"Uh, yeah... can I get the mixed vegetables and white rice?" "Okay, mixed vegetables, white rice." "Damn, Du'." "You actin' like this some fancy-ass spot." "It ain't nothing but a Chink joint." "I'm-a order." "Then do it." "I said I got it." "Look at this nigger flashing' his shit" "like some big-time gangster." "Yeah, Na' a righteous hustler." "Man, I'm just treating y'all, that's all." "You know I like to keep it real with the little people." "Man, fuck you, man." " I was talking about you." " I was talking about you." "May I help you?" "Can I order the yakame with turkey grease?" "Yakame, noodles" " This nigger ordered turkey grease." " What's wrong, yo?" "I mean, my mom, she get it all the time." "Yo, you is really one of them at-risk children," " you know that, Dukie?" " Yo, man, leave him alone, son." "Yeah, I got it." "How much?" " $4.00." " Why is it so funny?" "They just goofin' on you." "What's wrong with me ordering yakame?" "Nothing wrong with you ordering yakame." "It's just the turkey grease that makes the drunks, you know, throw up all that liquor they was drinking, go back to swilling that shit." "Man, this shit is good." "Why don't you buy your own food?" "This is all you getting." "Don't ask for no more of that." "That shit tastes good as hell." "Yo, y'all heard about what happened to Little Kevin?" "What?" "He be dead." " He up in them vacants." " Why?" "Fucked up somewhere, I suppose." "Uh-oh." "What the fuck you little hoppers doing on my avenue?" " Eating." " Shit you are." "You're probably setting up to snatch a purse." "Get the fuck back on the reservation where your black asses belong." "How you feeling, little man?" "Need a hand with that food?" "I said get." "Yo, y'all hear that shit?" ""My avenue."" "It's just as much ours as it is his." "Walker be evil, yo." "He be thieving and smackin' folk down." "Yo, we should get him back on the payback tip for all the dirt he do." "You want to throw down with police?" "I don't mean go at him direct, but, you know, hurt him." "Like, slash his tires or some shit." "We could stick condoms on his car." "That'd send a message." "Yeah, but what kind?" "We should slap bumper stickers on his windshield." "I mean, they is hard to get off." "Hold on, wait wait wait." "Do Officer Walker go to that club on Stockton, the one where the Western police party?" "I seen his car there." "I got this one." "And as much as I empathize," "I can only tell you that there is a process for complaints like this one." "Don't sell us on process, Mr. Mayor." "We've had years of this kind of treatment from city police." "You need to understand we view this as an affront to the cloth." "We've asked for a civilian review board for decades now." "Absent that, how can we trust any investigation of any complaint?" "Forgive me, gentlemen, but last I checked, the department had a black commissioner and a black l.I.D. director." "The problem is systemic." "And as to Commissioner Burrell-- we understand that his authority is now limited." "Mr. Mayor, when it comes to matters like this one, do you expect us to have faith in Deputy Rawls?" "I expect you'll be good enough not to prejudge the department's response before the investigation even begins, as I won't prejudge it." "I can only tell you that I take this incident very seriously, and that I will pursue all of the facts." "Well, Mr. Mayor, you said you would have an open door, and so far I credit you for keeping that promise." "And my door will always be open to you." "Thank you." "If they couldn't get civilian review out of a Royce administration, how can they think they're gonna get it from me?" "They're just testing you here, trying to see how vulnerable you feel on the racial stuff." "On Burrell, too, for what it's worth." "Well, civilian review is a nonstarter." "You go now there now, you'll be bending over for four years for the ministers." "So what?" "I throw them a bone and fire some idiot cop?" "By pressing that, the average beat cop's gonna hate my guts, and I ain't gonna change anything around without rank-and-file support." "You don't fire him, you're going to piss off most of the black political infrastructure." "Mm, yummy." "My first bowl of shit." "Circle that right there." "And you press that right there." "It's work time." "You guys got work to do?" "You write down that data?" " Yeah." " All right." "Charlene, what don't you understand?" "None of it." "Okay, let's see if we can find a way you can get it, okay?" "What's the diameter?" " Huh?" " It's seven." "Good." "Okay, what's half of that?" "You can't take half of it." "Okay, let's say you have $10 and you gave half of it to Jasmine." "Why I do that?" "Well, just pretend, okay?" "You give her half, how