David “I-Can-Say-Nigger” Simon

In all the ways that count most to Black people David Simon unequivocally embodies the absolute worst of what is known as the “white moderate” male in the United States. Although his infractions are numerous, what draws the most ire is Simon’s casual and frequent use of “nigger” and “nigga”.

The most noteworthy incident in question occurred (not surprisingly) in the Trump era with Simon tweeting “Hannity my nigga!” on Monday 19 September 2016. It was a tongue-in-cheek greeting between two white men in response of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s announcement of a planned outreach effort to engage Black voters.

Although a firestorm ensued, it was not the first time that David Simon poked the bear by saying that word.

The disparaging racist language earned him a short-term suspension from the app, but not after days of defending himself. During that time Simon dug in his heels, claimed artistic freedom, and addressed his detractors as “hall monitors.” Sonja Sohn, the Asian/Black actor who portrayed Kima on HBO’s The Wire, was one of the few who came to his defense.

Screengrab taken on June 20, 2022 Twitter

White moderates have been the bane of activists toiling about in the struggle demanding the end of white supremacy even before Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote about his in exasperation in a letter from the Birmingham jail in 1963. The audacity of white men who as King noted have not seen “hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity” to suggest a more palatable way to be treated as a full citizen that should come as a birth right.

FILE — In a Jan. 14, 2010 file photo David Simon looks on during a panel discussion in Pasadena, Calif. It was announced Sept. 28, 2010 that Simon is among 23 recipients of the year’s MacArthur Foundation “genius grants.” (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello/file)

When dripping from white lips, the dark stain that comes word “nigger” triggers the blood memory of violence, angst, subjugation. While Simon relishes its artistry, he simultaneously riles the sensibilities of our ancestors even 60 years after King’s admonishment. No federal holiday commemorating the end of enslavement championed by a white moderate cis gendered male president can provide a respite from the likes of David Simon and his devoted legion of outspoken white male fans.

What is insufferable though about the creator of the 20-year old cop drama is his “whitesplaining” to Black people how his artful use of the word is not of the offensive variety. It is this audacity that shifts the responsibility for peoples’ recoil squarely back on their Black shoulders. It’s satire, he proclaimed frequently, evoking the “fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke” axiom.

Weeks after initially posting and defending his choice, Simon displayed a small measure of introspection with two tweets on September 20, 2016: “Don’t see it as an imprecise choice, but do I wish I tried another tack to insult Fox’s racial hegemony? Sure.” Long after Trump lost his re-election bid, and with the benefit of hindsight, David Simon responded, but not with an apology. “Stand by it as an answer to a white racist…” Simon Tweeted on June 20, 2019. The tweet remains live today on Elon Musk’s Twitter even after the murderous death of George Floyd and the immergence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Truth is, Simon knows his white male privilege. The wrists slaps were factored into his calculation for all chances he took once he left the DMV for Baltimore. He spoke on his world view to graduates of his alma mater, Chevy Chase-Bethesda High school, knew it too when he spoke at the 2012 graduation:

“Certain things were assumed for my life. The guardrails were all there. The airbags all worked. I might come through with a few dents and scratches, I might screw up here and there, but by and large, the risks I was asked to take were for the most part moderate and plausible. I was going to have to work some, and get a little lucky, sure. But for real, I grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland. I mean, damn. Nice work if you can get it.”

Simon’s Revoked Hall Pass

Simon was given an inch of rope and thought he was a cowboy. “Nigga” stopped being something a Black character said and something the white David Simon tossed around carelessly. For introducing the Stringer Bell and Omar to the world, David Simon was given a temporary pass similar to the one Samuel L Jackson extended to Quentin Tarantino.

Actor Michael K. Williams as “Omar” publicity photo for The Wire.
Undated. Uncredited.

Simon’s temporary pass for saying that one word was identical to the laminated one former president Bill Clinton stores along with an emergency condom in his pocket. The pass was granted to Simon to use poetically in telling our stories; Clinton was offered one for playing the Saxaphone on Arsenio Hall’s late night talk show. Both white men have shown that all passes extended should be hereby immediately revoked. No white male moderate American should be issued another pass in the future.

Before the Fox News dust up that got tongues wagging, Simon took “nigger” out for a test run on Twitter two months earlier. No one barely noticed. Using the same tactics, Simon donned the persona of former president Richard Nixon and attacked the policies of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump:

“…let’s clamp down on the hippies and the niggers and the eggheads who are fucking us up”
David Simon, Twitter July 12, 2016

Since his coat was not severely pulled for that transgression in September, Simon put on the equivalence of Black face and started the shuck and jive routine against Hannity – this time for a larger audience.

