Mary Yatti-Halfmann @041470790 March 21, 2012

Capitalism, Lies and Truths in Season Three of The Wire

"Its Baltimore, Gentlemen. The gods will not save you." Burrell Slow train coming. Reform, Lamar. Reform Brother Mouzone

In an April 2011 interview with Bill Moyers, The Wires David Simon commented that the people in the urban underclass of Baltimore have been ignored by institutions because theres no profit to be had in doing anything other than marginalizing them and discarding them. In Baltimore, market forces started a ripple effect that caused thousands of employees from Bethlehem Steel to lose their jobs, pensions, and health benefits most likely because their jobs had become obsolete. The grain tower that Frank Sabotka tried to save in season two was razed by developers who built luxury housing and renamed the area Silo Point. Yachts and power boats replaced shipping lines. Baltimore is no longer the same viable and vibrant economy it once was when Bethlehem Steel was at the top of its game. Some of the former jobs of the former union members, the longshoremen and the stevedores have been replaced (at least in West Baltimore) by criminal activity. In David Simons introduction to The Wire: Truth be Told, he writes that our economic and political leaders are dismissive of the horror, at points even flippant in their derision towards the bottom rungs of society. Simon points out that Margaret Thatchers suggestion that there is no society to consider beyond the individual and his family speaks to the contempt for the ideal of nation-states offering citizens anything approximating a sense of communal purpose and meaning. Season three addresses the belief that under capitalism, the only value recognized is money,
not people. For example, Stringer Bell learns too late in the game that he has been scammed out of 1

Mary Yatti-Halfmann @041470790 March 21, 2012

thousands of dollars by Senator Clay Daviss get-rich-quick scheme. Ironically, despite the writing on the wall and the fact that history usually repeats itself, several high-ranking Baltimore police commanders who fail to understand the money game find themselves replaced and in the case of Bunny Colvin, fired. Market forces also help to reshape and redefine or reorganize the drug industry. For example, Avon Barksdales drug organization goes down the tubes due to market forces and several of its members are incarcerated. America jails more of its citizens than in any other country in the world. David Simon suggests that we pretend to a war against narcotics, but in truth, we are simply brutalizing and dehumanizing an urban underclass that we no longer need as a labor supply. Money, not people matter in a capitalistic society because the only value that capital respects is money. The larger theme

of season three is to shine a light on the forces of capitalism that involves not only the incarceration of narcotics violators, but also the dehumanization of an urban underclass that society no longer relies on as a source of labor. In season three, there are several examples that serve as a lens through which the themes discussed above are examined. In the prologue to Simons The Wire: the Truth be Told, he writes that the ex-steelworkers and ex-longshoremen, street dealers and street addicts, and an army of young men [and women] hired to chase and jail the dealers and whores and johns that all of them are unnecessary and apart from the New Millennium economic model that a long time ago declared them irrelevant. Howard Bunny Colvin is a seasoned police officer who realizes that the system is broken when he says to Sergeant Ellis Carv Carver, Soldiering and Policing aint the same thing. Likewise, James Jimmy McNulty has an
existential crisis and admits to Kima, I feel like I don't even belong to any world that even fucking matters. Both Bunny and Jimmy feel that the society in which they live does not make sense to them.

