Sudhir Venkatesh has become pretty well known in these parts as an authority on the inner workings of criminal street gangs. His new book is out tomorrow; but today, here’s a great post from him about watching “The Wire” with some of the kind of guys who are portrayed in it.
Ever since I began watching HBO’s The Wire, I felt that the show was fairly authentic in terms of its portrayal of modern urban life – not just the world of gangs and drugs, but the connections between gangland and City Hall, the police, the unions, and practically everything else. It certainly accorded with my own fieldwork in Chicago and New York. And it was much better than most academic and journalistic reportage in showing how the inner city weaves into the social fabric of a city.
Last year, I learned a lot by watching a few episodes of The Wire with gang leaders in Chicago. So, a few weeks ago, I called a few respected street figures in the New York metro region to watch the upcoming fifth season. I couldn’t think of a better way to ensure quality control.
For the first episode, we gathered in the Harlem apartment of Shine, a 43-year-old half Dominican, half African-American man who managed a gang for fifteen years before heading to prison for a ten-year drug trafficking sentence. I invited older guys like Shine, most of whom had retired from the drug trade, because they would have greater experience with rogue cops, political toughs, and everyone else that makes The Wire so appealing. They affectionately named our gathering “Thugs and ‘Cuz.” (I was told that the “‘cuz” – short for “cousin” – was for me.)
There was plenty of popcorn, ribs, bad domestic beer, and fried pork rinds with hot sauce on hand. The pork rinds, apparently the favorite of the American thug, ran out so quickly that one of the low-ranking gang members in attendance was dispatched to acquire several more bags.
Here’s a quick-and-dirty summary of the evening’s highlights:
1. The Bunk is on the take. Much to my chagrin (since he is my favorite character), the consensus in the room was that the Bunk was guilty. In the words of Shine, “He’s too good not to be profiting. I got nothing against him! But he’s definitely in bed with these street [thugs].” Many had known of Bunk’s prowess as a detective from past episodes. The opening scene, in which he craftily obtains a confession, reinforced their view that the Bunk is too good not to be hiding something.
2. Prediction No. 1: McNulty and the Bunk will split. The observation regarding Bunk’s detective work led to a second agreement, namely that McNulty or Bunk will be taken down – shot, arrested, or killed. This was closely tied to the view that McNulty and Bunk will come into conflict. The rationale? Everyone felt that Marlo, Proposition Joe, or another high-ranking gang leader must have close (hitherto unexplained) ties with one of these two detectives. “Otherwise,” Kool-J, an ex-drug supplier from Northern New Jersey, observed, “there ain’t no way they could be meeting in a Holiday Inn!” Orlando, a Brooklyn based ex-gang leader, believed the ambitions of Bunk and McNulty would run into each other. “One of them will be taken down. Either the white boy gets drunk and shoots some [guy] ’cause he’s so pissed, or Bunk gives him up to solve a case!”
3. The greatest uproar occurred when the upstart Marlo challenged the veteran Prop Joe in the co-op meeting. “If Prop Joe had balls, he’d be dead in 24 hours!” Orlando shouted. “But white folks [who write the series] always love to keep these uppity [characters] alive. No way he’d survive in East New York more than a minute!” A series of bets then took place. All told, roughly $8,000 was wagered on the timing of Marlo’s death. The bettors asked me – as the neutral party – to hold the money. I delicately replied that my piggy bank was filled up already.
4. Carcetti is a fool. Numerous observers commented on the Baltimore Mayor’s lack of “juice” and experience when it came to working with the feds. The federal police, in their opinion, love to come in and disrupt local police investigations by invoking the federal racketeering (“RICO”) statutes as a means of breaking up drug-trafficking rings. “When feds bring in RICO, local guys feel like they got no [power],” Tony-T explained, offering some empathy to local police who get neutered during federal busts. “White boy [a.k.a. Carcetti], if he knew what he was doing, would keep them cops on Marlo just long enough to build a case – then he would trade it to the feds to get what he wanted.” Others chimed in, saying that the writers either didn’t understand this basic fact, or they wanted to portray Carcetti as ignorant.
The evening ended with a series of additional wagers: Tony-T accepted challenges to his claim that Bunk dies by the end of the season; Shine proposed that Marlo would kill Prop Joe; the youngest attendee, the 29-year-old Flavor, placed $2,500 on Clay Davis escaping indictment and revealing his close ties with Marlo.
