1000 Best The Wire Quotes

Monique Rowlands — July 8, 2023

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: What, we don't have enough love in our hearts for two wars?

- Typed and ready for your John hancock.
- Thanks.
- Sure.

- Anyway, he's cooking his own dinner now.
- What about with you and your wife?
- What happened?
- She died.
- Not now, Gus. I'm good.
- Whatever you say, Jimmy.
- So, you about ready to go?
- Sure.
- Be right back. I just gotta make a call.

- Here you go, sir. Tommy carcetti, running for mayor.
- Good luck, Tommy.
- You got my vote.
- Thanks. Tommy carcetti. Here you go.
- Good luck, councilman.
- How you doing?
- Tommy carcetti, running for mayor.
Norman Wilson: Ok, councilman, time to hit the West Side.

- Lieutenant marimow will be taking over major crimes.
- If you need to brief him, do so promptly.
- Yes, sir.
- Jimmy, how's that beach house coming?
- Beach... um, fine, sir...
- Great. Sounds great.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: If white boys wanna sell drugs in Baltimore, they have to make different laws for it, like even it out for 'em.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Affirmative action.
Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Leave no white man behind.

- How can we fix it? You want money?
- Money?
- Yeah, this is business.
- Business is where you are now.
- But what got you here is your word and your reputation.
- With that alone, you've still got an open line to New York.
- Without it, you're done.

- Crew that up. Run that shit.
- You get the points on that shop.
- Then we got this other thing.
- Yo, if I ain't stepping on nothing, who was that we dropped for you, yo?
- Bug's daddy.
- Word?

- Yo. I got some downtown suits who wanna holler at you real quick.
- Ah, shit. Takin' me to see suits?
- I'm tryin' to see some skirts.

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: You're holding me to a high standard! I mean, Moses - Jesus, Reverend...
Jen: Tommy!
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: I'm sorry. I can't believe I said that.
Reverend: [laughing] Moses will do for now. We'll save Jesus for your second term.

Dep. Comm. for Operations William A. Rawls: If they work for me, they need my OK. Good news is I got no problem with anyone on your list. Except McNulty. No McNulty. Nothing that even resembles the son-of-a-bitch.
Lt. Cedric Daniels: That bad, huh?
Dep. Comm. for Operations William A. Rawls: He quits or he drowns. That's the only two things getting him off the fucking boat so help me God.

Bubbles: No offense, son, but that's some weak-ass thinking. You equivocating like a motherfucker.

- Some of the men, too.
- They don't even want to go there.
- You think 'cause you're gay?
- I don't know.
- But is there any other fucking way to police?
- All I know is I just love the job.
- That'll be 3.20.
- Keep the change.
- Thanks, have a nice day.

- Ok. See you later.
- I go in there now, you know what that makes me?
- Some asshole politician who's running for office.
Norman Wilson: Watkins. 40th district.
- You call the reporters?
- All three channels and the sun.

- But the fucking hoodleheads ain't hearing it, so I getjumped.
- They're holding Princess for fuckin' ransom.
- And they're telling me if I don't have the money by Friday, they're gonna kill me.
- I need 2,700.
- So? You're a drug dealer, go sell some fuckin' drugs.
- You fucked up the package, didn't you, zig?

- 45 minutes later, another call.
- This one from the same pay phone that went to d'Angelo's pager to start the whole thing off.
- This is the murder here.
- This first number, the one they sent to d'Angelo.
- I'm thinking this comes from a pay phone over by the Greek's.

Maurice: Why should we believe your testimony then? Why believe anything you say?
Omar: That's up to y'all, really.

- Get us killed.
- He hurt your feelings?
- A little bit.
- Shit.
- Hit it yeah yeah...

- Death row here.
- Ain't up.
- Death row.

- I don't even think on that car no more.
- You put it behind you, huh?
- Some can.
- I'm just saying, you wanna stay on the straight, ain't gonna be no big reward to it.
- This is it, right here.
- Prime that bitch three times.
- She'll start right up.

- Yeah.
- Ooh!
- Base to 11-34.
- Target number two is coming at your 20.
- Copy that. We're on it good.

- Want a check, go the fuck up rosemont.
- Come on, man, I'll work for it.
- Na', I took you on out of respect for your father, all right, but I can't go hirin' the whole damn neighborhood.
- You can have my job until you get enough for you an' bug.
- Thanks, man.
- Yeah, work for y'all, work for me, yo.
- Po-po. Step the fuck off.

- keep him in the hole in the hole down in the hole down in the hole keep him in the hole keep him in the...
- Down in the hole down in the hole keep him in the hole keep him in the...
- Down in the hole down in the hole

- What the fuck was that?
- Huh?
- You take a nigger's money, then you serve him? What the fuck?
- I'm saying, take their money, then send them round and let some other nigger serve.
- The way you doing it, someone snapping pictures got the whole deal. You hear?
- We got to tighten up around here, yo.

- It was this nigger, I saw him. Get the fuck up.
- All right, listen, I'm sorry.
- Fuck that.
- Motherfucker burned us for $30.
- Take him to Franklin Avenue and throw his ass onto the motherfucking expressway.
- All right, listen, I'm fucking sorry.
- I fucked up, man.
- What you got on you?
- Just the 10 I dropped, man, the real one.

- Deputy rawls, please.
- It's lieutenant hoskins at the hall.

[Drac] They caught lavell with a whole ounce.
- Might not be no bail for that much weight.
- They might take it federal, run wild on they ass.
- And Joey gotta give lavell's corner to someone, right?
- Might be my turn.
- Our boy won't shut up.
- Caroline, you say that like it's a bad thing.
- Let's just hope we're listening to a candidate for elevation.

- Decisions, decisions.
- Would it be wrong to take two?
- Attaboy.
- We should get upstairs.
- Nothing but paint pigments.
[Man] Trust me, old friend. It's there.

- really, the thing to do is just to ask for it.
- All I do is put money in your pocket and make sure you don't stray from the nest!
- Sit down. The last motherfucking thing I need is for the clean name on my liquor license to be dirtied the fuck up by you.
- You understand that, right?
- Avon, come on, man. Come on, avon.

- Well... you just tell him his friend Clay got the council president to UN-ass a salary bump for the police commissioner.
- You tell him...
- Write this down, now.
- You tell him that senator Davis has his interests at heart.
- Right. Thanks.

- 'I hope you all copy that.' that puts us about eight blocks away.
- I'm pushing in a little closer.
- All units be advised.
- Wan/vick near longwood in the north side alley. Or near that 20.
Kima's Friend: 'This got the right feel for you?'
- You creeping closer?

- ♪ when the thunder rolls
- ♪ we just gotta keep the devil
- ♪ way down in the hole
- ♪ down in the hole
- ♪ down in the hole
- ♪ you gotta help me keep the devil

Stringer: That's good. That's like a 40-degree day. Ain't nobody got nothing to say about a 40-degree day. Fifty. Bring a smile to your face. Sixty, shit, niggas is damn near barbecuing on that motherfucker. Go down to 20, niggas get their bitch on. Get their blood complaining. But forty? Nobody give a fuck about 40. Nobody remember 40, and y'all niggas is giving me way too many 40-degree days! What the fuck?
Sapper: [a few minutes later when Stringer is done talking] We on that shit like a Forty Degree Day!

- B and b.
- Hello?

- As a pervert, this report is gonna make you a bpd legend.
- I can't perjure myself. I gotta explain it.
- You have violated a half-dozen departmental regs right there.
- And no state's attorney is gonna bring this into court.
- The girls are being deported.
- We did the raid just to tickle the wire.
- There were two of them. I was outnumbered.

- or some shit, I don't know.
- See, but me?
- I like me a town car.
- Man look quiet and correct in one of them.
- So, I tell you what - you win this, you be sure to pick one up for yourself, son.

- Now, when we're up on their code, we're gonna need more manpower to run down a stash or a re-up.
- We can't do it all.
- I can'tjuke this thing any more than I have.
- Last night, half the police department turned up at Oscar's crime scene before I could get there.
- We can't make another murder.

Russell: Yo, Rock.
Sean: Huh?
Russell: Be subtle with it, man.
[pauses]
Russell: You know what subtle means?
Sean: Laid back and shit.

- All right?
- That's fucked up, yo.
- You got any paper on you?
- Man, fuck if I know.
- These police out here knew how to flip it even just a little, my shit would be in handcuffs. You know?
- They don't know shit. Damn!

- Those are for reservations.
- Let me get your chair for you, ma'am.
- It's ok, man, all right.
- Here you are.
- Here you are, sir.
- Your waiter will be with you shortly.
- You shoulda pushed him, d.

- I can't believe he wants us to knock.
- You can't qush guns, can you?
- What about if they open up on us?
- These guys are at war with another crew.
- We go charging in there, chances are we will get lit up.

- But you ain't done shit else so what are you gonna do?
- I don't know.
- But it can't be this.
- All right, then. We straight.
- See you.
- See you.

- Cos he's ok, you know?
- I mean, he's better than me.
- Got himself a couple of prosthetic mitts, eighty thousand apiece.
- Wow.
- What happened next?
- Nothing really.
- We pushed out, secured the perimeter.
- Corpsman did what he could, an' we waited for the casevac.

- than a bad headline now, is there?
- You'd rather live in shit than let the world see you work a shovel.
- You can order warrants, and I'll serve them.
- But as long as I have days left on those dead wires, this case goes on.

- Why you run from ship, huh?
- What the fuck that supposed to mean?
- Ahh.
- They got him in Philadelphia.
- He jumped when the coast guard was gonna hold the ship.
- What is he?
- Sergei says he looks like an arab.

- Stony got that check.
- Slow down, fool.
- You need to spend that shit here.
- Death grip be the fucking bomb, yo.
- I ain't got no ends.
- Motherfucker said it ain't shit.
- No, I ain't say that.
- That's enough, yo, let that shit be.
- Fuck you all.
- Yeah, motherfucker?

- Whoa.
- They got latroy.
- What the fuck is y'all on the streets for?
- There's a fucking war going on.
- Get the fuck in the truck, man.

- we just gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- Down in the hole down in the hole you gotta help me keep the devil down in the hole

- That floater showing up in your dreams?
- No, it's not just her.
- Who am I, captain chesapeake?
- I need to get off that boat, bunk.
- I need to do a case.
- I mean, if I'm not gonna...
- If I'm no good for...

- That's the second crib of mine they cracked this week.
- Stir up a hornet's nest, no telling who gonna get stung.
- All paranoid and shit.
- Gotta be.

Omar: The cheese stands alone.
Renaldo: This the drop?
- I hope not, 'cause they ain't called yet.
- Make me feel bad toward old prop Joe.
- Go around where we can see y'all.
- Vamonos, renaldo.

- If you want it to go away...
- If you wanna bring in someone else, maybe do things differently.
- You looking for the back door, lieutenant? Already?
- Mcnulty says this case needs a wire.
- You think he's right?
- It needs somethin'.

- Have your people deal with Daniels.
- Right.
- You gonna send your man mcnulty?
- Tell him about chain-of-command.
- Tell him yourself, he's dead to me.

- This is fucking great.
- Get somebody who reads lips, this motherfucker's history.
[Other officer] Is this legal
- I mean, intercepting what they're saying?
- Don't go freamon on me.
- Shit. I got to run.
- What about some fucking relief?
- I been here all morning!

- but if they get him and flip him,
- Clay might take half the Royce administration with him.
- You included, maybe.
- Don't you worry about me. You, on the other hand, just slammed the door on the feds when we need all the help we can get.
- That's on them.

- come on, come, kiddy come, come walk on gilded splinters
- Come on, come, kiddy come, come you cannot be out here.
- Y'all need to find something constructive to do with yourselves. Go on.
- Walk on gilded splinters

- You know what they say about the man who volunteers to take the back?
- He buys.
- B&o tavern, tonight at nine, son.
- I throw myself out after one.
- Shit.
- You don't believe me, ask bunk.
- True.

- Come on, sweetheart.
- Bust your ass outta here.
- It's still Maryland but if y'all don't take that shit to hamsterdam tomorrow, next time it's West Virginia.
- That little star there across from the Dipper, that's north.
- You wanna go the other way.

- it ain't in me no more.
- All right. So you done soldiering but we could use you for what you've got in your head.
- We're gonna put you on a corner...
- No, man.
- I ain't making myself clear.
- The game ain't in me no more. None of it.

- Fuck you, krawczyk.
- Yeah, fuck you, greedhead motherfucker.
- Fuck you for tearing down the port of Baltimore and selling it to some yuppie assholes from Washington.
- C'mon, buddy.
- This is bullshit.
- Who the hell's that?
- That's nobody, Mr. Mayor. It's nobody at all.

- If anyone is suggesting that
- I've broken chain of command, that I've gone behind your back, that I've lobbied against you in any way, they're lying.
- I don't know who told the newspaper that, but they were lying when they said it.
- Yeah.
- Respectfully, sir, I don't know where this shit is coming from.

- Oh, you funny.
- Yeah, I guess I'm on your package.
- Where the boy at
- Michael?
- He ain't no regular.
- He's just working off a debt.
- Why? Why you care?
- Never mind you why.
- "Why" ain't in your repertoire, nigger.

- and one day in October.
- One day?
- After that, they don't lose the government money, so we done with it.
- Nah, man. School is school.
- Yeah, well, I'm just trying to school you, brother.
- All right, which one of y'all still need your September day?
- Get it over with now, we won't be messing with y'all later.

- and up pops marlo's cellphone.
- Why aren't we fired?
- Why aren't we in fucking bracelets?
- I don't know.
- Oh, shit, Lester.
- We gotta get outta here. We gotta think this thing through. Jesus fucking Christ.
- Look, meet me down at kavanagh's in ten minutes, all right?

- you effect a search of officer tilghman's vehicle, locker and person, we are confident evidence will be recovered.
- You're confident?
- As far as doc is concerned, this is a fair deal if it takes the overdoses off our plate.
- But if we come up empty on this...
- You won't.
- Five will get you ten, that's the motherfucker that spiked the packages.
- You have proof of this? Then we make the case that's there for us to make.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Think again about what the fuck you doin'.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Bunk, this can work. It can!
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Fuck you. I mean that.
[McNulty pulls out a flask of whiskey and takes a pull]
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [disgusted] Oh, Jimmy, four in the fuckin' morning?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [looking at his watch] Oh, so it is.
[he sets the flask down, but Bunk snatches it away]
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [gesturing to the open case files in front of him] All of these? Homeless murders from the last five years. Everything before that is on microfilm, but we got enough right here...
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Jimmy...
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: ...most of it open. We don't do so well with homeless killings. Transient locales, no nearest, no dearest, no one who gives a fuck. Cases stay open forever!
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You goin' to jail behind this shit. Yes, you are. You know what they do to police in jail? Pretty police like yourself? Muthafucka, we have kids. Houses. Car payments. Furniture. Jimmy, I just bought brand-new lawn chairs and a glass patio table. Now, you don't buy no shit like that if you plannin' to lose your job and go to prison. You won't even get past the M.E.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Watch me.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You're dumpin' murders on us that we can't solve, you're fuckin' the squad's clearance rate.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Oh, fuck the fuckin' numbers already! The fuckin' numbers destroyed this fuckin' department! Landsman and his clearance rate can suck a hairy asshole.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Marlo ain't worth it, man, nobody is.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Marlo's an asshole! He does not get to win, WE get to win! This case doesn't go away just 'cause the bosses can't find the money to pay for it! These are fuckin' murders! Ghetto murders, but still! I came back outta the Western to work this case 'cause they said it would be worked. I came back out on a promise, and they're gonna keep that promise... whether they know it or not.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: I'm gonna tell Landsman. Yeah. You keep on with it, I'm gonna rat you out.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Well, you do what you gotta do.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [sighing] My name is nowhere in the file. I don't want fuck to do with this.
[Bunk gets up to leave]
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Hey, Bunk.
[he motions with his hand; Bunk resignedly hands back the flask to McNulty and leaves]

- Man, narcos might come back.
- They might. But until they do, this your corner to hold.
- What about marlo's crew?
- Look, avon's home and you on a barksdale corner.
- You feel me?
- Avon ain't here now.
- You got muscle.
- Don't worry about that, little man.

Lamar: What happened to all them towers?
Brother: Slow train coming.
Lamar: Huh?
Brother: Reform, Lamar. Reform!

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Cool Lester Smooth... hey, what's happenin'?
Det. Lester Freamon: Same fuck-ups in the same shit detail, workin' out of the same shithouse kind of office. You people lack for personal growth, you know that?

Norman Wilson: [quote after opening credits] Don't try this shit at home.

- it'll be a federal magistrate down the courthouse deciding things.
- Take the opportunity to elect new officers, or the us attorney will padlock the door.
- And you'll be outside, looking in.
[Man] Assholes.
- One man, one vote.

- Fuck you, you thieving, Greek cunt.
- Malaka!
[Speaks Greek] You don't know that one, chief. But you know malaka, yes?
- Now you know malaka with dress.

- Told you.
- Yo, he still in there?
- Yeah, he's playing the games.
- All right. You sharp, son. What's your name?
- Wallace.
- Wallace, all right.
- This nigger's gonna point him out to us, all right?

- Anyone from your cid working this?
- Nope.
- There was an argument overjurisdiction and your colonel made everybody mad.
- All you get is me.
- Still on hold?
- We can call this in from the road.
- You with city homicide?
- You must know Jimmy mcnulty.
- Yeah, he's dead to us.

- See? We're right here.
- And a very good evening to you, officer colicchio.
- Fuck yourself with a 40, shitbreath.
- What the fuck was all that about?
- You can't bust every head, Tony.
- I can't?
- Bust every head, who are you gonna talk to when shit happens?

- 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.

- Get up in this house before I beat the black off your ass.
- Get up in here, fool. Come on.
- Treena.
- Treena. Wait for me. I'm-a come back out.
- Stay right here. Don't move.
Woman: Come on, girl.

- well, you don't have to worry if you hold on to Jesus' hand we'll all be safe from Satan when the thunder rolls we just gotta keep the devil way down in the hole

- I was glad that you found her.
- Mmm, I was glad for her, even.
- For a while there, you were happier than I've ever seen you.
- She's great.
- She is.
- Don't do this.

- 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... [Clicks fingers]
- There she blow.

- What happened to all them towers?
- Slow train coming.
- Huh?
- Reform, Lamar. Reform.

- Floor framing plan, including load criteria.
- Piping layouts.
- Six copies of your fire protection plan with emergency exits and sprinkler system noted.
- Health department since it's a health service.
- A license from the state athletic commission up on calvert street.

- Whatever you see.
- And a carton of newports.
[Kid] Omar comin'.
- Hey, y'all, here he come.
- Omar, Omar.
- Omar strollin'.

- Either he comes home in the next five minutes, or I eat my gun.
- I'm just saying, this is not the way me and you learned how to do it in west Baltimore.
- Not by a fucking long shot!

- That's where I'm headed.
- Jesus.
- Listen to yourself!
- Upstairs wouldn'tjump on a real serial killer - fuckin' marlo, who's got bodies all over him.
- Maybe they need the make-believe.
- Yeah, maybe you're the asshole just lost his fucking mind.

- I think we're going with a different direction on this.
- Thank you for your time.
- West Baltimore is dying and you empty suits are running around trying to pin some politician's pelt to the wall.
- Thought you was real police, brother.

- Yo, what's up?
- What you got?
- Family affair, two-for-one, you up?
- Nah, not me.
- All right.

- Yeah, it's in the Van, in the garage in the back of 2249 polk street.
- The key gonna be in the cinderblock.
- You steal this much, and this ain't over.
- This ain't over.

- Yeah. Kleppner sure do like to hire them sweet, young things.
- 23, 24 years old, model-thin. Long, straight hair and big traffic-light eyes.
- And half of them can't write a lick, can they?
- Yeah, our esteemed managing editor. Certainly does favor a certain type, don't he?
- Gentlemen...
- Question Mark.
- Someday, I want to find out what it feels like to work for a real newspaper.

- Before they disappear.
- Look at this poor sucker.
- I don't believe we're gonna do this.
- He disappears, the city goes batshit.
- You get your photo intercepts, and when we need to run down one of marlo's re-ups, you got all the manpower you need.
- And marlo falls.
- Falls hard.

- so for now, stringer bell's jacket belongs in narcotics.
- Man took you off a boat, Jimmy.
- He want to peel his unit off, his unit, Jimmy, and go after the target of his choice, baby, it's his call.
- Lester, I thought you were all about the best case possible.
- When it's there, I am.

- Fuck!
- Officer, what are you doing?
- What, you need bifocals or something?
- What?
[Radio] 0-9. I'm responding.
- 16, 200 north.
- I'm gonna need your name.
- I'm very sorry, ma'am, all right?
- Give me that.

- But how the hell am I supposed to trust you?
[Boy] Mom, quick, it's a spider.
- It's a big, hairy one.
- Oh, my gosh.
- Come on, mom.
- It's a big hairy spider.
- Where?
- You mean the one that's on your leg!

- I gotta ask you.
- If every time snotboogie would grab the money and run away...
- Why'd you even let him in the game?
- What?
- If snotboogie always stole the money, why'd you let him play?
- Got to. This america, man.

- The sun says an Anderson
- State Senate seat is up for grabs.
- Fuck that, you could go after ruppersberger in the second.
- He's only got one term.
- I'm gonna run for mayor.
- That's good. Mayor Tommy.
[Man] Is she in the rightjoint?

- I can't believe...
- Where's the kid now?
- Home.
- Let me go give this to the night commander.
- We'll park a plain-clothes 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.

- I thought you was gonna go shopping.
- We round-the-clock with surveillance.
- Uh... when do we get to the part where you do all kind of shit for me?
- When do we get to that part?
- So you past the point of lifting a grocery bag or two?
- You try being me like this.

- What's that guy doing?
- Shit.
- Here.
- I can't.
- No, you saved my ass.
Johnny: It's appreciated, you know.
- Yo, bubs, you won't fuckin' believe this.
- Bubs.

- Tell your boy to wrap up that bullshit detail in two weeks.
- He does that, he comes home, clean slate.

- Say "Omar".
[Quietly] Omar.

- I seen chunky, chunky coates.
- He gets his money same way everyone does.
- He fills out applications, checks the plans, then prays like hell.
- This is an old game in this town.
- And Clay Davis?
- That ganef was born with his hand in someone's pocket.
- I just wish you'd run it by me sooner.

- I don't understand.
- He was one of my best welterweights.
- Why would he just quit like that?
- Why don't you ask his moms?
- Well, shit. I was locked up a good while, right.
- I mean, I ain't no angel.
- No. You ain't that.

Sgt. Ellis Carver: The young man seems to think highly of you boss. He invoked your name with a measure of respect.
Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: It wasn't but a few weeks ago when I was in a room with him being called everything but a child of God. "Mr Colvin sir, fuck you."
Namond: Yo at least I said mister.

Lt. Cedric Daniels: You rather live in shit than the world see you work a shovel.

- I've done my warm-ups, coach.
- Yeah, we ready for the ring.
- Take care, man.
- Why we stopping here?
- I thought we was going straight out.
- Gotta get with your escort out.
- Prop Joe said you was my escort out.
- Manner of speaking, that be true.

D'Angelo: He's saying that the past is always with us, and where we come from, what we go through, how we go through it, all this shit matters. I mean, that's what I thought he meant.
Book: Go ahead.
D'Angelo: Like at the end of the book, you know, boats and tides and all. It's like you can change up, right, you can say you somebody new, you can give yourself a whole new story. But, what came first is who you really are and what happened before is what really happened. And it don't matter that some fool say he different cuz the only thing that make you different is what you really do, what you really go through. Like, ya know, like all them books in his library. He frontin with all them books, but if you pull one down off the shelf, ain't none of the pages ever been opened. He got all them books, and he ain't read near one of 'em. Gatsby, he was who he was, and he did what he did. And cuz he wasn't ready to get real with the story, that shit caught up to him. I think, anyway.

- Rod.
- Got it.
- Here. Hold on to that.
- Yeah. I know this one.

- 13 of 'em. They had about a third of that space hidden behind a fake wall.
- A few flashlights, some junk food, some water.
- A portable toilet they had to share.
- And not enough air.

- That I had something to do with it,
- I could do that to my own kin?
- Is that what you fucking think?
- What the fuck is in your head?
- I didn't do nothing to Dee.
- I ain't had shit to do with it.
- To do with what?
- To do with what?
- Whatever happened.
- Whatever it is that happened, Brianna.

- It's not funny, Cedric!
- Those subpoenas went out today!
- The front office is gonna go batshit!
- But you did it anyway.
- I'm sorry, but shit, I'm just glad to see
- Lester doing it to somebody other than me.

