"W.M.D. Got them W.M.D." "You better move it on down." "It ain't pretty." "It doesn't have to be." "It just needs to pull them from the places still worth salvaging." "Alright." "I told the other shifts now I'm telling you:" "When I ride my district at the end of this week" "I want to see empty corners." "They bring it here, or the other two free-zones or you bang them senseless." "Anything you need to do, you do." "Up to a body that can't walk itself out of an emergency room" "I'll back up you and your men." "You understand me ?" "Now,'ve detailed our I.I.D. representative to the range for the entire week." "All citizen complaints will be handled by Lieutenant Mello here." "Whatever it takes." "Man, I ain't even dirty." "I got rights an' shit." "Go with the one about staying silent." "Shit like this don't happen in Hamsterdam." "You gonna humble us for just standin' somewhere ?" "Fuck y'all !" "We in america." "West Baltimore." "I swear to god, officer Herc you unhook babycakes and my peoples be down where you want us." "Swear to god." "Fuck with a man's ride, you're gonna get his attention." "Babycakes ?" "Yo, yo, yo, hold up." "Motherfuckers gonna hear from my motherfuckin' lawyer." "This right here is some outrageous shit." "You think ?" "Fuck y'all lying' motherfuckers." "Gentlemen." "That is outrageous." "Come on, sweetheart." "Bust your ass out of here." "Still Maryland." "But if y'all don't take that shit down to Hamsterdam tomorrow the next time it's gonna be West Virginia." "That little star right there ?" "Across from the dipper ?" "That's north." "You wanna go the other way." "Assholes." "Homecoming" "Landfills, got Landfills." "W.M.D. Got that W.M.D." "We'll start the interior construction within the week." "Which means we need to readdress the budget." "Readdress how ?" "Well, for one, the price of steel has doubled." "It'll triple if we don't buy it now." " Ain't the steel bought already ?" " Not the bulk of it, no." "And then there are the gutting costs." "They exceeded our original expectations." "He needs to wear the hat when he's on-site." "Code, you know." "Gutting costs went up, huh ?" "That was due to your modifications." "The changes you asked for in those loft units." "Necessitating new permits." "Which means another delay." "Unless we expedite." "Bring the architect and his people back in over the weekend and get something to the city on monday." "Whoa, man, that part of his original fee ?" "No, this was unanticipated." "Look, y'all fucked up, so y'all supposed to take the hit, right ?" "Excuse me ?" "I mean, my man here don't know shit about no gutting costs he don't know nothing about no price of no steel." "He just tryin' to get some shit built and y'all supposed to have expertise behind this." "Only what I'm sayin' is it seem like the expertise ain't where it supposed to be." "Unfortunately, Mr. Barksdale cost overruns are the nature of the business." "We should discuss this over lunch." "Ah, hell no, man, I got elsewhere to be." "This is the Marlo kid." "He's fresh blood for the organization." "Bell's given him the best real estate." "The Barksdale people took what they needed when the towers came down, no problem." "Stringer hasn't missed a step." "He's still selling drugs." "Lotta drugs." "He's not dropping bodies." "Nah, he doesn't need to." "He's got all the corners he needs." "And I'm supposed to give a shit ?" "Lieutenant, two weeks" "Bell looked insulated like he had enough legitimate front to be able to be just the bank." "What Kima's found out is he's still directly involved with the drugs." "Otherwise, why the face-to-face with the Stanfield kid ?" "He's still connected to the day-to-day." "We come back six, eight months you won't even get him in a room talking drugs much less handling any." "It's now or never, Lieutenant." "Stringer Bell is quiet." "And if he's quiet" "I don't give a fuck if we come back a year from now and find out he's on the greater Baltimore committee." "This unit is about the bodies." "Major Forrester, call two-four-six-two." "Major Forrester." "What the fuck is this ?" "Ten-page report on the heroic police work undertaken to retrieve officer Dozerman's service weapon." "Send that upstairs, keep the bosses outta your ass for a while." "You actually did all this ?" "Would it matter if I had ?" "Jay" "I'm a murder police" "I got a double on