--- description: David Simon lashes out against the ex-Baltimore Mayor amid this week's unrest. title: 'The Wire' Creator Blames Martin O'Malley for Baltimore Police Problems image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt755d379c38f5bff0/6987eda5a988cae1316b0744/simon-omalley.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [politics](/tag/politics/) ## politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # _The Wire_ Creator Blames Martin O'Malley for Baltimore Police Problems  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Apr 30, 2015 1:45 AM CUT  (L-R) Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD) and David Simon, creator of the HBO show, The Wire (L-R) Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD) and David Simon, creator of the HBO show, The WireWin McNamee—Getty Images, Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Apr 30, 2015 1:45 AM CUT David Simon, the creator of the iconic Baltimore-based HBO series _The Wire_, [lashed out](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/29/david-simon-on-baltimore-s-anguish "undefined") in a lengthy interview against Martin O’Malley, saying in the wake of this week’s riots and curfew that the former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Governor was the “stake through the heart of police procedure” in the city. Protests that have erupted following the April 19 death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody, have highlighted the deep racial and socio-economic divide in Baltimore and the distrust between the community and law enforcement officers. Speaking with The Marshall Project, Simon traces his wariness back to O’Malley’s time as Mayor between 1999 and 2007, when Simon says he made “mass arrests” of citizens for minor offenses to pad crime statistics. “\[W\]hat happened under his watch as Baltimore’s mayor was that he wanted to be governor. And at a certain point, with the crime rate high … he put no faith in real policing.” Simon, a crime reporter at the Baltimore _Sun_ for more than 10 years before he moved to television writing, has been an outspoken critic of O’Malley for years. He has even said that the _Wire_ character Tommy Carcetti, an ambitious politician who manipulates crime reduction statistics, is partly based on O’Malley, a presumed Democratic presidential candidate. Read the full interview at [The Marshall Project](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/29/david-simon-on-baltimore-s-anguish "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3841050/the-wires-david-simon-martin-omalley-baltimore-police/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3841050/the-wires-david-simon-martin-omalley-baltimore-police/"},"headline":"The Wire Creator Blames Martin O'Malley for Baltimore Police Problems","datePublished":"2015-04-30T01:45:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:48:09.602Z","description":"David Simon lashes out against the former Baltimore Mayor and Maryland Governor amid this week's unrest","url":"https://time.com/3841050/the-wires-david-simon-martin-omalley-baltimore-police/","keywords":["politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt755d379c38f5bff0/6987eda5a988cae1316b0744/simon-omalley.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt755d379c38f5bff0/6987eda5a988cae1316b0744/simon-omalley.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"simon-omalley.jpg","caption":"(L-R) Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D-MD) and David Simon, creator of the HBO show, The Wire","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images, Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3841050/the-wires-david-simon-martin-omalley-baltimore-police/","name":"The Wire Creator Blames Martin O'Malley for Baltimore Police Problems"}}]}] ```