- Hmm.
- When they kill the stickup boy they dumped the body in the alley behind where this kid and the other low-rise hoppers lay their heads. Can you imagine?
- All he can think about.
- You tell him he's gonna have to testify?
- Not yet, we'll get there.
- Problem is, what do I do with him now?

- you got a Johnny weeks up in here?
- Who?
- Johnny weeks.
- Over in the game room.
- Obliged.
- Any smokes?
- I'm out.
[Man] You gotta give the medication a chance to work in your system, man.
[Woman on TV] 'Isn't that great?'

- Fuck.
- Shit!

Avon: Fucked up, man. Ay... y'all ask me y'all ugly ass niggas shouldn't be in here fuckin' around with all these guns and shit...

- Tend to go to that one pay phone in the courtyard a little too much.
- Jesus.
- He's lit at 9:00 in the morning?
- Or from the night before.
- Detective.
- Detective polk.

- Brought home some crabs.
- I already made dinner.
- Put 'em in the fridge.
- Cold for lunch tomorrow, if you like.
- I can't eat 'em all.

- He'd be 13 now. Nickname of ej.
- Could be his initials.
- Who is he to us?
- He's the lead of our opening-day piece.
- I'd love to get art on the kid.
- Don't hold your breath.
- It's a hell of a case, really.
- And god knows they could use the help.

- I got a job too.
- Word?
- With bodie. I'm movin' the package.
- You wanna go in on it with me?
- You sure? We could work together.
- Nah, man, that's your thing.
- Go do what you do.
- Yeah, a'ight. I'm gonna holler at you.

- Three go in and one come out.
- Better odds.
- We're gonna wait on it, though.
- They'll get better still.
- If not tonight, then the next.
- You're a patient man.
- Him too.

- My guess is barksdale never touches a cellphone.
- Safe house might be our best shot.
- All right.
- We stay on the wires until this batch of burners goes dead, hoping we have barksdale.
- But meanwhile, we get a warrant for that safe house and wait on him there.

- Hey. I'm getting ready to go now.
- No, mee-maw, you know I can't.
- Times like these, honey, you have to shine.
- In your face, in your clothes, and in your pocket. Now, go on.
- Make sure you get something to eat.
- Go on, now.

- I need a lab unit and a dpw crew with a jackhammer.
- 'A jackhammer?'
- Gonna keep a bit of road, kga.
- Alive. In the or.
- My people at the scene have heard this.
- It's a copy of the original.
- We brought a machine... where the fuck is...
- Sir.
- Here it is.

- Betrayal and conspiracy sacrilege and heresy
- I feel all right
- I feel all right tonight
- I feel all right
- I feel all right tonight

- All right, I'll tell him.
- Oh, and that other thing?
- What?
- Them two hitters you asked after.
- They good with it.
- Not on the phone.
- That's it.
- We got it!
[Pearlman] Good work.
[Freamon] I guess this is pertinent.

- If my man Bernard doing it like we said and making them runs, then I don't wanna have to deal with this no more.
- For sure.
- And if donette call me...
- I know.
- Tell that bitch you busy.
- No.
- I'm gonna take the call.

Det. Lester Freamon: You do any accents? English, British, Scottish, something like that?
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [trying British accent] Crikey! I was looking to get a little hanky-panky and this one bloke gave me this number to call when I got across the pond.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: [laughs]
Det. Lester Freamon: [laughs] Work on it, son.

- Jeez. In the department, you take one in the line they give you light duty for as long as you need, then you get to name your next assignment.
- Marlo runs a tighter ship.

- has been increased with the aid of sophisticated computer software.
- And we have some of the best criminal investigators in the nation working 24/7.
- As the mayor made very clear a moment ago, this is now a priority for the department.
- Has a note been found at any of the scenes?
- I'm not at Liberty to go into any details of the investigation at this time.
- You want me to hang?

- The white shirts will fuck it up somehow, you know it, Lester.
- Maybe not, this time. Daniels is cid.
- It's a new day downtown.
- I got it.
- Ooh. World is on its hole when Jimmy mcnulty is the most qualified to drive.
- Yeah, up is down, black is white... left is right.

- Nicked jugular, shattered jaw.
- He'll live.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [McNulty has trouble loading up the camera] Maybe you ought to set up an easel on the sidewalk and do a sketch instead.

- You want a coffee? Soda?
- Vodka.
- Mm-mm.
- Coffee.
- Yeah. [Chuckles]
- Yeah.

- Shit.
- Yeah.
- Where's Sergei?
- Parked at the end of the lot.
- What's he waiting for?
- No fucking idea.
- The ship's almost empty.
- They need to shit or get off the pot.
- I'll look into it.
- Yeah.
- Ok, I understand.

- He got you, zig.
- Who got me?
- Mowee?
- Love child, never meant to be love child, born in poverty love child, never meant to be...

Omar: I damn near got that woman killed, yo. Y'all should've seen me in Sinai Hospital while they stitching her up, lying about why somebody wanna shoot me down the street. That woman think I work in a cafeteria.
Kimmy: Cafeteria?
Omar: At the airport, yeah.
Kimmy: The airport? Why the airport?
Omar: 'Cause I know she ain't gonna never go down there to go dining, that's why! Hey, yo, Kimmy, this ain't funny, yo! That woman raised me! And for as long as I been grown, once a month I been with her on a church Sunday, telling myself ain't no need to worry, 'cause ain't nobody in this city that lowdown to disrespect a Sunday morning!

- No, your ma makes a good breakfast.
- No fucking way.
- Bacon and eggs, baby.
- You going down to see the Greek, right?
- Ziggy...
- Come on, man.
- I ain't gonna fuck it up for you.
- For Christ's sake, will you just get in the car already? Come on, let's go.
- Swear to god, Ziggy, you open your mouth, I'll fucking kill you.

Judge: Celebrities always seem much smaller when you meet them in person.

- I'm sorry, son.
- I'm gonna talk to social services.
- We'll get you some help.
- Randy.
[Pa] Would the on-call please return to neuro icu?
- On-call, please return to neuro icu.

- Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
- Steals like my ex-wife's lawyer.
- Jesus.
- Get up there.
- Come on, come on, come on!
- Give me a sec!
[Groans] Come on.

- find our shit the old-fashioned way?
- Feel me?
- Oh, I feel you.
- Sound like a plan.
- But I don't know, though, Joe.
- You think Omar gonna give it up?
- 20 on the dollar it is.
- Say, how's she ticking, Joe?

- No parole.
- Whatever.
- Shit, you only do two days nohow - that's the day you go in...
- And the day you come out.
- Yeah, well, here's the warrant.
- You read it slow.
- In between them two days, give you something to think on.

- Believe me, we ain't short on papennork here either. Agent koutris?
- Not much to it. We pulled his chain in a stolen goods case I worked in '95, '96.
- He was just crumbs, so no charges.
- But I did an interview.
- The guy struck me as just a mope playing it slick.
- Yeah, I can send you what I got.
- All right. If you need it, let me know.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: He's a boss. Fuck the bosses.

- Maybe somebody from the department or the city might want to say something.
- Who's here from the family?
- A daughter, you say?
- A daughter?
- Officer greggs has a girl?
- A roommate.
- The family's in Richmond, driving up first thing.
- The roommate's already here.

- What the fuck?
- Didn't I say something about waiting for a fuckin' phone call?

Detective: Guy leaves two dozen bodies scattered all over the city, no one gives a fuck.
Detective: It's because who he dropped.
Detective: True that. You can go a long way in this country killin' black folk. Young males especially. Misdemeanor homicides.
Detective: If Marlo was killin' white women...
Detective: White children.
Detective: Tourists.
Detective: One white ex-cheerleader tourist missin' in Aruba.
Detective: Trouble is, this ain't Aruba, bitch.
Detective: You think that if 300 white people were killed in this city every year, they wouldn't send the 82nd Airborne? Negro, please.
Detective: There's gotta be some way to make 'em turn on the faucet.
Detective: Well, come on, Jimmy, you're the smartest boy in the room. You come up with somethin' in this broke-ass city.
[McNulty looks down the bar at a pair of women, then walks over to them and starts talking]
Detective: [leans over to Bunk] Isn't he married or some shit now?

- He knows just enough to get paid twice.
- Gotta blame ourselves for payin' him up front.
- Hey, it was worth a shot.
[TV] Aides to the mayor told me they are concerned...
- Thanks, yo.
- I'm-a get me a cold one.

- 'So, wait on black, yo?'
- What's white on black?
- Wait on black, right?
- Even I heard that shit.
- Black's code for stinkum.
- We picked that up once we got on his pager.
- There's gonna be a re-up of four g-packs in the low-rise court.
- Stinkum is on the re-up and it's gonna go down around noon.
- Are you sure about all that?

- The stash is across the street in the low-rises?
- In the second court.
- They got it up in this one place that got boarded-up windows.
- How many doors down from the end?
- Three.
- Yo, pop.

- There goes the shuttle.
- What's he waiting on?
- Getting himself all steeled up to tell some tales.
- Lying to the wife's easy. It's looking your kid in the eye that's the hard part.

- Bunk. Terry, Mike, come on.
- What the fuck happened?

- Some useless fuck in our marine unit faxed them a report on tides and wind currents.
- Shows the body went in the water west of the bridge and drifted out.
- Mcnulty.
- Fucking Jimmy.
- Fucking with us for the fun of it.
- I gotta give the son of a bitch some credit for wit on this one.
- Cocksucker.
- Motherfucker.

- Them expeditions are hard to handle.
- With a Lexus I wouldn't have no problem.
- You little motherfucker.
- You know how many cars you hit?
- What?
- Don't even think of bullshitting.
- I don't know what you're talking about.

- I know who was there.
- So you innocent, huh?
- Let me ask you somethin' though, bein' that you muscle for Mario.
- What you was gonna do if you was there, huh?
- Riddle me that.
- Yeah.
- You know what, yo?

- So what does that say about me?
- About my life?
- Come on, man. You're talking about drugs.
- That's a force of nature, that's sweeping leaves on a windy day, whoever the hell you are.
- You fought the good fight.

- any time, in this whole city.
- I'm just saying.
- Saying what?
- In case.
- In case what?
- In case I ever wanna buy a new car.
- Damn, is that too much to ask for?
- Girl, you crazy.
- Shit, shit, get down, get down.

- Icicles! Icicles!
- Yo, bodie. Yo, bodie.
- Icicles! Icicles!
- Yo, bodie, you better run, yo.
- Yo, this my corner.
- I ain't running nowhere.
- Bodie, is you crazy?

- Just one more thing, though, man.
- I don't mean to be picking with you, especially not after you did all this shit for me, but, look, man, I've been locked down.
- You know what I mean?
- You know what?
- I gotta take this meet.
- I'm gonna get at you. Welcome home, man.

- Hey, colicio.
- Officer colicchio, shitbird.
- We need to block every Lane here?
- Shut it down. It's a police operation here.
- Let's back these vehicles up.
- Excuse me, officer.
- I'm not telling you again.
- Tony, calm down.
- Officer, if you could just move your car fonnard just a little bit...

[Mcnulty] Lieutenant, you still up?
[Daniels] I'm here.
- This second can doesn't make sense.
- He went to ground at an appliance store off eastern. Now he's dumping it.
- 10-4. Go home.
- You don't wanna sit on the can?
- Negative. The can is clean.

- Bri?
- Bnanna?

Sgt. Jay Landsman: All that from overnight?
Det. Ed Norris: All that from Freamon. He's out early today, rooting through empties.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: You know what he is? He is a vandal. He is vandalizing the board. He is vandalizing this unit. He is a Hun, a Visigoth, a barbarian at the gate, clamoring for noble Roman blood and what's left of our clearance rate.

[Man] Who got black tops?
[2nd man] Black tops?
[Man] Over there.
Omar: Hey, now.
[Man] What the fuck?

- Won't work. He's too far gone.
- I find them, detective.
- What you do after that is your business.
- Thanks. Maybe next time.
- Seeing as how
- I'm doing you a favor, detective, you can write the first officer's report for me.
- My sequence is a-1-15.

[Radio] 10-4. K-g-a to all units...
- I love this. Just like old times.
- I don't need to chase these fucking knuckleheads. I know half of 'em.
- Shit, I know where they hang.
- Besides, you're a little overdressed.
- Let's just call this in and go see the man about your thing.

Stripper: [to Cheryl, indicating Kima] You her girl?
Cheryl: Yeah.
Stripper: I wouldn't let mine come in here either without me. These bitches in here are no joke.
[Cheryl gives Kima an "I-told-you-so" look]

- Yeah, I know he does.
- No. The hell with Norris.
- You're my real partner,
- Lester. My life partner.
- Don't tease, bitch.
- Look at that bow-legged motherfucker.
- I made him walk like that.

- How should I pay you back?
- By showing a little respect.
- That all?
- Truth is, things have been rough around the way.
- With you doing so good, thought maybe you'd throw some ends my way.
- Seeing as how I was here for you.
- I ain't paying you to be my mother.

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: [...] This drug thing, this ain't police work. No, it ain't. 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 something a war and pretty soon everybody gonna be running around acting like warriors. They gonna be running around on a damn crusade, storming corners, slapping on cuffs, racking up body counts. And when you at war, you need a fucking enemy. And pretty soon, damn near everybody on every corner is your fucking enemy. And soon the neighborhood that you're supposed to be policing, that's just occupied territory.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Thanks.
- Cheap motherfucker.

- Mr. Omar, you want ends on this?
- No, darling, I'm cool.

- Mr. Prez...
- What? Just take one.
- I need those bus passes back!
- No one leaves this room until Mr. Pryzbylewski gets those bus passes back.
- Do I need to say that twice?
- Thank you. Thank you.
- You'll get the hang of it.

- With three years left in his term, why would he leave?
- Councilman, what may not have been obvious to you on the public safety subcommittee is that the budget process is a carefully orchestrated ballet, a cooperative effort between the branches of government.
- Madam president, the nuances of that cooperative effort are beginning to come into focus for me.

- Like that?
- Yeah, that's about right.
- Do you think, if you saw this guy again...
- I...
- Please, don't be afraid.
- From where I was sitting, his back was to me.
- It's all right, you done good.
- You have any trouble at all, you call us.

- We turned and shook as we had a look in the room where the dead men lay so big Jim dwyer made his last...

- Come on, pretty boy. Come on.
- You don't have to go home but you can't stay here. Come on. Let's go.
- That's home?
- Yeah. That's it.
- There we go, little trouper.
- 6:30 tomorrow morning. Don't make me drag you out of bed like you did yesterday.
- Mm-hm.

- No. No.
- I trusted you, erv. I really did.
- You let me down.
- Now, this thing goes wrong, no telling the damage. On this, you walk point.
- That's the way things work, erv.
- You know it as well as I do.
- Thank you, ervin.
- I'll be over shortly to see the detailed plan on how this shit gets cleaned up immediately.

- You're not gonna fuck me on this?
- As it is, I got the mayor's teeth in my ass.
- Your name does not get mentioned.
- Mayor didn't say a word to me.
- Thanks.
- Is nothing.
- This is DC's number one, wpgc 95.5.

- No. Sorry.
- You got home from work early today.
- Yep. Work sucks.
- Are we eating dinner with you?
- Why not?
- You promised we'd eat lasagne.
- So we'll go to little Italy.
- Get some lasagne at sab's.
- You never cook.
- Cooking sucks, too.

- I can turn that package around, no problem.
- No, zig, I got it.
- You don't know...
- You hear me? I said I fucking got this one.
- Stay at home and watch cartoons.
- Let me handle this shit for the both of us, all right?
- You fuckin' walking home or what?

- What's done is done.
- Gay-ass gangsters. Please.
- I tell you, I took it for as long as I could.
- Let's go, man.
- Let's go.

- Just like a little bitch, he ain't nowhere to be found.
- I'll tell him. I will.
- Pick up your keys and go on inside, yo.
- You kill Joe?
- Hungry?
- Didn't think so.

- Everything I did, the cans I let through, the money we got went to keeping what we had.
- God damn it, frank!
- Don't let that excuse this. Not this.
- Uncle frank, with the big shoulders.
- "If it's broke, give it to my uncle.
- He can fix it."

- I'm putting the respondent on home monitoring with his grandmother.
- I'm afraid Mrs. Brodus doesn't have a telephone for any monitoring calls.
- She's on a fixed income, your honor.
- How about he calls his probation officer twice a week?
- Cool. Whatever.
- Your honor.

- 12-08 to 11-37, you there?
- 11-37, what you got?
- That last truck is on the move. It sits there for days and they don't off-load a thing.
- 10-4.
- They're testing us. Moving clean cans.

- That how you see things, d'Angelo?
- Like your friend here?
- I'm here trying to outfit niggers with something to rile up some pussy.
- You don't want to know, bubbles used to get that pussy.
- I reckon pussy ain't worth what it used to be if you can do it without a proper brim.

- Motherfucker, I am serious.
[Woman] Mr. Mcnulty, this is Dr. Halpern's office.
- You missed your cleaning on Tuesday.
- We haven't heard from you.
- Give us a call, please.
- Mcnulty, this is your dear friend ilene Nathan.
- I indicted this piece-of-shit case because you swore we had an eyeball wit...

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: Look, it takes money to make money, String. Otherwise every pauper would be a king.
Russell: And I'm sayin', I'm ready to run now.
State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: Three years. Crawl, walk, and then run.

- The shipbuilders' local goes belly-up and that makes you a martyr?
- The only difference between us is you picked the wrong union.
- That ain't the only difference.
- If you were in my position...
- I'm not.
- To tell you the truth, I'm glad I don't have to make those kind of choices.
- Come on, kid. Sit down.

- They're still using it.
- I was by on Saturday night and it was gone.
- On your own time?
- You still getting your boys?
- Yeah, tonight for a sleep-over.
- Omar's rolling.

Det. William Moreland: Boy, them Greeks and those twisted-ass names.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Man, lay off the Greeks. They invented civilization.
Det. William Moreland: Yeah? Ass-fucking, too.

FBI Spec. Agent Terrence 'Fitz' Fitzhugh: State your name.
[Serge says nothing]
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: No name, huh? Well, for now, we'll just call you Boris.
Sergei: Boris. Why always Boris?

Omar: Shoot, the way y'all looking at things, ain't no victim to even speak on.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Bullshit, boy. No victim? I just came from Tosha's people, remember? All this death, you don't think it ripples out? You don't even know what the fuck I'm talking about. I was a few years ahead of you at Edmondson, but I know you remember the neighborhood, how it was. We had some bad boys, for real. Wasn't about guns so much as knowing what to do with your hands. Those boys could really rack. 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 hard cases would come up to me and say, "Go home, schoolboy, you don't belong here." Didn't realize at the time what they were doing 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 acting like Omar, calling you by name, glorifying your ass. Makes me sick, motherfucker, how far we done fell.

- And now for the most important person in this room, does anybody have 24 hours or a sincere desire to live?
[Woman] Yeah! All right!

Stringer: Where Avon at?
Slim: He'll be along shortly.
Stringer: That's good, 'cause I came to see you anyway.
Slim: What you need?
Stringer: I need you to hit somebody.
Slim: Who we hittin'?
Stringer: Clay Davis.
Slim: THE Clay Davis? Downtown Clay Davis?
Stringer: That s'posed to mean somethin' to me, man? That nigga need to be got.
Slim: Shit, String, murder ain't no thing, but this here is some assassination shit, man.
Stringer: Look, I tell you to get somebody, you gettin' him. I ain't askin'.
Slim: Damn, String, I don't know...
Stringer: [cutting him off] Nigga, I gotta remind you who the fuck you work for?
[Avon, who has been watching from a side room, steps in]
Avon: Ayo. I think Slim gonna have to sit this one out, boss. So you finna go hit a state senator now, huh? Yo, you kill a downtown nigga like that, the whole world gonna stand up and take notice. I'm talkin' 'bout the state police, federals... all of that! You need a "Day of the Jackal"-type muthafucka, basically, to do some shit like that, not a rumble-tumble nigga like Slim!
Stringer: That nigga took our money, man.
Avon: I seen it comin'.
Stringer: Well, he gotta go.
Avon: Naw, you a fuckin' businessman, you wanna handle it like that! You don't wanna get all gangsta-wild with it and shit, right? What I tell you about playin' them fuckin' away games?
[Stringer looks at Slim, but he won't look him in the eye; Stringer gets up to leave]
Avon: Yeah. They saw your ghetto ass comin' from miles away, nigga! You got a fuckin' beef with them? That shit is on YOU!
[Stringer stares at Avon for a moment, then walks out]

Felicia: Hey, let's pray- Here we lay a couple New York boys, who came too far South for they own fuckin' good... Where yo' fuckin' Yankee Pride at now, you fuckin' bitches?

- Yeah, I bet she died in her sleep.
- You ever wake up with a pillow over your face?
- There's mornings with a hangover
- I hold the pillow over my face, just to keep the light out and the pain down.
- Me, I just throw up once or twice and go to work.
- The western district way.

[Radio] '64-Charlie to central k.' you up to this?
- Pay it back, Omar. Pay it back.

Judge: [about Carcetti] Gets himself elected on law and order ticket, crime doesn't go down much, and then a couple of weeks before he starts gearing up for Governor, some wing-nut starts killing people, taking photographs, sending them to the newspaper. You know something, you might want to check up on the Governor's alibis.

[Man] Goddamn bomb, y'all.
[2nd man] Blue-tops.
- Double shorts.
- In the hole, man.
- Got blue-tops. Looking for blues?
[Dealer] Red-tops.
- Two for 10.

- Now you know avon fought real hard for them towers.
- We took down the rayford brothers, big Dennis woodson, I mean...
- This shit is just business, string.
- Buy for a dollar, sell for two.
- That all it need be. You got the towers, I got what goes in them.
- Later for all that bullshit.
- I'll talk to avon.
- You do that. Do that.

- Fuck! I just stepped in dog shit.
- You hope.
- Fuck.

[Man] Oh! You ain't gotta leave, huh?
- Shit is on.
- This what I'm talking about. Whoo!
- Drink that shit.
- I'm surprised avon be letting y'all get your heads up.
- Sometimes you got to.

- Look what washed up on the beach.
- Congratulations, Mr. Mayor.
- Just came by to wish you well.
- Looking forward to working with you.
- Shouldn't you be dead to me?
- I took it easy on you, son.
- I coulda had you for twice as much.
- You got off cheap.
- He's right.

Maj. Stanislaus 'Stan' Valchek: [to Herc, laughing about the oral sex incident between Mayor Royce and his secretary] What I wouldn't give to be in your shoes right now! Kid, careers have been launched on a helluva lot less. Just shut up and play dumb.

- I was talking to him first.
- No need for physical contact.
- You got $4 for me? I'm short $4.
- What the fuck...? Oh!
- Got a cart full of shit, nigger.
- What you got for me?
- I know you holding.
- Where's it at? You ain't hear?
[Groans] Ok. It's in my shoe... my shoe.
- Don't need the four now, son.

- Television and radio stations...
- He's doubling back.
- 'Copy.'
- He's south on montford.

- How you feeling?
- Can't complain, yo.
- Getting to be that time, though.
- Joe wanted me to check in, you know.
- All right. Pull up a chair. Let's chop it up.
Omar: Now, that there a barksdale boy.
- So?
- Don't add up.
- Interesting, though.

Omar: Look man, I do what I can do to help y'all. But the game is out there, and it's either play or get played.

- you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole way down way down in the hole

D'Angelo: All my people, man. My father, my uncles, my cousins. It's just what we do. You just live this shit until you can't breathe no more.

- They coming up the alley!
- They coming back!
- Aim for the chest, brother.
- Yo. Slide up.

- Gotta show arrests are up 15, 20%?
- We'll worry about the quality later.
- So what you saw out there, it's a con game, a band-aid on cancer, so no, I'm not with this, but I do follow orders.
- However, if those orders were to change or if I had the opportunity to change them myself...

- Yeah.
- You checked it?
- At this rate, we're never gonna get it in.
- What?
- In?
- Unbelievable, unbe-fucking-iievable.
- Christ.

- This is where I leave you.
- Your class. Language arts, huh?
- Yes.
- Anyway, you should see it without me.
- They behave differently when I'm around.
- No doubt.

- All right.
- 'What am I driving?'
- 'A rental, nothing flash.'
- 'where from?'
- 'i don't know where from, man, one of those places by the airport.'
- 'yeah.' we got something real.
- 'I'm on my way.'
- All right.

- And I'll give you them.
- No, that's great. Really great.
- Yeah.
- That's our move.
- Mm-hm.
[Daniels] Ok.