The Washington Post made Simon’s transgression palatable to its white moderate readership when it rhetorically presented Simon’s defenders’ point of view that Simon has carte blanche to use the word because he wrote artful television shows in the realism prism depicting multi-dimensional Black characters.

If you’re not black you shouldn’t be saying “Nigga”. Plain and simple… If you can omit ‘faggot’ and ‘bitch’ from your vocabulary then why is it so hard and strenuous for you to omit ‘nigga’?
Malcolm-Aimé Musoni, HuffPost.com September 26, 2015

Racism and misogyny rest comfortably within Simon’s wheelhouse. It’s been pointed out that the reasons white males bristle over the n-word is explicitly because it’s off-limits to them. Hollywood writer/producer/actor Quentin Tarantino famously penned the word “nigger” as dialogue for himself to utter on screen.

On his personal blog, on the day commemorating Juneteenth in 2013, Simon wrote about data mining, specifically cell phone’s metadata and peoples’ right to privacy in an essay that he titled The “Nigger Wake-Up Call.” It is painfully clear that the joke went over Simon’s head. Paul Mooney’s running gag is about Blacks who are suddenly jarred into reality after believing they had achieved post-racial equality.

Simon usurped Mooney’s comedic genius for the shock value of merely using the word. What is the point of having the pass, if you don’t use it, eh David?

Simon’s ability to write authentic dialogue reflective of his immersion into Baltimore’s street culture as an observer allows him extreme latitude in his personal interactions to call people “nigger” or “nigga”. In this case, he used the latter, a distinction he made without commenting on the difference between the two.

“Simon’s works have made him a sort of elder statesman regarding the intersection of race, politics and socioeconomics in America
Cleve R. Wootson Jr, Washington Post. September 20, 2016.

Simon himself rejected the idea that he has a pass to use the n-word indiscriminately. He wrote on Twitter (which oddly enough is akin to him saying the words from his own mouth) on October 7, 2016: “And if I used the term on AA, hand me my head. Satirically, on a white con man claiming rep of AA interests? Hey.”

It should be noted also, that Simon uses African American, AA, and black (not capitalized) without any clear distinction of why. Journalists abide by AP stylebook which requires capitalization of Black as a race and the distinguishes African American as applying to both race and ethnicity, but are not interchangeable.

“Simon is no longer just a journalist or a writer: he’s become a de facto translator for middle class audiences looking to understand elements of black America.”
Lanre Bakare, “Go home, David Simon. Without Justice in Baltimore, there can be no peace. The Guardian.com 28 April 2015

The Enemy of my Enemy is a Friend Fallacy

Pinpointing the extent of Simon’s supposed allyship requires the dexterity of Simone Biles. For instance, in July 2019 when Donald Trump blasted west Baltimore as “rat invested” and placed blame squarely on then Congressman Elijah Cummings, Simon lashed out at Trump and called him a “racist moron.” Simon’s defense of his adopted city has ingratiated Simon into many locals’ good graces.

However, in 2015 when Freddie Gray was killed in custody of the Baltimore Police Department, Simon seemed more aligned with law and order than the community marching in the streets. In fact, once Baltimoreans took to the street as an uprising against racial oppression was brewing, Simon penned a plea for an end to direct action.

President Barack Obama “interviews” David Simon on police culture in 2015. The president, seeking Simon as a potential ally, probed Simon for ways to change the culture of policing by seeking out ways to encourage historically racist institutions to see the humanity in the people and communities affected by their presence. Simon suggested maximum prison sentencing as a solution.

“White people — even those who speak up about black causes, like Simon — don’t have the social capital to throw around the n-word in everyday speech,” said author Jody Armour as quoted by the same 2016 Washington Post article.

Enter the Wu-Tang

If David Simon stopped saying “nigger” his family would starve. He is royally compensated many times over for putting “nigger” on a page. Unscientifically, David Simon has written the word hundreds (if not thousands) of times.

His seminal work, The Wire ran for six seasons and has a loyal fan base. During its 10-year heyday, his internal voice must have tried out every iteration of that word’s pronunciation. But Simon says he’s never “said” the word. (If he read any of his scripts out loud, merely playing the percentages, he has surely said “nigger”).

“Nigga, is you taking notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy?! The fuck is you thinking, man?”
“The crown ain’t worth much if the nigger wearing it always getting his shit took.”
“Fuck them West Coast niggers, cause in B’more, we aim to hit a nigger, you heard?”
“This motherfucker be killing niggas just to do it. You see? Nigga kills motherfuckers just cause he can. Not cause they snitching, not cause it’s business, but just because this shit comes natural to him. Man, Little Kevin is gone! This nigga don’t feel nothing!”

Not to split hairs, but an argument could be made that there’s a world of difference between writing dialogue for a “gritty” “urban” television drama and when someone uses their personal Twitter account to flaunt their pass to their 334,000 followers gained as a result of their Hollywood celebrity status. The former is economic, the latter is all ego.

