--- title: 'Wire' Actor Lance Reddick: Violence Just Won't Work description: We need more police getting to know and understand the communities where they work canonical: https://time.com/3841782/wire-actor-lance-reddick-violence-just-wont-work/ author: Lance Reddick article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-30T19:39:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:49:30.559Z article:section: Ideas og:title: 'Wire' Actor Lance Reddick: Violence Just Won't Work og:description: We need more police getting to know and understand their communities og:url: https://time.com/3841782/wire-actor-lance-reddick-violence-just-wont-work/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31873366599bc160/6987edb006f2c10f3633802a/lance-reddick.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Lance Reddick arrives at the LA Special Screening Of "John Wick" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Wire' Actor Lance Reddick: Violence Just Won't Work twitter:description: We need more police getting to know and understand their communities twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31873366599bc160/6987edb006f2c10f3633802a/lance-reddick.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Wire_ Actor Lance Reddick: Violence Just Won't Work > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=a6c1ecb0-c9f0-4b3d-b353-269abfc80858&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Sam Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Globally minded knowledge seekers. Readers who turn to journalism to understand the world, with meaningful concentrations among educators, students, media professionals, civic institutions and knowledge workers. ### TIME Inside TIME: key statements * Inside TIME is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Inside TIME is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=a6c1ecb0-c9f0-4b3d-b353-269abfc80858&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/subscribe?i=a6c1ecb0-c9f0-4b3d-b353-269abfc80858&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is Inside TIME? Inside TIME is a twice-weekly newsletter written by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=a6c1ecb0-c9f0-4b3d-b353-269abfc80858&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [Lance Reddick](https://time.com/author/lance-reddick/) ## Lance Reddick Apr 30, 2015 7:39 PM UTC  Lance Reddick arrives at the LA Special Screening Of "John Wick" on Oct. 22, 2014, in Los Angeles. Lance Reddick arrives at the LA Special Screening Of "John Wick" on Oct. 22, 2014, in Los Angeles. Richard Shotwell—Invision/AP by [Lance Reddick](https://time.com/author/lance-reddick/) ## Lance Reddick Apr 30, 2015 7:39 PM UTC _“A riot is the language of the unheard.” —Martin Luther King Jr._ _“To be a negro in this country and to be relatively conscience is to be in a rage all the time.” —James Baldwin_ When I saw the recent riots in Baltimore, I was stunned and in a bit of shock, not because it was happening but because it was happening in my hometown. In an instance where I might otherwise have taken to “making jabs on Twitter,” as a colleague put it, I have tried to stay off the Web, asking myself, “What can I do or say that will possibly make a difference?” In this moment, I am not speaking as a star. I’m not speaking as “that guy from The Wire.” I am speaking as a citizen, as a native son of Baltimore, as a black man. The destruction of private property is wrong. Stealing is wrong. Random violence against other human beings is wrong. These are not new or revolutionary concepts at this point in human history. Any criminal element within a chronically impoverished and oppressed community will take advantage to do these things when the rage of that community reaches its boiling point. And make no mistake, the rage in the poor communities of color across this country is in a pressure cooker. Until we address the why of it, it will explode over and over and over again. And when I say we, I don’t mean just us black folks. I mean we as a culture—all of us Americans. The recent riots in Baltimore were perhaps triggered by what happened to Freddie Gray, but I assert they were not because of it. Thanks to the technological innovation of the cell-phone camera, it seems to people who don’t live in or come from those neighborhoods that suddenly, cops are out of control. But this has been in the works for decades. The war on crime initiated by President Richard Nixon, the war on drugs put into high gear by President Ronald Reagan and the increasing militarization of police forces—in terms of equipment and tactics used predominantly against nonviolent drug offenders and overwhelmingly in poor neighborhoods of color—have devastated those communities. Studies show that blacks and whites tend to use drugs in the same proportion, yet the prison system is swelling with people of color for nonviolent drug offenses. Where are the consistent stop-and-frisks and no-knock raids at white college frat houses or elite, predominantly white prep schools? When a community consistently feels that a police force is an occupying army overwhelmingly filled not just with people who don’t look like them, but who don’t live in or come from their community, and consistently treat them like animals or see them as statistics to fill arrest quotas and ticket revenues, when their day-to-day living is already often a struggle to survive or make ends meet, how do you expect them to feel? How would you feel? Last year I spoke to a recently retired homicide detective who had worked in a precinct in Brooklyn with one of the highest murder rates in the city of New York. He said to me, “Most of the people in the community are good, hardworking people.” I thought about that comment for a while, and I realized that in homicide, a lot, if not most of the job is talking to people, relating to them, getting to know and understand them so you can accurately read them. In my opinion, we need more of that. Until we get back to community policing; until we end this senseless war on drugs, which, as Michelle Alexander says in her book _The New Jim Crow_, has turned our criminal-justice system into a system of race and class control instead of a system of crime control; until we hold police violence against unarmed citizens to the same standard of justice and prosecution as that of everyone else, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, John Crawford, Michael Brown, Oscar Grant, Rodney King, Amadou Diallo and on and on will keep happening. The bad news for the people in these neighborhoods is that ultimately the violence of the riots only ends up hurting them, not just because of the physical devastation to the neighborhood but through reinforced stereotypes and justification for greater militarization. Remember that Nixon’s war on crime was in large measure spurred by the riots in the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination. It allowed Nixon to play on suburban white fears of urban black violence—great for an election year. No matter how justified the rage, in this situation, violence just won’t work. As much as King is extolled for his spiritual genius and courage, he knew that violence was tactically untenable. What would I say to the protesters in Baltimore? I would say, “Please forgive me that I cannot be there with you.” And if I were there, I would say, “How can I help?” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3841782/wire-actor-lance-reddick-violence-just-wont-work/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3841782/wire-actor-lance-reddick-violence-just-wont-work/"},"headline":"Wire Actor Lance Reddick: Violence Just Won't Work","datePublished":"2015-04-30T19:39:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:49:30.559Z","description":"We need more police getting to know and understand the communities where they work","url":"https://time.com/3841782/wire-actor-lance-reddick-violence-just-wont-work/","keywords":["Race"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31873366599bc160/6987edb006f2c10f3633802a/lance-reddick.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lance Reddick","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lance-reddick/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31873366599bc160/6987edb006f2c10f3633802a/lance-reddick.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Lance Reddick arrives at the LA Special Screening Of \"John Wick\"","caption":"Lance Reddick arrives at the LA Special Screening Of \"John Wick\"","creditText":"Richard Shotwell—Invision/AP","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":"https://time.com/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/race/","name":"Race"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3841782/wire-actor-lance-reddick-violence-just-wont-work/","name":"Wire Actor Lance Reddick: Violence Just Won't Work"}}]}] ```