much does she have?" " Duh, $5." " Good." "Now let's say this time you have $7 and you give her half, how much does she have?" "$3.50." "Good, so..." "Yo, Mr. Prez, check this out." "Oh!" "Why we no pick him up at his casa, follow him from there?" "Why, so we can lose him here again?" "Papa, nothin' say he got to come back through this way, you know?" "What if he take another road...?" "All right." "We pick him up from his casa tomorrow." "Poutin'." "Don't pout." "Omar, I'm tired of this, bro." "Lo siento, baby." "Lo siento." "Hey, now... there she blow." "All right, then." "So we agree staring down a stick-up boy on a corner takes courage, and we agree it takes courage to go overnight to Cheltenham or Hickey." "This is a good list, but are there any examples we can make outside of being on a corner?" "I need a volunteer." "Not me." "What about you, Albert?" "No." "You volunteer and you don't know what for, you ain't got brains." "All right, then," "I need a volunteer to stand on this box blindfolded, fall off, and let us catch him before he hits the ground." "Albert?" "That's fucking stupid." "What about you, Namond?" "Wait wait wait, let me get this right." "So you want me to stand up on that box, put a blindfold on, fall, and expect these weak-ass clowns to catch me?" "Hell, no." "Hey, yo, y'all drop me, and we gonna have more than words." "A'ight." "All right, everybody gather around." "Oh, shit." "You ready?" "On three." "One, two, three." "Let him drop." "Whoa!" "Shit!" "Oh, that shit was right." "All right, who wants to go next?" "Albert?" "I ain't doing no stupid shit like that!" "Fuck you, and fuck all y'all bitches." "We don't like your ass anyway." "Settle down, settle down." "Yo, today's specials are those little Hershey bars, three for a dime." "And I got all your other favorites, too." "Yo, Deante, I got your licorice-- red and black both." "Snitchin' Randy." "Well, I'll be blessed, yo." "Lookit." "This is good?" "We put him here?" "That tall man with Prop Joe?" "Yo, for real, on this caper the more we learn, the less we know." " We can go?" " No, we stay." "Papa, I need to go." "I say we stay, Renaldo." "What's wrong, yo?" "No no, I mean "go."" "We been in the car too many hours." "Whether you squat in an alley or sittin' on a porcelain throne, don't really change the moment, now do it?" "Rough day?" "Doesn't help to hold it in." "What the fuck you know?" "If you tell me, maybe we can help." "Ain't nothing." "Look, come on, Albert, you been doing real good in this class." "Real good till today." "Just give it a try." "I went home yesterday." "My mom's on the couch." "She dead." "Me-maw said best I come to school, but..." "Oh." "Yeah, you wanted to be with your mom." "Of course you did." "Some of you know me from narcotics work, some from earlier if you worked the Western district, and some of you I'm meeting for the first time." "But the only point I'd really like to make here today is that this is a transitional time for this department and for the city as a whole." "We have a new mayor and a new state's attorney, and they both feel like they have a mandate for change." "The point is that given the mayor's position on crime and given the outcome of the election, we can expect certain enhancements." "Oh, really?" "Certain improvements may be forthcoming in the near future." "So we're looking for feedback here, some input as to what we need more of or less of to better work murders." " Better witness protection." " More proactive investigation." "Pay raise." "Yeah!" "Better lab work." "More techs on duty." "More overtime." "More Scotch!" "More time for case prep." "Seriously." "More women." "Loose women." "Pay hike, double-digits." "Mo' better, mo' better, mo' better." "That's what we want." "Sounds like a new day, don't it?" "Department's finally gonna get what it needs." "State's attorney's office, too." "A new day." "They make a nice couple, anyway." "Looking forward to working with you, Colonel." "That's signed by a now-inaugurated mayor ordering his police commanders to avoid mass arrests." "Community-based policing and high-end enforcements are to be emphasized." "I take it Burrell got a copy." "In person." "I don't see it." "Why not just fire the fucking asshole?" "The mayor is weighing his options." "What the fuck does that mean?" "To fire Burrell, we're going to need more political capital than we have right now." "Speaking of which, it brings us to another" "little piece of business." " The thing with the minister." " It's a delicate situation." "The ministers are pressing for a civilian review, which I know the rank and file don't want to hear, but it speaks directly to the situation with Burrell." "If we expend capital defending