Well, that’s one more show I won’t be watching on Netflix…
On his blog, the creator of the critically-praised HBO drama “The Wire” hit all the marks of Trayvon Martin derangement—misstatement of facts, ignorance of the law, presumption of guilt without proof, unreasoning fury, and appeal to violence. David Simon wrote,
“You can stand your ground if you’re white, and you can use a gun to do it. But if you stand your ground with your fists and you’re black, you’re dead. In the state of Florida, the season on African-Americans now runs year round. Come one, come all. And bring a handgun. The legislators are fine with this blood on their hands. The governor, too. One man accosted another and when it became a fist fight, one man — and one man only — had a firearm. The rest is racial rationalization and dishonorable commentary. If I were a person of color in Florida, I would pick up a brick and start walking toward that courthouse in Sanford. Those that do not, those that hold the pain and betrayal inside and somehow manage to resist violence — these citizens are testament to a stoic tolerance that is more than the rest of us deserve. I confess, their patience and patriotism is well beyond my own. Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace of two great American pathologies: Race and guns, both of which have conspired not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely permissible. I can’t look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the streets of their country. Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American.”
From which we learn the following:
- Simon is commenting on a trial he didn’t follow or understand, and is just aping NAACP talking points. There was no “Stand Your Ground” issue or defense in the Zimmerman trial. The hallmark of the indignant Zimmerman persecutors is an insistence on their own distorted and fanciful facts, and truth be damned.
- If Simon were a person of color in Florida, he would apparently be an uncommonly stupid, ignorant and violent person of color, who thinks it is fair and reasonable to destroy an innocent citizen’s private property because he is too dense to understand the rudiments of the justice system.
- He is also deranged about guns, though he earned his living as a primary writer on a TV show that depended on gun violence, “Homicide: Life on the Streets,” which was based on his book.
- He accuses others of rationalization, as if self-defense and the need for conviction beyond a reasonable doubt were rationalizations, whereas his analysis of the case is entirely based on unproven and ideologically driven assumptions and biases.
- This man was a reporter of long standing with the Baltimore Sun. Imagine the how much unbiased, reasonable, objective reporting such an individual was capable of delivering. My guess: none.
- Simon subscribes to the popular theory on the Left that when a black individual is killed under any circumstances by a not-quite-as-black individual, racial prejudice must be the motive. The inverse, of course, does not apply.
- African-Americans are going to be very suspicious of Simon, since he can’t look them in the eye. Why is he so ashamed to tell them to tell their sons 1) if they can avoid being killed by other African-American men, they will have greatly improved their chances of a long life, and 2) that if they don’t get in physical altercations with strangers in a concealed carry state like Florida, they can up their chances even more? After all, it’s true.
- Anyone who doesn’t realize that Simon is writing utter, irresponsible nonsense unmoored to logic, law, truth or common sense, should be ashamed to be so ignorant. And finally,
- There is no correlation whatsoever between artistic talent and civic acumen.
So let’s give a hardy Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman Ethics Train Wreck welcome to our latest passenger, David Simon, as the wreck, incredibly, keeps rolling on.
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Pointer: The Wrap
Ethics Alarms 
Even if Simon has gone insane here, you should still watch The Wire. It’s, pretty amazing. If you don’t want to even indirectly support Simon, I’ll loan you my box sets.
It’s almost shocking that a guy who wrote not one, but two of the greatest police procedurals ever could be so misinformed about the law.
Any sets of The Wire I lay hands on won’t play again.
I remember years back trying to watch his drivel and it was boring anyway, which is why I own an F/X series before an HBO series.
Any sets of The Wire I lay hands on won’t play again.
Well, that’s very ethical of you.
Maybe non-ethical?
Simon won a Genius Grant a couple years ago. And was a reporter for a long time.. And he knows the only way to garner attention today is to write outrageously.
Don’t fall into the trap that he’s being honest with his readers. He’s writing to his audience.
Is that unethical for a TV writer and Genius Grant recipient to cater to his first love, The Almighty Dollar?
And call for blacks to riot in the process? Yes.
Someone needs to put this guy’s home address on the net.
Yes, they do.
Jack, it’s been a while since you posted something that made me say, “Oh, my God!” and then be speechless.
I’m not a rendered speechless kind of person.
I cannot BELIEVE that man wrote this piece.
I am BEYOND disgusted.
As an American, I am DEEPLY ashamed of him.
