While talking to Shamrock on his phone, the seemingly elusive Stringer gets caught on the wire talking about contract killings. (Season 3, Episode 11 "Middle Ground")
How did stringer get caught on the wire only thing he and shamrock spoke about was the two hitters you ask for they good with it. What string replied not on the phone and they said got em. Thats all they need to arrest him and how much time he wouldve gotten?
@@positivevibesandmorelife7307 Presumably they have more evidence connecting Shamrock with the actual crime. If the crime is already convictable, then all they need to show is that Stringer ordered it
These are the scenes that make you really appreciate The Wire's choice not to have background music. The organic sounds of happiness from the overworked folks at the end was better than any musical score
Season 3 had a lot of cathartic moments. This, Stringer's shooting, Avon's arrest and others gave you that feel-good ending, even knowing that a new storm was brewing...
In a way, The Wire is like two shows rolled into one. The show that focuses on the Barksdales, and the show that focuses on Marlo's crew. Season 3 is like a crossover between these two shows.
Stringer: "You drive the guns to the water. You look around, you ain't see anybody - you throw the guns in the water!" Sham: 😔 Stringer: "Is you taking NOTES on a criminal fuckin' conspiracy!?" Sham:😒 Stringer: "Not on the phone!" Sham:😐 *Sham in the police interrogation room after the Barksdale wiretap bust* 🎤🦜
More so the cop from season 1, also it was a good symbolic analogy for policing, if your not on the street talking to people and being apart of the neighborhood then you’re just occupying territory as Colvin said
The entire point of the "Achmed" quip is to demonstrate that. The drug war has been ongoing for some time, but terrorism cases get priority and if you want to speed up your case, you just need to say you suspect a terror connection. Do you need to substantiate it? Not necessarily, you can just come up with stuff, like the possibility of the guy being muslim or whatever, even if it ain't true, like Stringer wasn'T Achmed.
They did that shit in my hood about four years ago... Everybody who didn't get indicted (regular ppl) got a letter in the mail letting them know they were apart of a wire tap
Who should it be about? A dirty drug dealer in his eyes? He knows the bodies under Stringer's floorboards. He didn't care about Stringer's life outside of putting him behind bars.
I actually think it was just that the Baltimore pd didn't have the equipment necessary. And the fbi wasn't spending any resources on drug investigations
"Shut the door." - Lt. Daniels 1:22 I thought that was Stringer's line? Just goes to show how in depth this show is at time's that they would use that line just before his arrest.
You want to see in depth....at 3:30 Stringer says, "One mark shy of the mark". That is actually the first conversation that the Baltimore police ever heard involving Little Melvin Williams (who plays the Deacon). Little Melvin setup the phone and phone and pager system in real life that Avon's crew used. It took Baltimore police 7 or 8 months to figure out what they were doing and when they finally did, the first conversation that was heard was, "We're one mark shy of the mark", and Little Melvin said, "See me." In Depth!
Them two hitters you asked about, they good with it. How would that hold up in court as evidence of anything. A lawyer would say my client Mr. Bell was putting together a softball team to enter in the city tournament. He inquired about two guys that were standout baseball players in high school. This was a man trying to help his community.
You're evaluating this scene in a vacuum. Russell Bell is a known kingpin and has been at the scene of Avon's first arrest. The entire case they built against him provides a context and a reason as to why he should be in jail. The only issue is that they don't have direct evidence of him being involved in the drug scene. However, after the phone call where they say "two hitters" and he says "not on the phone", it incriminates him with a conspiracy. This point was explained in the first season of The Wire when Prez stated that simply them saying names over the phone is none-pertinent. Lester follows up by stating it all matters, because of conspiracy cases. The show demonstrates that getting direct evidence for anything above street level dealing is virtually impossible without cutting corners and playing a bit dirty -- this is showcased in this very video.
