University of Chicago Legal Forum Volume 2018 Article 7 2019 Police Violence in The irW e Jonathan Masur Richard H. McAdams Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf Recommended Citation Masur, Jonathan and McAdams, Richard H. (2019) "Police Violence in The irW e," University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 2018 , Article 7. Available at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol2018/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Chicago Legal Forum by an authorized editor of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Police Violence in The Wire Jonathan Masur† and Richard H. McAdams†† INTRODUCTION Police brutality—the unsanctioned, unlawful use of force by police against unarmed (and often defenseless) civilians—is one of the recur- ring motifs of The Wire.1 The violence occurs in a variety of settings: occasionally the victim of the police brutality has done something to precipitate it (though the brutality is never justified), but more often the violence is unprovoked and senseless.2 Some police are one-time wrongdoers; others are repeat offenders. Some officers participate in the actual beatings, while others only cover up for the actions of their fellow officers. But in sum, the violence is regular and recurring, if not omnipresent. In this respect, The Wire is not dissimilar from other filmic depictions of police, such as NYPD Blue. What is different is the cast of police officers who are involved in police brutality throughout the show.