The Wire - This drug thing, this ain't police work. 

Remember in first season how Carver told Herc that "You can't even call this shit a war... wars end." When it comes to being police, he was a child back then, and is now, but comparing where he started out and where he ended up - now that's character development.

His character had already evolved at the beginning of Season 4. We actually see that development, we see him being a much better cop and we see him helping people and making connections between people too(Bunny and Cutty for example).

DeStRuCtIoNmAn19 - Aristotle once wrote "Philosophers may preach the deepest of messages. Yet to the masses - simple and truthful messages well spoke will be taken as the deepest social commentary" So to answer your question: for well over 2000 years.

+paulvihno +destructionman holy shit cant remember the last time I saw someone get schooled as hard as that

serge00storms those Lenco Bearcats cost, starting, $600,000 of taxpayer money. Think of how much community outreach, programs, at risk counseling, on and on that could happen with $600k.

Agreed!

If every cop was like Colvin, we would have no idea what the term "ACAB" means because we woulda never heard it before.

@@JB-xl2jc I guess it'd mean All Cops Are Bunny

That's why cops like Bunny either retire or resign.

He's good Poe Lease

Amen!

Agreed. This country is going straight to hell. China will overthrow Amarica if people dont get reasonable

For future reference: The George Floyd protests are currently ongoing

That's right, legalizing drugs would be the FASTEST way to "cut the head off the snake". Half or more of all police work is drug related, half of all prisoners are incarcerated for drug offenses and this country wastes $80 billion dollars per year of state and federal money on the war on drugs. The number one excuse for police violating peoples rights and going on fishhooking expeditions are drugs, "I smell Marijuana". We legalize drugs, we would cut police budgets in half overnight, and it wouldn't be a political decision, but a numbers one. If cops loose half their arrest numbers, they don't need half their budgets, a simple arithmetic. If their not going after drugs, they have no legitimate excuse to be rampaging through the inner city like an occupying army. If their not chasing drugs, they're focusing on murder, rape, burglary.... Real crimes, with real victims. And let's not forget about the freedom side of this issue. Statistics demonstrate, and this has been confirmed many times over, that approximately lee 0.01% of recreational drug users ever become what are considered "criminal addicts" (e.g. stealing to support their habit), and less that 1% of recreational drug users ever become non-criminal addicts. It's estimated that there are anywhere from 20 to 40 million pot smokers in this country, so in essence we're taking away the freedom of consenting adults for the actions of an extremely small group of people. And science as well as anyone with common sense knows that addiction is a medical problem, and furthermore that the actions of criminal addicts are caused by the fact that the drugs are illegal and therefore have artificially inflated prices. Between expanding treatment and legalization, that extremely small problem would become even smaller. But it still stands that any adult should have the right to do whatever they want with their own body as long as they don't harm anyone else, and anyone who says otherwise either doesn't believe in freedom or just wants to irrationally control the actions of others even when it has no effect on them. It would remove the violence from drugs, it would remove the unnecessary overdoses because people would actually know what they're getting, it would remove the needless transmission of disease from sharing needles, it would remove all the negative aspects that aren't actually caused by these substances themselves, but by the laws prohibiting them, and perhaps most importantly, it would stop needlessly ruining people's lives by giving them a felony record for a medical problem, after all, as the saying goes: "You can recover from an addiction, but not a conviction". Of course we would still have the moral Authoritarians who instead of being guided by science, empirical data and reason, are guided by their irrational morality the provides no other justification for prohibiting drugs that "You can't just give addicts what they want".

The whole show is more relevant than ever

jositoxxx1 Yeah. I'd be glad to have him as a Major.

+jositoxxx1 McNulty is a hero too. Made up a serial killer so his fellow cops could get paid and have the resources to do their job.

+Ahsan Ali "it was never about the money"

+Ahsan Ali Lets be honest, McNulty cared about himself and his cases and that's it. you can even see how uncomfortable McNulty gets when word gets out that he's handing out o.t. But yeah I guess he does get pretty helpful towards the end.

