Actor Sonja Sohn’s feelings about Baltimore transcend her iconic role as Kima Greggs in the critically acclaimed HBO show “The Wire.” She also directed a documentary about Charm City and has repeatedly professed an affinity for it.
Sohn balked at President Donald Trump’s boasts that his administration is behind dropping crime rates in cities including Baltimore and Chicago — both of which have been favorite targets of Trump’s.
In an Instagram video, Sohn flashes an Aug. 14 New York Times article in which Trump claims credit for the nation’s “best crime record in recorded history.”
Sohn, 62, who stars in the ABC police procedural show “Will Trent,” lived in Baltimore for years after “The Wire” wrapped in 2008. She had a recurring role in the 2018-21 Showtime drama “The Chi,” set on the South Side of Chicago.
“Don’t think I was going to sit this one out. Oh no,” Sohn says in the video posted on Instagram this weekend. “They going to talk crap about y’all all these years. Listen, I’ve been around. I’ve worked in both your cities, OK? And you know Baltimore, you got my heart.”
She has 212,000 followers on the platform.
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The video begins with her speaking directly to the camera: “Trump trying to take credit for the lower crime rate in the cities right now?”
She throws her hands up in exasperation. “Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Chicago, Baltimore, let’s go.”
Last year, Baltimore posted a 50-year low of 133 homicides. Last month, there were seven homicides. Chicago is also experiencing a decrease in violent crime.
Credit for that, she says, should go to grassroots work in those cities.
Grassroots and outreach work is central to Sohn.
She is the founder of the Baltimore-based outreach program ReWired for Change. The program is geared toward the rehabilitation of at-risk youth who have committed crimes. She also directed the 2017 HBO documentary “Baltimore Rising” about the Freddie Grey uprising.
“I’m here for you. And I’m not letting Trump steal this credit,” she says in the social media post that goes on for more than two minutes. “You’ve been working on the ground all this time unsung, pulled down funding here and there, and you kept going, and our cities are getting better and our children are getting better.
“And I want to thank you for it. And Trump, you can go to hell. Because this credit, it don’t belong to you. It belongs to us, the people.”
Trump has had a contentious relationship with Baltimore.
In 2019, Trump called Baltimore the “worst in the USA” and a place “no human being would want to live.” He previously called it a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
Then-Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said at the time that Trump’s comments were “outrageous and inappropriate.”
When Trump came to visit the city that year, he was met with street protests.
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