this incident" "I get it." "You want the cop fired." "No, we're not saying that at all." "The mayor doesn't want to interfere with the everyday workings of the department." "But it's a balancing act." "Our response has to be smart and evenhanded, in a racial sense, especially." "If I'm hearing you, it's about perception." "Exactly." "I.I.D. has a black commander, but he's beholden to Burrell." "He'll stir shit with this if he can." "The sergeant in question is assigned to C.I.D." "His new commander is Daniels." "He's smart, he's black, and politically neutral." " That work for you?" " Works for us." "Who that?" "I said, who's that?" "You home or you just visiting?" "Home if I can." "All right." "Get by the fire if you want." "I got a couple of dogs left." "You hungry?" "Shit weren't working out with Jo-Jo and them." "Said I owed him some cheddar on some shit some other boy did." "I don't want to make no noise on that, though." "They pressing' you." "You know... get with me, and we pay 'em right back, okay?" "No, all that shit you been sayin' to me goin' through my head." "Forget about that." "Forget about all that." "If I wouldn't have pushed you off, you would have never been up on that corner." "But everything I do I be fucking up." "Whole time it feel like it wasn't me on that corner." "I just wanted to get away." "Well, you're here now, ain't you?" "Right?" "This is you, right here, right now, okay?" "You're burning a hole in that shirt, man." "Fuck-- you fucked me all up when" "I saw you walking through the door, Sherrod." "Oh, shit." "What you think, huh?" "You know, I get half price for this." "All right, take your hat off, man." "Don't burn them pimp steaks, huh?" "Took long enough." "Yo, Dukie, you sure about this?" "I mean, I'm with y'all." "Y'all my boys like that." "Y'all there for me, I'm there for y'all." "I'm really starting to think this is some fucked-up shit." "I mean, Officer Walker's a shady motherfucker, but he's police." "We do it Michael's way, we send a message." "You ain't got to do what I got to do." "We drew straws, Na'." "Let's go." "This is everything?" "Sergeant Hauk's statement, the ministers', statements of the other officers-- it's all there." "No independent witnesses, huh?" "It's a lot of smoke, but I'm not feeling much in the way of fire." "It was a strong case for discourtesy." "True, but no indication of racial or religious overtones." "And the brutality allegation is a stretch." "I've gone over G.O.C.-7." "I'm up to speed with the matrix, but since the buck stops with me on this one, walk me through my options." "Minor offenses, you can issue a summary judgment-- a period of extra duty without pay, guidance and counseling, the like." "Or if Sergeant Hauk fights your decision or if there's a more substantive charge, it goes downstairs to a trial board." "And possible termination?" "Let me ask you-- if the minister's connected, and if all eyes are on this one, what does command want to see happen?" "What does City Hall want to see happen?" "City Hall just wants someone to do the right thing, whatever that is." "You're sitting here, Deputy, telling me to just do the right thing?" "Doesn't happen often, I know." "Hey!" "What are you doing?" "Come here!" "You motherfucker, I'll get your little ass!" "Hey hey hey!" "Come on, show me hands, bitch." "Back the fuck up, little hopper, I'm police." "Yeah, I know, you the police who like to fuck with a nigger." "Turn around." "Hey hey, yo!" "You ain't gonna hear the next one." "Get on your knees, cross them legs, knit them hands, come on." "Ooh, hold on." "Yo, what the fuck you doing?" "What the fuck is wrong with you, man?" "Hey, give up that ring, man." "Come on." "Yeah." "Aah!" "Ha ha ha!" "Payback." "That's right." "Run, motherfuckers!" "Shit!" "I'm telling you, right there, this horse is a winner." "Look at it, okay?" "How you doing?" " Hey." " Excuse me." "Mr. Mayor." "On my way downtown today I saw an abandoned car." "Tow it right away." "Where is" " Mr. Mayor, the location?" "Oh, fucking Christ." "Call Transpo!" "Get the fucking trucks moving!" "Uh" " Mr. Mayor." "I got a constituent call." "She said the playground near her house was a hazard." " Rusted metal." " We'll get right on it." "The location?" "Sir, I need a location." "Mr. Mayor, I understand your concern, but you've got to understand, we have more than 9,100 hydrants." "And one of them's leaking." "Sensitivity counseling, two week's extra duty, no punishment past that." "They sliced it into the rough." "Does Daniels know the bind this puts his boy Carcetti in?" "Well, Wilson briefed Rawls, Rawls briefed Daniels." "It's Carcetti doing Pontius Pilate, putting it on Daniels, who was a safe choice as far as