- Damn.
- All right, then. See you tomorrow.
- Everything ok?
- On two.
- Pick up. Pick up!
- Ed, you got to help me.
- I can't, not now.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [to an inattentive McNulty] I'm thinking of becoming a woman.

- 12 niggers...
- And then how many blah, blah, blah...
- Then you went, like, dinking all round this one and no other one.
- So the answer is "b -
- 5." Everybody get that?
[Kids] Yeah.
- "B
- 5," it got all the dinks.
- "B
- 5," and I'm an Audi 5000.

- Where the fuck else am I gonna go?
- How's it looking?
- One ro/ro at north point.
- Graybeard's grabbed that.
- Nothing else today, really.
- Seniority sucks.
- If you ain't senior.
- All right, man.

- Language arts position opened up here.
- I came over last year.
- Hey. What's up, coach?
- Hey.
- You come over for your boys?
- Some kind of program?
- Nah. Something else.
- Didn't work out really.
- Be well.

Brother: You're the perfect bait, Lamar. They'll see you as conflicted, your homophobia is so visceral.
Lamar: You see that. I ain't even stepped inside the joint yet and you're calling me a cocksucker already.

- What can you realistically do?
- Our best-case scenario, if we bump overtime, is...
- 275, maybe.
- 275, Christ.
- That's a promise, right?
- 275...
- And this asshole carcetti has no issue.

- Look at this.
- A red ribbon in one of ray Cole's files.
- Cole left a note with it.
- "Found on left wrist of victim.
- "Check against other cases."
- Hey, hon. How's the stain look on the cabinets? They dry yet?
- Great. I'm on my way.

- Wouldn't do much good.
- Afraid Walt's not as up to speed as the rest of us.
- Hmm.
- Mm-hm.
- Seeing as you've come all this way, though, you might want to have a look-see at the videotapes.

- That it is. You can have greggs, if you want.
- The last time I offered her up, you kicked her back to her own casework.
- Other than a second detective, you are on your own.
- So it's all bullshit.
- Idunno.
- I thought the mayor gave a very nice speech.
- I, for one, was moved. Much like the bull to which you just referred.

- Stabbed repeatedly.
- Torso, abdomen and they cut his throat to be sure.
- Single-edge blade. He fought, too.
- Defense wounds on both hands.
- Ligature on both legs.
- Weighed him down with something but it slipped off in the drink.
- One, two, three.

- Anyone comes looking,
- I'm back up on the second floor.
- Sir?
- I understood that the mayor might be going to breakfast at the harbor?
- With kweisi.
- But that's up in the air, I thought.
- Would you happen to know where lieutenant hoskins is?

- I thought he did good.
- Imagine the mileage Maury Levy gets out of me putting that sociopath on the stand.
- You got to admit, it'll be different.
- Dress him up at least.
- I can't have him on the stand looking like that.
- Here's a voucher for court clothes.
- Anything with a tie.

- I'm a viking, bubs.
- Are you a viking?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: We have to kill again...

- I'm good.
- I'm trying to school you, boy, and you just don't wanna know.
- I'm cool. I'm good.
[Bubbles, outside] Whitey sale, whitey sale. One for three, three for five.
- Whitey sale.
- Whitey sale, whitey sale, whitey sale, here. One for three, three for five.

- Yeah, well, it's just a thought.
- Look, man, what's the percentage breakdown...
- Don't sleep on marlo.
- He up to some shit here.
Man: That was some prime real estate.
- It took me six years to build up them corners.

- I don't look like something you could roll up in a rug and throw in the trash?
- Shardene.
- Shardene.
- Shardene!
- Lieutenant, you paged us?
- We were almost home.
- Sit.

- He just ain't built for this, you know.
- His heart pump kool-aid.
- Right. What about you?
- You built for this shit?
- No doubt.
- You ready to put the work in?
- You got heat?

- The shit is weak, we gonna sell twice as much. You know why?
- 'Cause a fiend, he's gonna chase that shit no matter what.
- It's crazy, you know?
- We do worse, and we get paid more.
- The government do better and it don't mean no never mind.
- This shit right here, Dee, it's forever.

- What the hell's going on here?
- Police pushed all the action down here.
- The Deacon thinks maybe some people should come in here and take over the situation.
- Are you that people?
- One of them, maybe.
- Roman, man.
- Dennis.

- Open it.
- Six icebox, 20 each.
- You count, we wait.
- You no count, we go to lunch early.

Chester: Happiness is being Ziggy.
[Seen on his license plate frame]

- Yeah, probably pimps his ass, too.
- Listen, motherfucker...
- Yeah, bitch, touch me.
- Touch a juvenile, see what happen.
- Let's bounce. Bitch-ass motherfucker.
- Faggot punk-ass nigger.
- Chump ass.

- we just gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- Down in the hole down in the hole gotta help me keep the devil down in the hole

- Give him this and tell him we need to talk, ok?
- I'm sorry.
- What the fuck you doing in there?
- Talking.
- Talking?
- Yeah.
- See you later.
- Catch you later.

- Tell them how you personally think your uncle...
- Maybe he got it wrong, because it's wrong that they lost their daddy behind what happened, you know?
- It might mean something to 'em to know that you feeling for 'em.
- Man, I ain't got nothing to say.
- Just say what's in your heart.

- The vehicle log says they parked it at
- 2200 hours, returning the keys to the oic.
- And?
- We have the keys.
- But not the Van.
- Are you telling me that a fully-equipped $120,000 surveillance Van assigned to the southeastern district cannot be located?

- You guys are on all of it, huh?
- You have a public defender sitting next to you, Mr. Sobotka.
- If there's anything you don't understand...
- They killed my uncle. I don't need to talk to no one but you people.
- How do you know they did it?
- I... I told...

- Lieutenant, we need a file cabinet or two.
- The papennork from this, I mean...
- There's a lot of it.
- Lieutenant?
- Sir.
- I'm going to...
- Good luck with the case.

- He's tangled up with the schools and we're on hold.
- The mayor's made a few commitments to me personally.
- If you want to call in a marker on behalf of this department, feel free.
- And while you're at it, see if you can get your take-home car back.
- Budget officer called an hour ago telling us to relieve colonels and below of take-home vehicles.

- Yeah. So infante's about to lose his mind if he can't talk this thing out of becoming a murder.
- Either that or charge the paramedic.
- You goin' across the street for breakfast?
- Buy me some scrapple, sailor?
- Come on.
- Number two.

- He want so bad to be a gangster, maybe it's time he get a taste of a real lockup?
- Come on, Mr. C, don't do me like that.
- I made him sleep on the deu bench last night, if that counts for anything.
- Isn't there anybody else?
- Friend, relative, anybody?
- You've always been good with the knuckleheads, boss.
[Sighs] All right. Let me go call my wife.

- Uh-oh, look at this.
- Where is your fine take-home car?
- Got took home.
- We need to talk.

- Shit! Go!
- Go! Look out, man!
- Break it. Break it, motherfuckers.
- Man said break. Come on.
- I was working that bitch.
- Yeah, shorty, you hard.
- Go. We out of here.

[the deacon finds Cutty at his gym, getting ready to spar against Michael]
The: Your Sabbath best?
Dennis: You hang around, you can see me preach on some young'uns. Solemn left and sanctified right. Why you down here on a Sunday, Deacon?
The: You need to see Ms. Donnelly at Tilghman Middle. She's got some custodial work, you might call it. Union wage.
Dennis: Custodial?
The: See Ms. Donnelly tomorrow, she can explain it better than I can.
Dennis: Tell me somethin'. How is it you got so much wisdom about who should be where?
The: A good church man is always up in everybody's shit. That's how we do.

- You people staff your cases, you bring us casework.
- I cross that line, I like piss everyone off.
- Best I can do is tell my unit chief that you drew shit.
- He wants to call the deputy for operations, that's his choice.
- That won't happen.
- Probably not.
- Make lemonade.

- He called again, same payphone.
- Same voice?
- Main stash house, it's got to be.
- The pattern fits.
- Who took the call at the projects?
- Who knows?
- There was no one on the roof. Sydnor was off with Daniels, chasing avon in the street.
- We had a good day too. Kima turned one of the dancers over at avon's club.
- The one who's fucking d'Angelo.

Det. Ellis Carver: Where's everybody at?
Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Maybe the whole thing is over and no one bothered to tell us. Maybe we won.

- You got friends in high places, Nicky.
- Four a pack for you.
- All right, cool.
[Man] Thank god for the Russian's cellphone.
- They might be laying off the warehouse, but he ain't changing.
Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: Did he have hands?
- Did he have a face?
- Yes? Then it wasn't us.

- Let me understand. You were married and a date is a room at the best western.
- Now you're single, and a date is you coming over unannounced to learn the legal requisites for a pager intercept.
- Pretty much.
- Ok, I hear you.

- Yo, mister.
- Yo.
- Throw down your wallet, or I'll jerk this ladder right out.
- What? No!
- I ain't playing.
- Throw down the goddamn money.
- No, please. Help!
- Ok!
- Hey! Leave that man alone!

- Here we go. We got one.
- 12-14, kima. We got a disappeared can just hit the chassis.
- Affirmative. I'll eyeball it to the gate.
- Raise our boys.
- Right.
- What's kima rolling as?
- Gas and electric.

- You heard about bodie?
- What about?
- Bodie, from up Payson.
- Yeah, yeah. What?
- Shot dead on his corner.
- Midnight shift caught it. Check the readout.
- Sergeant, get your ass in here.
- God damn it, sergeant, you're on the brink of insubordination.

- Take some real estate, put it in Dee's name. He has something to come home to.
- Do it.
- Thing is, what happened happened, you know?
- Push come to shove,
- I've been fair to him, ain't I?
- You've been fair.
- Too fair.

- It wasn't me not to drink, or dog around either.
- A lot of things weren't me.
- I want another chance.
- How about a fuck for the road instead?
- Oh, god...
- God...

- In fact, I have a fresh angle on last year's major case, on which I'm the sole remaining investigator.
- So fuck your stripes and fuck mcnulty and fuck your big-dick red ball.
- If you can't work with that, just write me the fuck up, and ship my ass to a trial board.

- Get on your knees, cross them legs, knit them hands, come on.
- 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.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [on their way to see Major Rawls] What the fuck can I tell him?
Sgt. Jay Landsman: Whatever the man wants to hear, Jimmy. Whatever he wants to hear.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: All those mopes in bracelets and not one of them named Osama.

- Hurry up.
- You know I got a ship to work today.
- Your ma knows you got a ship, too.
- Don't go upstairs. Just head out the back.
- I'll pick you up in the back of the alley.
- Ow!
- We got a kid together. What's the big deal if we spend the night in your folks' basement?
- They're decent people.

- Need help?
- Right. On three, motherfuckers.
- One, two, three.
- I'm embarrassed for you all.
- Yo, herc, I catch my breath,
- I'm gonna shoot the drawers off this bitch.
- It's caught on something, lieutenant.
- Get over there with carver.

- What's this?
- Court order. We get blood and hair.
- 14 head hairs, 14 body hairs, two blood samples each.
- It's a lot of houses, a lot of deeds.
- Who knows what you left behind?

- Freeze, FBI!
- All clear.
- Check upstairs.
- All clear.
- Turn around. Turn around.
- Put your hands up. Behind your neck.
- Keep 'em there.

- Are you trying to catch up with bird?
- Word is he dropped a workin' man.
- Wait, hold up. Come on, don't play me.
- What working man? What bird?
- Come on, now.
- Ain't but one working man, is there?
- And bird? I think your snitch can handle that.
- Shit, bubbles know bird.

- Fucking solo cars.
- I should have teamed him. I fucked up.
- Dead-ass motherfucker's dead.
- If we catch up to him, he don't come in alive.
- Right?

- Uh, donation for the program.
- Done.
- Good. Give me 30 from the line and get out of here.
- Yo, man, good job, baby.
- All right.
- And I assume there's another five right here, for making this happen?
- Ain't shit for free, right?

- I only fucked her once.
- Christ, everybody down the point fucked her the once, zig.
- How do you know it's yours?
- You call this lawyer?
- Figured I'd get drunk first.
- That's a good plan.

- you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole way down way down in the hole

Omar: Spread the word, darlin'. Omar back.

- to be state police superintendent.
- Because while you may be a shade too...
- White to run the Baltimore department, you're just about right for the msp.
- I have your word?
- And I have yours.

- I could still hang with you then.
- You know I'm too hot.

Det. Vernon Holley: So you never got a look at either of the gunmen?
Andy: [Krawcyzk is still scared from the shooting] I told you. I saw only the one of them. He was black. Big, I thought. With a large weapon.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: B.N.B.G.
Det. Vernon Holley: [as Krawcyzk looks puzzled] Big Negro, Big Gun.

- Where does it all go?
- The money. Where do all the money go?

- I caught him, bunk.
- On the wire. I caught him.
- And he doesn't fucking know it.

- So what, we Jack her and make her talk?
- Fool, she probably got no clue where he lay his head.
- No, man, we sit and we wait, right?
- Man, wait on what?
[Mutters] Stupid motherfucker.
- Now, see, if we go upstairs, we'll spook him. So he's coming down. All right?

- Nothing. You see? [Laughs]
- Bug, you seen your daddy?
- Went to the store.
- Where you going?
- I'm gonna go look for him.
- You ain't gonna find him.
- Why not?
- Because he ain't coming back.

- Next time, they stay in my drawer.
- Yo, whatever, man.
- I know, right? Already, son.
- Yo, what up?
- Damn, man. These kids is crazy, son.
- I know, right?
- We're seventh graders.

- My favorite side partner from my salad days in patrol. Thank you.
- Hard to imagine you in patrol.
[Jimmy] Damned if I can find it.
[Lester] That's why they call it a hole.
- That there is the sickest idea yet.
- You know that?
- I'm just gilding your Lily, son.
- There. Right there.

- Channel 2 wants to know if she can film some of the places we raided.
- She says whatever we got, she'll put on film.
- Whatever we got?
- Drugs, weapons.
- We ain't got shit.

- Hold this.
- So where Fairfax at?
- Northern Virginia.
- How about you?
- I live up Baltimore.
- That's so cool.
- You two have your own place?
- Yeah, and bug.
- That's tight.

- If you put them pit bull-style stitches in me, the next patient gonna be you.
- For real.
- What, you don't like rawhide?
- Marlo!
- We finna get back to old times, baby.

- The fact is, they even called the boss man about it.
- That's a good day. You going for a taste?
- No, I'm gonna chase the papennork.
- I gotta spring the sitter. But for a ride home, I'll go for a quick beer.
- More than one, I get sleepy.
- Yeah, me, too.
- What, you short a car?
- Need new brake pads.

- Dolores, can I use the bar phone?
- Who are you calling?
- The lawyer on this piece of bullshit.
- What? Ain't no fucking law firm open in the middle of the goddamn night.
- Shyster, shyster and shyster.

- No, it's not officially sanctioned.
- It's more like it's tolerated.
- That's why we came to you and the public health school not the city health department.
- Needle exchange, drug outreach, condoms, HIV testing.
- You're never gonna reach more people in the same spot.
- If the city doesn't know, that makes it...
- Complicated.
- That means temporary.
- You move it or you lose it, boss.

- Does mcnulty know?
- I'll raise his ass.
- We'll keep our ear to the wire, keep gathering string, no problem.
- But if bodies keep falling in the eastern district, we might have to give up this wiretap.
- Now you coming around?
- Been more than a damn year.
- Looksjust like his dad, huh?

- Come on. Answer the question.
Chris: Michael.
- Michael.
- The gun.

- He has given us such excellent work that I think that now is as good a time as any to announce that we will be sending the deputy's name fon/vard to the city council for confirmation as Baltimore police commissioner.
- Acting commissioner rawls, to whom I am also extremely grateful, will serve in an advisory capacity pending new responsibilities at city hall.

Det. Lester Freamon: What did he call Cole?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Collateral damage.
Det. Lester Freamon: I'm feelin' pretty damn collateral myself, I gotta say.

- You come see me.
- Tea was sold out.
- Might be tomorrow, or not for a while.
- But when you're ready for something different, give me a call.
- I'll remember.
- Motherfucker thinking he can pimp me over a candy bar.

- and no money for academy class.
- The mayor fucked you, 'cause I know that money was in the budget.
- The mayor delayed it till next summer.
- I mean less troops, less salary, less bennies.
- I mean, even a six-month delay saves the city two, three million.
- Let me talk to some people.

- We don't want to go public.
- No?
- Just put it to the deputy ops you lost a witness who testified in your court, forcing the department to commit to the investigation.
- And when you call burrell this time, will you forget my fucking name?
- You missed a spot.
- Why don't you fucking do it?
- Seniority.

- That's exhaustion.
- All we got left to do is follow one of these mopes and prove we can't do it.
- We show a judge we can't make the case by following these guys, and we can't.
- How can we keep on any of them in those towers?
- But you gotta show you tried.
- Do we have a pager number?

- No one has spoken to me.
- Not carcetti, not anyone.
- But if I'm approached, my answer will be to decline the position and say I serve at your pleasure.
- Sir?
- Sir?

- If not, there's this young buck out in Salisbury thinks he can snatch up the first district seat.
Man: Mistletoe. Come get 'em.
- Mistletoe!
- How y'all doing?
- Ain't so much money. Mistletoe!

Frank: You know what the trouble is, Brucey? We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket.

Omar: I'm goin' hard after Stringer.
Butchie: No point in trying to talk you back down, I suppose.
Omar: You been my bank for how long gonna ask me something like that?
Butchie: How you gonna get at him?
Omar: I don't even know, Butch. I'll take some time and think on it. One thing for sure, though. The man got to be got, you feel me?... What you see, Butch?
Butchie: Too much, boy. Too damn much.

- You always did cut them corners, didn't you?
- Seems like you cut a few yourself, major.
- However it ends, you're good police.
- Look, I just did what I did.
- It felt right.
- I'm fine with that.

- Colvin?
- From the western.
- Sham, who is this kid?
- Some young boy from tucky's crew.
- Is he connected? Kin to anybody?
- No, he only been on for a few months.
- What did he use the whistle for?
- Some nigger in one of ghost Kane crews laughed at his shoes.
- Do it.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Fuck me. I still cannot type.

- Like I'm supposed to cry and shit?
- You got soft eyes, you can see the whole thing.
- You got hard eyes, you're staring at the same tree, missing the forest.
- Oh, zen shit.
- Soft eyes, grasshopper.

- It's not the easiest trade, you know, robbin' dealers.
- A man like that is likely to have a weapon on him.
- We Jack him up. There's a charge to work off.
- And if he knows where the barksdale stash is he probably knows a whole lot more.
- See? Another plan.

- 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?
- Nah, I shot it. A nail came out.
- Lester, seriously, is any of this helping?
- You're doing good.
- Tell me aboutjacking marlo at the train station.

- If I see any of y'all little hoppers even smile at a motor vehicle again, it ain't gonna be no juvenile hearing.
- It's gonna be my people settlin' up with y'all in the alleys. Understand?
- You can't do that, yo.
- Try me, namond.
- Yeah, that's right. I know your name.
- I know where you live and I know where y'all hang.

- All right, I'm with homicide.
- Ok, you two, you sit right here, ok?
- Don't wander off.
- Erm... dad?
- What?
- It's a school night.
- Mom said we had to...
- I know, I know. We will.
- Just stay there.

- Dinner and a movie, then I'll walk you to the door and you tell me to go fuck myself.
- How about I tell you to fuck yourself now?
- Then you can save that money.
- Come on, Elena.
- Come on, I signed all your damn papers.
- Just give me another shot.
- Friday. You pay for the sitter.

- You lying now, I could tell.
- You is the only one who gives a fuck and if you hadn't been the stupidest motherfucker I ever gone out with you'd have bought a bunch of them at once.
- I only need like six more.
- We be done in like a half an hour.
- How about we make one more stop, you get six of them shits and I suck your dick for the next 20 minutes.

- That's a bonus right there.
- Make sure you buy something that you wouldn't othennise.
- Thanks, man.
- All right.

- We're good together.
- Answer the question.
- I've been honest with you. My wife wants to put it back together again, I'm gonna go for it.
- You know, what with the kids and all.
[Groans] You got any aspirin?
- For Christ's sake,
- Ronnie, I'm dying in here.

- 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.
- Yeah.

- I can take it from here.
- You sure?
- No one fucks with us on our turf.
- Hey.

William: Listen to me, you fuck! You did a lot of shit here. You played a lot of fucking cards, and you made a lot of fucking people do a lot of fucking things they didn't wanna do. This is true; we both know this is true. You, McNulty, are a gaping asshole. We both know this. Fuck if everybody in CID doesn't know it! But fuck if I'm gonna stand here and say you did a single fucking thing to get a police shot! You did not do this, you fucking hear me? This is not on you. No, it isn't, asshole! Believe it or not, everything isn't about you! And the motherfucker saying this, he hates your guts, McNulty! So you know if it WAS on you, I'd be the son of a bitch to say so! Shit went bad - she took two for company. That's the only lesson here.

- What? You tryin' to sell a case back to me?
- Motherfucker, if you don't get...
- I don't get paid like that.
- I get paid when I come back in a couple nights' time with questions and you, sir, have answers, or my next call will be to the us attorney's office, and we will go again, but for real.
- You can keep that copy. Ma'am.

- They dumped their tools.
- Nothing under the seats.
- Nothing in the glove box.
[Tuts] Registered to some little old lady, no doubt.
- These guys know the drill.
- Can you see these two riding tame?
- Come on.

- Can I have some chocolate cake?
- I'll bring the cart.
- Boy, don't nobody give a damn about you or your story.
- You got money, you get to be whatever you say you are.
- That's the way it is.
- Oh. Sir, I'm sorry. These are the samples.
- And for you, sir? Very good.

- Have you ever known avon barksdale to back down from anything?
[Valchek] Of course you do.
- Get statements from responding officers.
- A plain-clothes man in a dark alley with his gun out and shots fired.
- No one wants to burn anybody but there's a racial component to consider.
- The appearance...
- Has he seen a lawyer?

- You got nerve calling me twisted.
- You came up with the teeth.
- You know how these psycho serial motherfuckers are.
- They mature. They start simple and crude and become more and more ornate.
- There you go.
- Don't tell my mother or my priest you saw me do this.
- Take it to my grave.

- I ain't giving you the money.
- They're gonna kill me.
- I gave my money to Aimee for an apartment.
- Security deposit and some furniture over at littlepages.
- I ain't got it for you, zig.
- You cocksuckers.

- A bit, yeah.
- You'll do fine. Just fine.
- As tender as this moment may be, detective, you've got mail.
[Lester] You got Lyon on your ass already?
[Jay] Another switch-up on the methane probes.
- I'd call that number. Get on top of that shit before you catch a case.
- Chair or no chair.

- You can go.
- Where to?
- Sayin' you can leave the car with me.
- You rent by the night, right?
- I ain't seen no medium of exchange.
- Look, when you done, leave my short on the street where I pick you up at.
- Mm-hm.

Joseph: So now you come over East Side and expect me to hide you. Why is it that every Baltimore nigger think that running the fuck away means crossing downtown? Shit, you should be in New York or Philly or some shit.

- And a deposit slip dated 23 January, same year, to your personal account in the amount of $11,000.
- I come here to help, but y'all out for blood.
- I'm not answering no more questions.
- You are invoking your right against self-incrimination, sir?
- Damn right.
- Then we'll conclude this testimony.

- Who do you like better?
- Ultimate spider-man or regular spider-man?
- What's the difference?
- I'll have to teach you everything.

Frank: You know what the trouble is, Brucey? We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket.

- By the looks of it, we got a whole lot of DNA outta this mess.
- Now, motherfucker. Right now.
- Top of my list.
- As soon as we work through all the trace from the homeless killings.
- That's the priority, bunk.
- The homeless killings.
- Everything is backed up behind that, sorry.
- Your boy mcnulty has everyone's attention right now.