my plate." "I'm gonna work it." "We ain't got Fayette and Poppleton neither ?" "What the fuck ?" "I'm workin' on it, man." "The avenue corners, too." "What you mean you workin' on it, man ?" "Why we ain't at least have a shop setup down the block ?" "We did." "There was a setback." "Ran our boys off." "Who ?" " Just some player, man." " Listen." "Let him tell me." "We hire him for muscle." "The boy, Marlo." "Marlo, who the fuck is Marlo ?" "He tied into one of the mobs ?" "Young boy." "Runnin' it on his own, too." "Got maybe 15 spots along here and the avenue." "An independent with no fuckin' support ?" "Got all the prime real estate and we doin' what exactly ?" "Young boy ran us off the corner." "I'm losing my motherfuckin' mind, man." "And I sincerely mean your girl no disrespect but..." "Tosha wasn't killed because she just happened by that mess." "I think we all know that, right ?" "She was a player." "We know that much." "We got the science that says she'd fired a gun when it all went down." "Gun wasn't there for us to find but that just means someone grabbed it up, right ?" "I mean, your girl she, uh... definitely had her say when everybody else on that street was talking." "Am I wrong ?" "Well, I got witnesses on the scene that said she was there right in the middle of a drug robbery." "Boy by the name a' Omar was in on it, too." "Nobody saying Tosha was an angel." "Nobody saying that." "But what are they saying ?" "The crew Tosha was runnin' with maybe they didn't throw the shot that killed her." "But if they don't come to me early and tell the true story" "I guarantee they won't breathe a free breath until them cicadas come back." "Y'all get the word to the right people." "And you've spoken to the medical examiner, correct ?" "What's he say ?" "He says it's lumpy." "Lumpy ?" "He says if an investigation can come up with a credible scenario he's willing to change the cause of death to homicide." "Do you even have a suspect here ?" "Look, I don't know how you city guys do it." "But down here in Annapolis, we try to duck a punch or two." "Not lean into every last one." "My county doesn't need another murder." "I'm glad you could came." "Ladies, Reverend Wright" "I'd like you to meet my husband, Cedric Daniels." "Nice to meet you." "Not that I've seen, no." " She was invited, right ?" " Oh, of course." "Eunetta doesn't make it too much nowadays." "Not even council meetings." "I think Eunetta's gonna have her hands full come the primary." "Mayor will pull her through." "He still have coattails ?" "Sheeeeet, boy." "You look up incumbent in the damn dictionary and you'll see Clarence Royce smiling back at you." "He gets his whole ticket through." "Mayor's got a new poll showing his negatives they've really jumped in the last year." "Not that he's gonna be putting a press release out about that." "I hear you took a swipe at Hizzoner the other day on that witness murder." "Not at the mayor directly." "But we had the police brass in front of the subcommittee and" "I dunno, there's just no excuse for what happened." "You keep on it, Councilman." "A little smack here and there does this administration a world of good." "That's why we need new blood on the Council." "Keep everybody honest." "Don't embarrass yourself." "So... your murder's never gonna be a murder and Daniels's got his head all up in another case." "You know what the hardest part of being a police is ?" "Yeah, explaining to your wife why she has to take antibiotics for your kidney infection." "I was gonna say trying to make the job actually matter." "That too." "Speaking of your ex wife, what's up there ?" "Nothing." "She's got her hooks in some lawyer." "Money guy." "Fuck it and fuck her." "So what, you movin' on ?" "Yeah, I might have some fresh hope, now that you mention it." "Yeah, there's this woman at this thing for my kids." "She, like, raises money for the school and all that." "You know." "She's got a face, a body and a brain all working together." "And she looks like the kind who might tell me when my shit stinks, which is probably what I need." "She's kinda like Freamon with tits." "So what, you get her number ?" "No, not exactly." "Hey, what kinda detective would I be if I couldn't track a white woman in Baltimore, right ?" "There you go." "You were so smooth tonight." "You had them eating right out of your hand." "It's what