Original subtitles

The, uh, carjacking situation in Newark...

In -- that -- it's -- it's sad.

It's sad when people feel

like society has pushed them into such a corner

that that is their only way out,

to just hold people up at gunpoint.

♪♪

[ Door closes ]

[ Knocks on door ]

I got these cameras with me. You heard?

-What's up? -Nah, nah, nah.

They're good. They're with me. They're good, my brother.

I give you my word on that. They're good, you know?

We're talking about what's going on

in the streets of Newark right now.

Carjacking.

Why has this become a means of survival?

That's what I was talking about.

Our goal is just to simply show the world a window

as to why people do the things they do,

where that desperation comes from.

It's like they say, "When the system fails you,

you create your own system."

[ Tires screeching ]

♪♪

[ Engines revving ]

Man: Get your best drivers.

I don't give a... if you on the west coast.

I don't give a...if you're in the midwest.

I don't give a...if you down bottom in the dirty.

Get your best drivers and call Newark niggas out

and see what it be then.

It's a typical Friday night in Newark, New Jersey.

This the tradition of just joyriding.

This is where it all started from,

so if you didn't have a car, you stole one.

If you had no bike, you stole one.

But this is just a new generation right now,

you know, following tradition.

I started off in the '90s with all the stolen cars,

and that was me.

White Castle -- Every Wednesday night,

we used to take cars down there and do donuts.

How old where you then?

I probably was about 14.

-Yeah. -14 stealing cars every night.

We would take the Club off

and leave it in your parking spot so you could see it.

Williams: You know, back in the day,

Newark was notorious for stealing cars and joyriding.

[ Glass shatters ]

But over the years, that's turned into something

way more dangerous -- carjacking.

[ Police siren chirps ]

So I wanted to find out why so many dudes in the city

feel so desperate that they would stick a gun in your face

to steal your car.

[ Police radio chatter ]

My knowledge of Newark -- you can't go there,

going after a story like this,

without consulting Treach from Naughty By Nature.

It felt like a waste of time

to go there and not go to the source.

What's up, boy?

-Yeah. -What's good.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

His connections into the streets of Newark, New Jersey,

they are very deeply rooted.

The large majority of Newark is the ghetto,

so a lot of people ain't got them cars they looking for.

This is, like, 15th street.

So this is where East Orange is.

You go right here, this is the border of Newark.

Like, before, like -- like I said,

the cops, they could chase you all over,

but the stolen cars used to be so reckless.

They used to be hitting innocent people walking

and car killing them.

So they was like, if they get to a border,

you got to let them go.

Let the next jurisdiction get on them.

They don't have -- And they cannot cross that...light.

They don't have jurisdiction at that time.

Hit the border, they can't chase you no more.

Vr-room!

Williams: What's your name, man?

-My name Winston. -Winston.

-What's up? -Explain, bro.

I'd been in this city 55 years.

I never thought it would come to this.

And it's...up.

This generation, man.

I ain't killing people by car, man.

It's sad.

Williams: It's such a forgotten place, man.

And the people -- so vibrant, so full of passion.

But there's a lot of anger. There's a lot of pain.

I know a little bit about that myself, you know?

There was a time when the darkest point of my life,

I lived there.

Man: What's up with them cameras? Yo, put them cameras away!

Williams: Damn, my bad, cuz.

[ Barks ]

Isabella Avenue -- this is where it all began for me.

My journey into manhood began on this block right here.

Man: Nigga had their shit parked up on the block.

We taking that.

Nigga got a foreign joint.

He pull it by the store thinking his shit is sweet.

Nah, it ain't. We taking that.

We hopping in that, pulling off right.

Right! Right.

♪♪

Williams: Lot of history here.

Second and third season of "The Wire,"

when it appeared that I had all the money and -- and fame

in the world, I was actually broke,

'cause I was spending all my money on buffoonery.

You know, Mike went from being "Corny Mike"

to being "Cool-ass Omar."

And, you know, my head, the lines got blurred.

I was never more, you know, ...up in the head,

you know, when I landed here.

I needed -- I needed to hide.

And these brothers, though, they took me in

and created a safe haven for me.

With all this danger, all this carjacking,

all this murder and mayhem,

there's a bond that I've got here with these brothers,

man, a fellowship that's timeless.

Yeah, it's real.