the rank and file goes." "But that won't be enough for the ministers, not by a long shot." "Am I the only one that knows how to play this game?" "Let's go, get that hydrant sealed." "Three of them with shotguns got me coming outside the club." "I made 'em for bloods." "The paint's supposed to be some kind of declaration of war." "Sounds like we get to stomp some ass." "The Western District way." "Yellow paint a declaration of war?" "That's a new one." "So what I heard was that these wild-ass boys" "I ain't saying no names-- but they past crazy." "They robbed him." "They threw paint on his ass-- yellow paint." "Shit, I ain't lying." "Well, I don't know about that, but you showed me something getting on that box like that." "That wasn't nothing." "No, don't sell yourself short." "Ms. Duquette, Mr. Parenti, we all thought it took courage, especially considering how y'all do each other." "You think?" "Yeah." "No, look, you're showing a lot of progress in class." "I mean, you know that, don't you?" "You know, you're doing the work." "You're not acting out." "It's getting to the point where" "You can go back to regular class, no problem." " Back to genpop?" " Mm-hmm." "You want me to go?" "Well, if you're ready." "I ain't going back there." "Why not?" "Shit they teach there be deadly." "But I know you know that, Bunny." "All right, all right!" "All right, all right!" "We can squeeze a little money from here and there but nothing on the scale for what you're asking." "Maybe free up some operating money by shifting some of these PAYGO projects into the capital program." "I can steal a little from the budget stabilization fund, but we still got to absorb 1 20 grant positions in the police department, mostly officers." "Christ, don't let those go unfunded." "A lot of balls in the air, and I still haven't seen the schools' budget." "What about the revenue surplus?" "As I said, that's one-time money." "If I'm going to give the police a 5% raise, that's forever." "If I'm going to ask the police department to get up on its hind legs and fight" "I got to throw some money." "You're telling me how I can't do it, not how I can." "There's the rainy day fund, but you really shouldn't draw that down." "The bond rating houses want at least 5% of the budget in reserve." "Feels like a rainy day to me." "Cloudy like a motherfucker." "Yo, yo, wait up, yo." " Fuck is up with y'all?" " Ain't you, Mike?" "We wanna have a word with your boy here." " Ain't nothing stopping you." "Talk." " You know what we mean." "Yo, the little bitch was talking to the police." "That's a lie." "I ain't been doin' no snitching." "The fuck you ain't." "He look like he about to pee on hisself right now, man." "You ain't gonna stand by no rat motherfucker, is you?" "Naw, I ain't standing with no rat." "These here be them 18-hour junks." "Go to bed, wake up, still be hot." "Man, feel this one from three hours ago." "See what I'm saying?" "Two for one." "Each pack come with two pads." "Buy five, I give you six." "Gimmie six then." "Five." "Keep toasty." "Obliged, sir, obliged." "Take this side, I'll take this side." "Bubbles Depot." "Bubbles Depot got what you need." "Back on the scene." "Come see me." "Oh, looky, looky-- hey, Sherrod!" "Whoo-ooh." "What up?" "Car must've hit it or some shit." " How much you think?" " Aluminum?" "Aluminum about 30-40¢ a pound." "We've got a Benjamin here easy, baby." "Teamwork paying' off today, ain't it, baby?" "Yeah." "Go get the heavy side." "Let me try it." "Get out of the way!" "That's enough!" "Get out of here!" "That's enough!" "Break it up!" "Hey, Randy, you bitch." "We ain't even done with your snitchin' ass." "Come on, man." "Guess them books are good for something." "Somebody call the nurse." "Yo, why they bank me?" " I ain't no snitch." " Randy, Randy, it's okay." "Thanks a lot." "Health Department shut Chicken George again?" "No, I had to duck in here for cover." "Your boys are off the hook today." "Not a good day to be cross-eyed in West Baltimore." "What, y'all behind on your quotas or some shit?" "What the fuck?" "Seems one of my side got jumped last night." "Yeah, Walker." "I heard about that shit." "Threw paint on him." "Walker's an asshole." "Hey, you play in dirt, you get dirty." "7-Adam-14, do you copy?" "Go ahead, KGA." "Report of a burglary 19 North Monroe." "Copy." "We should do this again." "Don't go making any furtive moves." "No doubt." "Don't break a pencil point." "Mr. P, I swear I only told the police what everybody knows." "Does that make me a snitch, Michael?" "Shouldn't oughta told nobody nothing." "But that don't make you a snitch, not if you ain't put nobody in." "Jesus." "I should have stopped this." "It ain't your fault, Mr. P." "All