policing in Baltimore was minimized. It was done almost as a plan by the local government, by police commissioners and mayors, and it not only made everybody in these poor communities vulnerable to the most arbitrary behavior on the part of the police officers, it taught police officers how not to distinguish in ways that they once did."
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