Crime, Class, and Labour in David Simon's Baltimore
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"From here to the rest of the world": Crime, class, and labour in David Simon's Baltimore. Sheamus Sweeney B.A. (Hons), M.A. (Hons) This thesis is submitted to Dublin City University for the award of Ph.D in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. August 2013 School of Communications Supervisors: Prof. Helena Sheehan and Dr. Pat Brereton I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Ph.D is entirely my own work, and that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: ___________________________________ (Candidate) ID No.: _55139426____ Date: _______________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Literature review and methodology 17 Chapter One: Stand around and watch: David Simon and the 42 "cop shop" narrative. Chapter Two: "Let the roughness show": From death on the 64 streets to a half-life on screen. Chapter Three: "Don't give the viewer the satisfaction": 86 Investigating the social order in Homicide. Chapter Four: Wasteland of the free: Images of labour in the 122 alternative economy. Chapter Five: The Wire: Introducing the other America. 157 Chapter Six: Baltimore Utopia? The limits of reform in the 186 war on labour and the war on drugs. Chapter Seven: There is no alternative: Unencumbered capitalism 216 and the war on drugs. Conclusion: The hope that dare not speak its name. 247 Appendix A: Suggestions for future research. 268 Appendix B: David Simon at the Baltimore Sun: Examples. 271 Reference list 284 INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig 1: Homicide and The Corner in the “True Crime” section of Eason’s bookshop, Dublin.(Author's photo) 2 Fig 2: The box. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 68 Fig 3: The board. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 72 Fig 4: The fish bowl. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 72 Fig 5: Homicide's defining case. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 74 Fig 6: The arabber, Risley Tucker. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 75 Fig.7: The chain of command. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 80 Fig 8: Matching baskets. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 89 Fig 9: The Ellisons cross a line. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 90 Fig 10: Two mothers, two victims. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 92 Fig 11: Ferdinand Hollie, the proto-Bubbles. Homicide: Life on the Street 96 (Screen capture) Fig. 12: Corner overdose. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 103 Fig. 13: Working man overdose. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 103 Fig. 14: Suburban overdose. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 104 Fig. 15: Penthouse overdose. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 105 Fig 16: Pembleton and "Rock Rock" at the 'ocean'. Homicide: Life on the Street (Screen capture) 116 Fig. 17: Young Gary in more optimistic times. The Corner (Screen capture) 133 Fig. 18: "Ain't none of this me." The Corner (Screen capture) 133 Fig. 19: The Boyds in happier times. The Corner (Screen capture) 134 Fig. 20: A pale imitations. The Corner (Screen capture) 134 Fig. 21: A tale of two settees (1). Friends (Screen capture) 158 Fig. 22: A tale of two settees (2). The Wire (Screen capture) 158 Fig. 23: Comstat as seen from the hot seat. The Wire (Screen capture) 171 Fig. 24: "The king stay the king." The Wire (Screen capture) 175 Fig. 25: Industrial vestige, Domino sugars. The Wire (Screen capture) 187 Fig. 26: Industrial vestige, the grain elevator. The Wire (Screen capture) 187 Fig. 27: Workers bail out the wealthy. The Wire (Screen capture) 188 Fig. 28: Police in stained glass. The Wire (Screen capture) 191 Fig. 29: Labour in stained glass. The Wire (Screen capture) 191 Fig. 30: Ed Sadlowski. A younger Frank? (Scan taken from Stayin' alive: the 1970s and the last days of the working class (Cowie 2010)) 195 Fig. 31: Free movement of labour. The Wire (Screen capture) 199 Fig. 32: Life returns to the corner. The Wire (Screen capture) 203 Fig. 33: Life returns to the corner. The Wire (Screen capture) 203 Fig. 34: "Who the fuck was I chasing?" The Wire (Screen capture) 210 Fig. 35: "Soft targets." The Wire (Screen capture) 217 Fig. 36: "Hot zones." The Wire (Screen capture) 217 Fig. 37: Marlo's mausoleum. The Wire (Screen capture) 226 Fig. 38: Dirty money. The Wire (Screen capture) 227 Fig. 39: Bringing light, one electricity bill at a time. The Wire (Screen capture) 238 Fig. 40: McNulty versus the train. The Wire (Screen capture) 243 ABSTRACT CRIME, CLASS, AND LABOUR IN DAVID SIMON’S BALTIMORE: “FROM HERE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD”. SHEAMUS