this come up because of what Tiffany said happened in the bathroom." "What did you tell them, Randy?" "What do they know?" "I just told them about Lex going up to the playground behind Fulton, and how everybody said he got killed and put in one of them boarded-up houses." "That's all you told them?" "I mean, they wanted me to say that I was there, but..." "I just told them that Little Kevin told me." " Little Kevin?" " He killed, too." "I mean, Marlo got him, too." "That's what everybody saying, anyway." "Marlo Stanfield?" "I heard Kevin got locked up just last week, now he's supposed to be up in a house somewhere." "They put him in a vacant, too, huh?" "Okay, Randy, for now I want to say Michael's right." "If anyone tries to talk to you again, say nothing to anyone, understand?" "Will that make it better?" "So in sum, gentlemen, the gods have spoken." "No longer do we live and die by stats." "From this day forward we are about quality arrests-- felonies, serious misdemeanors, the back-to-basics police work of our sainted fathers." "Still, the truth is it would be easier to turn an oil tanker around in a puddle." "Our people were raised on stats." "If you can't bend patrol to the mission, Eugene," "I'll damn sure find someone who can." "Gentlemen." "Sir." "Along the line of what you propose," "I'd like to reconstitute the Major Crimes Unit, bring it under the umbrella of Homicide." "And let me guess, you'd like to shake up the personnel." "Where appropriate." "Go for it, Colonel." "What?" "Smart move, accepting any ideas whatsoever come from the anointed fella." "Daniels." "The next commissioner." "Any cocksucker that manages to go from" "Iieutenant to full bird in a little more than a year is getting groomed." "Wait." "You didn't for a minute think that" "Jesus, Bill, it's Baltimore." "You ain't one of the natives, are ya?" "You see where they went?" "El gordo and tall man, they go in a big room, first floor." "Sign outside say "New Day Coop."" "Coop?" "What's a coop?" ""New Day Coop." That's what it say." "Hey, yo, was there like a bar between the two O's?" "Si, exacto." "Yeah, that's co-op." "Prop Joe in a co-op?" "Joe go in with the man we robbed." "Remember, he fell down on his knees, wept like a little baby." "Yeah, Fat Face Ricky." "Anybody else?" "Si, como eight or nine others I never see before, but all the same to me, you know?" "Narcotraficantes." "Prop Joe done sat down to the table." "Oh, do tell." "The worm done came full circle." "Marlo." "Que?" "If that is what I think it is, our little clutch of chickens might be putting all their eggs up in one basket." "Is good?" "Muy bueno, baby." "I know one thing-- I wouldn't walk around with it on my neck for Walker to find." "He ain't gonna find it." "You crazy even taking a chance." "If he catch you with it, he gonna break more than them fingers." "Man, what up with you?" "It's like lately you gone all..." "like taking off the mask, yo." "What up with that?" "If Walker got a look" "He didn't." "Well, what about the thing with you and Randy?" "Everybody now is sayin' you threw down with him." "Busted up the boy Dimples, and them." "Yo, you wouldn't have stood tall?" "That's not what I'm saying." "It's not that you do shit, It's how you do it." "Yo, look, I'm not trying to stand around and let no chump-ass niggers think I'm shook." "I ain't." "And?" "And I want you to sign up." "Colonel, there's the matter of" "You find yourself incompatible with a certain lieutenant?" "Detective Freamon, you have carte blanche in picking your squad." "In fact, you can pick your supervisor for all I care." "Motherfucker, as far as I'm concerned, you are the Major Crimes Unit." "It's morning in Baltimore, Lester." "Wake up and smell the coffee." "Reinforcements?" "Carver." "Damn, boy, what brings you back to the plantation?" "I trusted you." "Trusted Daniels." "My fucking mistake, huh?" "Whoa, hold up." "What's wrong?" "The kid you were supposed to protect, you put his name on the street." "They were beating him in front of the school today, stomping on him for snitching." " Jesus." "He all right?" " It's always the same." "I should have fucking seen this coming." "I swear to you, I don't know what happened." "I hooked the kid into Bunk Moreland and Herc." "I can't believe-- where's the kid now?" "Home." "Let me go give this to the night commander." "We'll park a plainclothes unit on the house." "You think that makes it better?" "We'll be discreet, set up down the block or some shit." "Come on inside." "I swear to you" "I'm gonna find out what happened." " Ed Bowers." " Pleasure to meet you." "You surprised us all." " Congratulations, Mr. Mayor." " Thanks." "I'd like to introduce you to Dorothy." "You heard about