you need from me, right ?" "Anyway, it wasn't too bad." "I'm getting better at it, I guess." "You are." "Cedric." "Maybe we could..." "I don't know." "Right now you tell me where you need me and whether you want the class "a" or the class "b" uniform." "And I'm there." "More than that, I just don't know." "So." "So." "I'm sayin' what the fuck ?" "Take a deep breath, man." "I mean take a long deep breath and know that if you call the shot, we at war we at war." "I'm there like I always been." "Thing about turf, man, it ain't like it was." "I mean you ain't got to pay no price of buying no corners." "Since when do we buy corners ?" "We take corners." "Man, you gonna buy one way or another." "Whether it's the bodies that we done lost or you gonna lose time in the joint that's behind us or ahead of us." "I mean, you gonna get some shit in this game but it ain't shit for free." "I mean how many corners do we need ?" "How much money can a nigger make ?" "More than a nigger can spend." "And we ain't gonna be around to spend what we done made already." "Shit, I didn't think I was gonna be around this long." "Well, we here now." "The fact is we got every mob in town :" "Eastside, Westside, ready to pull together share territory on that good shit that Prop Joe putting' out there." "We take the shit downtown and we get in the money game that niggers ain't going to jail." "I mean, we past that run and gun shit, man." "Like we fund us a package and we ain't got to see nothing but bank." "Nothing but cash." "No corners, no territory, nothing." "We make so much got-damn straight money, man." "The government come after us, man ain't shit they can say." "Businessmen, huh ?" "Let the younguns worry about how to retail we're the wholesale." "I mean, who gives a fuck who's standing on what corner if we're taking that shit off the top putting that shit to good use makin' that shit work for us ?" "We could run more than corners, B." "Period." "We could do like Little Willie, man back in the day, with all that number money." "And run this got-damn city." "Like businessmen." "Man, just lemme talk to the boy, Marlo, see if I can't smooth this shit out." "I mean it ain't gonna be overnight cuz the nigger already knows what he knows." "But I think I could talk some sense in his head." "Yeah, I ain't no suitman, businessman, like you." "You know, I'm just a gangster, I suppose." "And I want my corners." "I've gotta tell ya" "I'm having a tough time  wrapping my head around the reality of you being paroled." "Trust me, I won't fully comprehend it until I'm sipping my first martini." "Toby, I'm..." "Homide police went to Tosha's people." "Talking about how they know she was in the mix." "Sayin' they got witnesses an' shit." "They called your name on it, too." " So what they say ?" " They called me." "Hey, yo, I know this cop, man." "Maybe we should help him out." "Tell him who did what." "Yo, stop wallin', Kimmy." "A-ight, now I said I got this." "Tosha's people want to know from me exactly what happened that day." "That's all I'm saying." "Well tell 'em she caught one tryin' to take the boys down, man." "Ain't no need to involve the police in none of this." "Sound to me like he involved already." "Kimmy, I told you, I got this." "Time !" "Asshole." "My husband worked for Mr. Cooper at the american can." "He made good money." "We saved up and bought this house." "There were some white families still living in the neighborhood then." "The neighborhood has changed, Mrs. Hazel." "This is a picture of the house." "City owned, taxes paid and all." "It is very nice." "But I can't afford that." "You don't have to worry about the money." "It's all taken care of." "This is a special program we have." "It's for people who are living in really bad situations with the drug trafficking you see outside." "And this is a good neighborhood." "It's safe and it's on the number 19 line." "And it's walkin' distance from your church." "Officer, this is the only home I know." "It's all I got." "Now you say you have a program that can place me somewhere else." "But you ain't got no program for what's outside my door ?" "You weren't lying." "I told you." "And I've been all over these blocks like you said." "I haven't seen any cameras, nobody peeking'." "And monk man and his crew been here for grinding' for days and knockers ain't even blinked." "Tell you