♪♪

You know, but it was Christian Love Baptist Church

where I began to learn how to love myself.

Somebody missed that!

Now put those hands together

and give God some praise in this!

[ Cheering ]

We're gonna invite our brother Michael K. Williams

to the pulpit.

Let's receive Michael Williams.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Morning, Christian Love.

All: Morning.

I read somewhere in a book,

"A just man falls seven times."

[ Murmuring ]

We bringing cameras in here today

because of this platform that God has given me.

So I brought them here to see

that this is -- this is who I am!

I'm from East Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York,

born and raised, but I became a man on these Jersey streets!

I became a man at Christian Love.

Reverend Ronald B. Christian,

you know, this is a man

that I would follow to the ends of the Earth.

I want to ask you a question.

You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

You ever steal a car and joyride?

No!

Aw, you know real Jersey, Newark...

You ain't never joyride? You never did a donut?

N-- No. I stole cars,

but it wasn't to joyride, it was to go rob.

Oh! Oh! Oh, so you was one of those.

I learned how to drive in a stolen car.

-Serious? -Yeah.

You ever ride in a stolen car?

Oh, yeah. I-I -- Actually, I've stolen a car or two.

-Really? -Yeah.

-Was it a Pinto? -No. No.

One was a yellow taxi cab.

Oh, God. Did you return it?

Oh, no. Police stopped us on 9th Avenue and 39th street.

Told them you was the passenger?

They beat the crap out of me.

They beat the crap out of me.

Now, this madness that's going on in the city...

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

I don't know. So you have a kid in the hood...

Yeah. That's right, Yeah.

...right, who possibly gets incarcerated -- 16 to 17.

Mm-hmm.

And they don't put the brakes on and stop before they get 18.

Mm-hmm. So now they can't get a job

working for the city, the county, the state.

So now what do they do?

You can't tell the kids to get off the block,

and you don't offer them an alternative to go somewhere.

♪♪

Williams: OGs in the neighborhood tell me

that stealing cars has changed from back in the day

when it was just about joyriding.

So I went to meet this former carjacker, known as E.

Don't talk in the mic. [ Laughs ]

This dude began stealing cars in the '80s.

Back then, we used to just steal cars for fun,

'cause we ain't never had shit.

Mm. The government took away all the programs --

The PAL, The Little League, and all of that.

You leave us with nothing to do,

you see what we doing here now -- nothing.

So, chaos got created, you know what I mean?

Somebody happened to know how to get a car,

you tell your friend. Yeah.

Now me and him riding around in the car,

they see us two blocks over -- "Yo, where y'all get that car from?

How y'all get that car?" "We stole it."

Now this shit's starts spreading, you know what I mean?

You got mother... who was out here stealing cars

since they was 9 years old,

sitting on stacks of books and that shit.

-Real talk. -Crazy.

-Real talk. -Okay, yeah.

You know, but that's the car thieves of today, man.

You know what I mean?

Explain to me how jacking got started. How did they --

How did they metamorphize into carjacking?

How did it metamorphize into carjacking, exactly.

-There you go. -Thank your car companies,

'cause they started making the cars

to where it's as though we can't steal them.

Car won't start if I don't got that electronic key,

henceforth carjacking.

It's crazy. Something that was designed

to make people feel safer actually is putting them --

-Actually made it worse. -Yeah.

Made it worse, is putting them in more danger.

Exactly.

-Wintertime -- -Yeah.

When she get up at 5:00 to go work in the morning,

you think she gonna come out here and sit in that shit while it warm up?

-Hell no. -She gonna come out here,

turn that bitch on and go back in the house.

That's true.

A little dirty nigga gonna be sitting up there.

God -- You think he's asleep 'cause you was just asleep?

-Nah, nigga. -Uh-huh.

We hungry.

♪♪

E: I'm gonna show you how to get a mother...in here.

What it is is simple, man -- mother...pull up over there,

they getting their car cleaned by the attendants.

you wait over here, you turn your head.

I'm standing over there.

I'll go hop in your shit and take off.

What you gonna do? Grab a car?

You know what I'm saying?

You gonna lose that fight every time, so I'm gone.

See, look at this Benz pulling up.

Smart...guy -- his dog with him.

Throw that little mother...right out.

You know what I mean? And here you go.

Look at your man right there, sitting in his shit.