+jositoxxx1 TOP 3 : 1) Lester 2) Stringer 3) Colvin indeed

+codename617 It was a quote of Admiral Adama from Battlestar Galactica.

That's why I think it was a mistake for America to use military ranks for police.

8UP1977 Nah bro, what you meant to say was, one steals oil and other riches for the benefit of the country's people of power, and the other harass and maipulate the citizens. Neither of those do what you said.

So true. A military State is the last thing Americans want, whether they it or not

isht, Jefferson opposed having a standing army b/c historically they were used to oppressed their own citizens.

He really does and by the season 4 finale you see he and Prez both became something much better and more mature than they did in the beginning.

You see carver really making his police work more personable

He almost reenacts the horrible "Shaft" chase later in the run then after a beat catches himself. "Why am I chasing them, I know half of them, shit, I know where they hang."

Yeah you saw that scene when he visited Bodie on the corner?

And Herc goes the completely opposite direction. Just like Dookie, Mike, Randy, and Namond all start the same and go different directions Herc and Carver do the same thing.

Great character development

Yup. One of many. This is a great series.

Turned into the new Daniels

Carvers, Herc’s, Daniel’s, and my favorite, Prez’s transformations were a treat to watch unfold.

@@HighLordBlazeReborn The new Colvin. He didn't respect Daniels for a long time. Bunny was his real mentor.

I lowkey love Bunny and McNulty's relationship.

+Jazzi Hill Yeaaaahhh true. Daniels seems way under-powered compared to Colvin and Colvin plays into Mcnulty's hands better.

+Jazzi Hill Agreed although both are pretty good. Ultimately Daniels could never be the best he could be because he had to play both sides, that is being good police and playing relatively nice with the bosses and playing the political game. I'd say Daniels on a good day was 60% good police and 40% typical chain of command shit and on a normal day the opposite where as bunny was 90% good police towards the end. Its easy to fuck the bosses when you are coming up on retirement.

+Jazzi Hill True True. Daniels was about the case, but more so about the politics of it all. Colvin was past all of that. I too loved that character. After all of the season 3 shit storm how he steps up again in season 4 is even better.

lee croshaw Yes! I really admired Colvin for trying Hamsterdam.

nateo200 Yeah and Daniels was always shifty eyed wondering if and when they were going to bring his past dirt up.

@ortho What a pointless reply.

Gay

That's the problem with the drug war' it actually forces police to see drug dealers as enemies instead of just businessman/businesswomen. With legal drugs the crime in inner cities(some rural areas too) there'll be a drastic decrease in crime in the inner city. This will in my opinion decrease the tendency of cops and the communities they work in seeing each other as enemies.

@@rouskeycarpel1436 Well we know now that this did not work.

Jesus Charlie, who shit in your fruit loops?

Charles Ferdinand oh god not another neck beard virgin

The Wire is the best in social commentary, but in terms of the goat show, it can't hold a candle to the Sopranos.

@@saber26ful not only does it shit on the sopranos, it's ending was better

Sopranos was a great show, but has nothing on The Wire....The Sopranos had great characters, good stories, and funny scenes, but The Wire had a hell of a message and created an entire world thru one city to explain it. The police, the drug criminals, the children, the dock workers, the politicians, and the newspapers...hell, I almost feel like I lived in Baltimore.

Most definitely. Carver's evolution after this scene was very noticeable.

suncore598 Hell yeah. Carver worked his way up to lieutenant. His huge blemish was what happened to Randy, but he did all he could for him. He even tried to adopt him. Crazy how the way things turn out. This show was beautifully written.

Daniels talked to Carver it did nothing bunny talks to him he changed alil but still lied about kima about not knowing about the fake serial rapist. he became better police but he was still a cop

+Nicole Steward Daniels made Carver more of a team player but at the same time there was always a distrust between them because of how he leaked information to Burrell.

+Nicole Stewart He didn't know the serial killer was fake. All he knew was that McNulty was pretending to use the resources on that case when he was really using them to catch Marlo. Carver's reasoning was that gaming the system was justified if they were using it to catch the guy who had 20-odd dead bodies on him. I strongly doubt he would have exposed his troops like that if he knew the serial killer was completely made up - that's a whole different ball game from just getting cute with run sheets.