As the rapper Method Man (who portrays Melvin Wagstaff in season two of The Wire) of the Wu Tang Clan drops a verse in the 2014 hit CREAM:

Cash rules everything around me
C.R.E.A.M., get the money
Dollar dollar bill, y’all

Before there was beaucoup money to be made in a cinematic depiction of Black Baltimore, there was the use of “nigger” in Simon’s journalism career at the Baltimore Sun.

Simon’s literary success was sparked by shadowing Black people’s daily struggle of existence in West Baltimore as a journalist. He culminated the experience not by lobbying for resources, but by writing a 1997 book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood that he co-wrote with Baltimore Police Department (BPD) detective Ed Burns.

Simon’s first book mentions “nigger” 47 times and “nigga” four.

The book was made into a critically acclaimed HBO six-part mini-series The Corner, directed by Baltimorean Charles “Roc” Dutton, who is Black. Residual checks keep coming. In contrast, odds are that the Black youth he shadowed in order to craft a realistic creative expression are in jail, prison, on parole or probation.

On DavidSimon.com, he lists two charities as “worthy causes“: The Ella Thompson Fund and The Baltimore Station as well as one scholarship fund. Simon wrote it is “probable that [donations to the organizations listed] will directly address an issue locale or dynamic that we dramatized.”

The Sun Rises on The N-Word: David’s Early Years

It is difficult to pinpoint with any degree of accuracy exactly when David Simon began taking a liking to the word tied to generational oppression of a people from African descent.

As is the moderate’s want to ask “where are his parents?, Simon admits the complexities of race was not a matter discussed at all in his house. In the next (and final) part of this series, the genealogy of Simon is explored putting into historical context some of the influences that undoubtedly shaped his world view.

Once the college grad from the Washington DC suburbs was dropped into Baltimore in the early 1980s, it was no doubt a culture shock. It would be totally understandable if the word “nigga” being tossed around like crime scene tape sent the cub reporter on the cops beat into full blush.

What was Baltimore to a kid from Montgomery County? It was another world, another America. Maybe not all of the city, but those quadrants that had been left behind…
David Simon, Graduation remakes, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School June 4, 2012

Simon’s first few years as a working journalist at the Baltimore Sun was an extension of his self-proclaimed college years – lazy and uninspired. From 1982 through 1984 the assignments were routine, and the reporting was generic; the combination offered little by way of opportunity to hone a writing style.

There were glimpses, though. Simon shone a sympathetic light on libertarian Warren Eilerston who beat federal criminal charges for refusing to pay federal taxes in August 1983. Also, in 1985, Simon deftly covered a shift in BPD policy after the public balked at the lack of transparency after a string of police shootings where the officers were either not identified to members as part of a “news blackout” and/or the officer refused to give a statement to investigators.

It would not be long before Simon’s byline would be inked above the word “nigger” published in the city’s paper of record. The subject of the 1988 story was a 51-year old resident of Baltimore’s Cherry Hill neighborhood who worked as a barmaid in 1963.

It was the occasion of the 25th anniversary of a murderous hate-crime where Hattie Carroll was caned to death by 24-year old William Santzinger for not bringing a white man’s drink fast enough in a downtown Baltimore bar.

Racially motivated murder of Hattie Carroll by caning. The Afro. 10 February 1963

In the 1988 story about the death of Hattie Carroll, Simon showed both his burgeoning talent for a narrative style of journalism. The man who killed Carroll for not bringing him his drink quick enough had spent the evening terrorizing the wait staff at the hotel. He called one woman a Black bitch. He also hit several people with his cane during the “Spinster’s Ball” a charity event attended by Baltimore’s society elite.

It was also perhaps Simon’s earliest recorded use of the word “nigger”. It was printed for no good reason. For that, the Baltimore Sun should apologize.

The word set in a line and paragraph all to itself.

It had no voice or quotation marks. It was David Simon’s voice caressing the word “nigger”:

David Simon, “The Case of Hattie Carroll, Baltimore Sun, 7 February 1988

The Sun really had no journalistic rationale for printing the racial epitaph gratuitously added by David Simon. The only context provided was that while visiting Charles County, the home of the man who killed Carroll, Simon supposedly witnessed the word’s wide use among whites in southern Maryland’s rural communities. Simon included in his story an unidentified white man (supposedly granted anonymity) from Charles County who wished “black people the best of everything, really.”

From that point in 1988, Simon took leave from The Baltimore Sun again and spent a year embedded with the Baltimore Police Department as its intern. His experience shadowing Baltimore Police Department (BPD) was memorialized in a 1991 book, that was later made into a television show for NBC, Homicide, Life on the Street. “Nigger” appears five times in the book; there’s no mention of “Nigga.”

