'The Wire' creator David Simon calls for an end to Baltimore violence in Freddie Gray's name

Following 25-year-old Freddie Grey’s death due to injuries he sustained in police custody, peaceful protests in Baltimore have turned into violent riots. Now, The Wire creator David Simon is calling for an end to the chaos in the city where his HBO series took place.

“In this moment—the anger and the selfishness and the brutality of those claiming the right to violence in Freddie Gray’s name needs to cease,” Simon wrote on his website Monday. “There was real power and potential in the peaceful protests that spoke in Mr. Gray’s name initially, and there was real unity at his homegoing today. But this, now, in the streets, is an affront to that man’s memory and a dimunition of the absolute moral lesson that underlies his unnecessary death.”

Thousands of troops and outside police officers have been deployed to Baltimore as residents continue to set fires, loot stores, and antagonize police throughout the city in response to Gray’s April 19 death. But Simon urges Baltimoreans to see that violence will not lead to answers or justice.

“If you can’t seek redress and demand reform without a brick in your hand, you risk losing this moment for all of us in Baltimore,” he wrote. “Turn around. Go home. Please.”