Mary Yatti-Halfmann @041470790 March 21, 2012

There are market forces at work that prevent a world that takes care of those in the lower rungs in society. Inside the world of The Wire what does this mean for Howard Bunny Colvin, James Jimmy McNulty, and Russell Stringer Bell? It means that they are having after thoughts about the value of buying into the ideals of capitalism. Capitalism is a system of wealth distribution that acts in place of former systems such as feudalism and alternative systems such as communism. In reality, the current system of capitalism relies mostly on factors of money-making to the detriment of society and its human resources. For the most part, under capitalism, society as a whole does not care about the plight of the urban underclass. Dennis Cutty Wise, a reformed criminal is an excellent example of an individual who tries to make a difference in society when he sets up a boxing gym for neighborhood children. Wise gets together with Carv and both of them work together to use sports as a means to discourage youth away from dealing drugs. The childhood friends and drug partners Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell eventually part ways but not before doing each other in. Stringer believes that soldiers are expendable and just a cost of doing business whereas Avon lives by a code and respects family and Sundays. All trust is lost between the two friends. Avon hires brother Mouzone to murder Stringer Bell and Stringer tells the Baltimore police the location of the Barksdale organization. They both effectively wipe each other out of the game. Avon goes to prison and Stringer is murdered. Howard Bunny Colvin is a seasoned police officer who remembers the days when officers walked a beat and got to know the local citizens. He advises Carv that soldiering and policing aint the same thing (3.10), this drug thing, this aint police work. No, it aint. I mean, I can send any fool with a badge and a gun up on them corners and jack a crew and grab vials. But policing? I mean, you call

Mary Yatti-Halfmann @041470790 March 21, 2012

something a war and pretty soon everybody gonna be running around acting like warriors and eventually damn near everybody on every corner is your fucking enemy. And soon the neighborhood that youre supposed to be policing, thats just occupied territory (3.10). In the final episode of Season three, we see Detective James Jimmy McNulty happily back in uniform, walking a beat on the west side of Baltimore. He waves and smiles to the residents and he gives the appearance that he will settle in just fine with his new assignment. He never seemed to fit in or even care to understand the games played by various officers in the department. It seems he signed on to do policing and the force tried to make him into something he was not, a soldier. Policing is very different than soldiering. Soldiering implies taking a militant stance among the residents in a community. It also implies protecting the CEOs and kings of the institutions. Policing is taking a neutral and objective stance to provide service to all members in a society. Policing should involve serving and protecting the citizens of society. A major part of a police officers job involves law enforcement and solving crimes such as murder, rapes and robberies. In order to do that, Bunny believes that one has to be in touch with the community he or she works in. When walking a beat, a police officer gets to know the community and in turn, the community eventually communicates the criminal activity to the cop. The montage at the end of season three focuses on the important scenes in each episode. In every montage ending Ive seen so far there are boys standing on the corners and the game seems to continue. It seems that the writers of The Wire are making a statement that regardless of what happens in each season, the game continues on as if nothing has changed at the end of each day. It is only over a longer period of time that change is noticeable. Lamar asks Brother Mouzone why the towers were razed, Mouzone chuckles, Reform Lamar. Reform indicates that the forces of capitalism are again at work in Baltimore. It was hard to watch the ending and see that Poot and Avon are incarcerated. It was obvious that the entire Barksdale empire had crumbled and that the Avons sister

Mary Yatti-Halfmann @041470790 March 21, 2012

cant meet his gaze and disappears during his court hearing. It was interesting to watch Marlo meet and not avoid Avons gaze. It was as if even though Marlo is taking over Avons corners, he came to show his respect. Season three seemed more optimistic to me than the first two seasons. It seems that with people like Bunny, Cutty, and McNulty actually giving a damn when its not their turn, it is at least possible to contemplate a better world. In the prologue to The Wire: Urban Decay and American Television, David Simon says that The Wire and its stories are rooted in the ethos of a second-tier city, of a forgotten rust-belt America. Other first-tier cities such as New York have the capital and means to provide more police protection to all of its citizens. The murder percentage rate for a large city like New York is comparatively lower than the mid-sized Baltimore. New York has many viable profit-making industries whereas, Baltimore has few. Ive often heard that revolutions dont happen when people have enough to eat. I think that things look so bad today in America for so many people that a radical paradigm shift away from capitalism is bound to happen sooner than later. If there is any way for our society to redeem itself it would start with a revolution against the system of capitalism that has wrecked the cities such as Baltimore and work towards economies of caring. The only hope for a better society would be for others to follow the examples and philosophies of Cutty, McNulty, and Bunny.