[after D'Angelo's funeral]
Joseph: Sorry for the loss. Y'all sent him off right, though. As good a homecomin' as I been to.
Russell: You been to your share, man, I know.
Joseph: No doubt, no doubt. 'Course, this is neither the time nor the place, but I thought I might get at you for a moment. Got a proposition here.
Russell: [to Shamrock] Go 'head to the car, man.
Joseph: Ain't exactly talkin' outta turn when I say that, uh, Westside dope been weak for a while now. Every dope fiend in the city know that Avon been puttin' out piss and callin' it shit. And the thing is, y'all sittin' on some of the best real estate in the city. The Terrace, the low-rises, the avenue corners...
Russell: Now, respectin' the fact that you're known to have a way with your words, man, when the fuck you gonna tell me somethin' I don't know?
Joseph: [chuckling] A'ight, lemme put a point on it. My shit is right, String. I got dope comin' straight into Baltimore, and the shit be raw. Eighty-five, ninety percent. And you know it's true. You got half the Westside comin' over to Fallsway twice a day because Eastside dope be kickin' the shit outta Westside dope.
Russell: Connected, huh?
Joseph: Man, this shit is straight off the damn boat. I ain't even goin' to New York except for my coke, String. Ain't no need. Thing is, y'all got the best territory, and no kinda product. I got the best product, but could stand a little more territory, so you see where this thing need to go.
Russell: Now, you know Avon fought real hard for them towers. I mean, we took down the Rayford brothers, Big Dennis Woodson, I mean...
Joseph: Shit is just bidness, String. Buy for a dollar, sell for two. That all it need be. You got the towers, I got what goes in 'em. Later for all that bullshit.
Russell: I'll talk to Avon.
Joseph: You do that, homes. Do that.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: I listen to the shit she talks about, first time in my life I feel like a fucking doormat. Like anyone with any smarts would do something else with his life, you know, earn money or get elected. Like I'm just a breathing machine for my fucking dick.

- You're kidding?
- It's not a divorce, it's a separation agreement.
- A separation agreement?
- Just read it. Ok? It's for the both of us.
- It's to protect the both of us.
- This is about what?
- It's just...
- You should just read it, ok?

[Man] What's the cross street?
- What's the cross street?
- Shots fired.
- Sounded like it was west of Milton.

- This is stringer's?
- Yeah.

Chester: How come they don't fly away?

- Na', can I have your Xbox?
- You ain't gonna need it where you are.
- What'd they do?
- Markeith, kwame and latonya.
- Bring your things and come with us.
[All] Ooooh!
- Again?

- Anything happen,
- I'm-a have to fuck you up.
- Yeah, but that's nothing.
- The guy trusting me on this, marlo, he'll kill you and your whole family.
- So don't shake the bottles cos marlo weighs that shit.
- I ain't shaking shit.
- See that you don't, cos if you fuck with them, I'm gonna know.

- I was thinking maybe you would ticket your white ass up with me.
- Run for council president.
- Me an emerging black leader, handsome, well spoken.
- You, the great white hope, the new voice of civic reform.
- We could give Royce a run, man.
- What makes you think I'm interested?
- What the hell else have you got going?
- Think about it.

- Here it be.
- Y'all planted that shit.
- You fucking know you did.

- He starts to develop an intricate pattern in what he does with the bodies.
- It's weird stuff.
- A biter. That's great.
- My name is nowhere on this.
- For your tab.
- We'd stay and have one, but we can still make the second edition.
- Thanks.

- how he might be forced to bail me out because... what was the quote again?
- Because "those are my children in Baltimore too."
- He's gonna bleed me for that money.
- Mayor carcetti? The governor's office says he's ready to see you now.
- 54 million's a big number.
- We won't go until we get some...

- Excuse me, miss.
- Put your thumb on the scanner.
- Hold on a second.
- What's your name?
- Wise, Dennis wise.
- Take one of those.
- Go around the corner to the second door.
- No, you cannot go outside.
- Are you listening to what I'm saying?

- I'm so sorry for your loss.
- We shouldn't be here today just because...
- Your son came fonnard as a witness.
- What do you mean?
- I know it's...
- I'm just sorry for your loss, that's all.

- You keep training, I'm telling you, boy, you can get there.
- See, the last fight was the best.
- The puerto rican boy had a good left.
- Yeah, shit was tight.
- This it, right here on the right.
- All right.
- All right now.
- I'll see you tomorrow, coach.

- Let's mount up.
- Carv.
- What's up?
- He's a complicated man.
- And the only one that understands him is his woman.
- Seek therapy.

Wallace: [while eating some Chicken McNuggets] Man, these shits is right, yo.
Malik: [with his mouth full] Mm-hmm.
Wallace: Good with the hot sauce too, yo.
Malik: Most definitely.
Wallace: Yo, D, you want some nuggets?
D'Angelo: Nah, go ahead, man.
Wallace: Man, whoever invented these, yo, he off the hook.
Malik: What?
Wallace: Mm. Muthafucka got the bone all the way out the damn chicken. 'Til he came along, niggas been chewin' on drumsticks and shit, gettin' they fingers all greasy. He said, " Later for the bone. Let's nugget that meat up and make some real money."
Malik: You think the man got paid?
Wallace: Who?
Malik: Man who invented these.
Wallace: Shit, he richer than a muthafucka.
D'Angelo: Why? You think he get a percentage?
Wallace: Why not?
D'Angelo: Nigga, please. The man who invented them things? Just some sad-ass down at the basement at McDonald's, thinkin' up some shit to make some money for the real players.
Malik: Naw, man, that ain't right.
D'Angelo: Fuck "right." It ain't about right, it's about money. Now you think Ronald McDonald gonna go down in that basement and say, "Hey, Mista Nugget, you the bomb. We sellin' chicken faster than you can tear the bone out. So I'm gonna write my clowny-ass name on this fat-ass check for you"?
Wallace: Shit.
D'Angelo: Man, the nigga who invented them things still workin' in the basement for regular wage, thinkin' up some shit to make the fries taste better or some shit like that. Believe.
[pause]
Wallace: Still had the idea, though.

- For a credible scenario, he's willing to change the cause of death to homicide.
- Do you even have a suspect here?
- Uh, no.
- I don't know how you city guys do it but we try to duck a punch or two, not lean into every last one.
- My county doesn't need another murder.

- No, no. I'm just sayin', you back right quick with it.
- Well, it ain't like them motherfuckers got anything else to do up in there, right?
- The shit is everyday, man.
- Sound right. It count right?
- Mm-hm.
- Boy will bring it to you outside.
- There's tilghman.

- When you tell her that?
- About a week ago, I guess.
- When is she gonna go see the cop?
- Think she gonna talk to a lawyer first, ask him how to play it.
- Who, Levy?
- I guess, whoever.
- The lawyer.
- Levy?
- I guess.
- You didn't ask that?

- You hit the streets, you round up as much muscle as possible and get that boy.
- He did snoop cause he knew we was on him.
- He knew we was on him cause he the one talked about the re-up.
- Get your shit together, man.
- The bondsman came in with Levy.
- A'ight. I'm on it.

- Where I find Omar?
[Breathing heavily] No...
- Where Omar at?
- You a tough old man.

- and they still pulled the motherfucker's voice off a goddamn cellphone tower.
- City police did that?
- Where'd you get this?
- Courthouse, clerk's office.
- Hey, this shit's open to the public after they finish prosecuting your ass.
- You need to lose them cellphones, son.
- Me, I ain't as so much as touched a burner in a year.

- Don't try this shit at home.
- You know, there mightjust be a job for you in a carcetti administration.
- Press secretary, chief of staff.
- Oh, get in the fucking car.
- Duquan?
- Mr. Prez.
- Can you come with me, please?
- What'd I do?

- Thank you, Jimmy.
- What about the reporter? You could charge false statement, you know.
- You look up every liar, there's no room in bdc for anyone else, right?
- More trouble than it's worth.
- Jay, it's horseshit. I'm going home.
- Yeah.

- Here, bank that for me.
- Bank it? For what?
- Got me a plan, girl.
- The hoppers here only be wearing them big white t-shirts a couple of times before they Chuck 'em.
- So I'm thinkin', while I'm out here working for y'all,
- I sell them shirts on the corner.
- I'll make my nut comin' and goin'.

- You my niggers from bc, remember that?
- Come on, wetting your fucking pants, like you a little boy.
- Be a man!
- Stand up like a motherfucking man.
- Y'all my niggers.
- You said you a fucking man. Stand up.
- That's us, man.
- Do it, goddamnit, if you...

- What was she firing?
- Dirty bomb, with a red-top chaser.
- Damn. The bomb is the bomb.

- you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole way down way down in the hole

- I ain'tjacking you up.
- I'm trying to do right for your boy.
- Who dropped him?
- Y'all did.
- They took him out 'cause he was talking to y'all.
- Word is they seen him with the police down at central booking. So cuff me or kick my ass off this corner before you do me the same.

- Ok, give that to aunt Carla.
- Tell her there's more behind it when she finds the need.
- A'ight?
- Make sure she cop you some fresh things, too.
- I don't need you going to a new school lookin' all...

- Hey, Mike, fuck the gypsy shit.
- These are the guys that saved your ass right here.
- Thanks.
- Hey, Jimmy.
- We gotta talk, man.
- It's about rawls.

- Keeps it off the books, so he don't have to pay taxes.
- And you saved all that?
- He gave me a bump, too.
- I'm pulling down seven a week.
- You don't believe me?
- Christ.
- I was saving that up to give to you for the new apartment.

- We've already lost enough.
- What other people Omar got?
- Cocksucker the one got the trouble.
- No need for you to stand tall on it.
- It don't have to be messy.
- Ain't no other way. I can see that.

[Prez] Christ, I wish we had a tap on the port office phone.
- I just wanted to give you a heads-up.
- That last little item we sent out is wrong.
- I knew it was wrong when I let it go.
- Not on the phone, frank.
- Ok, but this time he needs to be there.
- In fact, he wants to be there to hear this shit.

- Somebody snitching!
- Shut the fuck up!
- Let's go, lavell.

- Let me get a pack of juicy fruit.
- You look like one of them half-soul, half-Chinese types from Vietnam and shit.
- Come again now, mama-San.

- Coming.
- Hey, Jackie.
- String. You, too?
- We got enough food for three wakes right now.
- How's Brianna? Is she back there?
- What's up, little man?
- How you holding up?

- Oh, my god.
- You see that quote from somebody about me stabbing burrell in the back?
- That's a damn lie.
- So what?
- You're going to be named commissioner.
- This is good news.
- How is this not good news?

- How about the New York boys?
- We dropped five of them.
- The rest went to ground.
- Drive through east Baltimore, you don't even see a Baltimore nigger with a yankee cap.
- Want us to stay on that too?
- I talked to the fat man, but I think we're done there.
- This shit with Andre? Job one.

- Grab your dick, walk into marimow's office, and say, "lieutenant, I made a mistake.
- "I attributed my PC to an informant when in fact I had it off a camera."
- That I got from isd without going through the proper channels. No.
- He's gonna take my stripes.
- Maybe he does. But if you wait until isd asks for that camera and he figures out the lie, he takes your fucking balls.

- Hello?
[Bunk] 'You seen the paper?' what?
- 'The newspaper, get it.'
- Hey, kids.

Preston: This must be one o' them contrapment things!

- Renaissance revival, late 19th century.
- Do you have a house for them?
- No, I just make them and sell them.
- That seems kind of sad.
- You should have a house for them.
- We can use the lieutenant's office.

- It's not that I don't want to...
- Oh, you're feeling a bit mayoral. Right.
- You're on stage now.
- Well, Tommy...
- Four years is a long time for a fellow like you.
- This could be your last chance for a while.

- All of that is valuable evidence.
- Of what?
- Conspiracy.
- Conspiracy?
- We're building something here, detective.
- We're building it from scratch.
- All the pieces matter.
- All right?

- So, you never got a look at either of the gunmen?
- I told you, I saw only the one of them.
- He was black. Big, I thought.
- With a large weapon.
- Bnbg.
- Big negro, big gun.

- What's with the hats?
[Boy] Five-o!
- Five-o!
- Shut it down!
- Shut it down!
- Clean?

- You know, lately...
- I come to find out someone trying to take pictures on me.
- Pictures?
- Video.
- You heard anything about me through your travels?
- Had no incentive to listen.
- You do now.

- I used the fedcom software, you know?
- I thought I was talking to some fuck in San Diego.
- The 9/11 boys in DC.
- I'm guessing vondopoulos or the Greek was an asset to them.
- You know, hooked up like that or who knows what?
- I'm sorry, lieutenant.

- You and sydnor will have to work it as best you can for right now.
- Assholes.
- They need another body, don't they?
- I'll call our man in the southern.
[Rick] I can take it from here.
- Y'all can bounce.
Man: All right, boss.

- Hey.
- Look, misdelivery.
- Can was supposed to go ashore at Norfolk.
- Yeah, where you want it?
- I'm gonna need it on wheels at k-122.
- My man will pick it up there. Thanks, horse.

- Sergei and them.
[Sighs] They did mau mau Willis.
- Why'd they chill him?
- He was welshing on the Jew.
- Ok, Sergei's a soldier.
- But he and eton report to somebody.
- Who's above those two, Mike?
- I don't know.
- You don't know?
- Never did wanna know.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: [referring to McNulty and Bunk] Look at 'em, Cole. Don't it make your dick bust concrete to be in the same room with two noble, selfless public servants?

- Get everybody over there and get their cellphones.
- Everyone take out your cellphones and place them on the table in front of you.
- Stop, he didn't do anything.
- What are you doing?
- Foxtrot to kga, I'm your eyeball.

- you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- Way down in the hole way down in the hole way down in the hole way down in the hole

- They want more reporting on this, but I don't see where it can go from here.
- The cops are selling a sexual motive but they won't explain it any more than that.
- Who are you dealing with?
- Detective who has the case.
- And he wants publicity?

Sgt. Jay Landsman: He gave us thirteen years on the line. Not enough for a pension, but enough for us to know that he was, despite his negligible irish ancestry, his defects of personality and his inconstant sobriety and hygiene, a true murder police. Jimmy, I say this seriously. If I was laying there dead on some Baltimore street corner, I'd want it to be you standing over me, catching the case. Because, brother, when you were good, you were the best we had.

- Jesus, bunny.
- What got into you?
- Another six months to my 30.
- I'm out the door on a major's pension.
- The hell they could do to me.
- Spider bags, red tops.

[Man 1] 'Hey, checked my count again.'
[Man 2] 'How bad?'
[man 1] 'Not too bad, man.
- 'We got hit about 22.'
[Man 2] '22? That's all?
- 'All right.'

- We good.
- So, where the shit at?

- 50 cent.
- 50 cent.
- Obliged.
- When did this break last night?
- Gus saw it on the council agenda around 9:30.
- It's a good fucking story.

- I mean, a lot of us will.
- It's more than just a drink he's taking.
- Beadie, I can't tell you what to do.
- I don't like giving up.
- Ok, I gotta go back to work.
- Thanks for letting me vent.
- You want to get started today?
- Sooner we decide on...
- After lunch, yeah.

- But you knew that, right?
- We're working a flight warrant today.
[Prez] There's...
- There's a lot to do here, in-office.
- I'd be careful with that, though.
- I understand the trigger pull used to be light.

- Pretty much the exact opposite of that goof in there.
- You know what's in that guy's jacket?
- Motherfucker flaked out, shot up his own radio car.
- They were gonna charge him with false report until valchek weighed in.
- You know he married valchek's daughter, right?
- Fucking goof had nine lives behind that shit.

Preston: [about Marlo] He's a cold motherfucker.
Malik: It's a cold world Bodie.
Preston: Thought you said it was getting warmer.
Malik: The world going one way, people another yo.

- She got kids?
- I ain't touch them kids! Who told you that?
- I know what you're saying, but when you're in the inside, ain't no pussy.
- Well, yeah, shit. You've been inside.
- Man got to bust his nut, you know what I'm sayin'?
- I do.

- The man's a virus.
- Homicide, then.
- That's you, right?
- Yeah.
- I know it's hard right now, detective, but...
- Try to think on this as a favor.

Sergei: [on the phone] Did he have hands? Did he have a face? Yes? Then it wasn't us...
Sergei: [laughs, hangs up the phone] ... idiot.

Joseph: How do we begin?
Omar: You the one called the meet. Why don't we begin by you respectin' my time and gettin' to it?
Joseph: First of all, I heard you may be under the impression I was somehow involved with the late Mr. Bell in his play against you with Brother Mouzone. I was no way involved. Stringer came at me to set up the parley with you. He used me like he used y'all, I feel the need to say.
Omar: It's said, then. Tip out on it.
Joseph: Businessman such as myself does not believe in bad blood with a man such as yourself. Disturbs the sleep.
Omar: Oh, I bet it do.
Joseph: By way of amends, a proposition. I know of a card game on the Westside. High rollers, lots of cash money, boxcar-size.
Omar: You tryin' to set me up, Joe?
Joseph: You ever known me to be stupid? I'm tryin' to make things right here with you.
Butchie: How much we talkin' about?
Joseph: If there ain't at least a few hundred K in that room, I wish myself blind.
[Butchie and Omar burst out laughing]
Butchie: Serious, Joe.
Joseph: I say again: have you ever known me to be a stupid man?
Butchie: What are the strings?
Joseph: No strings.
Omar: What's your cut, then?
Joseph: Quarter of the take.
[Omar thinks for a second]
Omar: I scope this, and it don't look right, I'm gonna come back on ya now, Joe.
[Joe nods solemnly]

- Mmm-mmm. 20 gets you the permits.
- Five is for me for bribing these motherfuckers.
- I'm the one who got to risk walking up to these thieving bitches with cash in hand.
- I'm telling you, string, the people running the city now, they make the last bunch look sanctified.
- I mean, this is some shameful shit.

- FBI! All of you move, now!
- What the fuck is this?
- FBI, move, move, move!
- Against the wall.
- No, he's here. He's here.
- Got another problem here, Larry.
- Big man on the docks.
- You don't look so big now, do you, huh?

- Here, in the detail.
- In the beginning, when we started, burrell had me.
- I pipelined everything to that motherfucker.
- But now...
- He lost you.
- So now he's picked up someone else.
- That's how they do.

- What did she say?
- She wants to know, if she knows a girl, does she get to stay?

- 'Y'all got a tape?'
- 'Over there, man.'
- 'all right, let's see what we got here.' he's packing shit up.

- Rough.
- Don't nobody want shit like this to happen, man.
- If I'd have known the boy was gonna be doing shit like that, you know what I mean?
- What are the prison people saying?
- That he just hung himself like that?
- Just tied a rope around a knob and sat his ass down.

- You ain't careful, they may make you major, then you'll be truly fucked.
- Good job.
- Thanks.
- Proud of you.
- Thanks.

- but the art and all,
- I might have to run it up New York.
- Name's Damien price, but I mostly go by day-day.
- I'm Cedric Daniels.
- But I mostly go by lieutenant.
- They're bringing in Roberts.
- There you are.
- There's somebody I need you to meet.

Omar: It ain't what you takin', it's who you takin' from, ya feel me? How you expect to run with the wolves come night when you spend all day sparring with the puppies?

- you go running your mouth about nothing?
- String...
- And she gonna believe that too.
- What moms is not gonna believe her son didn't kill hisself?
- She gonna take that shit, go half-crazy with it.
- I just...
- You just what?
- Sorry!

- We gonna run out if we don't got no re-up.
- Where's tuckie at?
- I don't know.
- Yo, where tuckie at, man?
- He rolled out.
- Huh?
- He said the police coming.
[Man] Here they come. Let's roll.
[2nd man] Let's go!

- Put the lab tech on it.
- The money's not anyone's primary concern.
- I understand that.
- I won't give a shit about the money when you have lost one of your own who might...
- I mean, Jesus, this is awful.
- But if we can get to this savino character...
- Hey.
- Fuck your money.

- That's why?
- Look. I told y'all, I just want him gone.
- I just want him away from me and bug.
- What the fuck did he do to you?
- All right.
- We'll take care of it, boss.

- And, you, you're worried sick about those subpoenas and worried that Lester's killing you with your boss...
- But the subpoenas get me promoted.
- I know.
- You know, Marla once said to me,
- "you cannot lose if you do not play."
- But here we are, right?

- I got your murders.
- But what I need from you, I get.
- No bullshit, no arguments.
- No arguments.

Kathleen: [Answering a call Kima has been asked to make to a Mr. Lyon] Hello, Kathleen O'Shea.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Yes, hello? I need to speak with Mr. Lyon about the protocols.
Kathleen: I beg your pardon?
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Mr. Lyon, please.
Kathleen: You sound a little old for this, hon.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Excuse me?
Kathleen: Who is this?
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: This is Detective Greggs with the...
Kathleen: This is the Baltimore City Zoo.

- Ooh, baby, baby, baby.
- Get the fuck off me.
[Bird] Ah! Oh, my hand!
[Sydnor] Fucking bitch.
[Bird] Shut the fuck up!
- Shit is tight, man.
- We should leave the couch right there.
- Leave that shit right there.
- That's nice, that's straight.

- You going over there?
- Get me a cheese steak.
- You hungry too?
- I could do a burger.
- Let me get onions on that, man.
- You organizing it right? My 50s with my 50s, and my 100s with my 100s?
- All right, ladies, good night.
- I see you all tomorrow, on time, you hear?

- Grab the wall.
- Officer Walker.
- I ain't gonna be out here strapped.
- You gonna take that on a humble?
- You don't know there's rules to this game.
- Rules?
- Yeah.

- The wire is what gives us barksdale.
- It gives us the whole crew.
- Day by day, piece by piece.
- Buy-bust, lieutenant.
- It's what I asked you for months ago.
- It's what we do successfully time and again to make these cases.

- 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.

[last line of the series]
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Let's go home.

Det. William Moreland: You seem awfully happy today.
Det. Ray Cole: I got laid last night.
Det. William Moreland: Oh yeah? Your asshole still hurt?

Avon: Yeah, I ain't no suit-wearin' businessman like you. You know I'm just a gangsta, I suppose. And I want my corners.

- Omar!
[Men] Omar coming, Omar coming!
- Did you hear me? Omar coming.
- Let's get out of here.
Man: Close that shit down
Man: I said, Omar coming through.
[2nd man] Somebody in trouble now. Let's go.
- Eyy-yo.

Asst. State's Atty. Rhonda Pearlman: [Reading an affadavit] You all cannot spell for shit.
Det. William Moreland: Well, would we be police if we could?

- Marlo? Can't say I know the man.
- He know you.
- Can you get me a phone call?
- I can do you one better than that.
- Who you calling?
- Police.
- The police?
- Man owe me a favor.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: [playing music from Shaft on his car stereo] He's a complicated man. And the only one that understands him is his woman.
Sgt. Ellis Carver: Seek therapy.

- Where are you going?
- Work.

- And from here, the view is two of my detectives fucking the dog.
- 13 homicides
- 14 if we connect the floater and all of them red.
- What can I tell you? If this case doesn't fall, we'll all be stepping on our dicks trying to explain what happened.
- Mmm?
- So work it as you see fit but understand, if I have to throw burrell a scapegoat or two, I got one to throw.

Felicia: Fuck them West Coast bitches! 'Coz in B-More, we aim to hit a nigga, y'herd?

- It plays. Nationally, you're taking up the cause of the forgotten...
- And no one is ever in favor of homelessness...
- Statewide, you're going up against the fella who tore up the safety net.
- Homelessness.
- Huh.
- I'll be damned.

- Man, I ain't have her do nothing.
- She just get on her horse and come with it.
- Look. I done did everything
- I can for you and yours, but...
- From here on, your moms can't do nothing to help. All right?
- Him? From wee-bey?
- Your moms?

- Anything I ought to know?
- Yeah. Use the city.
- Windows, mirrors, reflections, anything like that.
- Stay on my frequency, hear?
- Vondopoulos should be coming out on foot right about now.
- Copy that.

- Business as usual.
- Marlo.
- You no know him when we robbed the gang?
- We ain't never been introduced.
- Boy's merely a name to me.
- If you knew it was marlo, you'd still go through with it, no?
- I wish I'd have known.
- I'd have enjoyed it that much more.

- in the bottom of the hole in the hole in the hole way down in the hole in the hole in the hole in the hole in the hole way down in the hole

- And you know who the killer is?
- Do you believe Satan walks the earth in a fleshly form?
- That Satan can occupy the souls of men?
- And he's just getting started.
- There's gonna be a lot more dead before it's over.
- Hundreds. Maybe thousands.

- It's gonna be partly cloudy, breezy and warm today with highs around 80.
- Right now in Baltimore, sunny skies.
- And here's one of my morning favorites.
- I know this might sound strange
- Yo, ott. Santo Rey's late, uh?
- Squall last night off of Hampton roads.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: The hell with Norris. You my real partner, Lester. My life partner.
Det. Lester Freamon: Don't tease, bitch.

- you didn't tell me that thing.
- You told me something else.
- Iwrote what Mr. Hanning told me.
- Mr. Hanning...
- What if one of the guys, what if a marine who was there, he reads that shit that you made up?
- That's why I come down here today.
- What if one of the guys sees that?
- Man, get him outta my face.