Nor was [BPD] the most tolerant environment in which to come of age; there were cops twenty years younger who reacted to what they saw on the streets by crawling into a psychological cave, damning every nigger and liberal faggot to hell for screwing up the country
David Simon. Homicide A Year on the Killing Streets 1991

Simon’s “Nigger” Code

David Simon, much like the police he covered while a cops reporter in Baltimore, has somewhat of a code that dictates how he uses the word.

“Nigger” or “nigga” it seems is not something Simon feels that he say verbally out loud, in public. If he writes it out (in a tweet or essay), he is not restricted. However, he will take pause before he uses “my nigga” in writing if its directed to someone Black.

If it’s written as satire or in the voice of a persona he is co-opting, then he can pretend to be Black and use the word, but only direct it towards someone who is white.

The code allows Simon to write the word for characters to say as dialogue. He is also able to have a narrator describe someone as a nigger. Simon is the sole arbiter as to how many times he can write the word and if it is offensive. He believes his pass is unlimited.

Simon has not made any distinction between ending the word with an “r” or an “a”. But as stated earlier, his book The Corner uses “nigger” 10 times more frequently than “nigga”.

“David Simon is the blackest white man I have ever known. What he wrote was clearly ironic, and entirely at the expense of the whitest white man on the planet. I see no foul.”
Gene Weingarten, Washington Post columnist and Simon’s writing partner.

Sorry, Not Sorry

What seems most clear about Simon’s code is that he should never apologize when he uses it.

David Simon said that if he did delete the Hannity tweet he feared that in the void someone would claim that “I used the phrase to do anything other than to ironically mock someone’s actual co-opting of racial status [emphasis added] in order to advance their racist candidate.”

Let’s unpack the statement. First, he is arguing that if deleted, saved screenshots would also disappear from this known dimension thusly preventing him from pointing out the original context. Next, he insists that he was being ironic in mocking a white man who Simon believes to be racist by engaging him with a racially explosive word. In turn, no one focused on Hannity’s “co-opted racial status” but much of the world took Simon to the woodshed for his wanton use of a racist term. Now, that’s ironic.

Dear Apologetic Racists: Call out racism today and save tomorrow’s apology

When someone apologizes for a lengthy and horrid past of appalling racist behaviors, as did the editorial staff at the Baltimore Sun newspaper recently, it simply begs the question of when they actually stopped being racist.

In a full-page mea culpa published in the paper on Sunday February 20, 2022, the Sun editorial staff explained in their view, they have been and honorable and service-oriented journalistic institution over much of their 185-year history. (Please clap) The editors insisted that there must be recognition for the Sun providing light for ~~all~~ [white people].

After a healthy amount of self-aggrandizing about their “important role” of “uncovering corruption” and “enlightening communities”, the Sun’s editorial board ultimately apologized for the paper’s role in the oppression of Blacks “for decades.” On occasion, the Board would have us believe, they stumbled into a vat of white supremacy leanings, and for that, they want Blacks to know, they are truly sorry.

If they wanted to demonstrate their grasp of how white supremacy works, the Apology would have recognized that their actions over centuries, (not decades as they admitted) stymied the aspirations of the entire United States of America.

This writer’s response is not to interrogate ad nauseum whether the Apology is sincere, sufficient (it isn’t) or whether it missed the mark altogether. Instead, what follows is an assessment of the editorial board’s lack of understanding of the philosophical and practical aspects of white supremacy, and its insidious nature. In doing so, this response is designed to illuminate how an apology too long delayed is an apology denied.

“The Sun sharpened, preserved and furthered the structural racism that still subjugates Black Marylanders in our communities today.”
From “We are deeply and profoundly sorry: For decades, The Baltimore sun promoted policies that oppressed Black Marylanders; we are working to make amends” Baltimore Sun editorial staff’s online Apology February 18, 2022

Any conversation about the ethics of US journalism or literally anything concerning Baltimore must begin with a discussion about racism. The Apology has many shortcomings and oversights worth addressing, but this particular response largely focuses on two specifics: first, the editors failed to with any earnestness address how today’s editorial decisions are tainted by its ongoing and current culture of white supremacy. (To clarify the Sun’s actions were not merely across decades but occurred over the course of two centuries.)

Secondly, before there can be any reconciliation between the paper and the larger community of the human race (clearly not just Blacks were injured by their actions) they have to confront some extremely hard truths that involve the man who could be called the H. L. Mencken of our times, Sir Lord of Potty Mouth Misogynistic Twitter rants David Simon, creator of HBO’s “The Wire”.

There is no honor in apologizing generations after the death of a man once his private diaries revealed him to wedded to principles of white supremacy. How long must the country wait until there is enough cover for the Sun to disavow Simon’s public embrace of the most horrible word used to subjugate and perpetuate racial division?