what." "Send my people over." "Not too many." "Just some of the younguns." "Keep the package real small, in case it's a trap." "I'ma hear directly from you on this." "I'm on it." "Shit is just bugged out, you know ?" "String called, said to tell you he's gonna be late behind something he needed to see down the way." "So what you tellin' me we weak ?" "Boss, I reached out to Black Donnie." "Okay, spit it out, man." "Listen, stop fucking double talkin' me." "Black Donnie said he ain't having any of it." "Said Brother Mouzone put a hex on all of us." "What 'bout Peacock ?" "Peacock when a hired out some dominicans." "What about Eggy Mule ?" "Eggy locked up." "Caught a nickel with the feds for a pistol." "How 'bout Shorty Boyd ?" "Shorty Boyd went and cleaned his whole ack' up." "Yeah, I know." "Fucked us all up." "What we got ?" "Soldier you sent at us, Cutty, he gonna work out but the rest of them dudes, I dunno." "A-ight, listen big man, you about to earn your fuckin' keep around here right now." "You go out, you get Cutty and get the best of the rest and put a hurtin' on Marlo." "I want my corners." "Fuck." "What now ?" "Problems, Mr. Bell." "Naw, this ain't the time for problems, man." "I got places to be." "We're being told it may take weeks before we can get the city inspectors back down here to approve these site changes." "Weeks ?" "Every day we wait, you lose money." "What the fuck ?" "How does anybody make any money in this game ?" "Every time I think we good, y'all back in my pockets." "You need to make a call." "Again ?" "He's the consultant, right ?" "You're paying him a nice chunk of change to consult, right ?" "This is why we have a politically connected guy like that on the payroll." "He goes downtown and does for us what we can't do for ourselves." "Democracy in action, Mr. Bell." "A-ight, look." "Me and Slim, we gonna work through the alleys and hit 'em from this side." "I want you, to come through here." "Slow down." "Through the intersection." "Hold, why don't we just come up this way then we don't have to worry 'bout crossing' no intersection." "Come that way." "You puttin' your driver in the line of fire, man." "Think on it." "He getting' taken out." "Car gonna crash." "Now, where that put you at ?" "Besides you don't wanna be shooting cross your driver, do you ?" "A-ight, so come in easy." "They ain't gonna be lookin' for you 'cause we gonna have their full attention." "Hey, look, pick your targets, drop 'em and move out quick." "Who driving' ?" "I'm under the wheel." "Alright, you make sure you slow down at the end of the block and toss your weapons." "And get rid of any shell casings that kick back in the car." "Poh-leece can trace them shits." "Toss the gloves too, right ?" "Naw, hold on to them." "They gonna have that D.N.A. Shit all on 'em." "Alright, look, it's gonna take us some time to get set up soe need ya'll to lay back 'bout four, five blocks." "And when we ready, we're gonna hit you on the burner." "Which y'all hold t'til I call you." "You got it ?" "We gonna handle our end." "You just make sure some fuckin' way left out there for us." "'Cause I don't wanna feel like I'm just someamn decoy." "Damn right about that." "It's just a relocate, no big deal." "I'm not asking for round-the-clock protection or anything like that." "No big deal ?" "Come on, Bunny, where the fuck am I gonna find a house for this old broad ?" "I got one already." "It's a foreclosure up off the harford road." "All you gotta do is file the emergency petition my boys will move her in." "She's witnessing against a violent drug crew." "Without her cooperation, I doubt if it'll go forward." "She's 73 years old." "She's a brave old broad to be doing this, I guess." "C'mon, Ray." "Look, we just lost a witness in a drug case." "We don't wanna lose another one so quick." "If Rawls gets wind of this, you forged my signature." "Where's she living now, anyway ?" "She's on Vincent Street, sector two." "Bad location, huh ?" "You wouldn't believe it." "We should wait for the call." "Man, what if that crew got lookouts ?" "Motherfucker, if we wait, it'll be all over time we get there." "Plus, look I'm sayin' how's that gonna play with Avon they takin' all the credit." "Yo, fellas, strap up." "There go that motherfucker Nay-Nay, man." "I say we take him." "We should wait for the call." "Man, we wait, he gonna get