- we just gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- Down in the hole down in the hole you gotta help me keep the devil down in the hole

Scott: [to homeless man on the other side of a fence] Excuse me, sir. Sir. I'm with the Baltimore Sun. Can I talk with you a minute?
Homeless: You make an appointment?
Scott: [Looks surprised and puzzled]
Homeless: Sorry, I'm booked up all afternoon.

[Pa] Dr. Johnson, please call neuro icu.
- Dr. Johnson, please call neuro icu.

- I want to see everybody's worksheets out.
- Kareem, you want to play dice with me?
- Not with you.
- And we're not just playing games here, we're doing math.
- I'll roll with you, man. Come on.
- No kidding. We are.

Wallace: Shit, if it ain't up in the West Side, I don't know shit.
Wallace: [pointing to the neighborhood] Coz this shit? This is me, yo, right here.

- Nigger put a gun in my face, man.
- Joe know about butchie?
- Motherfucker, I know about him.
- Joe don't know shit about this here, and he ain't need to know.
- Now where my cheese at, man?
- Ooh. [Chuckles]

- We're trying to get onto the boss man's text messaging.
- Yeah?
- They sent that Greek mess over as email.
- After he inputs, the computer will translate it.
- Got it.
- Shit.

- Avon goes down, the projects be open market again, right?
- Let me understand.
- Avon loses 100 large to me on a bet, then you bring me some of his shit so that
- I can put your predatory self on his ass.
- Not his day, is it?
[Carver] Fuck it.

- Maybe give it to your pup, get him started.
- You and snoop, y'all lay low till this shit here blow down.
- Boy worked for bodie. First time, best be someone he ain't know.
- You hear what Joe said? Joe's saying this cocksucker who stole our shit wanna sell it back to us for 30 on the dollar.
- Joe's saying it's another 90 to buy back our share.

- I couldn't make it out the bathroom.
- Stand up when I talk to you, young man.
- I know your mother, Tyrell.
- She didn't raise any clowns, now, did she?
- No, ma'am.
- It's yours, major.

Det. Ellis Carver: See, that's why we can't win.
Det. Thomas Hauk: Why not?
Det. Ellis Carver: They fuck up, they get beat. We fuck up, they give us pensions.

- I'm minding my business, doing my job when the man calls me for coffee and a Danish.
- I never been on the eighth floor of that fucking building.
- And there's the deputy fucking ops telling me how concerned he is about the case, how he needs to be informed.
- I mean, he's the deputy fucking ops, man.

- Good hunting.
[Landsman] Howie?
- Yo.
- You got midnight shift.
- Worden'll be in to relieve you at six.
- After worden, my squad will pick up monitoring on the dayshift.
- Excuse me.
- Don't look so pissy.
- We're actually paying overtime for this.

- Marlo?
- You know I'm with avon, right?
- Stringer bell?
- Can we talk?
- I need you to walk back up there and pack up your people.
- I'm being a gentleman about it for the moment.

Moreland: I'm just a humble motherfucker with a big-ass dick.
Freamon: You give yourself too much credit.
Moreland: Okay then. I ain't that humble.

- gotta watch your back well, I beg your pardon walk the straight and narrow track if you walk with Jesus he's gonna save your soul you gotta keep the devil way down in a hole

Marla: The tree that doesn't bend, breaks, Cedric.
Lt. Cedric Daniels: Bend too far, you're already broken.

- Jimmy, he makes more money off of that shit than you do off of this job.
- Don't let Lester fool you.
- He did already.
- Today in roll call, he showed something.
- Hey, he's natural police.
- He used to be homicide.
- Why did he leave?
- Ask him.
- This is the one, huh?
- Yup. Hasn't been rented since.

- Damn, yo! That hurt!
- You think that hurts...?
- No, no!
- Ah! Ah!
- You're so smart, let's see how easy you boost a car now.
- Ah!
- Ah! Ahh!

- Headquarter security?
- The boat.
- The marine unit?
- Yeah, those diesel fumes, they make me seasick.
- That's good, keep it up.
- I'll go this against 10, you're riding the boat, midnight shift.
- Listen to the man, Jimmy.

- Ain't nothing in here but a 24 and some crime scene photos, and this.
- "Tywanda called.
- Nfd, no last name, no address.
- "Claims your victim killed after being visited by a suspect named d."
- No further description.
- There's a callback number, though.
- So call.

- I know.
- Enjoy tonight. We'll talk later.
- Welcome home.
- What up, prop? How you doing, man?
- You iookin' fit.
- Hell, yeah,
- I've been working out.
- That's all you do.
- Might be a good place for a fat man to find his inner self.

- Stay in the fucking car.
- That shit just ain't right.
- Whatcha doing with something like that?
- What you got here?
- Shoulda seen the way this bitch was looking at me, kima.
- Ugly little fucker almost shit his pants he was so scared.
- Right? [Laughing]

Recovering: You know how that go, right? Gave myself all these little rules about what I wouldn't do. Like I told myself I'd do a lot of shit to get high, but I swore I wouldn't ever trick. So, after I'm tricking, I thought, "This ain't so bad. I'll do this for a while, except I'll make some more rules for myself, like I'm going to use condoms, and I'm never going to go with more than one guy at the same time". Well, let's just say that there are some things that I told myself I would never do. You know what my disease did to my rules, right? Whatever it is you tell yourself you won't do to get high, you're pretty much making a list of everything you will do as soon as your inner addict tells you to. I mean, that bitch wants to kill me. She does.

Randy: Dag.
- Yo, turn it off the bulb might have got too hot.
Randy: Or the battery's dying.
- We should go back.
- Yo, man, it stinks, man.
- Ain't like it was.

- and in any place you can think of calling home, it'll be my word, they'll find you.
- Man come down here to say my son can be anything he damn please.
- Except a soldier.
- Yeah, well, look at me up in here.
- Who the fuck would want to be that if they could be anything else, de'londa?

- Down in the hole down in the hole you gotta help me keep the devil down in the hole

- I got them ts.
- White, bright, one for three, two for five.
[Boy] Rockefeller's right here.
[Boy] This shit is right over here.
- This shit is right.
- I got this, man, $5. New.
- No, thank you, man.
- It's only $5.
- No, thank you.
- Fuck you, then, man, fuck you. Fuck you.

Omar: Omar don't scare.

- Somebody call the nurse.
- Yo, why they bank me?
- I ain't no snitch.
- Randy, Randy, it's ok.
- Thanks a lot.
- Health department shut chicken George again?
- I had to duck in here for cover.
- Your boys are off the hook today.

- Check under the bed, check all the drawers, every inch of this room.
- Got anything?
- No.
- Bingo.
- Got it.
- There she goes.
- Bag it.
- Let's do it.

- Tope, Gil, help me move this guy out of hamsterdam.
- I'll be first officer at the scene.
- It's my responsibility.
- Don't forget the casings.
- Make sure you call me.
- I will. Thank you.
- Take care.
- All right.
- Yes!

- No, no.
- Please.
- Malaka.
[Operator] Can you hear me?
- If you can't talk, please stay on the line.

Sergei 'Serge' Malatov: Did he have hands?
- Did he have a face?
- Yes? Then it wasn't us.
- You don't think that had anything to do...
- With this mope, huh?
- You gotta do better than that, Lester.
- This poor guy ain't got a face.

- Look, I chill out on the manhunt and stop hitting them in the head for they product, they gonna call off the bounty.
- Take the truce, Omar.
- I might, if they ain't trying to play me.
- They said they want to parley on it.
- Parley?
- Look, I don't know, man, but right now
- I need some assistance from y'all.

- Buy you a drink?
- Why the fuck you coming up behind me?
- I'm sorry.

- When you figure out what to do with that, holler at me.
- How do I do that?
- Hmm.
- 410-915-0909.
- Anything else?
- Nah, take me off your clock.

- A hotel...
- At the harbor.
- This one?
- Mm-mm.
- Another.
- I can show you.

- Hey, Dwight?
- What's up?
- We have to search your vehicle.
- What the fuck?
- Open it or I'll shim the lock, maybe damage your ride.
- You got no call to be doing me like this.
- No call and no damn warrant.
- You drive onto a doc facility, the vehicle's subject to search.
- Where's the key, Dwight?

- What about the passenger?
- Looks the part to me.
- Container ship on the talco line, name of caspia, docks tomorrow am.
- Our man horseface on it?
- I'll call the lieutenant, let him know we gotta set up on this.
- This time, though, we got the wire up.
- Eyes and ears both.

- What are you, a smart ass?
- Sorry. I didn't mean nothing.
- Don't I know you?
- I'm running for mayor.
- Tommy carcetti, first district.
- I'll come back through in about 20, councilman.
- Do me a favor and take it down the road.

- 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 acting like Omar, calling you by name, glorifying your ass.
- Makes me sick, motherfucker, how far we done fell.

- Obedience that brings out the champion, not only in show dogs... look at that tiger go!
- A third generation champion from Blackpool.
- Even house pets that never knew they had the blood of champions in them.
- To perform at this level, an animal has to follow orders without question.
- Come on upstairs.
- Jesus Christ!

- Get the fuck down, motherfucker.
- Where it at?
- Ain't nothing here.
- Where it at, man?
- Fuck, my leg!
- Where it at, shorty?
- Kitchen, under the sink.
- Go on and get that.

[last lines]
Omar: All in the game yo, all in the game.

- Just fucking kill me now.
- Heard from Omar?
- Nope.
- I'm gonna go try to scare him up.
- Where you gonna be?
- Well, everyone's saying this kid's all tore up about the dead stickup boy.
- I'm gonna see for myself.
- Mm-hm.
- You need us, we're on the radio.
- Okay.

Brother: Lamar, where's my Harper's?
Lamar: Say what?
Brother: Harper's. The new issue.
Lamar: You didn't say that one. You said the New Republic, and Atlantic, and a new something else.
Brother: I did not forget to tell you Harper's. Every week I tell you the same shit, and every week you forget half of what I say. Tomorrow first thing, you go down to the newsstand, and you get Harper's. And the Nation, too, which you also managed to forget. You know what the most dangerous thing in America is, right? Nigger with a library card.

- put you with someone doing drug work.
- You work for them, they'll help you with your problem. All right?
- I need this now, kima.
- I'll tell them that.
- Woman...
- So show me where you're living, and I'll tell them where they can find you.
- Take the left.

Avon: He scare you, don't he?
D'Angelo: You know, I'm just sayin'...
Avon: He scares me. Yeah. See, if he dead, you know, I could carry it better. Commin' up the way we did, you know, you kind of expect that. Waitin' on it. See, the thing is, you only got to fuck up once. Be a little slow, be a little late, just once. And how you ain't gonna never be slow? Never be late? You can't plan through no shit like this, man. It's life.

- Ain't no shame in holdin' on to grief.
- As long as you make room for other things, too.
Woman: It's all right.
- So thank you for listening.
- Thank you for lettin' me share.
[All] Thanks for sharing.

Frank: Not now. I need to get clean.

- Give and take on both sides.
- You hear me?
- Yeah.
- Ok, anything that fired a bullet out on that corner has gotta disappear.
- Not the storm drains.
- Call that nigger shamrock and drive all that chrome over to the harbor.
- All right.

[A security guard has spotted Marlo shoplifting lollipops at the corner store]
Security: The fuck? You think I dream of coming to work up in this shit on a Sunday morning? Tell all my friends what a good job I got? I'm working to support a family, man.
[Marlo looks away]
Security: Pretend I ain't talking to you. Pretend like I ain't even on this earth. I know what you are. Now, I ain't stepping to, but I am a man. And you just clip that shit and act like you don't even know I'm there.
Marlo: I don't.
[unwraps a stolen lollipop, throws wrapper on the ground]
Security: I'm here.
[Marlo moves closer to him]
Security: Look, I told you I ain't stepping to. I ain't disrespecting you, son.
Marlo: You want it to be one way.
Security: What?
Marlo: You want it to be one way.
Security: Man, I don't want it to be --
Marlo: You want it to be one way.
Security: [losing temper] Man, stop --
[pulls himself together]
Security: Stop saying that.
Marlo: But it's the other way.

- Now, then, back to the readouts.
- First item is from motor pool.
- No marked or unmarked units can be shopped on dickman street until further notice.
Man: What?!
- Cutbacks and fleet budgeting require that all districts make do with vehicles in their current state of repairs. That means...
- Shitbox cars are falling apart, don't they fucking know that?

- Yeah, I see that.
- I see that.

[investigating a corpse in a vacant house]
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: How happy am I to see my pager go off with your call number?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Smoke 'em if you got 'em, because this muthafucka is as ripe as they get.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: We aren't up. Nolan's squad is up.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: I know, I know.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: But you had to answer the fuckin' phone, didn't you?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: I gotta pay down my credit cards, man.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Not off him, you ain't. Motherfucker, I leave you alone for a minute or two, what do you do?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: All right, I heard ya!
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Well, say the words, Bunk.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [offers McNulty a cigar] Oh, come on, man.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Speak to me.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [puts the cigar away] So you gonna cut and run on the Bunk? That shit ain't right, Jimmy. All right then, this is my case, my file. This shit comes back a murder, you ain't gotta do shit but stand there and laugh at me. You happy now, ya bitch?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: This'll teach you to give a fuck when it ain't your turn to give a fuck.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: It ain't even gonna be a murder. This muthafucka probably came in here to take a shit or somethin' and just fell out. I betcha there ain't nothin' to it.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [turns to leave] You hope.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Where you goin'?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Back to the office, where I belong.
[he leaves; Bunk looks down at the corpse]
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You... molderin' muthafucka, don't even think about comin' back a murder. Don't even think of that shit.

- I can't make shit up, can I?
- It is what it is.
- If I send the surveillance teams back, don't come crying for more manpower tomorrow, you hear?
- Shit is like a war, ain't it?
- Easy to get in, hell to get out.

- Listen, you gotta realize the bosses did you a favor sending you down here.
- Citywide to marine unit.
- 7672. Go ahead.
- Distress call from a private craft.
- 60-foot white vessel. Engines are dead.
- What's the location, citywide?
- In the channel near the bridge.
- About 2,000 yards off the armistead pier.
- 10-4, we're responding.

- It all tells me that you lack a fucking clue.
- If you'll permit me.
- Is your deputy major present?
- Yes, sir.
- You now command the eastern district.
- Major Taylor, you are relieved.
- Take the podium.

Joseph: Scare up a hornet's nest, no telling who's gon' get stung.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: Officer, uh...
Off. Beatrice 'Beadie' Russell: Russell.
Sgt. Jay Landsman: I am informed that you are detailed to this case as a liaison with the port police. I also understand that, uh... you are the only help that your department is sending.
Off. Beatrice 'Beadie' Russell: That so?
Sgt. Jay Landsman: Although there is some small charm to a woman in uniform, the fact remains we wear plainclothes in Homicide. Which is not to say that the clothes need be plain. For you I would suggest some pantsuits, perhaps, muted in color. Something to offset Detective Moreland's pinstriped lawyerly affectations, and the brash tweedy impertinence of Detective Freamon. Rawls is watchin' on this one. Let's at least pretend we got a fucking clue.
Detective: Tweedy impertinence? I like that.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: I gotta tell you, Lester, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I can see why Daniels cringed every time you opened your fucking mouth. You're a supervisor's nightmare.

Det. Augustus Polk: Where are the fucking run sheets?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Behind the board. You all go for a taste?
Det. Patrick Mahon: Hey. We got your picture, don't you fuckin' worry, McNulty.
[he slaps an old Polaroid down on the desk. McNulty looks at it and holds it up; the photo is of an older white man]
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [incredulously] This is Barksdale?
Det. Augustus Polk: [self-satisfied] Avon Barksdale.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: [scoffing] I don't think so.
Det. Patrick Mahon: Read my lips: Avon fuckin' Barksdale. His name's on the form in the file.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Well, excuse me for giving a shit, but I can't help but notice this is a middle-aged white man.
Det. Patrick Mahon: Hey, you want somethin' different, you give me another name. That's the only Avon Barksdale in the Housing Department files.
[he turns to Polk]
Det. Patrick Mahon: You got your smokes?
[to McNulty and Greggs]
Det. Patrick Mahon: Have a nice fuckin' day.
[they leave; Kima examines the photo and shrugs]
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Maybe he's white.
[Kima and McNulty both burst out laughing]

- You want to throw your summonses?
- Throw them.
- You don't need a subpoena to see our records no more.
- Our books were open to the justice department for eight years.
- We're here through
- Bobby Kennedy, tricky dick Nixon,
- Ronnie "the union buster" Reagan, and half a dozen other sons of bitches.
- We'll be here through your weak bullshit, no problem!

- Knives, any needles?
- No.
- Any illegal substances I should know about?
- Ok. Spread your legs back.
- Spread your legs back more.
- Ok, slowly bring your right arm around your back.
- Now bring the other one.

- Avon gotta send the word and wait for word to come back, set up a price, talk to brother mouzone, set up the whole shit.
- That's a week or maybe two.
- By then, your people's gonna be in the towers and if the money's right then that is what it is.
- Ain't no nigger from New York gonna change the facts from the ground.

- We need to be inside before the building even wakes up.
- Anyone who wants to sleep tonight needs to start typing his ass off right now.
- What's up? Why ain't the club open?
- You going with bey.
- Yo, bey.
- Keep it clean. Don't make no mistakes.

- What's the sound? Out of bounds another nigger down and out a crackhead with no name...
- What the fuck you stopping for? Go!
- Some guy hit hard and wound up paying out in the field where the bands keep playing understand what I'm saying...

- try to convince anyone on the street to move into the city shelters after dark.
- Can't you have police sit on locations where the homeless gather?
- And still answer the calls?
- Not without doubling up post units, which means overtime.
- Overtime, again.
- Blood in our veins, Mr. Mayor.

- Permits come when?
- Monday. Latest.
- Mmm-hmm.

- And the other one was open.
- And yo, Dee, it fucks me up.
- It's like he's looking out, like he sees everything, you know?
- Don't think about it.
- Fuck!
- Yo.
- Let that shit go.
- Just... let it go.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: [Herc has been ranting about IID charges] Herc, What the fuck did you do exactly?
Sgt. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: I lost a surveillance camera that I took without my Lieutenant's permission and the evidence that I had found, I it attributed to a made up informant.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Son, They gonna beat on your White ass like it was a Rented Mule.

- You asked to see me, sir?
- I did.

- So we good, then.
- What we know is, they still looking hard at us.
- You wanna know what kills more police than bullets and liquor?
- Boredom.
- They just can't handle that shit.
- You keep it boring, string.
- You keep it dead fucking boring.

- Who?
- He say anything else?
- No. Just to come back.
- All of us.
- How he say it?
- You know, hejust said it.
- Fuck.
- Yeah.

- Get a white mayor elected in Baltimore, honey, you name your price.
- One drink was the deal.
- Go home, sleep it off.
- You'll wake up and realize you're making a mistake.
- I can do this.
- Question is, are you gonna come with me?

- No, I'm just seeing where you going to be at.
- You need to relax more, man.
- Well, when the time is right, I will.
- You know,
- I don't take my work too seriously.
- That's right.
- It's just business.

- Yo, where that whistle at?
- Whoa, h-hold on.
- Wait for Mario.

- Andreas, right?
- The Russian sent me.
- Need you to get a word to vondas.
- He got a new friend.
- I never hear the name.
- Just let him know marlo came past with a gift.
- Be at you same time tomorrow.

- Relax.
- I gave you my word.

Thomas: [spreading his lapels to show the lining of his suit] Here's our boy Thomas sporting the latest in downtown business wear: an understated ensemble that puts the "b" in subtle
[the line sounds much better than it looks when it's typed out]

- or nigga with a gun can tap that.
- How I even know it's there?
- You check it online any time you like.
- On a computer?
- If I can't hold it in my hand...
- A'ight. You got any prior convictions?
- No, nothing that rate.
- We get you a passport, then.
- Take a trip.

- Hey, Phil.
- I'm putting up for the cape St. George.
- I don't see no resemblance.
- We're both bald, we're both polacks.
- What the fuck else you need to know?

- This was written on the stash house wall with the letter d next to it.
- Is that d'Angelo? Did you check it?
- It's him.

- They holding to it?
- So far.
- All right.

- Where's your book bag?
- Teacher ain't give no homework.
- That's the worst case of suicide
- I've ever seen.
- That's him.
- You see?
- That's him, right there.
- That's Omar's boy.

- Go on, go home.
- Godspeed, Bob.
- Johnson.
- My ticket to the dance.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You're not the run-of-the-mill kind of asshole, are you, Jimmy? You're a special kind of asshole.

- When a case does go down...
- All those people who kept quiet about it, who lied about it, all of them who thought it wasn't coming back on 'em, they end up catchin' a charge.
- And they get time behind that.
- Time, huh? You gonna give me time?

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [epigraph] ... when it's not your turn.

- Whenever he's done here, you need to send someone home with him.
- For tonight at least, he's a suicide watch.
- Lieutenant. Er... you'll back him?
- What I mean is, if this thing should turn into some kind of a black-white thing, you're his unit commander.
- He can count on you, right?

- 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.

- Mr. Stump!
- Mr. Stump.
- Them boys been teasin' chantelle again.
- You know it.

- Kitchen's closed.
- No service for drunks who can't get up in time to catch a ship.
- What ship?
- Your father says the talco line is in today.
- That makes two ships at north point.
- It's the Atlantic light.
- Ain't due until this afternoon.
- That still is no excuse.

- Bingo.
- From behind your clothes washer.
- That's heroin, 300 gelcaps.

- We just sat here and watched nat coxson take a shit all over you.
- And shrivel-dick motherfucker that you are, you take it.
- I wake up every morning with an angry, blue-veined diamond-cutter.
- I was gonna enlighten the president of the local 47 on this point. He chose to depart.
- Blue steel, gentlemen.
- For Christ's sake!
- Three and a half inches of hard blue steel!

Preston: He's a cold motherfucker.
Malik: It's a cold world, Bodie.
Preston: Thought you said it was getting warmer, man.
Malik: World going one way, people another.

- Copy.
- 11-34.
- Subject and companion, blue suit, leaving the hotel any moment now.
[Bunk] Copy, we got the eyeball.
- The man with vondopoulos must be big.
- I mean, look at that expensive suit.
- Yeah, with them buttons and all.

Slim: Don't matter who did what to who at this point. Fact is, we went to war, and now there ain't no going back. I mean, shit, it's what war is, you know? Once you in it, you in it. If it's a lie, then we fight on that lie. But we gotta fight.

- You hold a few facts for a few weeks.
- You put a report or two in a desk drawer.
- But the transferring of people off a case?
- Look, you told me...
- You specifically wanted me to not...
- Ervin, you may leave.
- Mr. Mayor...
- That will be all, commissioner.

- It just happened.
- I should have told you sooner.
- I need to know this isn't going to be a thing between us.
- No, I wish you both all the best.
- Was I very loud last night?
- Thanks for making this easy on me.

Chris: Don't fret, boss. I got you covered. Quick and clean, I promise...

- You ain't gonna play that country shit, right? I hate that country shit.
- No. Not even ray Charles can save that mess for me.
- No, sir.

Preston: I'm standing here holding my Charles Dickens because I ain't got no muscle, no backup. Shit man, yo, if this was the old days...
Slim: Yeah now, well, the thing about the old days... they the old days.

- I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
- I keep my eyes wide open all the time
- I keep the ends out for the tie that binds because you're mine, I walk the line

- Jimmy, right? Dennis kerpelman.
- Great kids.
- Anyway, nice meeting you.
- Do you want anything from the stand?
- No, thank you.
- Uh, don't stay till the last inning, cos it's a school night.
- Bye.

- Sarge, nobody answers at juvenile intake and we been calling.
- Clearly, they're not as dedicated as you two detectives.
- What time does the duty consultant get here?
- You missed the 8:00.
- You got another one around midnight.
- Midnight?
- You think if we left you the papennork, you could put him in the box until intake gets here?

Off. Beatrice 'Beadie' Russell: You must know Jimmy McNulty?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: He's dead to us.

- You want to get arrested?
- No.
- Shut the fuck up your own self.
- I'm outta here.
- Hey, hey! D'Angelo.
- You better bend the fuck over.
- You ain't got nothing else to do today?
- No, no, nothing.
- Y'all ain't got no charge.
- You getting awfully close, man.
- You new on the force or some shit?