Agreed!

Not in the police station more into politicians, the police only follow orderz

Luis Capellan Orders are just some guy shouting into the void if no one follows them. The kind of systemic change Colvin is trying to make has to be made from the bottom up not the top down. Politicians are too invested in their own game to change anything.

Why

@@tripsaplenty1227 I dont agree with a bottom up approach being the way to do it, if that were the case, then Rawls wouldn't have been able to raid Hamsterdam at the end of the season

Kagamid served in the military, my reason for not doing it is not wanting to have that much control over a person's life.

Ed Burns, co-creator of The Wire, did both. AND he served as a teacher! I think he must have gained huge insight into how systems work, and into just how they limit & reduce the people trapped within them...

Served in the Marine Corps. I hated the chain of command, the concept of seniority, and the culture of the military. Because of that, I felt that being a cop would be similar and I just simply avoided it. Now that I’m older, I’m so glad I did.

I am an Army Ranger and combat veteran, and literally nobody has ever asked why I'm not a cop. I also worked at a VA hospital for six years seeing patients every day, and I've never heard a single vet mention anything about a natural transition to law enforcement or being asked about it by anyone else. Nobody is asking you why you're not a cop. Quit making shit up.

@@JakeKoenig Because your military experience is the same as everyone else's? Calm down ranger. Complaining on RU-vid is unbecoming of your position. I don't go around describing my military career just to prove a point. Makes you sound like you're making things up.

But Herc also wasn't interested. Colvin didn't reach Carver with this only because he makes a good point, but also because it falls on fertile soil.

Valcheck was mentoring Herc, but it looks like Herc never really took to the lessons.

I never realized that and I've rewatched this show so many times. They both go completely separate directions mentally.

@@aaronbrutus2654 The Wire is one of those shows that you can watch over and over and pick up something new each time

Daniels opened the door to carvers transition from being a rip and run cop to being a supervisor. He gave him the speech when he was told he was going to be a sergeant. He told him the young cops are going to look to you for guidance. You going to be a lazy guy who takes short cuts, you going to have lazy cops who takes short cuts….this speech was the next lesson in carvers evolution of his persona. This one bunny teaches him to connect to the citizens who are the keys to policing the neighborhood.

Carver done fell on his ass

+Lucas Skrobish Great actor. The wide receiver who plays his son is John David Washington, Denzel Washington's son.

I love how the actor's name is Robert Wisdom. Appropriate for this role for sure.

He’s so good that when he’s in the school later on, just walking around in street clothes, and one of the kids says “yo he police” it was fuckin believable. You could see it in his walk, in his mannerisms. This show was too good man

@@wt0729 Wait the same guy who is in Tenet??

Carver changed though

Yeah, f*ck Herc.

Herc indirectly fucked up so many people's lives

true like randys smh

i never thought that was why they were despised, but i see it now, people just did things without telling them

2021 too.

​@@justinjohnson9617so 2024

dlotable “I made a G today” But you made it in a sleazy way-sellin crack to a kid. “I gotta get paid.” Well hey, that’s the way it is.

@@offtop3808 facts complain about cops but keep selling dope to kids why not sell kids books or food

@@offtop3808 a Grand!,, that's freakin scarey (i know ur just play acting in ur post,, its' not about you),,,

@Jimmy Strudel Crack is still very big here where I live.

Similarly, I love during the scene when Stringer tells Wee-Bey that Kima isn’t dead, you can hear the radio in the background detailing what happened that night. “All the pieces matter.“

And this is why I love watching these clips and checking out the comments after. New pieces of info I learn and it makes me want to re-watch the wire all over again even though I've seen it 6 or 7 times already.

I also love how he interrupted Bunny. The main point of the speech is over, but he was about to get into another one. Then Mello comes in an interrupts Bunny. It's realistic. A lot of times, we can't do a mic drop and wrap our rants in a neat bowtie because duty calls.

the right people will notice

Agreed. Brilliant piece of writing.