away, man." "Go, go, go." "Get out, get out !" "What the fuck." "Didn't I say something about waiting for a fucking phone call." "You know how you blow-off half the invitations you get to be somewhere ?" "Ribbon cuttings, playground clean-ups and shit ?" "I got to, no choice." "I was gonna cut out on one the other day, it was a fundraiser for the delta phis, you know ?" "But I drag-ass over to the forum to show the flag and who's there in his ironsides but Odell Watkins." "The rainmaker himself." "Yeah, talking in public about being kinda disappointed in the Mayor." "Disappointed, yeah ?" "Like how ?" "Like sincerely disappointed... the way you'd be with one of your kids." "Like he really wanted to see the Mayor pressed, you know ?" "Got me thinking." "Maybe somebody can take a run at Royce in next year's primary." "Like who ?" "Madame Council President ?" "Or Mickey Pepper would give him a fight." "Mick's already said he doesn't want to leave the legislature." "He won't risk it." "Well, you gotta have someone with balls." "And somebody black." "This being Baltimore and all." "How many y'all take ?" "Two." "Didn't get nary a shot off." "Speak to the quality of Barksdale's people." "He gonna have to come back at you." "You know it ain't gonna stop at this." "I don't want it to stop." "Barksdale weak today." "They ain't working with the ammunition I got." "No doubt, you carryin' a full clip." "But what you gonna do when you sittin' at the head of the table ?" "Once you there, you got to hold it down." "Sound like one of them good problems." "Prisons and graveyards full of boys who wore the crown." "Point is, they wore it." "It's my turn to wear it now." "We're gonna do this, right, Chris ?" " We gonna do this, son." " It's ready yesterday, dawg." "White t's, man ?" "Need to get yourself some white t's." "So you workin' your plan, huh, Bubs ?" "Dollar here, dollar there, Kima." "So, what's up ?" "Why you call ?" "Jus' checkin' in." "You still interested in the boy Marlo, right ?" "No ?" "You wanna keep gettin' paid you need to get your ass up to park heights school yourself on a jamaican named Kintel got them corners." "Kintel, huh ?" "My bosses don't give a fuck about Marlo." "Stringer's people neither." "That's too bad." "Yeah." "'Cause now we got a whole lot of drama." "What happened ?" "That young buck, Marlo, ain't gettin' runned off." "He jus' dropped two Barksdale soldiers on the corner of Mount and Fayette a few hours past." "What ?" "Corners all jumpin' bad." "I thought Marlo had them corners for Stringer." " We saw them meet." " I don't know what you saw all I know is Marlo is flying his own colors." "Westside about to be all Baghdad an' shit." "But ya'll looking for jake, what's his name ?" "Kintel ?" "Y'all too fickle for Bubs, man." "I swear." "A little gift for you and your boys." "Call me." "Whitey sale !" "Whitey sale !" "Deputy, I am aware of the incident and my men are on it." "We called in the seven-to-three flex squad early and my D.E.U. is canvassing." "And what do we know ?" "Only that it seems to be rival gangs." "What does homicide have ?" "Fuck homicide." "I'm asking you for answers right now, Major." "Sir, my men.." "And you damn sure have none." "My men are out there..." "What do we know that we can actually tell the man ?" "Like you said, rival gangs." "Which gangs ?" "Gangs." "Assholes who don't like each other." "I'm sorry, Major." "But we got nothin' on it." "Play it." "It don't make me no never mind." "It's all 'bout trumps." "Evenin', omar." "Evenin', Bruiser." "Speakin' 'of them trumps now." "Hey, everybody." "What's for dinner, Jen ?" "I'm starvin'." "It's working." "Hi, daddy." "How you doin', beautiful ?" "Daddy, we shared with you." "That's nice." "Hey, Jen, you seen that tape I was watchin' last night ?" "I don't know what you're talking about." "You gotta see this." "Videotape from last monday night's council meeting." "Keiffer tried to block my resolution but I laid him out good." "I was in rare form, baby." " You seen that tape ?" " Maybe you left it in the VCR." "What... sonofabitch." "Who the hell..." "Daddy, Franky shared his sammitch with you." "We hid it so no one else could eat it before you came home." "Could I get some chips and pickles with that too ?" "I don't want to disrespect you." "String been good to me, you know ?" "Not just my bills." "Him and