David Simon, former Baltimore Sun reporter
and general curmudgeon, on Twitter daily

H. L. Mencken, former Baltimore Sun reporter
and general curmudgeon, deceased

In the beginning, there were racists

If ethical qualms about racist people running a city’s newspaper of record would shutter doors, there would not be a paper in the entire United States. Racism is coded in the country’s DNA. The Sun’s editors traced its racist heritage back to the paper’s 19th century founder Arunah S. Abell. Abell created the paper and immediately began stoking “the fear and anxiety of white readers with stereotypes and caricatures that reinforced their erroneous beliefs about Black Americans,” wrote the editorial Board.

Also, as in accordance with American tradition, the proud white supremacist passed along his views to his children. The heirs worked in various aspects of the paper up to eventual leadership positions creating generational wealth by oppressing generations of Blacks. The Abell family’s control of the Sun papers lasted for 150 years, and its influence continues until this day.

“[Edwin F. Abell] was regarded as a safe and steadfast champion of the South’s inherited rights, her best traditions and material welfare”
From Baltimore It’s History and It’s People, Clayton Coleman Hall, 1912

Both sons, Edwin F. and George W, steered the mantle of the growing publishing behemoth to reach across the globe with foreign bureaus. There’s money in upholding white supremacy. It seems that Maryland’s unique positioning as a border between freedom and involuntary servitude coupled with Baltimore’s growing Black population was an especially lucrative position to hold.

“The Sun’s bigotry hurt its business”
From The Apology, Baltimore Sun editorial Board February 20, 2022

The 150-year period of family control over the privately-run paper was more than enough time to secure the generational wealth to the A. S. Abell family. By 1986, Sun was sold to the Times Mirror group for $600 million (a value of $926 million today).

White-washing the stain of white supremacy

Turns out a century is more than enough time to turn a penny paper into a near billion-dollar money making machine. Doing so while simultaneously cementing within the Sun a culture adhering to the basic tenants of white supremacy was most likely an unintended consequence. In preparation for the Apology, the editors should have read “How to be an Anti-Racist” by Ibram X Kendi and “White Fragility” by Robin Diangelo.

As the Board noted, the Sun’s hiring practices are atrocious for a predominately Black city. Regrettably, the Sun did not include an announcement to “go a different direction” with its leadership. Had its publisher and editor-in-chief since 2016, Trif Alatzas decided that coinciding with the Apology – now was the time to spend more time with his family – the paper would have garnered some goodwill points towards revealing hard truths.

The past Is not dead. It’s not even past

Consistently carrying the water for white supremacy leaves a stain as indelible as indigo ink on freshly picked cotton. Some of the paper’s most blatant racist actions in the 19th and 20th century were enumerated in the Apology for the world to see:

Advertising rewards offered for returning back to their enslaver people seeking freedom
Advocating the prevention of Black citizens to vote
Advocating keeping neighborhoods racially segregated “redlining”
Not hiring a Black reporter until the 1950s (and too few ever since)
Ignoring multiple and frantic calls to address police brutality spanning generations

“The paper’s prejudice hurt people…it hurt the nation as a whole by prolonging and propagating the notion that the color of someone’s skin has anything to do with their potential or their worth to the wider world.”
From The Apology, The Baltimore Sun Editorial board February 20, 2022

Mencken with children of the Johnson family in Booth Street. 1929

The venerable Henry L. Mencken was an author, Sun reporter, columnist and editor and also a well-known racist and vocal supporter of Johns Hopkins Hospital’s eugenics programs that included forced sterilization of lower-class women and incarcerated men.

Necessary Truths

The “profound” apology (for which they are “deeply ashamed” specifies incidents from the past with consequences that reverberate to the present. The editors catalogued much of its wrongdoing that occurred between the 1857 Dred Scott Decision through Mencken’s racist reign and up until it lambasted political correctness in the 1950s for denying that the atrocious Birth of a Nation movie simply depicted the sentiments of its time.

“The Baltimore Sun frequently employed prejudice as a tool of the times.” The most recent event mentioned was a 2002 editorial dismissing the qualifications of Michael Steele, a candidate for Lt. Governor beyond simply being a token Black man.

Omnipresence of white supremacy

Recognizing racist behavior, for many has become the relatively easy part in wake of the murder of George Floyd. However, dismantling systems of white supremacy is really hard work, and the Sun has a long road ahead. Grappling with dismantling apartheid systems, South Africa gave the world a lesson in the way forward: exhaustively recognize specific truths and then foster pathways that would permit reconciliation.