SWEENEY Despite the systemic societal critique apparent in The Wire, David Simon rejects the label of marxist. However he defines himself, he is worthy of analysis as a dramatist, by virtue of the relative coherence of the left-leaning arguments expressed within his work. This thesis explores, and attempts to define this worldview, through analysis of three dramas based in Baltimore, Maryland. Homicide: life on the street and The Corner are based on books of narrative journalism, respectively authored and co-authored by David Simon. The books also inform the narrative of The Wire. I attempt to track the worldview expressed through their intersecting representations of crime, class and the nature of work. All dramas are critiqued from the perspective of textual analysis rooted in literary and television studies, and influenced by, but not limited to, left critical theory. As a secondary thread, I consider the historical and political economic context of US television, and limitations placed on such expansive dramas by the television crime genre. These narratives are part of a worldview that develops as each text builds upon its predecessor. They reveal a worldview critical of the existing economic and social order, defined by David Simon as “unencumbered capitalism”. The conclusion attempts to define this worldview and its evolution, as expressed through these connected dramas, and also briefly considers Simon’s more recent dramas, Generation Kill and Treme. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Robert Furze (1971-2013), a good friend and academic fellow traveller with whom I shared a love of British radio comedy. He agreed to proofread this thesis shortly before his untimely death, and sadly never got to offer what no doubt would have been valuable insights and suggestions. The work was completed in DCU under the tireless and patient supervision of Professor Helena Sheehan. She continued in this role after her retirement in 2009, for which I am not only grateful, but extremely fortunate. Her commitment to intellectual and stylistic clarity was exhausting, but added much. Supervision sessions became lengthy discussions that ranged far beyond my thesis, which is testimony to her personal and intellectual generosity. I also owe thanks to Dr. Pat Brereton, who assumed supervisory duties in the final months, to steer me through the bureaucratic morass. His advice on presentation and structure were invaluable, as were his detailed comments on the style and substance of my thesis. Thanks are also due to Professor Stephen Shapiro and Dr. Debbie Ging, for a remarkably productive and enjoyable viva voce examination, and for their insights and apparently unfeigned enthusiasm for the work. The process of researching and writing a PhD can be lonely and dispiriting. The extent to which it consumes one’s life is difficult to describe. Thank you to those who accompanied me on this journey, including Jim Rogers, who reached the finish line before me, and to those left behind, especially Henry Silke, Denis Murphy, Fergal Quinn, and Yvonne Cunningham. Special thanks are due to my friend, confidante, and housemate, Laura Canning, an irreplaceable source of emotional support in the last months even as she tried to complete her own PhD thesis. More generally, I extend my thanks to the DCU School of Communications, and DCU library, particularly Siobhan Dunne who provided early help. Thanks are also due to Martina Dowling. Thank you to the Ussher library, Trinity College, Dublin, which provided me with a place to work when all other options failed. To my long suffering friends who doubted they would ever see me finish: Eamon Fennelly, George Phillips, and Jim Hickey. Thanks also to those who took different academic and creative paths, particularly Keith Payne, Kate Hartnoll and Lucy Moore. Most importantly, thank you to Kate Packwood and Kate O’Halloran, without whom this thesis would most certainly never have been finished. You both inspire me beyond measure. To my family, especially my parents, and my brother Mark, who have been a constant source of support since I began this journey as an undergraduate in 2000. To my aunt, Mary, for access to her apartment in Kilkenny, which often provided an essential place to retreat to, both to write and recuperate. Finally, thank you to my brother John, whose death in 1999 was indirectly responsible for my decision to leave a well-paid middle-management position and go back to school: “Meaning no disrespect, but I ain’t cut out to be no CEO.” INTRODUCTION “IT SEEMS TO BE A COP SHOW...”1 “You know, murder is really a legal term,” Joey said. “You should say homicide. Or slaying, maybe. That's a word the newspaper really likes – slaying.” Great, Joey the security guard was going to instruct her in legal nuance.