For some reason, the piano playing in the background at 2:00 reminds me of the “Make the Music With Your Mouth, Biz” scene on The Boondocks. You have to see the scene to know what I’m talking about. It’s hilarious. 🤣🤣
I dunno seems real flimsy to be some final key piece of evidence. He didn’t really say anything. I’ve never really understood this scene but I never watched the full episode. He just said not on the phone. Might be a little sketchy but hardly seems like it’s some key missing piece they’ve been waiting ages dor
@@morganzimmerglass9925 Lester talks about this in a previous episode when Prezbo says they didnt get any useful info after one of Avon's guys (forgot who) reminds another not to use names over the phone. He basically points out why all the pieces matter here: They rarely ever use phones, when they do they speak in code, and when one of them says a name they are reminded not to use names over the phone. None of this gives any INFORMATION but it all wraps up a case with a nice little bow by showing evidence of criminal conspiracy. Basically they have all of this evidence that Stringer is a kingpin. However, they have no evidence that ties it all together. By not only responding to coded speak about a literal murder but also doing so while reminding not to discuss these things over the phone, it directly implicates stringer as connected at the helm of one big conspiracy charge and ties him in as leader of the criminal conspiracy. That's why they really try to drill home that all the pieces matter. By itself and without any context this conversation could be be explained away by any competent attorney as completely innocent. However, when it is played as just one part to a massive chain of different evidence all connecting everything together, it helps show that stringer is (pun intended) pulling the strings behind the scenes.
@tejadahada They already had a wire running and a warrant, but at that time it was only for the lower and mid level dealers. The warrant and wire taps they had running on the mid level dealers eventually led them to Stringer's # when he was contacted by one of the mid level dealers. So basically they were able to use the information they obtained from the wire taps they had previously running and had warrants for in order to get a warrant and tap on Bell's phone
All the shit in the news about the NSA recording people's phone calls is old news to true Wire fans. Like I always said, The Wire was way ahead of its time!
@@daviddavidson9923 explain. Marlo was at least gonna get a conspiracy charge but Levy used his knowledge that the wire wouldn’t stick as leverage to plea him out. The case never went to court.
Poot was Malik Carr, comes up once or twice. Dunno if we get Shamrock's name, maybe in court. I heard we never find out Wallace's actual name- Wallace was his surname, which maybe represents his disposability.
During the port case in Season 2, Frank Sobotka agreed to cooperate and was subsequently murdered by the Greeks. Why? Because there was a leak from the FBI because Fitzhugh was keeping them in the know about the port case. Fitzhugh incorrectly thought that Koutris could help. Koutris, an FBI higher up, was actually working with the Greeks and told them when Frank agreed to cooperate. Fitzhugh realizes that Koutris was the leak when he finds out that Koutris has been working in Washington in counterterrorism and not in San Diego like he originally thought. So in a way, Fitzhugh kind of messed up the port case by telling the FBI what they were doing and he comes clean to Daniels about it. So in Season 3, Daniels tells Fitzhugh that he owes him for that.
@@socallawrence No real way to prove it. It’s suspected that The Greek supplies the FBI and Koutris with terrorism tips or something so they turn a blind eye to him
Yea but the burden is on the state who is the hitters wat are they for wat crime would stick to me it’s a joke they was so excited if a case was that easy they would have got marlo for holding court with every drug dealer on the west side they really didn’t get stringer on shit an I hate stringer but that was weak as hell
You're Right Correct, the most they could do is do him absolutely dirty and throw a conspiracy charge at him and even that needs some evidence although those charges have been known to still get cats convicted for major time without concrete evidence and just possible theories strung together
According to wikipedia, Shamrock is Shaun McGinty, which I guess explains his Irish themed nickname, although it is unclear whether he actually has any Irish in him (doubtful). I couldn't find Wallace's real name, or whether it is a given name or surname or nickname. Apparantly he is just a one-named man who doesn't need anything else, like Prince or Cher lol.