I’d say I’d like to hear what NASA (my name for meatshield) will say about it but I don’t want him to get banned.
Just when you think the situation cannot get any worse.
I was going to post some of my observations as a Floridian post-verdict, but I’m too mad now.
It would just be all cuss words.
P.S.:
Read some of the comments on the site hosting his crap spiel.
People know one when they see one.
Also, as a viewer who has purchased expensive gift sets of crime series (The Shield, Justified) in the past, you can bet I won’t be adding The Wire to that list.
I’ll give him this—he answers his critics, and you don’t see that often on opinion blogs. Other than this one, of course…
I’ll give him this—he answers his critics, and you don’t see that often on opinion blogs. Other than this one, of course…
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Yes, but writing something that might be (mis)understood as a call to violence (he claims that’s not what it is…it’s simply his creative writing/self expression), at this very sensitive time, is highly irresponsible.
And unethical.
What Florida needs right now is more racial tension/violence, right?
Look, I get it, people are pissed. They are outraged.
On both sides.
That kind of hysterical, thoughtless spewing isn’t going to help anything.
Okay, I only read this guys rant once, but what exactly does it have to do with creative writing? Anyone? Anyone? Beuhler?
He’s obviously not much of a writer on his own (without Ed Burns).
When his blog got the negative attention it deserved last night, all he could say was “your hyperbole is duly noted”. Over and over and over again.
Then he closed the comments. Hey, my cat writes at that level.
I’d put CryBaby Simon toe to toe any day against writers like Shawn Ryan or David Milch.
I guess he’s feeling guilty now about all of the money he made on the suffering of Black people (The Corner) or perhaps he suffers from what’s been ailing Jim Carrey – the “I’m no longer relevant in the industry flu bug”.
If anyone wonders how the KKK and white power movements still exist in America, here is your answer. The David Simon’s make people listen to them because after reading his message, their message sounds reasonable. After listening to the NAACP and seeing the reaction in the streets and in the media, the KKK message that black people are an ignorant group incapable of rational thought, subject only to their emotions, and controlled by a small, liberal leadership, looks plausible. The message being sent to a lot of people by this incident is that if you are attacked by a black man, the NAACP, the media, and the President of the United States expects you to lie there and die. If you want to protect yourself, join the KKK. The government sure won’t. I’m sure this incident is a godsend to racists groups all over the country, If they were smart enough, they would send David Simon and the others fruit baskets.
The Law Of Unintended Consequences applies here. Rants such as Mr. Simon’s, along with the various “protests” (read “riots”) are almost certainly going to foster the exact opposite of intended emotions…fear of blacks rather than the respect of an equal, disgust at an inability to understand a legal system rather than acceptance of an equal and the belief that racism might be justified (it isn’t and never will be, but…) rather than the respect of a race that has produced a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Michael, sad to say, you are right.
At the very least, there is incalculable racial hatred and resentment being churned up on both sides.
I was pretty steamed up myself last night after listening to Tavis Smiley spewing his crap on TV last night (Think it was on O’Reily).
That was when I decided I needed another media vacation.
I have a hard time quitting Ethics Alarms, though.
* I was pretty steamed up myself last night after listening to Tavis Smiley spewing his crap on TV (on O’Reilly).
Does anybody remember “Emmitt Till”? I recall Emmitt Till because because this horrific murder, in MS, occurred during my youth. I could mention the thousands of Black men lynched by the members of the KKK, et el, during the first fifty years of the twentyeth century, but I won’t. You get the picture.
“Does anybody remember “Emmitt Till”? I recall Emmitt Till because because this horrific murder, in MS, occurred during my youth. I could mention the thousands of Black men lynched by the members of the KKK, et el, during the first fifty years of the twentyeth century, but I won’t. You get the picture.”
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I’ve heard about Emmett Till, I remember James Byrd, Jr.
I also remember Nicole Brown Simpson and thousands of other American women who were beaten &/or killed by their husbands in the last 50 years.
I could go on but I won’t.
Get the picture?
While the media and the government inflames the Black population over this one Black kid, a kid who is partially responsible for his own death, how many other Black kids in American were killed by their own parents?
How many?
How many died at the hands of their parents since the night Trayvon died?
How many?
…oh, wait…I get it…it’s only the ones killed by Whitey that count.
So…you’re saying that we should ignore racial violence because there is non-racial violence?