I felt obliged to chime in: I wagered $5 that the circulation of the Baltimore Sun will double, attracting a takeover by Warren Buffet by Episode 4. No one was interested enough to take my bet. Stay tuned.
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This was a funny post! I fell off my chair by the time I got to the last paragraph. Keep the posts coming!
The Wire, in my opinion, is the best HBO show as of yet. It is more complex and enthralling than The Sopranos, Deadwood, or Six Feet Under; not only that, but for my money, it has the best characters and the best writing as well.
As for the predictions made, having watched all four seasons, I’d speculate, same as the author Jay above, that Prop Joe might get whacked by Marlo’s assassins, namely Chris the Zombie Man. However, Joe is a deceptively smart guy and a pragmatist. He may sense that if he doesn’t get rid of Marlo soon he’ll be gotten, so being the business man he is, he might take his plight to the co-op, and they may vote to eliminate Marlo before he causes anymore trouble. Remember, Marlo was totally opposed to the co-op until Omar robbed him at his poker game. The co-op means nothing to him, and at some point the co-op must eliminate him since he — like MacBeth — is too ambitious.
Either way, it looks to be the best season yet.
I’m curious, will these guys be watching the whole season together? it’ll be nice to have a weekly update on what they think.
Also you probably need to include a few ex cops and ex city politicians in this discussion.
I think Slim and Cheese aka Method Man will link up and murder Marlo which might be instigated by Prop Joe considering he is always in someone’s ear. It seems like from the shots at the meeting and the tone of Slim’s voice with Marlo regarding Marlo’s remark to Slim to expand into Essex, and Cheese’s look at Marlo right after that exchange, they aren’t feeling Marlo too much. Marlo might be making a play for Slim’s turf by saying move out to Essex so I can grab your business up and Slim responded that he was cool where he was. Which means more work for Snoop and Chris. Marlo would have to get murdered for the show to be real, he is bad for business, too many bodies, and his greed will be his downfall he is the true urban pioneer of manifest destiny. McNulty and Griggs move to homicide to catch some of Marlo’s bodies. I hope they keep the storyline with Michael and Dukie cause I think something is going to happen there you can see it coming. Perfect storyline here on the plight of urban youth. Although I like the newspaper angle, they have to keep in the kids, its going to be hard to pull it all together because usually the Wire gets 13 shows but this year they were only given 10. If you’re reading this Venkatesh you should have sat down with me, a real sociologist and number one fan of the show.
Levitt and Dubner, do you watch this show? Last winter, after an Economics of Crime class, I asked Prof. Levitt if he had seen it, and he hadn’t. I begged him to give it a shot…after all, it involves drugs, gangs, inner-city schools, all with (by all accounts, at least) great accuracy. Did I have any luck?
I’d like to hear these dudes’ perspectives on Sex and the City and Will and Grace.
Growing up in Baltimore and being raised in a law enforcement family things were brutal in the city but certain people keep order. It wasn’t the cop’s they were busy having choir practing ( a rituial of slacking off on the mid night shift) Little Melvin, Slim Butler, Dennis Hill and others ruled the streets. The wire give accurate dipiction of Baltimore City often called the “Nitty Griddy” Not charm city. Be more carefully “. It was like the african community had to take care of it’s own in certain respects however , because politicians were greasing their pockets….ie Marvin Mandel, ME Me deptrio WDS William Donald Shafer Frank Conaway Sr. Parren Mitchel. The Wire is not only about Baltimore but about American and how things are done behind the political scenes. I agree with Mus in saying include some xcops and ex-city officials who still hold secrets and let the dice fall where they may and that book will be a best seller…..Chick-n-wing Northwestern High Class of 78
They are right about one thing–the shows writers were definitely trying to portray Carcetti as ignorant. He’s basically a thinly veiled parody of Mayor (now governor) Martin O’Malley. He and David Simon were not particularly fond of each other, and I think their relationship grew more strained as a result of the show, which did not jive with O’Malley’s “Greatest City in America” branding of Baltimore.
All in all a really solid and interesting post.
I too love The Bunk and with all due respect to Shine, there’s no way he’s dirty. If you remember back to the third season, he spent several episodes trying to track down Dozerman’s gun which led to that incredible scene with Omar on the bench and Bunk’s raging about what the game had done to their old neighborhood, followed by the weapon coming back through Butchie…if he WAS on the take, he could have just called in a favor and saved himself weeks of frustration.