Were Cheese and his boys strapped when Brother Mouzone shot him? I thought they made it a point not to carry weapons in the day to day.
Mouzone sat on the bench outside the towers for days just reading magazines with his bodyguard. Someone could have gotten him right there, if they wanted to. It would have been war then, but the East Side boys ran scared just because of his mere presence. Why, exactly? I feel like I’m missing something.
Well, Brother Mouzone had NYC connections. Maybe that was enough. The Baltimore crews didn’t know why Mouzone was hanging around, or who’d be pissed off if Mouzone was hit.
But I think it’s something else, something to do with leadership, power, charisma. Marlo, Avon, Stringer – they’ve all been in spots where someone could easily take them out. But what then? Chaos ensues. Who’s gonna be in charge?
Omar – I think he was protected by his legendary status. He was the neighborhood hero, and I think people liked having him around. Even the guys he robbed weren’t shamed by it because it was Omar who got to them.
Yea that’s one of the few unbelievable things in the show. Mouzone’s not even based in Baltimore, so it seems unlikely that he could have such a bad-ass rep there. And even so, he’d be pretty easy to cap in some of the situations he puts himself in. Omar also seems to be a bit exaggerated, as there are situations where he’s quite vulnerable as well (remember him, alone, shaking down a house full of dealers for their stash from the outside?). At least Omar has earned his celebrity status by being a constant presence; how has Mouzone earned his?
We didn’t see Avon come up, but wasn’t his grandfather a bigtime guy too? I doubt Avon exposed himself to much danger; the fact that he was never arrested before S1 indicates that he stayed well away from the mix. When Omar almost shot him, that was because Omar was able to trick him into going outside alone, thinking Wee-Bey paged him. Avon was never anywhere anyone could get to him-- houses without phones, in the county, or in Orlando’s, where people had to be waved upstairs to talk to him. He did not just sit around outside, waiting to get shot.
We rarely see Stringer outside his territory either, since mixing it up in the street is not his style. He is always surrounded by his own guys, until he’s lured into the trap that kills him. I might be misremembering this; I know he goes into the Pit to talk to DeAngelo and Bodie, but that doesn’t seem to be a high risk situation for him.
Marlo started as a corner man, it seems, and worked his way up through smarts and ruthlessness. Someone could have taken him out in that time, but once he reached Avon status, again, very protected.
Omar does not go out alone in public except to safe places, like Butchie’s. Remember when he was holed up with that junkie girl and her baby? He gives away free drugs and people love him for it, so they do favors for him, like shelter him, probably get him food, etc., so he doesn’t have to put himself a risk by running around outside a lot. He wears a bulletproof vest and is always armed when he does go out. He also has a crew that does jobs with him. I don’t remember him sticking up a stash alone (which isn’t to say it didn’t happen, but I don’t recall it)-- he seems to always work with at least one other person, if not 2 or 3.
But I think he could have sat around, at least until Omar went after him. And Omar didn’t go after him until it got personal. Nobody wanted to disrupt the business by taking out the guys in charge. When the series started, Avon and the other leaders were all about keeping things peaceful so the cops would leave them alone. Later, when the war started with Marlo, that’s when Avon had to go to ground.
And he went to see Marlo, and he spent most of his days in his print shop. Again, because (I think) the big guys had a measure of safety just because of who they were.
Protected by Chris and Snoop, who could have turned on him and taken over, but they knew they weren’t smart enough, and they were content to be soldiers.
He wasn’t armed when he went out for his Honey Nut Cheerios. 
The only time I saw him wear a vest was when he was in jail and wrapped himself up in the road atlas.
windwalker, I think the fact that Brother Mouzone was unknown was part of his protection. Who is this bad ass muthafucka? Who’s he connected to?
Didn’t Avon tell Joe that he if ever came to the West Side for anything other than a basketball game, he’d light his ass up? I think they’re safe in their own territory, but not really anywhere else.
Did anyone know about the print shop? They didn’t know about the funeral home either. Those seem like safe places to me. I think Stringer Bell had some delusions about the drug trade being a business-- CEO’s don’t get shot, right?
I think this is my point-- protected by people who acknowledge their authority and know they’d gain nothing in a coup. The people who stage coups are people like Stringer Bell, who think they could do a better job than the Boss. Most people realize they couldn’t.
I’ve just rewatched S2 and started S3, and Omar always has a vest on when he does the stick up jobs, under his trench coat.
I didn’t take that seriously. Maybe I should have, but to me, it sounded like trash talk.
I don’t think anyone cared where the Barksdale organization had their HQ. It doesn’t matter, unless you’re at war. We didn’t see any of them looking for each other until the war started.
Yep, but until the war started, did they really need all that protection? I think part of the reason Avon and Stringer stayed away from the pit and the corners was to preserve their status, not because they were worried about someone coming after them.
I’m remembering that slo-mo scene when Stringer and Avon go to the pit to talk to Bodie. It was a huge deal, sorta like when the CEO visits one of the stores.
I don’t remember that! Cool! Another excuse to rewatch those seasons.
It probably was said in the heat of the moment, when Avon’s team was losing yet again. I’m not sure what would happen if Prop Joe decided to walk the streets of West Baltimore. Not that he ever would.
Daniels’ detail sure did. That’s who they really need protection from, and that’s why Avon and Stringer disassociate themselves from the corner boys, the money, and the stash. It’s why they don’t talk on the phone, why they hide their HQ. They’re always at war with the law.
I really think they stayed out of the day to day so that they could never be busted with guns, drugs, or money. Think about it-- Avon had no police record! Pretty amazing, considering what he was into, and his whole family in it too. That dude was careful as hell. Was it all fear of the police? Any fear of assassination? I’m not sure. The only person we see taking shots at Avon and Stringer is Omar, so maybe not, though security is always tight on Avon, even in S1.