Ed Nully?" "I've heard great things about what you've been doing, so keep it up." "I'm delighted you made it, Mr. Mayor." "Well, it's for a good cause, right?" "I am getting the evil eye, however." "I gotta keep him circulating." "Okay." "This way." " See you later." " Take care." "The Washington crowd is driving the local real estate market now, and if the harbor promenade could extend to the south branch" " We're looking at that." " Should be." "Everything from here to Hanover Street is money." "Mr. Mayor, play a little poker?" "I'm not very lucky." "Luck can change." "Mr. Mayor, I'd like you to meet Ray Chandler." "Pleasure to meet you." "Boy, either you gonna do it, or I'm gonna." "There's a reason the police keep jumping out on you, Na'." "So, was it the Bunk's cologne, huh?" "Oh..." "pussy." "I'm gonna miss you, too, bitch." "Lester do love listening to other people's phone calls, don't you?" "A bit of a pervert that way." "You could use a wiretap case or two-- broaden your horizons." "Oh, no no." "The Bunk is strictly a suit-and-tie motherfucker." "At all hazards, a man must keep up appearances." "Dignity, I say." "Dignity above all," "Governor." "Hear, hear!" "Bunk, you got a minute?" "What's up?" "The Wagstaff kid I sent your way." "Wagstaff?" "He one of mine?" "Yeah, you were looking for the boy Lex, shot someone outside a nightclub a couple of three months back." "This kid knew about Lex getting killed." "Herc brought him to you." "Herc?" "This kid is a witness, and Herc was supposed" " to bring him to me?" " That was the plan." "I'm gonna skin that motherfucker." "Jesus, Herc." "The fuck did you do?" "Something happen to that boy?" "Well, young man, your wish has come true." "So this mean I can finally get out of here?" "Yes, Monnel, paperwork was slow coming in from North Avenue, but you five are at the age where we feel it's to your advantage to join your peers in the ninth grade." "Yo, we in high school!" " When we bump?" " The end of this marking period." "Congratulations." "You're excused." "Mr. Johnson, you have a visitor in the front office." "Mr. Johnson, please come down to the front office." "Bad news?" "Plenty more to go around." "They pulled the pin on your program." "As I've been saying this week at every roll call in every damn district, if I could scrape together any more, I would." "But for starters, it's a 5% salary year, and that's a given." "I know it's not half what you deserve, but if the revenue estimates stay good, I promise you'll be seeing more." "Mr. Mayor, my wife thanks you, my children thank you, my dog thanks you." "Hey, Santy, how you able to tell your wife from your mutt?" "His wife, she's the one that's got the fleas." "Shit, Bobby, with your old lady, fleas would be an improvement." "At ease." "We got the mayor here, gentlemen." "When they sit in one place too long they get a little feisty." "I'm not going to stand here and pretend I know how to do your job." "I don't." "But what I can tell you is that during the past few weeks" "I have spoken with many of your peers, with your union reps, with the representatives of the FOP, and the biggest single complaint I'm hearing concerns the department's obsession with stats." "The fucking numbers game." "Well, under my watch the numbers game is over." "You will no longer be under the gun to meet monthly quotas of ineffective, meaningless arrests and citations." "Thank you." "Excuse me, Your Worship." "You're not the first person who stood at the podium making promises." "Jimmy, I'm sure the mayor has some pressing business." "No, I'm just saying, the first community activist who pitches a bitch about the corner activity in her neighborhood, aren't we gonna go right back to rounding up bodies?" "Yeah, well, we need to educate our citizens to the new approach." "Well, they're not the only ones who need educating." "We got bosses that wouldn't know police work if it bit 'em in the ass." "They been juking stats for years, and they'll do it again once the neighborhoods complain." "It's all they know." "Well, if the old dogs can't get the job done," "I'll find new ones who can." "Look, for years I sat on the back bench of the council and watched our city deteriorate." "It was business as usual with the same old ideas producing the same old results." "Well, I'm here now, as you are, and I'm asking you to put aside your reservations and give it a go." "All told." "You did good." "You got 'em pumped." "They love you." "Of course, the wrong decision on Sergeant Hauk, and who knows?" "Carv said the kid had something on it." "I talked to him." "He had nothing, just a bunch of hearsay and some shit about zombies." "The boy was to come to me." "You know the goddamn GO-- it's