Avon probably think they owe me that much." "And it ain't what people might be thinking or saying, either." "What they saying, honey ?" "It ain't like I don't miss Dee." "I do." "Yeah, well, I miss him too but he's been gone a while now." "More than a year." "Stringer's fine no denying that." "I feel safe around him." "You asking to get with String" "I'm okay with that." "Thought you was gonna be mad." "I mean, everything with Dee is so messed up, you know ?" "I mean, every time I think about it... and you know this one police he came by here and brought it all up again." "Who did ?" "Police detective from the city." "The one tried to turn Dee on Avon when he got pulled up in Jersey." "White boy ?" " Bushy hair ?" " Yeah." "What he say ?" "What he say ?" "He said maybe D'Angelo didn't take you know... take his own life." "He said maybe it was something else." "And he came to you with it ?" "Left his card here one day but I didn't say nothing to the man." "Just told Stringer is all." "She's gonna run for Council ?" "She is." "Probably win, too, if I know her." "And you're the proud husband ?" "Not sure how that makes me feel." "It's just for show until the election next year." "A city police lieutenant looks good on her arm." "Who even cares anymore ?" "Half the country are separated the other half are getting divorced for the second time." "This is a favor." "For her." "It's hard to explain." "Look, I disappointed her." "She lived through me for a lotta years telling herself I was tracked for deputy commissioner at worst and past the police department, who knows ?" "And there we were some things that happened a long time ago when I was in Eastern." "I guess she wanted more out of me and after a lot of years and a lot of plans" "it turns out I have a better head for police work than I do for climbing the ladder." "She hung in there thinking my career was going to turn into some kind of big deal and I probably let her believe it just to keep peace." "Now she wants to be the big deal." "What do you want ?" "I just don't want to disappoint her anymore and right now" "I'm more help showing up at some chicken dinner in my wedding ring and dress blues then being the not-even-divorced-yet husband with the white woman on his arm." "I'm going to do what I can to see she gets what she wants this time around." "Nothing more than that." "Last seen Gerard, man he was racin' bullets up on Fayette Street." "He appeared to be winnin', too." "Look, man, until he shows back up we ain't gonna know what happened out there." "I damn sure know one fuckin' thing for sure." "Two our people are chalked and we ain't got shit to show for it." "Man, police gonna be real heavy on this, man." "I say we slow down." "Take our time to build our muscle up..." "No, I ain't got no more motherfuckin' time, man !" "When the word comes that this boy, Marlo, punkin' me what am I look like ?" "I'm gonna go do this shit my damn self." "Naw, man, you just this minute got home." "Your name come up in a murder beef, man they gonna pull your parole." "Let me take care of this." "We was thinkin', man, me and Cutty, you know so we could hit back at 'em ourselves." "That way there won't be no fuckups." "Look, you two niggers get on it, man." "And get it right." "You see how shit had to be handled, man." "The game is the fucking game." "Period." "Same as it ever was." "I dunno though, man." "I mean..." "I mean..." "I dunno, I was just down the way with one of our younguns on Vincent Street where they got them you know, empty houses over there." "And they got crews over there twirling' dope and coke like the shit was candy." "Kids with a lemonade stand." "It's a different world down there." "Like the cops just standing around like that shit was... legal." "I mean, every day." "It actually was business." "What you sayin', man." "What's up ?" "Nothin', man." "Nothin' at all." "Our C.I. tells us those are Stringer's people." "You want us to be about the bodies, now we are." "We had this kid, Marlo working for Stringer but that might be wrong." "He might be going to war for those corners." "Let me be clear :" "This is no longer about Stringer Bell." "Or Kintel fucking Williamson." "Or any of them." "What is my rank, Detective Greggs ?" "My rank !" "Lieutenant, sir." "What is my rank, Detective McNulty ?" "If you can't remember that much then you can go