In 2022, as the influence of newspapers are at record lows and the Sun’s finances are in dire straits, the Sun outlined their regrets and offered a way forward. The paper demonstrated its commitment by “atoning for the paper’s past wrongs regarding race” with a bulleted list of action item which include:

Lauch a reporting team to tell more Black stories
Establish a community engagement committee
Build a database of sources that could be called upon to diversify voices
Hire fewer white people and more “people of color”

Mere hours after its Apology, the Sun announced a about a half dozen new hires. The goodwill garnered by the Apology was immediately tempered by an exchange on social media:

Screen grab from Twitter on February 26, 2022

Denouncing David Simon as the way forward

There’s likely no correlation (certainly none that could be proven) between two Maryland events: H.L. Mencken’s death in January 1956 and David Simon’s birth in February 1960, but that’s no reason to refrain from making the argument that Simon is more likely than not, Mencken reincarnated.

Sealed until 25 years after he died, the contents of Mencken’s diary published in 1989 was discovered to be filled with hate speech that included anti-sematic rants that shocked even his closest friends who immediately distanced themselves from him. Many spoke openly about their disdain: ″The diaries are almost sick. I mean he hated everybody,″ said Gwinn Owens, a former editor and columnist on The Evening Sun whose father, Hamilton Owens, was a long-time Sunpapers editor and friend of Mencken’s, as reported by the Associate Press.

“… it is impossible to talk anything resembling discretion or judgment to a colored woman. They are all essentially child-like, and even hard experience does not teach them anything.″
From Menken’s diary, dated September 1943

The Sun’s response was to back Mencken as being colorful curmudgeon and double down by immortalizing his words by placing a colorful quote on the wall of the newsroom. The desicion to ride or die with Menken is a clear reflection of how entrenched white supremacy’s roots were dug in deep at the Sun. In the Apology, the Sun reiterated the numerous times they could have recognized or distanced themselves from Mencken and for that they apologized.

No one comes close to Mencken’s legendary status at the Sun. David Simon although has surpassed him. The creator of HBO’s critically acclaimed show The Wire has elevated Simon into the pantheon of television greats. He prefers to his misogynistic and crude comments to be enjoyed during his lifetime and posts frequently on social media and not privately in a diary.

Simon joined the Sun in 1983. By 1988 the young reporter had spent a year embedded within the notoriously corrupt Baltimore City Police department. His experience led to the publishing of his book, “Homicide, A Year on the Killing Streets.” The book and subsequent Hollywood productions catapulted David Simon to the rarefied air that in his mind apparently allows him to use the most profane and racist word known to Blacks.

The young reporter was granted unprecedented access to Baltimore police. One could only imagine just what it took for Simon, a truth-seeking journalist, to be able to forge a bond of trust with various members of a department known for its secrecy due to its over- reliance upon unconstitutional and racist behaviors. It’s worth noting that no exposé of police wrongdoings surfaced as a result of his “investigative reporting”. A few police officers were given acting roles on Simon’s Hollywood projects though.

With the city reeling because of the ineptitude of the police department at a annual price tag of half billion dollars, some have wondered what role Simon’s work has had on the city’s notable violent nature since he came on board The Sun. In January 2022, Lara Bazelon wrote about the numerous misconduct lawsuits against many of the men Simon cozied up to for New York Magazine.

The Sun should have been first to that story, but it is not too late for them to examine how “elite” officers become “untouchable.” If sincerity is at the heart of the Apology, then addressing the contributions David Simon has had as an embedded reporter to the bullet proof cover the department has enjoyed in avoiding accountability would be a clear indication of their intentions.

If the Sun were to speak hard truths to and about David Simon, it would certainly put a crack in the foundation of white supremacy that the Sun is built upon.

Twitter suspended Simon. Many have taken public stands against his language on social media. The Sun can begin atoning for the sins of its father and finally exorcise the ghosts of A. S. Abell by breaking its silence. Editors need only to summon the brashness and evoke the spirit of Mencken himself and speak truth to the powerful David Simon.

When you can’t trust the police…

Prologue: In a city where the tally of unsolved murders reach the triple digits each year, it is still surprising when a homicide detective’s murder becomes a cold case in Baltimore City.

The November 2017 broad daylight shooting death of detective Sean Suiter in a residential neighborhood has reached its third anniversary. The one sketchy suspect description was quickly recanted by the one eyewitness (also a detective).

With each passing year, it looks more probable (and not just possible) that Suiter was lured to Bennett Place, trapped in the alley, put down like a dog in the street, and the crime scene (held by police for an abnormally extended time period) was staged to look like a suicide.

A bombshell press conference by Suiter’s grieving family broke through the typical blue wall of silence in May 2019 when they claimed that the 39-year old’s murder was an inside job. This occurred on the heels of the department pledging to investigate itself when it brought in a panel called the “Independent Review Board” (IRB) to review their casefiles and in their 2018 report arrived at a manner of death different that the coroner (suicide versus homicide).

