Hacker News Reader

Comment by savanaly | Hacker News Reader

The situation sounds much more like The Shield. The Wire was focused on institutional problems. It was more interested in the tragedy that incentives in the police force and city government were such that barely an iota of thought was ever given as to how to actually fix the problems of the city. Instead most work was expended in public relations efforts, cooking the books and ass covering. There was one storyline in season 1 where Herc and Carver thought about pocketing some drug money instead of turning it in as evidence, but they ended up giving it back didn't they?

The Shield on the other hand..

View on HN

Yeah, main character(s) of the Wire were "good police" which is what caused many of them to self destruct trying to get actual police work done in a setting where politics was more important than justice.

These guys don't exactly sound like good police: "The unit, whose purpose was to get guns off the street, even stole and sold guns."

They think about stealing but realize that they might get caught due to the wiretap. In a later season when they're taking part in a raid with a dead wiretap and no risk of being caught after the fact, they do take the money.

The entire 5th season has most of the department cooking the books to get their overtime pay.

It is not exactly the same because real Baltimore cops would not even consider the possibility of being caught and know that if they were, nothing would happen to them.

> They think about stealing but realize that they might get caught due to the wiretap.

If I remember correctly they still and accidentally lose some of that money in the back of their car. Lt. Daniels notices and tells them to bring it it back. They find it, but it looks bad regardless of their honest intentions. ("Do you think he believed us?" - "Would you?")

Reminder that Lance Reddick's character in The Wire made his money stealing from drug dealers. This fact was later used to blackmail him into resigning as Police Commissioner when they threatened to use the info to derail his estranged wife's political career.

Man, the main character from the shield was one scary effing guy.

The Wire was more sympathetic to the police, probably because of the Ed Burns influence.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com