From TWOP, on the question of captains. The article is from August 2002. Art imitates life?
From the article: “We do know it’s costing the city more than ever before, since Norris has eliminated the lowest command rank of captain (by promoting the last two remaining captains to the rank of major) and added seven lieutenant colonel positions; meanwhile, the number of majors was only reduced from 29 to 24. And as Norris continues promoting people, questions continue to arise about some of those newly anointed to join the higher ranks.”
I’ve just been rewatching the series, and Omar does in fact go on a solitary shakedown in S1. It’s that scene where he’s walking down the street with his trusted shottie and everyone’s yelling “OMAR! Omar’s comin!” and all the kids start running inside, and the dealers retreat to their stashhouse. Omar goes to the stashhouse and says something like “Don’t make me go all huff & puff on yo asses”, even though there are like 5-6 guys in the stash house, and one of them even claims to have a (i think) MAC-10 (submachine gun?). So Omar’s alone, facing a locked house full of dealers, and with his back and flank totally unprotected. Seems like a perfect opportunity to knock off this brazen stick-up boy, but instead the stash house dealers just toss him a garbage bag full of street-ready dope and the big bad wolf goes on his merry way.
It struck me as a bit over the top, but I guess within hand-waving range if you factor in Omar’s legendary status. It’s possible that they thought his back-up was hidden just out of sight, waiting for one of them to make a wrong move… I can imagine them figuring that the Great Omar’s not dumb enough to try and pull this shit off solo.
Oh yeah, I remember that now. Am I right in thinking it was just post-Brandon and Omar kinda had a death wish right then, he was feeling so bad? Also, the job just prior to that, he shot that kid in the leg for giving him a hard time, so they must have been pretty scared. They don’t get paid enough to get shot for the stash, ya figure.
I agree that Brother Mouzone always seemed a bit forced and over-the-top to me. One of the few times when The Wire actually seems like a TV show rather than a documentary. (One of the others is the famous scene where the only dialog is “fuck”, which I never really cared for, but many people adore.)
He sure wasn’t the typical hired gun, was he? I expected something totally different when Avon talked about bringing in some muscle from New York. Unless someone like that really existed, yeah, he might be considered cinematic.
I just watched the S4 finale again last night, and this morning. I’m trying to stay out of the spoiler thread at TWOP, because apparently it’s full of S5 spoilers! (Imagine that.) All I’ve heard about it is that critics who’ve seen the first five episodes are saying it’s great.
FYI, the first episode of season 5 is available On Demand already.
I’m not going to watch until it’s aired on Sunday. I prefer to see it in HD and to make my Sunday night something special to look forward to.
I think Mouzone’s attitude and demeanor are believable enough, it’s just that he doesn’t act very strategically for such a bad-ass character. He should not be parking his ass on a bench all day reading; that’s just asking for some Eastside punk to back-cap hisself. He should not be letting Stringer know where he’s staying; if Omar’s good enough to keep his residence unknown, Mouzone should be too.
I disagree: Mouzone gets his power from being fearless and implacable. If you come at him and miss, you will die. That’s why no eastside punks are willing to take him on–if they try and fail, they’ll die. That’s not true when one punk takes a shot at another on a corner–as we’ve seen, people miss a lot, and usually the foiled attacker runs away to fight another day. Mouzone’s sitting out in the open and not hiding his residence is an extension of that fearlessness–life just isn’t that precious to him, which makes him even more scary–given a choice between revenge and survival, he will take revenge.
This is why Stringer (who is no idiot) feels comfortable sending Omar after Mouzone. They both have a very similiar code, and since they do, it seems impossible that both will survive the encounter–it’s a win-win for Stringer. What he didn’t forsee was a momment of understanding between them, and as soon as that happened he was fucked. Stringer has no code, and so has no protection from people that do.
That’s a good point; no one wants to be the one guy to test the “just shoot him in the back” plan, since if you fuck it up, you’ve got one determined heavy hitter on your ass. I still think Mouzone’s a little bit Hollywood, but it’s not too absurd.
By the way, I’m just watching S3 right now. and I’m again very appreciative at the attention to detail paid by the writers. In S2, when Nicky Sobotka and Sergei went to see Prop Joe about getting Ziggy’s debt with Cheese rescinded, they were all bitching about idiots in the family. Prop Joe made some throwaway comment about how many fuck-ups in the family he’s had to carry, but there was no follow-up in S2.
Flash forward back to S3, Mcnulty and company are up on one of Prop Joe’s nephews (Drac) phone, and they discover that Drac is indeed a fuck-up, talking way too much on the damn phone. They try to get Drac promoted by busting the guy above him, but it doesn’t work, because (as we heard a season ago!) Prop Joe is aware of how much of a fuck-up his nephew is and promotes someone else.
Damned good writing.
Remembering that Drac is such a fuck-up, I was a bit worried that he had even a small part to play in Omar stealing the shipment in S4. I think all he did was make the phone call. He didn’t even have to say anything, but I was still worried. What if he dialed the wrong number?
Smart of Prop Joe to use him though, because he was able to tell Marlo that he couldn’t give him up, he was family. That might not stop Marlo though.
Wasn’t there a good Prop Joe line about killing family? “Makes things uncomfortable at Thanksgiving”? Something like that.
We just finished watching Season 4 earlier this week, and I’ve been avoidng this thread until now so I wouldn’t get spoiled. We subscribed to HBO just for Season 5. I loved Homicide back when it was on (except the pitiful final season), and am blown away by how good The Wire is. It’s the yardstick by which I will measure the relative quality of all other shows, forever.