To be clear, the Suiter family believes Baltimore police was involved in the murder of one of their own, and they are not alone.

Cops controlled the narrative and the neighborhood

Controlling the narrative about the possibility of Suiter being shot with his own service weapon that allegedly was found under his body was equally as important as controlling movement in and around the crime scene around the clock for days on end.

A sober look at the case reveals much of what local media outlets have “reported” is merely a regurgitation of Baltimore Police spin. Consider the source: maybe, just maybe, the department could be frantically covering up a murder, making it prudent for professional journalists to take what law enforcement said (and probably more important what they haven’t said) with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Coverage of the Sean Suiter homicide began with widely reported misinformation that he was shot as he knocked on doors following up on a year old triple murder in the west Baltimore community of Harlem Park. The public later learned that he was likely confronted in the alley (and not the lot) and that he was assisting another junior homicide detective (David Bomenka) with his murder case that happened just weeks prior.

Unfounded Accusation #1: Suiter was shot with his own gun.

Truth: That is pure speculation on four crucial fronts:

BPD (poorly) reenacted the “discovery” of the bullet that they said killed him. This happened in front of cameras by members of the homicide unit after the crime scene unit had released the area coming up empty after digging in the exact same spot looking for other missing bullets. NOTE: The “evidence” was too damaged to run ballistics tests to try and determine if Suiter’s gun fired that bullet. All that can be proven is that the bullet dramatically “discovered” at the scene is the same type that is used by BPD. It is not hyperbole to state that Baltimore Police have made an artform out of planting evidence.

Screengrab of a local television station’s cameras that captured BPD “discovery” of the bullet that killed Det. Sean Suiter just after ending the weeklong lockdown “securing the crime scene” ie media blackout – only to have reporters camera’s booted out again.

2. Suiter’s gun has a serial number. The public has have not been shown if the weapon tested has the same serial number as the Glock service weapon that was assigned to him.

3. The public should be comfortable assuming only that the bullet that killed Suiter likely came from one of the thousands of similar weapons issued by the Baltimore Police department.

4. Suiter may not have ever fired a gun that day. His hand were wiped clean by an overzealous (unidentified) hospital employee, police said. While the report spends an inordinate amount of time discussing the blood on his sleeve, no mention was made of whether gunshot residue (GSR) tests were performed on his shirt or his jacket. Also curious is that BPD originally reported that blood was recovered on his suit jacket and was later changed to his sleeve for no apparent reason once the suicide theory took hold. No explanation is provided for the absence of any photographs on either Suiter’s jacket or his shirt before the IRB became involved a whole year after the shooting.

Unfounded Accusation #2 : Suiter fell on his gun.

Truth: No one has come forward saying they saw Suiter fall or can definitively say where his gun was before he was moved into the patrol car:

At best, the detective with Suiter is an unreliable witness (also a tradition at BPD) and at worse he saw who killed the detective, manipulated the crime scene and/or took part in the cover up. Only photos grabbed from body worn cameras (BWC) of responding officers were provided to the press and there have been no statements attributed to any specific individual saying he or she saw the gun under his body.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that BPD planted a gun at the scene, removed it and submitted one into evidence and claimed it to be Suiter’s. Ironically, Suiter was scheduled to testify about how multiple Baltimore police officers conspired to hide an illegal fatal car chase by planting evidence that sent two innocent Black men to prison rather than admit they were merely speeding.

NOTE: BPD was reprimanded by the IRB for the contaminated crime scene and “recovery” of a service weapon from the trunk of a patrol car belonging to an unidentified officer at some unspecified time that was logged into evidence as Suiter’s gun.

Baltimore Police’s “Independent Review Board Report. Page 37

In his official interviews, according to the IRB report, homicide detective David Bomenka changed his version of what he saw: included seeing a. Suiter in the act of falling, b. having just collapsed to the ground and c. having had already fallen. But he was was steadfast that he didn’t see a gun in his hand; he only said that he saw gun smoke near Suiter.
Most surprisingly, we don’t know if Bomenka saw or heard Suiter on his departmental radio. There was a transmission of Suiter sounding like he was in distress just as he was shot, according to officials. That would be a question worth knowing the answer to.
When back up officers arrived once Bomenka (or someone) called 911 (the public has not heard the recording either), the photo from the BWC and presented in the IRB report is out of focus and unclear. The peculiar wording indicates the officers “could see” the gun, not that they did see or even that said that they saw the gun. It’s a crucial distinction.

The newspaper of record in March 2018 reported as fact that Suiter’s gun, “freshly fired” was underneath his body when responding officers arrived. It’s important for responsible journalists to distinguish what police said and attribute their claims to the source as opposed to offering up speculation as factual information to a trusting public that journalists have not independently verified or obtained similar statements from multiple sources on the record.

