This situation will sound familiar as Carcetti, while preparing a run for governor near the end of the fifth season, would eventually ask that the cops alter the crime statistics in his favor. This allegation was never proven, though it was pointed out by t he Washington Post that it would be difficult to disprove as well. His opponent during that election, Douglas Duncan, would contest his figures and accuse his administration of deliberately manipulating them for political gain. When running for governor in 2006, he widely touted in his campaign that he’d made good on his promise to reduce crime, which he claimed had decreased 37 percent while he was mayor. While Nathan Barksdale tended to play up his influence to his (allegedly) fictional counterpart, O’Malley would deride anyone who would make the comparison, as he seemed to resent the show for the way it portrayed his city, criticizing its show runner as someone who “ came to Baltimore and saw nothing but hopelessness, and he made a lot of money portraying it.” Later, Simon would reveal that during a private phone call, O’Malley had threatened the show’s ability to continue to film in Baltimore if it wasn’t portrayed in a better light. In Simon’s reporting days, Martin O’Malley was an ambitious city councilman of Irish descent who, in 1999, won the mayoral race as the lone white candidate in a city with a predominantly black population. Martin O’Malley’s Mayoral election helped shape Tommy Carcetti HBO/Getty Although, he refers to the The Barksdale family that “was famous in their day in West Baltimore back in the ‘80s for their endeavors in the projects,” on a season one DVD commentary track and says his use of character’s names is a “ backhanded homage” to West Baltimore’s day-to-day realities. The real Barksdale plays up his influence on the show - there’s even a docudrama called The Avon Barksdale Story: Legends of The Unwiredthat further embellishes his exploits - but Simon has always denied it, stating that no character from The Wire is based on any one person. Williams is also said to have influenced the character of Avon, and himself appeared in the show’s third and fourth seasons as a church Deacon. Barkdale’s path first crossed with Simon’s during his time at the Baltimore Sun in 1985 while he was writing a series called “ Easy Money: Anatomy of a Drug Empire,” which focused on “Little” Melvin Williams, who was involved in a Baltimore heroin trafficking ring in the 1970s and ’80s. The head of the criminal empire in season one (and less so in seasons two and three), Avon Barksdale was an amalgamation of a number of people Simon would write about, among them Nathan Barksdale, a West Baltimore drug dealer from the projects with a background in boxing. While Simon has stated most characters were composites of cops, dealers and cases he and Burns had encountered over the years, we look at five real-life people and events that specifically helped shape the stories told on one of the most widely-praised and affecting TV shows of all time. A show where everyone from a teenager on the corner to a corrupt state senator could be considered a main character, its sense of authenticity was due to co-creators David Simon and Ed Burns, who worked as a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun and as a Baltimore police detective, respectively, before teaming up to make HBO’s The Corner (another heartbreaking and raw look at West Baltimore’s streets) and then The Wire. From 2003-2008, HBO’s The Wire (which can be streamed on HBO Now) brought an unflinching, and unapologetic, look at multiple aspects of life in Baltimore, Maryland.
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