- Dick.
- Shit, lieutenant, I promised.
- Think my woman's gonna give a big cheer when she hears? I was out the damn door.
- You don't know Cheryl.
- You don't know Marla.
- Look, if you want, I could use you inside, like we did Prez last year.
- If I hear the music, I'm gonna dance.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: You see Griggs out there, bagging evidence alone, then going back out there to recanvas on a triple? A triple fucking murder! A home invasion, and she's working it alone. They pulled Crutchfield this morning, put him back on the rotation.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: That's on them! You can't come...
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Fucking right, it's on them. A triple murder, and 12 hours later they leave one detective alone on it? I guess she's lucky she has a car!
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: This shit won't work.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Well, then we're no worse than before. Extra red name or two on the board.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Yeah, unless you got caught.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Who in this fucking unit's going to catch me? Most of the guys up here couldn't catch the clap in a Mexican whorehouse.

- madam prosecutor, gentlemen...
- Don't pay heed to temptation the first case up and I have to recuse myself.
- Your honor, I appreciate your concern.
- You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole

- O-dog!
- My leg!
- Stay the fuck down!

- You used to run with the boy namond, right?
- Yeah, I used to be on them fayette corners.
- Oh yeah, man, I remember you.
- Yeah, I just got tired, you know?
- Shit got old.
- So, I guess you need to bang a while longer, then come back, see if we got something.

- Let's do it.
- I'm up.
- You're on medical.
- I'm up, boss.
- Give him a vest.

- Brother ray.
- God rest ye.

- Tear out them phones.
- From now on, y'all need a pay phone, walk a few blocks and do not use the same phone more than once a day.
- You hear me?
- You hear me, right?
- Done.
- Bey, tear them motherfuckers out.
- Come on, man.

- You know them niggers is gonna get mad busy over this.
- So we getting busy, too.
[Woman] What time you coming over?
[Man] Damn, bitch, ain't you even listening?
[Woman] You still there?
- Shakedown!
- Time out.

- and we need everyone, everyone who's willing to join us in making a better
- Baltimore for our children.
- I don't want to make a long speech, believe me, you don't want to hear it, so I'll thank each of you individually.
- But for tonight, let's celebrate!

- What's up? You need a little help?
- Maybe, bro. You got any raw up in here?
- You got it to spend?
- For sure.
- All right, then we good.
- Go and holler at my niggers round back.
- Yo, carv. You copy this?
- It's all in the props, baby.
- All in the props.

- You showed something today.
- Just felt like it needed to be said.
- Sounds like you're running for something.
- Eunetta. Been a while.

- Mr. Hanning?
- It's an honor for me to meet you, sir.
- Who are you?
- My name's Gus haynes.
- I edited the story you're featured in.
- Then you're a fucking liar.
- Omar. It's Omar, yo!

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [quote after opening credits] Aw yeah. That Golden Rule.

- Jesus.
- I'm sorry.
- It's all right, you just scared me.
- I, er...
- I work with kima.
- Kima, she...
- Kima's at work.
- What are you...?

- She was shot, one in the mouth, one in each tit.
- You still wanna talk truce, string?
- You right when you say I need to learn more discipline. But this? You could do this better.
- You're the perfect bait, Lamar.
- They'll see you as conflicted.
- Your homophobia is so visceral.
- You see that? I ain't even stepped inside the joint and you calling me a cocksucker already.

- Get the fuck outta here.
- Why don't you sign this for me there,
- Mr. One-day man?
- God have mercy when they piss you, boy.
- You mean the god of my understanding?
- We gotta get you some clean piss, to take up into your probation office.
- Yo, bubs.
- Who the fuck do we know with clean piss?

- Wee-bey? Savino? Stinkum? Cco? Roc-roc?
- Well who you gonna give us, Marvin?
- You don't say a name soon, you're gonna be courtside.
- All right.
- All right? All right what?
- All right, I'll take the years.

- 10,000.
- See him go through all that for 10,000?
- Man, slim, go get him 15,000 cash, man.
- Shit.
- All right. Later, man.
- You take care of them little niggers.
- No doubt, bro.

- Fished your wish, bubs?
- Oh, yeah.
- And you should've seen the one that got away. [Chuckles]
- You know, I nearly got killed behind this caper.
- It's all in the game, bubs.
- Yeah?

Delonda: What you mean, Kenard took the stash? And he still walking around?
Namond: I'm gonna talk to him, Ma. Make sure this never happen again.
Delonda: Look at me, boy. Kenard got to feel some pain for what he did. He got to.
Namond: I don't...
Delonda: You don't what, motherfucker? This how you pay me back for all the love I showed? Shit, I been kept you in Nikes since you were in diapers!

- What are you gonna do with her?
- Pay for a box and a mortician and ship her back to Europe?
- No, I'm gonna find where her people are at.
- How does that matter?
- You see, this is that catholic shit, Jimmy.
- This is that little altar-boy guilt talking.
- What the fuck I gotta feel guilty about?
- Let me count the ways.
- Good morning, major.

- Ok, listen.
- This baby is gonna come out of my belly and need both of us forever.
- You understand?
- I mean, it may not be real for you yet.
- But goddamn it, it's real for me.

- You tell him that!
- My sergeant and two side partners got here before me.
- Then the shift commander showed.
- Now the duty officer is on his way.
- For a doa?
- Well, you and Lester started some shit here, son.
- Now a doa call brings everyone in a heartbeat.

- and I might have reason to let a few things slide.
- Mad at me?
- Come on, now.
- Dukie's just mad at everybody.
- Snitch bitch.
- Yo, what the fuck was that?
- I don't know.

Col. Cedric Daniels: Lester Freamon is not in the habit of selling woof tickets. I, for one, would not bet against him.

- I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
- I keep my eyes wide open all the time
- I keep the ends out for the tie that binds because you're mine...

- Mcnulty, it's perfect.
- I couldn't believe it.
- I'm sitting there, all this bullshit coming at me, thinking, Christ, this is a waste of time.
- Then I realized this is the wiretap.
- Right here. They're giving it to me.
- Never mind me making a crank call.
- This right here is Lester freamon's motherfucking wire.

- But he says some little Kevin kid was the one supposed to tell Lex to go up in that alley.
- Plus, what did fucknut say little kev said?
- "Lex went up the alley but he ain't coming back."
- Maybe he saw the whole thing.
- Maybe he's our eyeball witness.
- Little Kevin.
- Little Kevin.

- Yo, pull over in that alley right there.
- I gotta piss sumpin' fierce.
- You better piss in that cup right there on the floor.
- Man, I'm gonna need ten cups.
- Yo, pull over, snoop.

- What the fuck did you do?
- And why'd you let him do it?
- Listen...
- No. That's how you got him with his head up his ass, unsolving his own fucking murders.
- Your job is to turn red to black, not the other way.
- And you, stand the fuck up for yourself.

Judge: Under the power vested in me by the circuit court for Baltimore city,
[makes sign of the cross]
Judge: I absolve you of all you sins, Detective McNulty.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: You are my sin, you know that?

- Nicely done.
- Give me two.

- Lookee here. Lookee here.
- That tilghman right there.
- Dressed like a prison guard and all?
- I see him.
- Steel door. The boy on the step is all, though.
- Stump is sitting in the front room window staring at the damn TV.
- Y'all saw that from the step?
- There in his damn drawers.

- You want me in there with ya, believe me, othennise guys like that will bleed you.
- I want you to meet Tommy Flanagan before he leaves.
- Yeah, gimme a minute. I need to, um...
- Bathroom?
- Yeah.
- Down the hall to the right.
- Hey, watch that stuff.
- You'll put on weight.

- With you still owing him a clearance on that Omar thing.
- I know, I know. I fucking know.
- Like that.
- On a fucking stairmaster.
- On a fucking stairmaster.
- Wake up and die right, you cunts.

- She a teacher.
- Where at?
- Don't be rushing me, motherfucker.
- I know you looking to tip on out of here, get your aftershave on, get yourself correct.
- She teach speech.
- Make it so every nigger sound like condoleezza.
- Up ida b Wells.

[about a drug dealer incapable of using code on the phone]
Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: If that idiot worked for us, he'd be a deputy commissioner by now.

D'Angelo: Yeah but, Stringer, if you don't pay a nigga, he ain't gonna work for you.
Russell: What, you think a nigga's gonna get a job? You think... you think it's gonna be like, "Fuck it, let me quit this game here and go to college"? No, they're gonna buck a little, but they ain't gonna walk. And in the end, you gonna get respect.

- is because we've been keeping an eye on the people who run Orlando's.
- We got ways of knowing what they're saying, thinking.
- You know what they said about this one?
- Bitch didn't know how good the snort was.
- That it was her own fault. That's how they do.
- They use people, and when they throw them away, they find a way to say it ain't on them.
- Lying motherfucker.
- He said they took her to a hospital.

- I'm gonna ride the district until the deputy major gets in.
- If you need me, hit the radio.
- Distribution?
- Possession.
- And some loitering.
- Loitering?
- And behaving like assholes in the presence of sworn officers, boss.

- and read the mdotjob posting.
- Port authority officers, schedule one, starting at 33 with benefits.
- Toll-taking days were over, huh?
- Father of my two kids went to Houston in
- '99, hasn't so much as called in three years.
- I wasn't gonna make it on 22,500.
- Not with kids, iwasn't.
- Did you want to be a police?

[Stewedores' Union members were testifying in front of the Grand Jury]
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: How did we do, Charlie?
Charlie: I almost got one to swear that the docks are actually near the water.

- Oh, man!
- Fuck.
- Fuck.

- He said that's what the college kids drank.
- But we did it up. Right here.
- Yeah.
- He stood up there, a bottle in each hand, screaming loud enough to wake the nuns.
- What the fuck did he say?

- Get elected.
- Like I'm just a breathing machine for my fucking dick.
- I'm serious.
- I'm the smartest asshole in three districts and she looks at me like I'm stupid, playing some stupid game for stupid penny-ante stakes.
- She fucking looks through me, kima.

- They gone, marlo. Just say so.
- That what you think? Just do 'em all?
- Take their fucking corner too.
- What do I want with some off-brand hilltop corner?
- And why I need to be stacking bodies when there ain't no one trying to war with us?
- Just Lex.
- He did one of ours, so he got to fall.

- Your bosses don't know you're doing this?
- Who'll be coming?
- Me, a detective name of freamon, and Daniels.
- I can speak for Daniels, brother.
- He's played this thing out with real heart.
- Come on, set something up.
- All right.

- "Sorry" don't keep my bed warm at night.
- Shorty, I been running.
- Ain't like I'm trying to shut you out.
- I just got business to attend to, you know?
- Do you know how it feels to be alone out here?
- Police coming to my door, and I got no one to stand beside me.
- You say the detective left you a card?

- I know. I can smell the
- Jameson's from here.
- Jamie and listerine, your scent.
- Beadie... I'm just...
- We had something, Jimmy.
- You and me, we had something.
- When people told me stories about you, about how you were,
- I couldn't believe it, I couldn't see it.

[Mcnulty] This good for you?
- Uh-huh.
- Thin line between heaven and here.

- you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- Way down in the hole way down in the hole way down in the hole way down in the hole

- And on the other end, too, right?
- You could work it back through customs, but chances are this box wasn't picked up anywhere near this rue de rivoli address in le havre, France.
- Hell, there might not even be a rue de rivoli in that town.
- A can full of dead girls sent to nowhere from nowhere.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: You know why I respect you so much, Bunk?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Mm-mmm.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: It's not 'cause you're good police, 'cause, y'know, fuck that, right?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Mm. Fuck that, yeah.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: It's not 'cause when I came to homicide, you taught me all kinds of cool shit about . . . well, whatever.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Mm. Whatever.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: It's 'cause when it came time for you to fuck me . . . you were very gentle.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You damn right.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: See, 'cause you could have hauled me out of the garage and just bent me over the hood of a radio car, and . . . no, you were, you were very gentle.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: I knew it was your first time. I wanted to make that shit special.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: It was, man. It fucking was.

[Valchek confronts Burrell at City Hall just before Burrell's confirmation hearing]
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: You sent me humps.
Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Major?
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: You sent me a detail of humps, Ervin.
Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: We can discuss this tomorrow.
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: No, I think we discuss it now. Or I'm gonna walk in there and tell Santoni to vote against this goddamn coronation. And more than that, I'm gonna talk some shit to some of my friends about what happened at the end of the Barksdale case. Do you hear me on that?
Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: The Barksdale case was a successful prosecution.
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: Up until our people tried to chase the cash, maybe.
[Burrell looks around nervously as the council members begin filing into the chamber]
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: Tell you what, Deputy. You probably still got enough votes. But I can make it uglier than you want it.
Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: What do you want, Stan?
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: I want a real detail, with real police and a real unit commander.
Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Fine. Done.
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: Gimme that black lieutenant that did Barksdale.
Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Daniels put in his papers. He's gone. Out the door.
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: Did it meet the pension board yet?
[Burrell hesitates]
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: I suggest you talk to the man.
Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Look, I'll do what I can.
Maj. Stanislaus Valchek: Don't fuck with me, Erv. I got as many friends here in the Hall as you do. And with what I'm learnin' about the Barksdale case, I got all kinda shit I can throw.

- Every day try to do a little for the statewide and keep a problem on the blackboard for Donnelly.
- If she comes to visit, she thinks you're on point.
- The rest of the time, do what you feel like you need to do.
- But be careful.
- You're still on your evaluation.
- The first year isn't about the kids, it's about you surviving.

- Oh!
- Elena and I are gonna try again.
- Oh!
- Oh, shit.
- I'm done fucking myself up, bunk. I am done.
- Come on, man, let's go home.
- All right, man.

- What's the rule?
- I know the rule.
- Say it.
- Don't talk in the car.
- Or on the phone or any place that ain't ours or to anybody who ain't us.
- But it was just you.
- It's your fucking truck.
- Don't talk in the car.

- I gotta go to work, all right?
- All right.
- Mr. Jimmy's gonna...
- Ooh!
- He's gonna take you home.
- You're on your own, partner.
[Announcer] Number 32... Luis matos.

- Take this down to the cafeteria and get yourself something to drink from the machine.
- Thank you.

- Probably messed up his name.
- Real dark, got himself a scar.
- Legs should be busted up real bad.
- No one with that type of injury came in last night.
- Not a goddamn thing. Been in every trash can, dumpster, vacant for three blocks 'round.
- Nothin'.
- We even checked down the sewers.
- Marlo wanna meet.
- So what you want us to do?

- I mean, we'll be all discreet and all.
- Not take the hacksaw to no more than a couple on some quiet streets, leave more than enough for some people to have light and all.
- Ah. Thing is, I got this other thing
- I still need to take care of today.
- Come on, sherrod. Wake up.
- It's late.

- Uh... just give me a minute.
[Electronic voice] Hi. Choose a game.
- Can you guess this word?

- Red tops, got them red tops.
- Yo, Johnny.

Brother: Gentlemen!
Melvin: Whassup, my brother? Oh, what what what, uh, you slinging bean pies up in here or something? You with the Nation, homey? 'Cause either you a Muslim, or your mama need to stop laying your clothes out in the morning.
Brother: I'm here to represent the interests of a Mr. Barksdale. Are you familiar with Mr. Barksdale?
Melvin: Yeah, that name ring out, but so do mine.
Brother: And you are?
Melvin: Cheese, man.
Brother: Mr. Cheese. I see. And who do you work for, Mr. Cheese?
Melvin: Who I work for?
Brother: Am I correct in assuming that you are not employed by Mr. Barksdale?
Melvin: Hell, yeah.
Brother: Because if that is the case, then I have to insist that you leave.
Melvin: This nigger serious?
Brother: Let me be emphatic: You need to take your black ass across Charles Street where it belongs.

- that the leniency he received was the result of cooperation...
- Well, you understand our position, I'm sure.
- Frank, it's sitting out there and this
- Russian fuck won't take it off the pier.
- I ain't blind.
- I don't like it sitting out in the open that long.
- The customs seal is broke. Somebody'll see it. Our asses are hanging out here.

- What you laughing at, man?
- Whoa! Chill. Be cool about it.
- I'll get your money by Friday.
- Then you'll see there's no need to get all fucking dramatic out here!
- Look, man, if I ain't paid by Friday, you dead by Saturday.
- Yo, take my man's ride.
- Fuck, I need that! Ifuckin' need that!

- And I probably let her believe it just to keep peace.
- Now she wants to be the big deal.
- What do you want?
- I don't want to disappoint her anymore.
- And right now I'm more help showing up at some dinner in my ring and dress blues than being the not-even-divorced-yet husband with the white woman on his arm.

Slim: Ain't enough y'all done violated the Sunday morning truce. No, I'm standing here holding a torn-up church crown of a bona fide cutter lady. Do you know what a cutter lady is? Not your moms, for sure. 'Cause if they was that, y'all would've known better than that bullshit. Y'all trifling with Avon Barksdale reputation here, you know that?

- 12-14.
- What's up?
- Eastbound on Preston.
- Stinkum and a young boy riding shotgun.
- They're at the light right now.
- Got 'em.

- Hey, fucknuts.
- What the fuck is wrong with you?
- Christ, Ziggy. What the... zig...
- Jesus, zig. What the fuck?

- Good.
- My ex and I are thinking of sending our boys here.
- Any problems, difficulties?
- No, not really.
- I mean, there's the math integration class for my oldest.
- He's in sixth, seventh, and...
- I'm just not sure he's ready, you know, for all that math.

- I didn't come to the union hall today on no bread truck.
- I swear, frank, we grabbed a couple of cases at the end.
- After all them sailors damn near raped it.
- Couple of cases?
- Yeah, it was... four, yeah.
- What the fuck is up with the police?
- What?
- They're stroking tickets on every fucking car.

- you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- Way down in the hole way down in the hole way down in the hole way down in the hole

- and eventually, a title 3 wiretap.
- Most of all, it needs police who know how to work those things.
- You think it's good to put it out on the street that witnesses get killed?
- You think it's not on the street already?
- No grandstanding.
- Like I said, we get in and out.

- Ain't nobody been through here.
- You hear me?
- I been waiting and y'all ain't about shit.
- Yeah, listen to me. Look, if you feel like that, then get off this phone.
- Come down here and step to me then, nigger.
- All right.
- Yo, if roc-roc ain't here in ten minutes with my re-up, whoop his ass, man.

- What the fuck is that?
Norman Wilson: Dpw's tearing up the sidewalk right outside our door.
- You really pissed him off.
- Yes, I did, didn't I?
- Come on.
- Door-to-door in irvington.
- Right.
- And we got that dead witness tonight.

- It's good.
- Barksdale's wearing bracelets.
- Still no wee-bey, no little man?
- No, nothing there.

- Your serial killer called the Baltimore sun.
- Some goof claiming to be your guy called a reporter.
- One of the guys writing this shit up.
- Gotta be a crank call.
- Probably so.
- But seeing as it's the fucking newspaper you go over there and you set them straight.

- I mean, shit, take me.
- What?
- Just having fun with you, man. [Laughs]
- Thanks for bringing me here, man, showing me around.
- Nah. Not about that.
- Sure?
- Just... write it like it feels.

[Man] ...1942, the us 1st marine division stormed the shore at guadalcanal, seizing a nearly complete airfield at lunga point, which was renamed Henderson field, and an Anchorage at nearby tulagi that would later be known as iron bottom sound because of the ships sunk there in battle.
- The landings of the first day put nearly 11,000 marines on the island...

- and make sure you bring in a drug case or two.
- One other thing.
- A promotion and a specialized unit isn't enough?
- I choose my own people.
- Fuck me once, shame on you.
- Fuck me twice...
- Make a list. Give it to rawls.
- He'll pull who you want.

Russell: You and me? We brothers, B. We didn't think we would make it this fucking far, but fuck if we ain't standing here right now with the whole world at our feet. The whole world, man, not these fucking corners. The whole world, B.

Sgt. Jay Landsman: Jimmy, I say this seriously. If I was laying there dead on some Baltimore street corner, I'd want you standing over me, catching the case. Because, brother, when you were good, you were the best we had.
Det. William Moreland: Shit, if you were lying there dead on some corner, it probably was Jimmy that done you.

- And, four, keep your boyish good looks.
- Do all that, you might run for governor in 2008, maybe take back that statehouse for us, hm?
[Girl] Can you get the square corners?
- Easy.
- I don't like these backgrounds.
- You don't?
- They don't fit so good...

Deacon: No offense, but you're like the blind man and the elephant. It's a lot bigger than what you got your hand on, you just can't see it.
Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: See what?
Deacon: A great village of pain, and you're the mayor. Where's your drinking water? Where's your toilets? Your heat, your electricity? Where's the needle truck? The condom distribution? The drug treatment intake? Half these people are dyin' on their feet, and the other half's gonna catch what's killin' them.
Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Look, they ain't no worse off when they was all over the map. Now they just in one place, is all.
Deacon: And that place is hell.

- They got to believe it's your killer calling before they'll pay for a wiretap.
- Well, fine. Fuck it.
- Call your buddy Oscar, tell him we need another body.
- This time the sick motherfucker is gonna call Mr. Ripken with something only the killer could know.
- That should shake 'em up enough for a couple of wiretaps.

- So you get out all right?
- Yeah. Hurt my ankle going round a corner but...
- But you got away, then?
[Man on radio] The lieutenant governor...
- I know, we're late...
- Ain't no thing. You did good here.
- Turn that bullshit off.

- No, you two switch.
- Calvin, you're here in the front.
- Quanice, you're here.
- Michael, you're here.
- Destiny, here. Myesha, here.
- Dashonda, here.
- Come on, keep moving.
- Don't stop at the door. Come in.
- Let's get started.

- Listen, Nicky, you wanna go get to some place better, I'm with you.
- You wanna keep on like this, then I gotta rethink stuff.
- Do what you feel.
- I'm telling you, as soon as I start getting more hours, first thing I do is get my own place.
- You wanna move in with me, great.
- You don't want to, at least I did my goddamn best.

- gotta watch your back well, I beg your pardon walk the straight and narrow track if you walk with Jesus he's gonna save your soul you gotta keep the devil way down in a hole

- Ain't no market at all. You ain't got shit to sell. Back your ass up for those that do.
- You know what?
- What?
- Get the fuck out of here, bitch!
- Get your ass outta here!
- See, that's why we can't win.
- Why not?
- They fuck up, they get beat.
- We fuck up, they give us pensions.
[Man] Close it! Get the fuck out of here!

- I find it very, very easy to be true
- I find myself alone when each day's through yes, I'll admit that I'm a fool for you because you're mine, I walk the line

- No, fucker, we do not have a charge.
- We just got your money.
- You want it back, you can explain it to the state's attorney where you got it.
- Y'all enjoy your day now, you hear?
[Man rapping] As I wake up in the morning and get out of my bed
- I'm thinkin' 'bout the brothers...
Man: Give me three.
- The brothers I deal with, locked up

- All it cost me was a round of beers.
- They fucking love me in the department.
- I'm a fucking martyr is what I am.
- Pull over some black minister, piss him off and I lose my fucking job.
- One round?
- You, a prominent defense investigator, let these other guys buy a round of drinks ever?
- Kid, it's time you learned a little something about the expense account.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Boy, them Greeks and those twisted-ass names.
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Man, lay off the Greeks. They invented civilization.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Yeah? Ass-fucking, too.

- And you can't even tell me shit about who they was.
- One of them was named Omar.
- Omar?
- Omar, that's the name I heard.
- And they had a white Van.
- I saw the Van.
- What kind of Van?
- Five-o!

- I'll be damned.
- Hey, yo, that got to be marlo, man.
- You see?
- That's the man we robbed, yo, from the poker game.
- Ah. Si'. Si, si.
- No wonder the boy don't like me.

- You're ugly enough to be a teamster.
- Lick me, you whore!
- It'll be up on wheels. K-row, slot 122.
- Roger that.

- Go on. Straight to bed.
- Hey, kiddo.
- Hey, mcnulty.
- Where'd you go to?
- None of your business really, Jimmy.
- And next time, I'm not going anywhere.
- Next time, you're gonna be out on your ass, because that's my fucking house.

- What the fuck was that?
- You don't know?
- We just caught a re-up off the tower stash.
- Fourth floor, south side, second unit down.
[Daniels] Put that away.
- Put that away and work the case.
- Can I ask you something?

- You can have 734, 770 and 221.
- I keep the other three.
- How you gonna tell it to avon?
- It makes sense, don't it?
- He gonna hear something when it makes sense.
- Right?

- Jesus, fuck, he's really legit?
- Well, you real police.
- Now he's out in the open, why don't you pull him up and ask him?
- You need a few days, I'll stall Daniels.
- But after that, you come home with a case we can use or you swallow your goddamn pride and rejoin this unit.

- Is that it?
- 'Cause if it is, man,
- I can be a better friend to y'all alive.
- You still don't get it, do you?
- This ain't about your money, bro.
- Your boy gave you up.
- That's right. And we ain't had to torture his ass, neither.

Lt. Cedric Daniels: [leaving Burrell's office] Dope on the damn table.