Out of many, the most absurd claim is IRB’s determination that Suiter’s weapon undisputedly fired the fatal shot as it defies logic. First, they tested the blood on the gun BPD found in the patrol car of an unnamed officer who presented it as the same gun that was “freshly fired” that no one saw under his body. Voila, the blood tested on the gun gift wrapped to them matched Suiter’s DNA. Mind you Suiter was transported in a patrol car to the hospital bleeding from a head wound. Whoever removed the gun from the crime scene had ample opportunity to place blood on a service weapon – either a random service weapon or actually the one that belonged to Suiter.

IRB’s suicide theory would have been a more convincing claim had the IRB report included:

the serial numbers of Suiter’s assigned weapon showing they matched the gun tested
the gun tested was the exact same one was recovered at the crime scene (instead of a car trunk), but there are no crime scene photographs of where the gun was found making this impossible
BWC that clearly captured arriving officer’s discovery of the gun under his body as he was rolled over that may or may not be available
crime scene photos of the location of the gun and the bullet that no one thought to take
whether or not Suiter’s DNA was found on the “recovered” bullet
if bullets and casings didn’t just magically disappear from the scene after Suiter died

Confusingly, IRB depicts in a photo the bullet that was not tested for ballistics, have no DNA on them (presumably), and have zero evidentiary value. What should be pictured is Suiter’s firearm circling where the blood splatter was located that actually tested positive for his DNA. Page 42 of IRB report.

Missing from the report is exact amount of blood splatter reportedly on the gun that IRB tested for DNA recovered and tested from the barrel and gun surface. An assessment should be made about whether Suiter’s blood found on the weapon is consistent with someone adding blood to it, or if it is likely that the blood was from a single shot being fired at close range near someone’s head. The IRB made a similar splatter determination with blood photographed on the sleeve, but did not do so with the “smoking gun.”

The problems with a complicit media

So many questions remain unanswered about the investigation, despite the IRB. Last year, a second review of the case by Maryland State Police (MSP) was conducted, but to date no report was released to the public. Unlike the IRB, MSP did not conduct a press conference leaving media outlets to get the finding from Commissioner Michael Harrison. Without any scrutiny from the public, MSP concluded that Suiter shot himself in the head after firing three or more shots into the air before shooting himself.

Neither panel brought in by Baltimore Police department to “investigate” their investigation reported on the lockdown of Harlem Park and BPD certainly didn’t request that either group look into whether it was possible that anyone manipulated the crime scene as part of a wider cover up.

As long as the case remains open, public access to documents remain shielded. Harrison, the fourth commissioner since the shooting, had called the investigation closed after MSP’s findings, only walk it back once the State’s Attorney’s office countered him by calling it an open and pending matter last year as the second anniversary of Suiter’s death approached.

Even with what little is known, it should be at least clear that beyond statements attributed to David Bomenka, nothing reliable has been presented that 1. Suiter was shot with his own service weapon or 2. that his body fell on a smoking gun. Such reporting is far from fact and closer to fable. What is discernable from the reporting is that members of the media were not able to view BWC, did not hear the 911 call for help, have not spoken with any investigators on the record, or even been given witness statements to read.

In advance of the August 2018 IRB report the Baltimore Sun used unnamed and anonymous sources to float out the idea that Suiter shot himself in the head and then fell on his “freshly fired” gun as “new details”.

More from Baltimore Sun’s story by Justin Fenton from March 2018 just before the announcement that an IRB panel would be reviewing the methods BPD used to investigate the homicide.

Residents in the community heard between four and five gunshots according to news reports. Miraculously, after occupying the neighborhood for a week, the crime scene unit was unable to recover a single bullet, although they did retrieve three casings near where he lay dying in the lot. There’s no definitive proof offered that the recovered casings in any way matched Suiter’s weapon, yet the IRB said without hesitancy that they came from his gun, presumably because they were recovered near his body. The leaps in this reasoning might not be judged as too far fetched- had they found the other missing bullets that went into the air but didn’t come down where they could be easily found even after a week of looking for them.

Regrettably, mainstream media in real time shrugged at the occupation of West Baltimore during this entire process, arguably because of the nature of the crime makes them sympathetic to the dangers of law enforcement and more subtlety because the color of the skin of the people complaining about overreach made their claims less newsworthy. Although in November 2019 the ACLU heard the complaints and filed a lawsuit against BPD which did gain media attention.

To any casual observer, the unprecedented 24/7 lockdown of the neighborhood had nothing to do with looking for a shooter, or finding bullets (since they came up empty on both fronts) but served to manipulate the scene and make sure any concocted story would match witness accounts prompting a social media hashtag #FreeWestBaltimore.