Homicide's call." "You don't go putting your paws in my murder, you simple fuck." "Hey!" "You're talking to a sergeant." "Oh, fuck your fucking stripes!" "Whoa whoa, take it easy, Bunk." "Now Herc is trying to help us here." "Man, he messed in my murder, he pays." "Give him a chance." "We can work something out." "That's easy for you to say." "You ain't the primary on this." "Motherfucker..." "What got into him?" "He's emotional." "He's been working this case for a long time." "So the thing right now is for you to remember everything you did on this case... from the beginning." "He's out there, hat in hand, literally." "Well, he can wait till hell freezes over." "A wise man does not burn his bridges until he first knows he can part the waters." "Old Ashanti saying." "Norman, you grew up in Catonsville." "Show the motherfucker in." "Mr. Mayor," "I don't want to take time out of your busy schedule." "Look, if this is about me countermanding your orders for more arrests" "No, sir." "You should proceed as you feel the situation warrants." "Overall, policing strategies may not be my strongest suit." "I'm here about what I do know." "A recommendation from Sergeant Hauk's commander will cross your desk tomorrow." "Colonel Daniels, with Rawls concurring, recommends sensitivity training." "It may be a fair decision, it may even be the right decision." "But we both know it won't fly with the ministers, not even with Daniels behind it." "Hmm." "600 pages of rules, regulations, directives, orders." "You fire a white police for a bad car stop on a black minister, you'll lose the rank and file." "It's not cause enough." "But if a commander can't find grounds for firing a saint in here..." "The man has worked Narcotics for six years, and in Narcotics there are no virgins." "And herein lies your expertise?" "Hmm." "I've always been comfortable delegating strategic elements." "It's what the Deputy Ops is for." "Me, I know what a mayor needs." " It was a Chevy Tahoe." " Mm-hmm." "License Mike-460-654." "And I searched it good, figuring I'd find some iron, but" "How'd they react?" "Chris and Snoop?" "They didn't do shit." "Was there anything in the car?" "Registration and crap in the glove box, empty chicken boxes, trash." "They had one of those plastic milk crates" "Mm-hmm." "in the back with some tools in it." "What kind of tools?" "I don't know, carpenter tools." "Did you check the crate for weapons?" "Nail gun." "Nail gun?" "Yeah, one of them bitches that shoots nails." "They rig it to shoot rounds maybe?" "Naw, I shot it." "A nail came out." "Look, Lester, seriously, is any of this helping?" "Naw, you're doing good." "Tell me about jacking Marlo at the train station." "I'm short four, right?" "Yeah, I remember your ass." "Here's my four." "You like that?" " Okay!" " I'm gonna beat your ass." "Okay, no more!" "Stop stop stop stop." "Take the money, take the money, all right?" "Stop." "Make me work this hard again," "I'm gonna skin one of y'all!" "Okay." "Just go, man." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry, man." "You know who got the fattest asses and the best pussy?" " Who that?" " Midgets, nigger." "They're all that, you know what I'm saying?" "The fuck happened to our boy on the door?" "Siesta, Papa." "You fix this, Joe?" "What's the problem?" "Ran out of time." "Now, Joe, you've been so busy being devious, you done messed around and got yourself caught up in a web." "Omar, I don't know what you been hearing, now" "Joe, ain't no time for no lies now." "Now see, I need you to be straight, just like you did on that New Day Co-op sit down." "Oh, yeah, I know about that." "I know you the one got Marlo up in this mess too." "Hey, Omar, take a deep breath." "A proposition might fall kindly on your ear." "Well, tickle my fancy, fat man." "Money, drugs-- your call." "Come on, now, Joe, you can do better than that." "Hey, we-- we coming at this all wrong." "See, you the one with the high card." "You should speak your mind." "You going to serve up Marlo." "You gonna take out Marlo Stanfield?" "No no, but I got a real powerful urge to take everything he owns, and I'm quite confident you the man can make that happen." "That might take some doing." "Naw naw, see, we got to have it simple." "See, Omar like it simple." "So how we gonna do this, yo?" "Huh?" "My sister's boy." "He do the drop." "We call you and give up the spot." " That simple enough?" " That's what it is." "See now, Joe, I need you to resist your natural inclination to do anything twisted up in this here play." "You feel me?" "I even catch a whiff of you doing something foul, Joe," "I mean, I might got to go tell Marlo you the one put me up on that card game." "We understood?" "Now go ahead and write