"occupied territory" is just an inspired line

"The war on drugs" is just a propaganda term used to emotionally manipulate stupid people. Like claiming the police use "military-grade weapons" when tactical teams carry magazine-fed rifles. As a combat veteran and as someone who believes in legalizing ALL drugs, I can safely say that law enforcement does NOT use military weapons on civilians, and the war is on CRIME, not drugs. Nobody is in prison just for a possession charge, champ. Literally NOBODY. And PS - the policing in inner-cities is no different than anywhere else. You break the law, you face the consequences. You resist arrest, attack cops, or reach for weapons, you run the risk of getting shot. Those of us with an IQ above room temperature figured this out a long time ago.

+samuel muiruri Carv could've been a bitch in that situatu=ion but he took it all in and learned. His growth is priceless.

+lee croshaw Oh indeed

+lee croshaw damn straight. Carver sat there and took it like a real man, and then he changed his whole act up. What men do.

***** No. The main reason is that most young men of those communities have a criminal record before they are 18.

+PostgodAfterbirth People would rather join the Marines and "fight for our country" in some random picked shit hole then truly serve their country by starting at home, its funny because dirt bags will join the Military but yell fuck the police. Or Military vets come back home and become a cop and treat police work like soldiering and it just doesn't work. But kids in the inner city won't become cops because its not cool, its not heroic, there aren't bill boards with advertisements, no body thanks a cop for his work they just look at him or her as someone who arrested their friend or assume every cop is a thug. Joining the Military is fashionable compared to the police but if we make the police to be something more positive it will be different.

+nateo200 "if we make the police to be something more positive..." How is that our job? And if it is, the only way to do so would be to ensure cops don't kill minorities for flimsy reasons (and walk as a result).

+D Baker My bad I should clarify, I meant more positive in the eye of the people. And its not the job of the people, its the job of the police, and elected officials. Although part of change is being the change. Imagine if Baltimore never had African American police officers? What if they just said "I'll never do that", "I'll never join those guys"? But they DID join the police and they did it when police brutality in the US against minorities was a regular occurrence and plainly obvious. Things would have been far worse way back when and likely now if they just laid down...but Baltimore had African American police officers at a surprisingly early point in its history.

nateo200 True, true.

Not even today, but ESpecially today

MegaGamer More relevant today than ever before.

MegaGamer . Evan More today.

You realize the Wire is a really recent show, right?

Still is...

Legalizing drugs is a start!

They don't even have to legalize it, all they have to do is not waste time and resources on a losing battle.

Many PDs have already officially or unofficially stopped arresting for marijuana and simply issue a ticket. The problem is that almost everyone politically expects the police to also solve the hardcore drug (not marijuana) problem when it really involves funding drug rehab so the addict pool is reduced which will sap really harmful drugs like heroin, crack, cocaine, and meth.

Right on! I just posted a comment similar to yours without reading yours first. Great minds...:)

+Plowbeast Problem with that approach is something Colvin gets into in his paper bag speech. You tell cops to stop enforcing the law, and they open themselves up to flaunting and disrespect. Worse, people disrespect the law itself. I'm on the fence about legalization, but if you go that route then you should go about it the right way: by changing the law. Telling cops to ignore what's on the books might be easier, but creates a whole mess of other problems.

Every video on YT has its "it's a masterpiece / best that would ever been made / top scene ever / world's top achievement" and so on. Come on it's just a (really) nice TV show a few people know about, not Da Vinci's Mona Lisa or the Pyramids. Beside that speech from Colvin sure is interesting but is not even close to figure in top 5 scenes of the whole show, I bet most people who saw that scene don't even remember it.

Sadly, they won’t. Many will simply fall into the whole “culture war” thing.

Maybe criminals need to watch this and then not commit crimes, resist arrest, and attack cops. Then we won't have the so-called "problem" of cops having to act like soldiers aka using JUSTIFIABLE deadly force.

Christopher Murphy Cool story, bro.

Christopher Murphy how was the crime rate to do with him getting indicted?