the hell back to narcotics." "And you can go to whatever the hell unit will still have you." "Now get the fuck out of my office." "Your message said you'd be here." "Still, I kinda thought it'd be one of your minions showed up in the flesh." "You called on some of my people's people." "I'm just workin'." "Doin' what a man is supposed to do." "Well, I know you been busy." "Caught some talk from the young men you rousted over there on the Westside." "That was about a gun, belonged to a police." "Yeah, caught some talk about that, too." "This here's about something else." "Girl by the name of Tosha, got her head blowed off in a firefight." "If you're not here to cooperate, then why are you here ?" "Okay, I could just pull up that other girl from your squad." "She ain't gonna talk to you." "Ain't nobody gonna talk to you." "I just came here to make that clear, man." "Ain't no thing." "'Cause I already got me an eyeball wit." "You do ?" "I dunno 'bout that." "Old Bruiser, he be blind behind that fortified half the time." "Shit, you gonna have to dry him out just to get him on the stand." "'Sides, he done had a change o' heart to that story." "That's what I heard, anyway." "An' past that, you gonna have to call this one of them cost-of-doin'-business things you all police be talkin' about all the time." "Ya feel me ?" "No taxpayers." "Shit, way y'all lookin' at things ain't no victim to even speak of." "Bullshit, boy." "No victim ?" "!" "I just came from Tosha's people, remember ?" "All this death, you don't think that ripples out ?" "You don't even know what the fuck I'm talkin' about." "I was a few years ahead of you at Emondson." "But I know you remember the neighborhood, how it was." "We had some bad boys for real." "Wasn't about guns so much as knowin' what to do with your hands." "Those boys could real rack it." "My father... had me on the straight." "But like any young man I wanted to be hard, too." "So I'd turn up at all the house parties where the tough boys hung." "Shit, they knew I wasn't one of them." "Them hardcases would come up to me and say :" ""go home, schoolboy, you don't belong here."" "Didn't realize at the time what they were doin' for me." "As rough as that neighborhood could be we had us a community." "Nobody, no victim, who didn't matter." "And now all we got is bodies, and predatory motherfuckers like you." "And out where that girl fell, I saw kids actin' like Omar calling' you by name." "Glorifyin' your ass." "Makes me sick, motherfucker, how far we done fell." "25,000." "You don't need more than that to get it done." "The fuck you say ?" "I'm just tellin' you how they do down at zoning and permits." "They know you got a general contractor and his people out there sittin' on their ass." "They know you payin' twice that every week they sit." "25 gets me the permits ?" "20 gets you the permits." "Five is for me for bribin' these downtown motherfuckers." "I mean, I'm the one got to risk walking' up to these thieving' bitches with cash in hand, right ?" "I'm telling you, String." "The people running the city nowadays ?" "They make the last bunch look sanctified." "I mean, this some shameful shit." "Permits come when ?" "Monday." "Latest." "Spider bags !" "Spider bags !" "Cutt, that's him." "Fruit." "Yo, I know that nigger, man." "Owe me money, actually." "She ain't say it like that." "She say it like she wanted to get pregnant an' shit." "A-ight." "Damn, I opened up too early, man." "I stepped on your shot." "Come on, let's book." "Yo, there go five-oh right there, yo." "Yeah, I know it's nothing." "The cops be lettin' niggas grind down here." "It all... get the fuck out of here little hoppers." "Get out of here, son." "Look at these little minis." "Hey, yo, what if he lock us up ?" "I hope y'all got toothbrushes ?" "'Cause down in boy's village, you know what I'm sayin' if you don't have no toothbrush, you gonna be usin' some other boy's brush or rubbing' your teeth with your damn finger." "If you don't get locked up y'all can keep an extra 20 each off the pack." "... got that fire, baby ?" "Come on, Tommy, give it up already." "Look, Terri, you gotta do this for me." "Tell me why you wanna be mayor." "Why should I vote for you over Royce ?" "'Cause something is wrong in that city and I think I can fix it." "This guy, he don't give a shit about tackling the problems." "Crime is outta