my ticket so I can tip on out." "Come on now." "Gentlemen." "I'll see to Tremaine." " You can't be serious." " Was you listening?" "Omar to one side holding a spade, and maybe Marlo to the other with a shovel." "And just at this moment," "I managed to crawl out my own damn grave." "No way do I crawl back in." "What the fuck was you doing out here, man?" "You trust him?" " I trust his fear." " Now we go, si?" "Not till I teach Prop Joe a thing or two about devious." "We on him now." "Sorry, guys, that's all I got to say." "Talk to the mom." "I hear you, but we just came from his foster mother's house, and she said it was you that told him not to talk." "She said you told her to get a lawyer." "That's right." "All right, look, something got messed up." "We know that, but whatever else happened, we got a murder here." "Even if it's off the record, it would help us just to talk to the boy." "If you understand what happened here, you know I'm not gonna do that." "If you go at it like that, then you end up siding with the motherfuckers doing the dirt." "No, I'm siding with my kids." "You're right." "You're right." "For you, the kids come first." "We'll find another road." "Well, glad this is working out for you." "Oh, man, you two... makin' me all weepy and shit." "Be safe, guys." "All right." "Hey, Roland, man, you know, I hate coming all this way and not getting a little something... you know, for old times' sake?" "The playground behind Fulton and Monroe, unit block." "He told this fella Lex to meet a girl there." "That's all he did." "What's up, Shorty?" "Can you give me three?" "Bitch, get the fuck across the street and plant your ass on a stoop." "Kenard!" "Yo, how do you think I look with no tail on my head?" "Do I look like a faggy?" "Yo, Na'." "Yo, Mrs. Lee, you looking for Michael?" "Um, Namond, I don't want to be no trouble to you, but I got this friend who been ailing, you know, and she gave me $6." "So I was hoping you could, you know..." "Yeah, we cover her." "Go see my man." "The fuck you do that for?" "It's Michael's moms, yo." "Shit, she a fucking dope fiend." "Namond said I could." "Na'?" "Naw, it's cool." "Gimme Yellow Bird." "All right, but you ain't got to be all up on me." "I know, I know!" "I'm late, you know?" "Sometimes it's just too much damn fun being in charge." "Where you been, boss?" "Announcing my presence with authority." "Sorry I'm late." "Please sit down." "Sit." "Sir, we scarfed up 52 vehicles." "Good." "But you missed my car." "We have new equipment at school 45, school 52, and school 58 installed." "Well, I got no calls on those, but keep at it." "You'll get there, I'm sure." "Mr. Mayor, all hydrants are fully capped as of today, and solid waste has pulled 32 tons of trash from the alleys, and, sir, that's a single-day record." "That's what I want to hear." "Thank you, gentlemen, and keep up the good work." "Finance, of course, doesn't deal with the dirt-under- the-nails tangibles, unless you consider the money itself to be dirty." " So what's in your agenda today?" " The school audit." "Well, how bad could that be?" "The system is running a $54 million deficit." "54 million?" "Yes, Mr. Mayor." "Jesus Christ." "Did Royce know this?" "How the fuck do we deal with that?" "Frankly, I'm not sure just yet." "Our attendance is excellent, and as to suspensions, we don't have any." "We intervene immediately, and we show success in stabilizing behavior." "Not to mention the world of good we're doing for the classes these kids were wrecking before the program." "In January we could expand to four classes, cover the whole eighth grade." "Any complaints about the tracking," " anything from the parents?" " Not a one." "This isn't a group where we see a lot of parental intervention." "What about test scores?" "I can't speak to the program itself, but it has to help the rest of the eighth grade." "Next week will tell." "Right now the system is under a lot of scrutiny." "We have certain fiscal issues that are of great concern to the new administration, and what you're proposing here is a radical shift in curricula." "Meaning?" "If City Hall were to sign off on this, we could go forward, but now is not the time to rock any boats." "Hear that?" "That's my joint right there." "So you all got your work up to date, right?" "Yeah yeah yeah." "I heard you took care of your puppy's problems." "Oh, he most definitely made that go away, you hear me?" "It's all good." "You know, some of the young'uns been saying your pup stood tall with a snitchin' boy." "Michael?" "Yeah, that's what they saying." " Huh." " Yeah." "Lester, you really starting to scare me, man." " Need a crowbar." " For what?" "This is a tomb." "Lex is in there." "Oh... fuck me."