See how his head down? See how he not paying attention?

And you calmly walk up on him,

and you put your mother... gun in his face.

You have two choices -- make him an offer he can't refuse.

♪♪

If you got something that we want, we're going to follow you.

It's that...simple, man.

Like, your shit mean that much to us, man.

We go out, we get a...Range Rover,

and mother...give us $10,000 for it,

and there's three of us, man, hey, we gonna eat for a month.

Williams: Now, if you're a carjacker in Newark,

it's like a gold mine because you are conveniently located

between some of the riches suburbs in the United States.

E: Porsche Cayenne.

You got that Ferrari drop-top, sitting in front of Neiman's.

You got the Lex.

Look at this playground.

Just come through and pick you something out.

Well, what's to stop us from sitting here and waiting

on the owner of that car to come to that car?

Nothing, as long as we just sit here and cool out.

When they come to this car, we calmly get out...

and it's over.

Williams: But not everyone hands over their keys without a fight.

Woman: A scary carjacking at a high-end

New Jersey shopping mall has left a man dead.

He was shot as he and his wife got into their Range Rover...

E: This where dude got killed at.

Caught him and his girl coming to their car.

Two dudes jump out on him, flash a gun on him.

Word on the street was dude knew karate or some shit,

and he put up a fight or a struggle.

He thought they was playing. They wasn't playing.

You got to understand, man,

life don't mean much where mother...is from, man.

It's sad to say that.

Mother...will kill you over something out here though.

I ain't saying it's right.

I ain't gonna say that at all.

But sometimes, you understand, man,

when a mother...starving,

what'd you expect a mother...to do?

Mother...is really starving.

Got mother...mother...up on dope, pills, and coke.

Come on, man. Mother...15 years old.

What is he gonna do? Go to school?

He ain't ate in two days.

How the...he gonna focus on what the teacher's saying?

iams: You don't think of Newark having access

to any part in the world because they're so cut off.

You mix that with the fact that they are no opportunities

in this community, the education is -- is minimal.

Y-You put all those things together,

and you got a -- a tough cocktail.

[ Engine revving ]

Once upon a time, it was like you broke your neck

to try to live in Newark, you know?

So how did it go from that to being known as

the murder capital or the -- or the carjacking capital?

Like, what happened?

Opportunity and money. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Look, like, that's what it's about.

Like, they rolling dice over there. Yeah.

Shake something to the good shaker.

Tell me! Hey y'all!

If you take jobs away, if you take opportunities away,

what else you think, you know, people gonna do?

They gonna get it the best way they can get it.

That's rolling dice, that's carjacking.

Williams: And the more carjacking incidents get reported,

the more police stepping their game up to try and prevent them.

[ Police siren chirps ]

Man: We go through,

they don't come through for no...murders or nothing.

Carjacking in the late '80s, early '90s,

they were very prevalent in the city of Newark.

It went away and returned in 2010, 2011.

You can never tell why only in Essex County

and Newark, New Jersey, carjackings are prevalent.

Williams: The Essex county police crackdown

has reduced carjacking by almost 15%.

But I've hooked up with a crew who spends

almost every night hunting for cars to steal.

All right. So right now, we're waiting

for some dudes to come through with some cars.

We're gonna find out where they got them from

and, uh, what they got planned for them.

[ Dog barks in distance ]

Here they come.

They got to be doing, I would say about 90 to 100,

hitting those corners at about, say, 50.

Crazy.

This is it, right here.

[ Metallic clang ] Oh, shit.

That's real right now. Okay, he just jumped

the sidewalk, knocked down a stop sign.

Yeah. They gettin' out of here.

♪♪

I see you got some crazy driving skills, bro.

Yeah, man.

You know.

You know.

Where did the car come from?

Like, where'd you get that car tonight?

Can we go take a look at it?

Sure, sure, sure.

Williams: This car was just stolen

literally 20 minutes ago, you know?

You can see the glass in the back.

Someone's family needed this car to get to work,

took their kids to school,

probably their only means of transportation.

The new generation of car thieves works in crews.

Williams: If push came to shove,

and y'all had to pull that trigger to get that car,

at that person in the car, would you do it?

Man: For real, man. I'm scraping.

Man: I feel you. Yeah.

Okay.

You know what I mean?

