Wire creator to atty gen'l: "Thanks for your interest in another season; end the war on drugs and we'll talk"

Last summer, US attorney general Eric Holder made a public plea for another season of The Wire to be produced; series creator David Simon emailed a response saying he would do another season if Holder ended the war on drugs.

The Attorney-General's kind remarks are noted and appreciated. I've spoken to 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.

'The Wire' Creator David Simon Has a Counteroffer for Eric Holder (via Reddit)

(Image: “The Wire” display, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from mwichary's photostream)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: petard • politics • tv • war on some drugs

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SpaceBeers

I want both these things to happen. Sadly, neither probably will.
http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd

JUNE 10, 2011
Well-aged news still tastes delicious.
- http://twitter.com/ELahti Evan Lahti
  
  Yeah, hmm. Appreciated, but can we expect more quotes/news that I read months ago on Boingboing?
flowergardenslayer

I guess that’s funnier than just a plain “No”.
querent

Also: If Obama cuts off US funds to Israel until Israel returns to the 67 borders, Firefly will come back.
- thebelgianpanda
  
  It’s not nice to tease people.
A. .

If you walk through the garden…
http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

If they do another season, I would like it to be revealed that the whole McNulty fake serial killer plot was a Bobby Ewing-style dream sequence.
Chris Hogan

I won’t positively assert that Mr Simon concluded his reply to Att.Gen Holder with the line “You come at the king, you best not miss”, but I’m not saying it didn’t happen that way.
Guest

Hope Eric accedes to David conditions, pretty much a win-win for everyone. I’d love to see another season of The Wire. Best television show ever!
hbgvfcdxsz hbgvfcdxsz

ha ha, classic. I never read this. Bit of an old news story but i missed it first time round.
Ambiguity

Good for them! Honestly I have no idea what the Wire is — don’t have TV — but the more people who point to the freaking big, inglorious pink elephant in the room, the better.
Brainspore

Bad idea. The War on Drugs provides most of that show’s best material.
Mister44

If only it were that simple.
- dnietz
  
  it is
- Brainspore
  
  Sometimes you just have to ask nicely…
http://twitter.com/politiker Michael G

If Holder had actually absorbed the show’s material, he would have known that this would be Simon’s response.
babylost

sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-it
D Wyatt

50% of the people admit to smoking it at some point, if the rest told the truth it would probably be more like 80%. The “war on drugs” is literally a war on this nations people.
America the free. with only 5% of the worlds people it has 25% of the worlds prisoners…..

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness. Unless your pursuit of happiness includes relieving pain or stress with a plant that has been used by humans for over 10,000 years… Illegal for 75 years this year.

The dreaded weed Marijuana was a first for many things. It was the first plant made illegal solely for CORPORATE interests alone. In 1936 someone invented a way to harvest it faster therefor making it more efficient and more profitable. Cotton, Oil, and a few other big outfits funded the movement.

It was one of the first plants to be used as fuel, even ford made a complete car out of it and it ran on it as well. It was on the forefront of PROPAGANDA FILMS, and COMMERCIALS. Reefer madness and 3 others along with a slew of ads filled with lies. They are just as ridiculous and clueless today as they were then.

They call it a gateway, the truth is they know they have lied about it, and once kids find out they lied about it they sometimes think, hmmm. They lied about that one being sooo bad its on the class 1 schedule I might as well try the other ones. Just so happens the other ones turn you into a junkie…..and the harmless WEED doesnt NOT.

1. Legalize it and free the non-violent offenders. Take more burdens off the system without releasing rapist and killers like last time….
2. Put the real power back in the hands of the police… Make them spend time on worthwhile police work.
3. People will respect them more for doing what is truly right and not just following orders.
4. Good honest people will be able to stay good honest and FREE people, Thomas Jefferson wrote the declaration of independence on paper made from it and he grew acres of it.
5. Less Resource waste for the government, state, city, police force, judges!!!
6. States can tax it and actually MAKE MONEY!! It has been estimated that some midwest states could stand to make upwards of 10-30 billion a year off this one crop alone!
7. Fund education with surplus tax. I say 33% is fair enough, spend another 33% helping either educate or rehabilitate people with real problems, like alcoholics…..Get it?
8. Stop lying about its beneficial effects, fund real research into healing people. We know it works now we just need to find out why.
9. Use hemp for military clothing, rope and tarps again, for fuel, for paper instead of the last trees, for insulation, for plastic, FOREVER!
10. If this country really did what the people wanted instead of what the corporations want this world wouldnt be so broken. The corporations bankrupted America out of morals, pride, happiness, truth, justice, oh yeah and MONEY. The back has been broken, its time to heal.
11. LETS RIGHT SOME WRONG ALREADY, THIS IS AN EXTREMELY OBVIOUS AND EASY ONE…
12. Wired, Season 6!
noah django

Clearly, a more persuasive argument is needed.
http://adavies.org/ Andrew Davies

I’ve been re-watching the original series (bought the box set). Almost through season 3. Amazing how it’s still good and relevant. Most TV series feel dated after a while.

Oh, and I live in Amsterdam on a street with two coffee shops (where they sell the weed). And I used to live in DC one block from a major open air pot market. Here, I’ve got no problem with my girlfriend walking around the neighborhood at night. Normally, I wouldn’t even think about it. In DC, at the time, it would have been a very bad idea.

Tells you something.
http://www.facebook.com/wrgrant Warren Grant

The Wire is undoubtedly the best written TV show I have seen out of the US. I would love to see a season 6 made.
As for the war on drugs, it was obvious long ago that this was doomed to failure. My father was a policeman in Vancouver BC, and back in the 60s he was saying they should just legalize marijuana so that he and his compatriots could concentrate on nabbing real criminals. I suspect the real purpose behind the so-called “war” was to generate money for the people who benefit from it (those building and maintaining prisons, legions of lawyers), and to enable politicians to claim they are being “tough on crime”. The money spent on the WOD would be better spent on a “war on corruption” investigating the politicians we elect, and the lobbyists and corporations who own them.
william james

Please, do a 5th season of the Wire! I need to know what happens to Omar