- Both Olsen twins.
- Ashley. Kate.
- Mary-Kate.
- And, yeah, I admire their body of work.
- They're yours.
- All you got to do is name a guy.
- I'm not catching, I'm pitching.
- No problem.

- Turn it around, you can make 60, 70,000.
- Nicky, he's offering, like, three, four times the value.
- I'm out on this.
- Nick, even if we walk it up to white Mike, we can make 30, 35,000.
- Nicky, come on, man.

- No way.
[Kid] Big red, y'all. Big reds over here.

- One here, two there.
- No wholesale purchases.
- They've been dumping phones every two weeks or so and still they're worried about catching a wiretap.
- Just 'cause you're paranoid doesn't mean someone's not out to get you, right?
- It'd be nice to know who's buying all those cellphones.
[Mcnulty] |'|| drive.

- Go tell sterling to be ready for it.
- All right. Yo, d, man.
- You know, me and poot, we been steady working it, you know?
- Nothing sloppy, no troubles, right?
- And we was wondering if, maybe you could let a little something go until payday,
- 'cause you know, right now, we some broke-ass niggers, man.

- So did you have a lawyer look at the papers yet?
- I did.
- And?
- He says I shouldn't sign it.
- He says I'm giving away too much.
- I would never pay that kind of support and alimony if we went to court.
- That's what he says.

[Kid] Hey, y'all, it's Omar.
- Omar.
- There he is.
- Omar step, yo.
- Omar, yo.

- Story's been out all day, and our phone isn't ringing.
- The ministers, nerese, the caucus, they're willing to live with Daniels, apparently.
- Thanks anyway.
- Thinking you can cut Clay loose, huh?
- Thinking I'm done.

- Nah, I'm good. I got to go.
- All right.
- Hey, Randy. That pigeon wasn't a homer.
- Homers got metal things around their leg.
- That way you can tell them from the other birds.
- How you know that?
- Nemo let me clean out his Coop sometimes.
- So... he was schooling me.

- How am I supposed to get back over?
- Climb the damn fence.
- Do a betterjob of it second time, I expect.
- Grab them steel pipes quick before we get spotted.

Squeak: [nagging while they both are handcuffed] You've got to be the stupidest motherfucker I've ever dated.
Bernard: [whispering to his neighbor on the other side] I can't wait to go to jail.

[after shooting Cheese with a nonlethal bullet]
Brother: Pellets in plastic. Rat shot. What you need be concerned about is what's seated in the chamber now: a copper-jacketed, hollow-point, 120-grain hot street load of my own creation. So you need to think for a just a moment and ask yourself: "What do I have to do before this man raise up his gun again?"

- Where's she living now?
- Vincent street, sector two.
- That's a bad location?
- You wouldn't believe it.
- Wait for the call. What if they've got lookouts?
- If we wait, it'll be over by the time we get there.
- Plus, how's that gonna play with avon, man?
- They takin' all the credit.

- Two g-packs. Let's roll.
- Just two?
- Omar, come on.
- What the...
- Stupid.

- 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 liquorice...
- Red and black both.
- Snitchin' Randy.

Felicia: How my hair look, Mike?
Michael: Look good, girl.
[Mike shoots her]

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [quote after opening credits] The bigger the lie, the more they believe.

- and you're moving your golf trophies upstairs to the commissioner's office, now you're freezing me out, huh?
- Fucking rat fuckers, all of you.
- This is my case. Mine!
- And now you're gonna tell me who the target is?
- Not fucking likely.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: At all hazards, a man must keep up appearances. Dignity, I say. Dignity above all, Governor. Hear, hear!

Det. Lester Freamon: McNulty, you are deserving of serious psychological study.

- First day of work was the day the paceco dropped a hatch cover on Charlie bannion.
- Had to clean up old Charlie with a shovel.
- Ever since then, new Charles.
- He's gonna lose the leg.
- Frank.
- Where's the money from?

Asst. State's Atty. Rhonda Pearlman: The fact is, the industry has all of us by the balls.
[pause]
Asst. State's Atty. Rhonda Pearlman: Pardon my French, your honor.
Judge: All right, I'll tell you what. Best I can do for you is this: You give me a boilerplate affidavit with the PC from the court report. And then, as you get fresh numbers for the new disposables, you call me - anytime, day or night - to jump phones.
Lt. Cedric Daniels: That helps. But we're still gonna be getting up on their phones even as they're coming down.
Judge: Yeah, probably so.
Asst. State's Atty. Rhonda Pearlman: This is so totally...
Judge: Fucked up. Je parle français bien, et tu, hein, tu es charmante aujourd'hui.

- If you have a problem, like you can't make it to detention, you need to tell me.
- That's your responsibility.
- People will be more than willing to help you out but it's up to you to ask.
- You can go back to the cafeteria...
- Or hang up here.

- We having fun yet?
- I need a drink.

- try to keep some distance between me and Lex, right?
- You tell this Randy what happened to Lex?
- No, I swear it.
- Go, motherfucker.
- The fuck you still waiting for?
- What the fuck y'all following me for?
- Easy, son.
- Naw, ain't nobody walking with me nowhere.

[Tannoy] This is Ms. Donnelly.
- We had trouble with first bells, so expect the class change to ring in one minute.
- Students will walk, not run, to classes in an orderly manner.
- Ok... um...
- We'll, uh...
- We'll get to know each other a little later.

- Agent koutris.
- He's no longer with the
- San Diego field office.
- Where's he at?
- You could try headquarters in Washington. Counterterrorism.
- Counterterrorism? For how long?
- I'd have to check but I'm sure he's been gone from here more than a year.

- You sure? I mean, you want, he goes.
- Another time, herc.
- We're on the major's clock here.
- Don't forget the face, cocksucker.
- It's gonna be here tomorrow.
- You need me to call dispatch?
- No, it's ok. I'll tell you later.
- I say we get the troops and fuck these assholes up.

- I saw the gun as he turned.
- It's Derrick. Jesus Christ.
- You killed Derrick. It's waggoner.
- You fucking killed waggoner!

- Quiet overnight.
- Cool.
- Relief will be here after roll call.

- We ain't even got a name for the Greek yet, right?
- What are we doing with the drug end of the case?
- I guess we could offer up Dixon and prop Joe to narcotics.
- See if they want to follow through on their end.
- I don't know. I wouldn't be so quick to throw Joe back into the pond.
- A major case squad could have some fun with that mess, don't you think?

[Dj] 'We gonna play the brand-new big, bad game. Call us now...'
[Woman] Hello? Hello?
- Who was that?
- They hung up without saying.
- They hung up without saying?
- What you care? You never use the damn phone in here no how.

- Hold up, string...
- No, that's a simple thing, my nigger.
- You drive the guns to the water.
- You look around, you ain't see anybody, you throw the guns... in the water.
- Splash.
- Now, get the fuck out of here, man.
- Exceptyou, young'UN.

- Look at monk.
- Yeah. Text message.
- Text? Need I remind you, detective, these young men are products of Baltimore city schools.
- Besides, look how far away he's holding his phone. Too far away to be reading a text.
- Nah, son. Pictures.
- Pictures...

Terry: A lie ain't a side of a story. It's just a lie.

- I'm s... oh, shit, sorry.
- Mr. Price.
- Ok, my b, judge. Sorry.
- Mr. Price, do you expect this jury to take the word of a twice-convicted felon over the word of a duly elected member of the Maryland State Senate?
- What can I say? Y'all can play it like you feel an' leave me be.

- How the fuck you gonna stop a man from doing some shit like that?
- Huh? I mean... what are you gonna do?
- Stay with him every damn minute, every day you can?
- I mean, he gonna find a way if he wants to.
- It ain't on you.
- It ain't on you. I would tell you if it was.

- In particular, I ain't all that kindly.
- So you're gonna take my check and run with my fucking campaign...
- Well, I do know who pays me.
- Yes, sir! Oh yes, sir, boss!
- Who are you gonna vote for?
- Royce? Tony gray?
- One of them brothers. [Sniggers]
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. [Laughs]

- Why don't you just step right now?
- I don't get paid till eight.
- Eight, huh?
- You all right?
- Just a little tired, that's all.
- So I'm gonna see you tonight, right?

Omar: Look, Dante, what's it gonna take for you to be convinced, man? I don't bag no babies.
[pauses]
Omar: Huh?
Dante: What you think?
[Omar and Dante start making out]
Dante: You gonna have to do better than that.
Omar: Oh, indeed.

- Police jumping out the next.
- Something up at the pit?
- Maybe, yeah.
- What's up with my nephew?
- I don't know.
- He making that money out the hole, but...
- He might have a problem he don't know about.
- I'm on it.

- What y'all learn?
- I said give me the remote.
- Mm-mm.
- Give it.
- Math your favorite, right?
- Start with it.
- I like math.
- Yeah, you good at it too.
- Watched this show five damn times.

Russell: While back, I took a stroll through the pit. I saw that kid we got running things down there, uh, Poot. Now, he got the cell phone I gave him for the business, right there on his hip. But, the nigga got another cell phone that only rang when the pussy called. Now, if this no-count nigga got two cell phones, how the fuck you gonna sell any more of them motherfuckers? That's market saturation.

- 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 back to narcotics.
- And you can go the hell to whatever unit will have you.
- Now get the fuck out of my office.

- Sydnor and massey.
- And they're on the street, making rips.
- That's what we do here now.
- We get on the street and we rip and run.
- Can you get with that, sergeant?
- The western district way, sir.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.

- Make sure the dock boys are playing straight.
- They are what I order?
- Yes.
- I got you the s series in the colors that you wanted.
- I got one parked outside. You wanna see?
- Outside? Now?
- I'm just taking her out for a spin, chief.
- I'll put her back tonight.

- Camaro with a 350 in it, it's got to be worth more than three grand.
- That's right clever.
- Right clever, I got to say.
- And I appreciate you all coming all this way so much,
- I'll give the boy another week to pay.
- Of course, that ride ain't worth nothing near three thou.
- You don't believe me? Have a look.

- And though there's no criminal charge, you think it wise to try to keep it.
- You shit all over yourself, all over me, all over this department.
- I told you, no surprises, remember?
- 20 even.
- Sign here, or you can count it yourself if you want.
- So I can leave now?

Maj. Stanislaus 'Stan' Valchek: So, what's my role in your little drama?
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' J. Carcetti: I thought you might broker a meeting, you know... help your fearless leader see the light about his new friend on the council.
Maj. Stanislaus 'Stan' Valchek: And I should tell him, what? Make nice or invest heavily in petroleum jelly?
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' J. Carcetti: Hey. His ass, his choice.

- If rawls sees my fingerprints on this, he'll run my nuts through a cheese grater.
- Fuck you, Jimmy.
- How's it going with it?
- Pretty good.
- I like this kid who's fucking my victim's old girlfriend.
- Ray, can I talk to you for a minute?
- In my office.

- They're pretty tight out here, kima.
- If you don't hand no money to nobody that matters, you don't get no product from nobody that matters.
- You want to go back in?
- Shit, we copped from every crew out here.
- Ain't we supposed to go off somewhere and fire this shit up?
- Let's get the fuck out of here.

- We're gonna wait on them anyway. Go ahead.
- Thanks.
- Don't let this guy go anywhere.
- I forgot something in the car.
- Bring the paper in, will you?
- We're gonna be here a while.

- Stefanos.
- Have the boy go to eton.
- Tell him to come right away to the other place.
- You're not calling?
- No phones. No more phones.
- Adieu, my friend.

- Fits nice...
- It's all in the game.
- It was only a couple of dollars.
- It ain't the money.
- But we fucked him up bad.
- It's the message, d.
- You can't show no weakness.
- Still, I'm saying.
- What?

- So this is me?
- This is you.

- Your partner there.
- Bit of an asshole.
- For real?
- Yeah.
[Coach] Good, good, good! That's it! Work!
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go to your right.
- One, two, three!

- So, where you going with this?
- Hey... I think it's down.
- Motherfucker, you ain't that good.
- Mcnulty, what's up with it?
- You ok, Gus?
- Mm?
- Yeah, I'm good.

- The bedroom's clear.
- Yeah, basement too.
- Clear.
- Yeah.

- Where y'all at?
- All right, when I find y'all, y'all gonna get it.
- You better come out now.
- Where y'all at?
- Look, I'm not even playing with y'all right about now.
- You hear me?

- Lid 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 cid.
- His new commander is Daniels.
- He's smart, he's black, and politically neutral.
- That work for you?
- Works for us.

- Set up anywhere inside where we got the white flags.
- I'm ready to roll out.
- You just got here. What's wrong?
- Ain't nobody around to buy.
- Good point.
- Man needs customers.
- I'm sayin'...
- No. I mean, you can't make me.
- I'm a sworn fuckin' police officer.

- The barksdale case is closed and when the Stanfield wire comes up, we close that as well. Understood?
- The hell with this.
- We got a wiretap up, and a judge decides when it comes down.
- Well, detective, the deputy ops is gonna talk to you about that.

- My girl. Half the money hers.
- Baby, since we going down north Avenue, stop by the carry-out so I can pick me up some cigarettes.
- They're going up north. Stay loose.
- Shit. It's too loud.

- I gotta say, kima, if you were a guy - and, in some ways, you're better than most guys - your friends would buy you a beer and let you know.
- Let me know what?
- You're fucking whipped.
- Whipped?
- Pussy-whipped within an inch of your life.
- I kid you not.

Brother: You know what the most dangerous thing in America is, right? Nigga with a library card.

- It's a Joseph abboud.
- He puts dark buttons instead of brass on his blazers. That's the abboud signature.
- You know what they call a guy who pays that much attention to his clothes?
- Mm-hm. A grown-up.
- We're up.
- 12-14, let's go.
- Copy, 11-34.

Lt. Cedric Daniels: What're you doing here at two in the morning?
Det. Ellis Carver: Field interviews. Police work.
Lt. Cedric Daniels: "Police work." I got a 14-year-old kid in critical but stable condition at University and two witnesses who say one of you princes cold-cocked him with the butt end of a pistol.
Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: No sir.
Lt. Cedric Daniels: I got his mother over at I.I.D. filing a formal brutality charge, which for Herc will make an even four in the last two years!
Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Unsustained...
Lt. Cedric Daniels: But all of 'em true!
Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Lieutenant, we thought that...
Lt. Cedric Daniels: I got one less Crown Vic than I had last night, I'm out two Kevlar vests that burned in the car, two hand-held radios, a shotgun and I'm about to lose this idiot here for a week or two of medical! And for WHAT?
Det. Ellis Carver: Lieutenant, we thought...
Lt. Cedric Daniels: What did you learn when you went into the Terrace at two in the morning to conduct field interviews? What valuable information did we acquire from this situation? I.I.D. is gonna be on all three of you by afternoon. If you don't get a story straight by then, you're gonna have a file thick enough to see the light of a trial board. Now, tell me, who cold-cocked the kid?
Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: [after several seconds of silence] Me.
Lt. Cedric Daniels: [intensely] Why?
Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: He pissed me off.
Lt. Cedric Daniels: No, Officer Pryzbylewski, he did NOT piss you off. He made you fear for your safety and that of your fellow officers.

- This some kind of full-tilt setup, man, to catch a master scoundrel.
- Capone and whatnot.
- They probably got police behind every window. Hit this? You must be tripping.
- Home, James.
- Boy, you better keep your head back in the game or you gonna land us both in the pokey.

Off. Michael Santangelo: [to speaker of Western District's briefing on counter-terrorism] No disrespect to your appendix, but if them terrorists do fuck up the Western, could anybody even tell?
[All the other officers laugh]

- 12-08.
- 12-08.
- Request lateral with 12-10.
- Kga, he can meet me on 6.
- Do you copy, 12-08?
- 10-4, on 6.
- Yo, dickhead, where you been at?
- When you're working deep cover, carv, you gotta get into the part.

- They sure it's him?
- Omar, yeah.
- All right, do it.
- Do it.
- Gerard. They right there, come on.
- All right, here you go.
- Oh, my goodness! My goodness!

- The can with the girls was in bay 9 on the bottom outside.
- Did you check that bay?
- I did.
- It's full of cans for export, loaded in Hampton roads.
- No sign of anything but a fresh stack of containers.
- If you hold us another day and bring in interpreters, they still won't say a damn thing.
- The unwritten rule is that what happens below decks stays below decks.

- Oh, sorry.
- If the mayor prefers not to, um...
- If he, like, feels more comfortable with Dr. Parenti alone, you know, because of the drug-legalisation controversy last year...
- I don't think mayor carcetti is in your meeting. He's in Annapolis.
- Ok. Thank you.

- Motherfucker!
- Yo, motherfucker, trying to steal our shit.

- 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'.

- The us attorney's office, call it "the head shot."
[Rhonda] 30 years for something that every college kid does with a starter home.
- Daddy loans you money to qualify, a couple years later, you pay him back.
- 30 years.
- With leverage like that, this case needs to go federal.

Russell: Doin' good out there, D.
D'Angelo: We'll be doing even better when we get that new package.
Russell: [laughs] New package same as old, man.
D'Angelo: Say what?
Russell: Ain't no new package. Just gonna put that same shit out in a different colored gelcap is all. Might spike that shit with some procaine or some caffeine, but otherwise it's the same.
D'Angelo: String, man, people already coming back on us tellin' us that shit is weak.
Russell: I know; shit *is* weak, but, y'know, shit is weak all over. The thing is, no matter what we call heroin, it's gonna get sold. Shit is *strong*, we gonna sell it; shit is *weak*, we gonna sell twice as much. You know why? 'Cause a fiend, he gonna chase that shit no matter what. It's crazy, you know. We do worse, and we get paid more. The govermnent do better, and it don't mean no nevermind.
[pointing to the money]
Russell: This shit right here, D, is forever.

- You think that if 300 white people were killed in this city every year, they wouldn't send the 82nd airborne?
- Negro, please.
- There's got to be some way to make them turn on the faucet.
- Come on, Jimmy.
- You're the smartest boy in the room.
- You come up with something in this broke-ass city.

- I'm with your boy bubs. You want out?
- Yeah.
- Plead guilty to possession and convince the drug courtjudge you want to get clean.
- Drug court?
- Shake it off in treatment, go to meetings and pee when they tell you to.
- Nojail?
- Nojail.
- I'm out right now?
- Soon as you're processed.

- No, sir, it won't.
- One other thing.
- As far as I'm concerned, those stripes aren't earned.
- Your paycheck may say "sergeant," but on this detail, detective greggs runs your team.
- Same as it ever was.

[Boy] Five-0 creeping.
- It's midnight relief coming in.
- What the hell is all this?
- You don't look at what you did before, you do the same shit all over.
- I'm out of here.

- You just fucked up. Way you looked at the bag, you know what's in there.
- That's you, right there, fucking up.

- You'll also need a supervisor who wants you to clone a suspect's pager knowing that it might lead to who knows what else pen registers, wiretaps.
- Daniels will come around.
- Daniels will have your ass.
- Thanks.
- That's it?
- What?

- $1,000 for the doctor.
- $1,000 each time, girlfriend.
- Every month till I'm pregnant.
- There's gotta be a better way.
- That would be on you, sweetheart.
- Come up with a suitable donor and we pay a lot less.
- Not with your pussy would I fuck any of these guys.
- What did you just say?
- You didn't just say that!

- Kid ran us around for half an hour.
- Amazing, ain't it?
- Here we go.

- you gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- You gotta keep the devil way down in the hole way down way down in the hole

- Why'd you page her, shit bird?
- Get off me.
- You think this is a game?
- I wanna talk to greggs.
- You can't, motherfucker.
- Then mcnulty then. This shit ain't right, sir.
- Savino. Savino.
- Mope ain't around.
- One of them low-rise hoppers on tower phone two.

- Fontanelle.
- Is it closing up?
- It won't close for a while.
- Good.
- Good?
- Well, I'm just... I'm just...

- You don't read about statuesque blondes in the newspapers anymore.
- Buxom ones, neither.
- They're like a lost race.
- What do you got next?
- School project meeting.
- Mr. Whiting builds his pulitzer.

- But get elected, and suddenly they know police work.
- You might think it'll be different...
- When you sit here...
- But it won't.
- You will eat their shit.
- Daniels, too, when he gets here.

- Yo, bub...
- This ain't shit.
- I'm not high, neither.
- It's fucking arm & hammer.
- We just been firing baking soda.
- Fuck. It's all right.
- I'll just come up with another plan.
- I did it once, right?
- Shh.

- When you're ready to get up, put that on.
- Report to bunk a-7.
- A-7.
- Don't be later than breakfast.
- Hey.
- Who else is up in here?
- Anybody from westside?
- DC boys, mostly.

- Let me handle the business.
- You're getting paid, right?
- Fuck you! I'll play the game for myself.
- Take the money, zig.
- You don't think I can do it?
- Pick up the fucking money, Ziggy.
- I don't want it. You pick it up.
- You.
- Fuck you.

- One of whiting's pets, isn't he?
- I said discreet.
- I hope you're wrong.
- Course you do.
- It sticks. Dag.
- Course it sticks. It's Barb wire.
- Sticking's what it's s'posed to do.
- Come on. I ain't got all day.
- Hurry up now.
- Grab the aluminum strips there first off.

- Aw yeah. That golden rule.
- Well, since you feeling all biblical and righteous and all, you think on this.
- If Omar ain't killed that delivery lady, somebody else did.
- But you giving him a free walk right now, though, ain't you?
- A man got to have a code.

- Niggers don't know if they went back to the Bronx or whatever.
- You feel me?
- Course. I'll tell my people.
- No disrespect to your professionalism or nothing.
- We all impressed how you lose the motherfuckers like that.
- We just trying to send a message to these New York people in full effect.
- You know what I'm saying?
- I'll get back to you on this.

- Package for sale.
- Why you think we was headed there in the first place?
[Sydnor] Get down. Headed where?
- Hamsterdam.
Man: Suck my dick!
[Mcnulty] Hey. Y'all wanna see a wagon?
- Fuck y'all!
[Sydnor] Will you shut the fuck up and cut this shit out now?

- Anything there for me yet?
- No, not yet.
- We'll get there.
- Is that all you came by to tell me?
- Just keeping the lines of dialogue open.
- So, what's on your plate?
- Oh, there's plenty of surprises around here.

- You got to let these motherfuckers know who you are.
- You coming?
- I'm with you.
- Carv?
- What the hell?
- Let's do it.
- Come on.

Freamon: I don't wanna go to no dance unless I can rub some tit.

- You happy to do for me,
- I'm happy to do for you.
- Congratulations, colonel.
- Congratulations, deputy commissioner.
- Congratulations to all those who were promoted, their families and friends.
- It's a proud day for them and a proud day for the Baltimore police department.

- But it ends there. I don't dump people.
- You either go out on those rooftops today to watch pay phones with the others or you go over to the medical office and check yourself in.
- Medical?
- For alcohol abuse.
- Either dry yourself out or go up on those rooftops wet.
- Take a few minutes and think about it.

- he say that he got it set up so where we could sell stuff in certain spots and the police won't bother us.
- I know, I know. It's fucked up.
- But I just thought you should know.
- That's it?
- Yeah, just that and the boy marlo.
- Yeah, I'm on it.

- We ain't got time.
- I know.
- So why are you grabbing?
- They were staring right at me.

- What's this good boy's name?
- Hey, boy.
- How you doing today?
- You been good? This a good boy.
- There it is.
- Car will be running.
- What is it, Lamar?

Thomas: Don't worry, kid. You're still on the clock.

- That ain't you, zig.
- It ain't?
- Cause the same blood don't flow for us, pop.
- I mean, I wish it did, but it don't.
- You're more like me than you know.
- You're a sobotka.
- Fucked is what I am.

- Think so?
- Shit. Makes me think about retirement and I only got nine years on.
- When do you break ground?
- Next march, if I have my permits.
- Which reminds me, on Tuesday I have to go to Delaware to see my contractor.
- No problem. Me and Lester, we'll cover for you on that. No problem at all.

- Yeah, Daniels.
- Yeah.
- Where?
- Wallace?

- He wished he'd said some of them but that he'd never been that smart in his life.
- Someone takes the time to, uh...
- Re-report this stuff, it'll get ugly.
- What're you gonna do?
- I don't know, Robert. I don't know.
- Keep my name out of it.

- What the fuck? If he don't wanna be down here, that's on him.
- Ain't like nobody holding no gun to his head or nothing.
- Yeah, but he ain't about nothing else.
- He up in his room and shit, all the damn day.
- Tell Wallace to come see me.
- All right.
- Be right back.

- Two more like it upstairs.
- Yeah?
- Have ballistics rush comparisons.
- Drug-relateds for the last six months.