fucking control." "Last week, a kid witness in a drug case turns up shot dead because of flaws in the system." "I go to the Mayor who promises action." "And then, "mister reform-is-more-than- -the-watchword-of-my-administration"" "pats me on the ass, thanks me for my concern points me out the door." "The end." "So, with crime as the issue the great white father rides to the rescue." "Against a black incumbent mayor, in a city that's 65% black ?" "Black, white, green..." "people are pissed off." "What makes you think this is doable ?" "One, I hear the mayor's got problems in his base and with key supporters." "Two, I got the Police Commissioner" "Royce's own man, telling me all kinds of stuff about his fucked-up department and about Royce's inner circle." "And three, Tony Gray, from the Fifth District comes pretty close to telling me he's thinking about a run for mayor." "That'd split the black vote." "You'd still need a player who gives the black middle-class permission to vote against one of their own." "You got one of those in your pocket ?" "Not many of those around." "Elijah ?" "Congressional black caucus ain't gonna save your skinny white ass." "What about Odell Watkins ?" "Well, it's funny you should mention him cuz I don't think he's too happy with the Mayor right now." "I dunno." "I hear a new poll shows Royce's negatives are pretty high." "You'd have to raise a load of dough." "He has to see it." "I know he sees it." "It's past that now." "It's about us showing some respect." "Oh, fuck respect." " He ain't right." " No, he ain't." "But at this point with you on the other side of the argument he'd rather be wrong." "Maybe if the word came down from on high it might change his mind." "I mean, if your friend Bunny Colvin's up to his ass in bodies then he'd take all the help he can get." "Not that you'd ever go behind anybody's back or anything like that, right ?" "No way." "Two more murders yesterday and another three today... including a 14-year-old." "We're doing all we can." "You're at 260 for the year and it's barely october." "You promised me 275 or under, Erv." "I had that as a promise." "Sir... we see 300 before the new year and I'm not sure that I can justify a full term for you." "Now I hate to say it, but there it is." "Barksdale's people and who ?" "Marlo Stanfield, the new kid, we've been on him a couple weeks." "But Daniels' people are up in the Northwest." "Your war's only gonna get worse, Major." "The Northwest has been quiet for weeks." "You willing to back door your lieutenant like this, huh ?" "You ain't changed, Jimmy." "Shit." "It's always about your case." "You do what you can." "Keep my name out of it." "How it go ?" "We got one of the two of the motherfuckers you know." "You mean, you motherfuckers come strolling' in here all walking' tall and shit..." "Yo, B, I, man, I'm sayin', man." "We were blazing' on them dudes." "Man, you know what I'm sayin', just got in the heat, man." "We were blazing' though." "It was like..." "Alright relax, man, I already heard." "Go sit down." "I'm not tweakin' behind none of this." "That's one less motherfucker that's breathin' than was yesterday you know what I'm sayin', so we all good." "But I'm surprised at you, though, man." "Shit didn't get by you back when." "Wadn't my man's fault, man." "I unloaded on the youngun too soon, man." "Gave him enough room to buck and run, man." "I fucked that shit up myself, you know..." "Hold on." "It's on me." "I had that kid in my sights close enough to take off his Kangol and half his dome with it." "I couldn't squeeze the trigger." "Couldn't do it, man." "Why not ?" "Wadn't in me, I guess." "You know, whatever it is in you that lets you flow like you flowin'" "do that thing it ain't in me no more." "A-ight." "So you done soldierin' but you ain't done." "I could use you for what you got in your head." "We're gonna put you on a corner, you can be inside..." "Aw, man." "I'm ain't makin' myself clear." "The game ain't in me no more." "None of it." "But you ain't done shit else." "You know what I'm sayin', so what you gonna do ?" "I don't know." "But it can't be this." "A-ight then." "We straight." "See ya." "See ya." "B, he was a man in his time, you know ?" "He a man today." "He a man." "Any idea what this is about ?" "Lieutenant." "Here he is, Bunny." "Cedric Daniels to the rescue." "Man of the hour."