NOT from The Onion
“Do another Season of The Wire,” he [Attorney General Eric Holder] said to cheers. “That’s actually at a minimum…if you don’t do a season, do a movie. We’ve done HBO movies, this is a series that deserves a movie.” The tongue-in-cheek order came as an audience was shown clips from the show that depicted how children are exploited in the illicit drug trade.
This is like Richard Nixon asking for a sequel to Full Metal Jacket.
To his credit, Wire creator David Simon responded:
The Attorney-General’s kind remarks are noted and appreciated. I’ve spoken to [co-producer] Ed Burns and we are prepared to go to work on season six of The Wire if the Department of Justice is equally ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.”
Simon also pointed out that the government’s current anti-drug policies are “nothing more or less than a war on our underclass”.
HT to Alex Tabarrok.
READER COMMENTS
Yancey Ward
Jun 10 2011 at 2:10pm
It wasn’t completely clear to me the purpose of the conference in which Holder made the initial request, but if it was a conference supporting the War Against Drugs, and that is what is sounded like, then Holder clearly didn’t understand The Wire’s pretty explicit position on this “War”.
SkippyMaximus
Jun 10 2011 at 2:42pm
Maybe in this next season, the Department of Education can make some guest appearances…bust down a few doors of some really scary people who haven’t paid their student loans.
They won’t even need props…they can bring their own shotguns they bought a couple years ago.
Silas Barta
Jun 10 2011 at 2:42pm
Not to defend existing drug policy, but it’s quite an odd “war” where you can repel invaders by something as simple as, er, not taking drugs.
I wish all the problems in *my* life were that easy to solve!
caveat bettor
Jun 10 2011 at 3:19pm
Ummm, maybe my history is off, but didn’t Nixon get us out of Vietnam? Wouldn’t Kennedy or LBJ have been a better choice?
Matt
Jun 10 2011 at 4:07pm
for some reason liberal-ish upper middle class people really really like the Wire. not sure why
David R. Henderson
Jun 10 2011 at 4:47pm
@caveat bettor,
I thought of that but then I couldn’t have said “a sequel.” LBJ died in 1973, before Full Metal Jacket was made. And Nixon certainly did his part to expand the war before getting out.
David R. Henderson
Jun 10 2011 at 5:42pm
@caveat bettor,
P.S. Moreover, Holder didn’t start the drug war. He’s just continuing it. Which makes him closer to Nixon than to JFK or Eisenhower re Vietnam.
Mr. Econotarian
Jun 11 2011 at 2:02am
When Holder said this, I was thinking “is he on crack?”
The saddest thing is that Barack Obama, who used pot and cocaine, keeps this farce going. He could have been arrested, instead he became President.
Evan
Jun 11 2011 at 8:15pm
@Silas Barta
You’re making the assumption that the police never arrest innocent people or inflict collateral damage. I think that is unwarranted.
Comments are closed.