Embedded Democrat corruption in crumbling cities

If you want to know what Democrat corruption on the local and state level looks like watch the HBO series The Wire. It is set in Baltimore, but it could easily be in New Orleans or Newark are any other crumbling city run by Democrats. Party affiliations are never mentioned, but in these areas there are no Republicans.

The Washington Post did a story recently on the wrap party for the final season.

It was early still -- about 10 p.m. on Friday -- and somewhere in Columbia, David Simon was giving a tour of the sights: There, he said, pointing, was the Baltimore mayor's office. Over there? The city's Western District police headquarters, and there, that little closet of a room, "that can be the visiting room at Jessup." Pause. "Or the jail. Depends. We just redecorate."

As he stood on a platform, taking in his world, it was hard to ignore the irony: For the past two years, a good chunk of "The Wire," the HBO show that critics have praised for the grittiness of its inner-city vérité, has been filmed in an anonymous soundstage in the burbs -- a soundstage that reportedly will be turned into a massive Wegmans Food Market.

After five seasons, and this final episode, they would be done.

...

Simon, who once covered cops for the Baltimore Sun, always knew that "The Wire" would end at exactly this point. From the beginning when the show debuted in 2002, he saw it as a visual novel, with each season a distinct chapter exploring an aspect of inner-city life: The first season examined the drug trade; the second focused on Baltimore's longshoremen; the third grappled with politics and the notion of reform; the fourth dug into education and the lives of the city's children. This season, which begins airing Jan. 6, explores the media, featuring a morally challenged reporter played by Tom McCarthy, who wrote and directed the indie film "The Station Agent."

...

Over the years, Simon has carved out a cottage industry from covering Baltimore's drug and crime issues, from "Homicide," to the HBO miniseries "The Corner," based on his book by the same name, to "The Wire." But despite the show's depiction of Baltimore as decaying and dysfunctional, the city has benefited greatly from its presence, from its showcasing of B-more music to the tens of millions in revenue it has brought to the city. In many ways, "The Wire" is a long, convoluted love letter to Baltimore-- from a conflicted but resolutely committed lover.

...

Baltimore is shown as a city with a rather high tolerance level for crime. There is no "broken window" strategy in this show. To bring the wrath of the police down on the bad guys they usually have to shoot a cop or an innocent bystander. Even the good guys are amoral alcoholics or people with some other quirk that makes them less than appealing. They give you something to dislike about virtually all the characters. It is not a show for family viewing either. The language and the viewing can be raunchy, but the show does seem to have a basic honesty with the viewer. The sex certainly does not appeal to the prurient interest and seems to be there more to show character flaws.

One of the interesting characters in the third season is a large black women who is brought in to help the cops interpret the street language they are picking up on the wire.

The corruption of the bureaucracy is on broad display. Even the bad guys get rip off by corrupt officials.

I have been watching the shows on DVD's from NetFlicks. Season four is not yet available and HBO will start showing the recently completed season five in January.

When Democrats start spinning Larry Craig's misfortunes with an undercover cop in a rest room as a problem endemic to the GOP it is really laughable when you realize how corrupt the Democrat party is at its base, its core.