Almost every ranking of the greatest TV dramas in history has ‘The Wire’ at or near the top.  The HBO series portrayed cops – some clean, some corrupt – trying to fight crime in drug-infested Baltimore, along with junkies and killers, politicians and crime victims.  The show introduced viewers to the term ‘juking the stats,’ meaning a concerted effort to create fake crime statistics to please the top brass and City Hall.  ‘Making robberies into larcenies, making rapes disappear,’ declared one character. ‘You juke the stats and majors become colonels.’

End of August and most everyone is off. Not much going on until September 2.  I know I’m ignoring federal authorities invading Chicago because I don’t know exactly how that’s going to look.

During President Trump’s first term, I suggested that because public safety was being ignored by some states, the federal government had the power to control criminality.  There is much precedent for that; perhaps the most intense was the federal takeover of the New Orleans police department.