Look at the political leanings of cities, versus suburbs. Most are left, or far-left of center. So, they're basically communist anyway. Elections have consequences and they reap what they sow.

@@ratedRblazin420 Lmao shut up

@@ratedRblazin420 deranged take

Matthew Becker you’re somewhat overlooking Carver’s development after this and the clear distinction drawn between him and the grunt cops.

wallyworld776 agreed! I think Bunny reached out to Carter because he felt he could change -- Starts by saying he's a good man etc but then follows up with the constructive criticism. Bunny was an amazing leader

Sid Vemuganti He really was. I think I'd prefer him as my boss over Daniels.

You may not have noticed, but times are rough and getting rougher. With all the left wing radical violence that is taking place now and that will take place during the election, there's gonna be a lot more cops suited and booted. It's easy to talk about, not so easy to be one of those on the line between order and chaos. I think that's the brilliance of this show, it makes you feel the frustration of the cops who have an impossible job and terrible bosses, and yet you also see the other side of the coin. I've been a cop almost 30 years and if I've learned anything at all it's that environment matters. I could just as easily have gone down the wrong road had I been raised differently. I'm thankful I had a stable home and two parents. I also did an analysis of the 1992 LA riots for one of my master's courses, the error that they made (and that departments seem to continue to make) is they don't act decisively enough, quick enough. You arrest the trouble makers right at the start, quickly and (if lawfully necessary), violently. Weakness or indecision in the face of a mob of angry, atavistic people is a recipe for disaster. As Cooper in the OTHER best cop show (SouthLAnd) says "What did you think the gun was for, show and tell?" The problem today is that people have the unrealistic belief that all state sanctioned violence is inherently immoral. Some people just need killing. Some people need a good thumping and to be put in check. This is a universal law of human nature. Not to satisfy some cop's ego, but for the good of the many.

Not quite true ... I went up for ‘Stringer’ , like everyone else in town , this was before the showed aired ... I didn’t get the role , ( I still don’t understand THAT !!! ... just joking here no one can touch what Idris created ... ) , in was a year into the show and we get a call offering this role ‘Bunny Colvin’ ...didn’t really know a thing about the character ... but I was a huge fan of the show and to be a part of this cast was an incredible honor . Little did I know it would be an incredible character ... no I wasn’t about to turn it down lol !!! I told my agent and manager don’t eff this up !!! Love the convo here ...

Yup.

This show has so many details

💯

It's this and Daniels' speech in season 1 that really improved Carver as a police officer

***** oh yea i forgot. daniel's lectures were so frequent I didn't' think anyone paid attention anymore

***** a lot of dividing in this show was hard to deal with, especially Duke, Bug, and Mike.

2004 and these problems haven't existed for the past 16 years. They've been a real thing since the 80s, especially the late 80s.

They've been a thing pretty much since narcotic drugs were made illegal, so far longer than that. It just blew up during the 80s when a cheaper form of coke (crack) became available. Our gov't and law enforcement still haven't learned the main lesson of Prohibition; make something people want illegal, and criminal gangs will be making MUCH money getting it to the people who want it.

@@johnnyd6953 Couldn't agree more with your comment. That was on point.

Because most of the decent cops who aren't on power trips know this shit already.

Danthepest1 thats what makes the job tough. Even if your a good cop the system is bullshit and it undermines there goals.

Leon Welcome Yep thats what David Simon said the whole point of the Wire is to show that people are helpless against the institution they commit to. Drug dealer, cop, lawyer, politician, dock worker, teacher it dont matter. The game is the game .

It's because the system wants them to have the soldier on a battlefield mentality.

mindcontrol31 Right on the money. His writng partner Ed Burns (who co-wrote the Corner and co-created the Wire, but was working with the FBI when Simon did the book Homicide) was an officer who got sick of the stat game and became a teacher. Presbo's character goes through this in the next season, realizing that they care more about having kids pass the tests than actually learning what was on them.

Relevant since Reagan

It's more that Herc learned all the WRONG lessons while Carv got what people were trying to teach him

And Robert Wisdom's musical voice to deliver them! 👍

Because it was a good idea