I wonder why McNulty is still wearing his wedding ring here. Maybe he was married to the case? Wonder if he's still seen with it in the scene with Beadie later in this season (episode?)
It wouldn’t. No bodies, no names of the alleged hit men , all he said was not over the phone. If he said something like tell bill and mike to whack jimmy jones tommorow at the disco, that would be evidence
why wouldnt stringer just immediately hang up on the guy after he mentioned the two hitters. That would give him plausible deniability rather than "not on the phone" basically admitting to a conspiracy.
Still not an admittance. I can talk to you over the phone and say "Hey you know all of that heroin that you have in your house". If your reply is "not on the phone", there is no jury who could convict you on that. And what hitters? Who are they? How many? What are their names and identities? Have they killed anyone and if so who? Were they planning to kill anyone and if so who? Where is the supporting evidence for any of this? Even testimony affirming all of this would not be enough to convict him. I can testify in court for being one of your hired assassins and that would be a lie, regardless of whether I had killed before. And what would the prosecutor say if Stringer claims that he thought that the other guy was referring to "heavy hitters" referring to some basketball players that he was in contact with? No, Stringer's lawyer Levy would destroy a case only based on this. Finally, Stringer might have had Shamrock killed for making incriminating statements on the phone and then there would be no witness who could elaborate about the content of his conversation with Stringer.
That was the highpoint of everyone on the show - right after, Stringer dies. Avon pinched. Omar dies, with string death, the unit loses their key witness and case and disintegrate, aka what a downer lol
Unfortunately, this is a scene that I don't understand. It is difficult to hear what they are saying over the phone. Other than that, it seems as the guy talking to Stringer refers to some "hitters" that Stringer allegedly have. Stringer says "not on the phone". The conversation between them is bad optics but I can't see how it might even remotedly risk Stringer landing in prison. He hasn't said anything incriminating. there is no supporting evidence of Stringer having and "hitters" and "hitters", although known street slang for professional assassins, could still mean something else. What exactly was it that happened that made the cops so joyful?
I was a little confused or underwhelmed by that too. I'm not a lawyer so I can't say for certain, but I think the issue is that they can usually build these cases with hard evidence up to the level just below the top guys. So for instance if they have ironclad evidence on Shamrock and then they have a telephone conversation between Shamrock and Stringer referencing the things they have proved about Shamrock, that implicates Stringer in a criminal conspiracy, which is itself a fairly serious crime. Take that analysis for what it's worth, but I think that's what's going on here.
They were talking about a re-up on the call too - with everything else they had probable cause for a criminal conspiracy. Maybe they get a conviction maybe not, but it gave them probably cause along with everything else.
It takes at least a 30 seconds to make a call from switching a chip from another stringer bell makes a call with in ten seconds from changing the chip I'm just saying lol lol
Imagine spending all that time and effort to stop one drug dealer, and then another one just immediately takes his place. War on drugs lol smh.. at least they grt paid to do it
He’s anxious. But Phalen and his big mouth really caused a shit storm for McNulty. Not to mention Phalen being helpful only when it didn’t affect his career. He was helpful - MCU doesn’t even exist at all if not for him noticing McNulty at the D’Angelo Barksdale trial - but he still wasn’t always there when McNulty needed him.
[Spoiler] In season 2 the Greek had a mole in the FBI who informed him that Sobotka was snitching, so the Greek was able to kill Sobotka before he could testify.
Heh. McNulty had a *lot* of problems, did a lot of things wrong. But in certain kinds of guts, he wasn’t lacking. Judge Phelen is sulking in the way of powerful men who don’t like to be reminded of their own transgressions-with a thinly veiled threat (‘for your own sake let it go’), and McNulty’s expression and disregard for making chitchat with the judge at that point still conveys his contempt.
Gosh, I missed something the first time I watched the show back in 2009 or so. It's the conversation between McNulty and that FBI dude. "Stringer Bell's given name." "Russell." "For now, Ahmed." The Wire never ceases to astonish with its messages and complexity.