♪♪

Williams: I was real relieved to hear J and his crew

tell me that killing for cars is not their thing.

Babi Homi: [ Rapping ] Unh, East Side, what up?

Williams: I wish all carjackers in Newark felt the same way.

Babi Homi: [ Rapping ] Kick that.

...you talkin' 'bout?

You ain't doin' that.

Talking all that hater shit.

Man, where ya tooly at?

Where ya tooly at? Where ya tooly at?

Why has this become a means of survival?

That's what I was talking about.

Williams: These dudes may live in the hood,

but don't get it twisted --

they got to connect to a whole other side of the world,

because this city has something that most cities don't --

an international shipping port.

Well, this, incidentally, is the second largest port,

in terms of volume, in the United States.

Yes. United States, yeah.

How many containers,

or as they call them on "The Wire," cans --

how many cans can this lot...

-This facility? -...this facility hold?

This facility can probably hold anywhere from

5,000 to 10,000 containers at any given time.

Wow.

These are containers that are slated to go for export.

We don't know what's in here.

-These are leaving the country. -Leaving the country, right.

-Yeah. -What?

Okay. There seems to be --

There are, like, three rows of shit.

Mannucci: Yes. [ Laughs ]

I see a refrigerator!

There's a refrigerator laying sideways.

This makes your job difficult, I can only imagine.

Absolutely. We see this all the time.

But I -- I'd lay my next paycheck

that there's a vehicle in there...

There's a car in there? A vehicle.

...and it's stolen.

Williams: Our port host for the day

has assured us that there's a car in here.

Whether or not it's stolen, we don't know yet.

So, this was the can that we opened up earlier

that we couldn't see that had all the tubs

and mattresses and everything in it.

-Yeah. -Okay.

If you look right here, you see there's a Nissan pickup truck.

Holy shit!

Over here, you see the headlight -- car hanging.

Hanging from where?!

From the ceiling. There's chains if...

Now I see. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

-They took the tires off. -Yeah.

And underneath there, there's one other vehicle.

Wow.

So, what's the next step now? What do we do now?

Everything's gonna be stripped out of the container...

Mm-hmm.

And then we can examine the three vehicles.

Williams: Right now we're inside of a can.

Wow. They really tore this thing out.

Oh, shit. The key is still in there.

The key is in the ignition.

Two special agents from Homeland Security Investigations

agreed to talk to us if we hid their identity.

Williams: Green.

Where were these cars on their way to?

West Africa.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

How high-end cars get from Newark to anywhere overseas,

it is so easy.

This is one of the largest ports in the country

with some of the most challenge of policing.

♪♪

And the reason why most of these cars end up in Nigeria

is because Nigeria is Africa's richest country.

You have the rich and privileged

who want this western lifestyle.

They feel they should have access to

all the fancy things in life.

And this right here

is where a lot of the stolen cars in Newark end up --

Tin Can Island.

Up to 3,000 used cars clear this port every week.

We have a sticker -- Obama. [ Laughs ]

This is Lexus.

Another Lexus. This is a Benz.

This is from the States, as well.

And look the condition. It's in very good condition.

Some of them are almost brand new.

♪♪

Williams: And these cars are sold in makeshift lots

all over the city.

And the people buying them, [Scoffs]

man, they got no idea if their new ride

is stolen off the streets of Newark or wherever.

Every person I spoke to that was breaking the law,

not one of them felt proud of what they were doing.

Not one.

Nobody wants to be labeled by society, a --

you know, a menace.

They do that because they feel that is their only way out.

Man: We be getting on the mayor about it.

Like, "Yo, bruh, do something in the community for us."

You know what I'm saying?

I got three bad, little-ass sons out here.

We used to have little pool tables, hockey games, all that.

None of the kids ain't got none of that no more.

[ Engine revs ]

Williams: When you was 14 years old, when you were stealing cars...

Martin: Right.

...who do you see from the old gang that's still alive

that's living, you know, righteous.

Ah. Maybe -- Maybe one?

Who? You talking about dead, in jail...

Dead. In jail.

...strung out on drugs. Yeah.

Christian: Until you create an environment

where these children are able to have outlets,

where they're able to have jobs,

where they're able to have community places to go,

a lot of it falls moot, because, you know,

there's nothing for these nothing for these

young people to do, uh, to earn any type of income

and support themselves.