- We can take that name down to the assistant warden. We can get some of our lives back.
- You dig?
- So stay close.
- This play on the inside, this play on the outside. We got it all covered.
- I don't want no part of what you do no more. You hear me?
- So you can just leave me the fuck out of that. Whatever it is.

- It's all good, just leave him be.
- Damn.
- Fuck.
- I'm tired of not having a phone up in this joint.
- I'll be right back.
- Yeah.
- Have a nice hike.
D'Angelo Barksdale: Yeah.

- All of them John does. That's just headless and handless in the mid-Atlantic region.
- Go nationwide, you'll be up over four dozen.
[Freamon] Fuck me.
- What can I tell you, kiddo?
- We are policing a culture in moral decline.
- So, you want to come get these?
- Or should I run them over to southeast?
- Run them over to southeast.
- Ok.

- Steal from us, motherfucker?
- Get the ring too, yo.
Gerard: Shit won't come off, yo.
Sapper: Drop him.
- Arrrghh!
[Cutty] You know the man works for us.
- You keep goin' like that, ain't gonna be nothin' left of him to make right what he owes.

- Can you still read numbers?
- What's up?
- Your man think I brought bad merchandise?
- Then we can beat feet right now.
- Damn, Bernard, why you acting all CIA?
- We trying to make money here.
- If you had to answer to the people I do, you would be more cautious, too.
- I appreciate caution, cos I'm hanging out here, too.
- Give it a go. Use a cellphone.

- for as long as it takes you people to get the message.
- You hear me? We will take this door in the morning and at night, and toss your house until there isn't any furniture with four legs left, you hear me?
- Officer, my son turned himself in to the police last night.
- At southeastern.
- A detective was there at the time.

- I want you to write me out a check for $4,000, the maximum allowed by law, and because we don't trust you to mail that check, we're gonna send over some dpw workers to beat the check out of you.
- All finished? You need $30,000...
- In the next three hours.
- No bullshit, Tommy.
- You hit your number or die in this room.

- Cocaine.
- You still want it, I got it on the Fairfield piers. No problem.
- When?
- End of the week.
- Maryska.
- She's good with English.
- They're dead. All I'm trying to do is get word to the families.

- all the casework laid out like I'm lost in a career case.
- Landsman barely noticed.
- We crank this up, landsman won't be the only one thumbing through this h-file.
- We get sloppy, we get cuffed.
- What do you want me to do?
- What detectives do, detective.

DA: What's the most useless thing on a woman? A drunken Irishman.

Donette: Boy, don't nobody give a damn about you and your story. You got money, you get to be whatever you say you are. That's the way it is.

- walk on gilded splinters with the king of the zulu come, come, kiddy come, come walk on gilded splinters come, come, kiddy come, come walk on gilded splinters

State Senator R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: ...and it's yo' people up in my shit! Not no feds, not no state people from Annapolis, it's muthafuckas from my own city!
Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: My hands are tied here, Clayton. It's a new mayor, a new state's attorney.
State Senator R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: I'm out there doin' the Lord's work for you, Erv! You know it! Who got that pay raise through the council? Just enough for you to get that new patio, but not enough for that guy from Pittsburgh to take yo' place!
Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Look, I wish I could. You know I wish I could. But with Carcetti in, people are watchin'. I got eyes on me now.
State Senator R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: You the commissioner still, right?
Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Yeah, but it ain't like it was.
State Senator R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: Well, if you don't control it, who does?
Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: On this, I gotta reach around Daniels. And he's Carcetti's boy. Look, this is a grand jury investigation, for God's sake. We could both be charged with, uh, "obstruction of justice."
State Senator R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: Oh, goddammit, Erv! I been there for you, carried water for you, and you do me like this?
Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Clay, I can't. Nobody could.
State Senator R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: You think I'm goin' down, don't you? Y-y-y-y-y-you think I'm done! All y'all ungrateful bitches thinkin' you can throw me out the boat!
Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Clay...
State Senator R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: A'ight! I'm gonna remember this moment, Erv. I'm gonna hold on to this moment. Yeah.
[he leaves]

- Maybe you don't need a quarter box for that.
- For what?
- Magic fingers.
- You know me.
[TV] ...With a singer-songwriter who's burnin' up the charts with a hit that he'll perform for us tonight...

- Politics is a good thing, partner.
- That's a minority opinion.
- Let's order.
- I'm hungry enough to eat the horse you rode in on.
- If you don't mind, we're a little busy for a sit-down lunch.
- Oh, no doubt. Just leave enough for the tab.

[repeated line]
Omar: All in the game yo, all in the game.

Omar: That wasn't no attempt murder.
Maurice: What was it, Mr. Little?
Omar: I shot the boy Mike-Mike in his hind parts, that all.
[Jury laughs]
Omar: Fixed it up so he couldn't sit right.
[Judge chuckles]
Maurice: Why'd you shoot Mike-Mike in his, um, hind parts, Mr. Little?
Omar: Let's say we had a disagreement.
Maurice: A disagreement over?
Omar: Well, you see, Mike-Mike thought he should keep that cocaine he was slingin' and the money he was makin' from slingin' it. I thought otherwise.

[Omar is walking down a dark alley at night, carrying his bag and whistling. Suddenly, he hears the click of a gun being cocked behind him]
Brother: [offscreen] That's far enough. Drop your laundry and turn slowly.
[Omar drops his bag]
Omar: So you gonna rob me now. I need to remind you who I am?
Brother: Omar, isn't it?
[Omar turns, revealing Brother Mouzone, pointing a pistol at him]
Brother: Pull it slowly, then toss it.
Omar: [slowly reaching for his own pistol] Oh, I WILL move slow. But I ain't tossin' nothin'... Bow Tie. So whatever you gonna do, you might as well go ahead and make it quick. I knew you'd come back.
Brother: I trust you didn't lose sleep over it.
Omar: Worryin' about you be like wonderin' if the sun gonna come up. Ain't about to wild out over it. What I wanna know is how you find me.
Brother: Your boy. He didn't give you up easy.
Omar: Ain't no sugar water runnin' through them veins. You kill him?
Brother: He's resting.
[Omar slowly pulls his gun out of his belt]
Brother: I see you favor a .45.
Omar: Tonight I do. And I keeps one in the chamber, in case you ponderin'. Nice show piece you got there.
Brother: Walther PPK, .380, double action.
Omar: [slowly raising his gun so Mouzone can see it] Hear them Walthers like to jump some.
Brother: As will you, with one in your elbow.
Omar: That gun ain't got enough firepower to make my joint useless. It definitely won't stop me from emptyin' out half my mag.
Brother: You might not hit me.
Omar: [chuckling] This range? And this caliber? Even if I miss, I can't miss.
Brother: I admire a man with confidence.
Brother: [slowly leveling his gun, aiming it at Mouzone's chest] I don't see no sweat on your brow neither, bruh.
[long pause as the two men silently regard each other from across the alley]
Brother: I suppose we could stand here all night.
Omar: 'Spose we could. Or settle this once and forever.
[another pause, then Mouzone releases the hammer on his gun and lowers it]
Brother: I want to ask you something... brother.
[Omar lowers his gun]
Omar: Omar listenin'.

- they can take this case down off the shelf and the shit in the case might not be enough to keep you free.
- You understand?
- Give up the crown.
- Well, that's the deal, kiddo.
- There's not a lawyer who could get better for you.

Judge: McNulty, I hold you in contempt!
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Who doesn't?

- I'm not back with them, rawls sticks it to me.
- Well... you got a friend here.
- Worst comes to the worst,
- Pearlman goes to her bosses.
- The state's attorney's office still has some love for you.
- All due respect, I'm starting to worry more about the people who claim to love me than the ones who don't.

- Frankie sobotka's father fucking Christmas lately.
- No doubt his pockets are full.
- You think it's for me?
- Is that what you think, huh?
- It ain't about me, Nick!
- I know, I'm sorry.
- You got Ziggy mixed up in this?
- Jesus, what the fuck are you thinking?
- Me and zig are gonna talk on this long and hard.

heroin: Got any testers, man?
Preston: Nigga, it ain't even 9:00 and you fiendin' on it. Get the fuck outta here, man! Damn.
D'Angelo: Yo, why you act like that, yo?
Preston: What, for these junkie motherfuckers?
D'Angelo: So you just gonna take his money all day and treat him like a dog?
Preston: How I'm supposed to treat him?
D'Angelo: I don't know. But you ain't gotta punk him like that.
Malik: He punked hisself. He a goddamn drug addict.
D'Angelo: And you a goddamn drug *dealer*.
Preston: So? So *what*? Oh, what, the 'customer's always right'?
Wallace: Yo, we in the projects. The customer be fucked up. You can't give these niggers shit, man.
D'Angelo: Why not? Why can't you? Shit, everything else in the world gets sold without people taking advantage, scamming, lying, doing each other dirty. Why it got to be that way with this?
Malik: 'Cause they DOPE fiends.
D'Angelo: Yeah, but the game ain't gotta be played like that, yo. You can't tell me this shit can't get done without people beatin' on each other, killing each other, doing each other like dogs. And without all that, you ain't got 5-0 down here on our backs every five minutes. Throwing us around and shit.
Wallace: Sheeit, man.
D'Angelo: You think 5-0 care about niggers gettin' high? In the *projects*? Man, 5-0 be down here about the *bodies*, yo. That's what they be down here about. The bodies.

- All right, no problem.
- Shit! Fucking rain, man.
- Y'all know what the fuck this is.
- Up against the wall, hurry the fuck up.
- Come on, let's go.
- Got red-tops, testers.
- Get them around the corner.
- Hurry up, take them around.
- What you looking at me for?
- Get round the corner.

- That's supposed to make me feel better?
- Kima's out on the street doing her detective thing?
- All that hospital shit, all that rehab.
- All them promises.
- We talked about this.
- No, you talked.
- I didn't get a word in edgewise once you made up your mind.

- Now what can I do for you, gents?
- You got a warrant on me for drugs.
- I'm turning myself in.
- A southeastern warrant?
- He's surrendering.
- He's gonna cooperate in any way he can.
- What name am I looking for?
- Sobotka. Nicholas sobotka.
- Morphine? From a city ambo?
- You should be ashamed to be calling me on this one, bubs.

- Kiss the sky, nigger.
- Ready to go?
- Yeah. Are you all right to drive?
- Ithoughtyou were the designated driver tonight.
- No, I'm good, really. I'm good to go.

- A good man is hard to find in this town.
- 12 of them together, especially.
- An ID of both your shooters will play a whole lot easier come trial.
[Greggs] You know...
- Sometimes niggers just gotta play hard.

- For his commitment to the city of Baltimore.
- Ed?
- Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you and your administration for making this next stage of redevelopment for Baltimore's harbor a reality.
- You talk about vision and commitment, mayor Clarence Royce.

- If I had more time, I'd run you.
- Mm-hm.
- Give you a tip, Preston.
- You gonna run a hustle, you best stay with what you know.
- Man, fuck you and your tired-ass advice, all right?
- But... that sandwich was good.

- Shit. Look, set something up with homicide and whoever you want from your squads.
- State's attorney?
- Yeah, we should call them, too.
- Fucking shitstorm.
- Lieutenant, line three.
- Deputy ops.

- about putting shit on the damn street.
- Nigger, please.
- It was like we schooling them.
- Yo, my new class is the shit.
- You going by the gym today?
- No, man. I gotta go vial up what's left on this package so I can re-up.
- All right.
- All right, man.
- Peace, man.
- That shit crazy, though, right?

- She look like a player?
- Bystander?
[Boy] Come on, let's go.
- Right in the middle of it all, if she was.
[Boy] Over here.
[Boy] You guys! I'm comin' out!

- Need to see the Greek and get a number.
- He's got one on the way.
- Today?
- Tomorrow.
- The Atlantic light over at north point.
- All right.
- Yo, frank.
- What's up?
- You gotta get with Ziggy, man.
- He's all over the place.

- No, I guess not.
- But that and my badge is all I got.
- I might have your badge, major, but not today.
- I don't wanna draw any attention to this shit before we're ready to speak to it.
- So if you have any vacation time, you're taking it now.
- Do not report for a shift until notified.

[at roll call the morning after Dozerman was shot]
Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Be seated. Regarding Officer Dozerman, his condition has been upgraded to "guarded." I'm told he can receive visits, and he's been moved to recovery unit. As of this tour, all hand-to-hand undercover buys of CDS... are suspended in the Western District.
[the officers mutter angrily; Colvin pulls out a small paper bag with something in it, and sets it on his podium]
Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Somewheres, back in the dawn of time, this district had itself a civic dilemma of epic proportion. The city council had just passed a law that forbid alcoholic consumption in public places. On the streets, and on the corners. But the corner is, and it was, and it always will be, the poor man's lounge. It's where a man wants to be on a hot summer's night. It's cheaper than a bar, catch a nice breeze, you watch the girls go by. But... the law is the law. And the Western cops rollin' by, what were they gonna do? If they arrested every dude out there for tippin' back a High Life, there'd be no other time for any other kind of police work. And if they looked the other way, they'd open themselves to all kinds of flaunting, all kind of disrespect.
[he opens the paper bag and pulls out a bottle of beer]
Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Now this was before my time when it happened, but somewhere back in the '50s or '60s, there was a small moment of... goddamn genius by some nameless smokehound who comes out the cut-rate one day, and on his way to the corner, he slips that just-bought pint of elderberry...
[he drops the beer back into the bag]
Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: ... into a paper bag. A great moment of civic compromise. That small, wrinkled-ass paper bag allowed the corner boys to have their drink in peace, and it gave us permission *to go and do police work*. The kind of police work that's actually worth the effort. That's worth actually taking a bullet for. Dozerman... he got shot last night tryin' to buy three vials. Three!
[he holds up the vials, scoffs, shakes his head, then pulls the beer back out of the bag]
Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: There's never been a paper bag... for drugs.
[he drops the vials into the bag, one by one]
Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Until now.

- What if you knew where the call was made?
- I mean, exactly where it was made.
- Well, we were out in the middle of nowhere.
- Does that help narrow it down?
- The fort Howard sea wall. It ain't exactly Charles and Baltimore streets.
- You've got another problem.
- Which wireless company?
- There must be what, verizon, mci, at&t, sprint...
- Shit, tin cans and a string.
- You got dozens of them.

- Just so he don't come back on my cousin.
- Anyway, thanks for being straight on this.
- Fool, if it wasn't for Sergei here, you and your cuz both would be cadaverous motherfuckers.
- I went through ins, customs, even the state department. Nothing.
- It's time, Jimmy.
- You did what you could, right?

- gotta watch your back well, I beg your pardon walk the straight and narrow track if you walk with Jesus he's gonna save your soul you gotta keep the devil way down in a hole

Roland: Check it out, Dee. I need you to feed 'em while I'm gone. You gonna give 'em different food for each tank, too, alright? But don't worry, I'm gonna show ya what to do, c'mere. These are my tetras. You got Kimmy, Alex, Aubrey and Jezebel in here somewhere. I don't know, she think she cute. You take two pinches of whatever food I got next to each tank. They set for the day. You see, they ain't no problems. Just beautiful as hell, Dee. I'm gonna go upstairs, and pack some shit.

- Hi. Choose a game.
- Can you guess this word?
- Stop! Move away from the cookie jar.
- Hi. Choose a game.
- Can you guess this word?

- simply because I'm gonna need it.
- Last poll that Clarence showed me, he was up by seven points.
- Bullshit. I'm within four.
- You won't be needing that.
- I know.
- Here?
- Yeah, here.

- Fuck, Sergei, you almost break my hand!
- Bring him up!

Phone: [phone rings] Baltimore City Police Department.
Joseph: Yes, ma'am, this is Sydney Handjerker with Handjerker, Cohen & Bromburg. I'm trying to locate a Sergeant Thomas Hauk in regards to a client I am representing.
Phone: Hold, please.
Phone: Mayor's office, Lieutenant Hoskins.
Joseph: Yes, hello. This is Ervin Pepper of Pepper, Pepper & Bayleaf. I'm calling in regards to a Sergeant Thomas Hauk in regards to a...
Phone: He's no longer on this detail. Hold on for a minute.
Phone: Major Crimes. May I help you?
Joseph: This is Dr. Jay calling with test results for Thomas Hauk.
Phone: He's on the street.
Joseph: ...*hangs up*

- Nah, I keep a couple custodial positions unfilled every year just for this.
- Those kids? You haul 'em in, you cross 'em off the list.
- Each kid, one time, clear the list.
- Come October, you start on the list again.
- Job's yours if you want it.
- Pays 12 an hour.
- Excuse me, hon. Sit.

- for the senator...
- Objection.
- He'd sometimes kick me back a few.
- Move to strike all of that.
- Sustained. Disregard that last comment.
- This case is limited to the charges stemming from the operation of senator Davis's non-profit charities.
- Other matters are not relevant.
- Here it is.

- 25 large on dawg!
- I'll take that bet!
[Man] Ok, cheese!
- Yeah.

- Independent from who?
- I got no problem making Daniels.
- What else do you need?
- That's it for now.
- Mr. Mayor, about ervin.
- If you don't mind my asking, why keep him as a puppet commissioner when you can just fire the guy?
- We mind you asking.

- Who the fuck is she? Housing police?
- No, she's one of them civilians they got doing security.
- Housing cops wear the grey uniforms.
- So she's not armed or nothing.
- Do she look it?
- You leaving early?
- I was early, I worked the lunch crowd.

- They don't have the honey nut?
- I don't even want this, dawg.
- Why not?
- It ain't what you're taking, it's who you taking it from, you feel me?
- How you expect to run with the wolves come night when you spend all day sporting with the puppies?

- in the state, you'll burn every last bridge.
- Do you think I give a shit about
- Clay Davis? I am not protecting him.
- Then give him up.
- It's bond's call.
- Talk to him.
- I have.
- And he told your republican ass to go fuck itself, huh?
- Well, let me double down on that.

- And you want me to sign off on court-ordered taps on phones that, at the time I'm signing the order, have not been used for any illegal activity whatsoever.
- If you're looking for precedents, your honor, there aren't any. It's circumstantial PC at best.
- What the hell, let's do it.
- Let the court of appeals sort it out, if it even gets that far.

- Buy me a drink, honey?
- How about you buy me a drink?
- Carla. One here.

- When I agreed to take these murders,
- I made my terms clear, remember?
- I need mcnulty on this detail.
- Jesus! When I said anything,
- I meant I'd let you have a kiss, feel my tits or something, you know?
- But not this.
- You want me to clear those bodies?

- Look at this shit.
- What the fuck is that?
- Let me look at that shit.
- Bird told me that shit. Look at that.
- Fucking Peter-puffer, get the fuck out of here.

- If he took the cash, we could go to felony theft or fraud, but the tape has him leaving the money.
- Three years.
- A cop was shot, Maury.
- So if we convict, he'll do every damn day of the three.
- I can do the three. Ain't no thing.
- And the $5,000 fine?
- Oh, shit, you still up $25,000, right?

- Four hash marks in a row, one for each g-pack.
- "Lo" for low-rises.
- 12 for the time.
- "S" for stinkum.
- How long to figure that out?
- Four or five hours.
- You sit here looking at beeper messages for five hours at a time?
- I don't know, it's kinda fun figuring shit out.

- Fucking a, right?
- Jane Doe no.5.
- Five... five...

[All] Oh!
- As sic, should I stop this?
Man: That's my car.
- What, you think this is good for morale or something?
- These guys haven't had an honest paycheck in weeks.
- We have no fucking morale, sergeant.

- Thank you, detective. Nothing further.
- Anything more on redirect, Ms. Nathan?
- No, your honor.
- Let's take 10 minutes and run the closing arguments.
- I intend to begin tomorrow with jury instructions.
- How'd Omar do?
- You didn't see it?
- Not the cross. That bad?

Lt. Cedric Daniels: You know what I love? The mind that's always a step ahead of me. The person who never stops thinking it through. That's what I fell in love with first.
Marla: You know what I fell in love with first? Do you? Your ambition. Where did that man go?

- I did.
- You witnessing or what?
- Uh-uh.
- I'm afraid I'm blind.
- Legally.
- Something you need to see, though.

- You heard about ed nully?
- I've heard great things about what you're 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.
- Ok. This way.
- Here we go.
- See you later.
- Take care.

- I know that wasn't no court date. You already got the gun charge postponed twice.
- So what the fuck was that about?
- Remember that Russian we locked up for murder, part of the port case years back?
- I didn't work that case with you, man.
- So, no, I don't remember.
- Well, Chris partlow does.

- Scott, you should be working the main bar on the arrest with Alma.
- I, um...
- We're going to want your byline in this coverage.
- Yeah, I don't feel so well. My stomach...
- I think I... I gotta go home.
- Sorry.

- call him up, call him up tell him what you want
- Jesus on the main line now amen.
- You did the 221?
- Shit look tight, yo.

- Yeah... coffee.
- What's with the hand?
- Just a scratch.
- Give me some eggs, will you?
- Can I get a scrapple with that?
- You can get anything you want.
- Oh, god!
- Oh, god. Oh!

- Fucking Greek bastards.
- Get out of my fucking way!
- Get off of me! Fuck all of you!
- He was there for all of you and now you're nowhere for him.
- What the fuck you gonna do?
- Get a gun? Go play gangster?
- Like your fucking cousin?

[Davis] ...Which is why I'm gonna fight this thing.
- I am innocent and I have done nothing except serve the people.
[Woman] Oh, I believe you, senator.
- I've seen the good work you've done for the community...

- I'm in.
- Go away, boy.
- Oh, you in?
- Yeah.
- Pass line for me, yo.
- Oh, shit!
- Yeah. Get that money.
- Get that money, shorty.
- Get that money.

Prosecutor: Mr. Little, how does a man rob drug dealers for eight or nine years, and live to tell about it?
Omar: Day at a time, I suppose.

Det. Michael Crutchfield: Did he fuck you?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: He tried. But mostly he just fucks himself.

- My pal, Beatrice.
- What, you gonna run me in again?
- Isn't that like double jeopardy?
- Stop it, just stop it.
- Talk to me.
- And say what?
- I'm sitting here trying to figure it out myself.
- It didn't happen overnight.

Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [to a patrolman who has given someone a ticket at the urging for more arrests] Baker, Let me let you in on a little secret, The patrolling officer on his beat is the one true dictatorship in America, we can lock a guy up on the humble, lock him up for real, or say fuck it and drink ourselves to death under the expressway and our side partners will cover us, No one - I mean no one - tells us how to waste our shift!

- Bad terrorists with big nuclear bombs.
- Whoosh!
- I'm kidding you, frank, it's a joke.
- But you don't ask...
- Because you don't want to know.
- The next time the Greek's got something breathing in them cans, I need to know it.
- Uh-uh. Give him a couple of days, you know?

- What you want?
- I... I want...
- For you to suck my dick.
[Carver] I'll beat your fuckin' ass.
- Take it easy.
[Herc] You're the good cop!
[Bodie] Dumb motherfucker!
[Herc] What? What? [Bodie] Ow!

- but before I can get to that, you came to me with this.
- I mean, what the fuck?
- I gotta tell you, Lester,
- I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I can see why Daniels cringed every time you opened your fucking mouth.
- You're a supervisor's nightmare.
- I'm just following the thread.

Man: Hey, motherfucker.
[2nd man] Got it right here, yo!
- Get that pink top, yo.
- Not yet, you fucking rodent!

- Fuck. Fuck.
- Ah!

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: If Snotboogie always stole the money, why'd you let him play?
Snot: Got to. This America, man.

- but only where we say you can.
- Push them... hard.
- Get to it, people, and don't get captured.
[Carver] Hey. Stay right there.
- Get him up against the wall.
[Carver] Hey. Listen to what I'm telling you.

- I can tell you were never in patrol.
- Right.

- How would you know?
- Who you trying to fuck anyway?
- Arletta mouzone. Treenee's cousin.
- Damn, man. In that case use a big-ass condom, all right?
- You need a trash bag. Fuck that.
- I wouldn't run up in that bitch with d'Angelo's dick. It's triflin'.

- I see you changed clothes.
- He had to. He was stinking.
- Randy, that was the stupidest thing you ever thought of.
- But it was kind of funny.
- You know what I'm saying?
- You want something before he bounce? I'm buying.
- One for every soldier that stood tall.
- I was down there.
- Yeah, fuck you, Duke.

- Who's playing who?
- West against east.
- Baltimore?
- The projects, man.
- The bragging rights to the projects.
- The projects got a ball team?

- Major, I'm a fifth wheel on a car that's going nowhere. Bring me home.
- Soon enough.
- You're my eyes and ears in this mess.
- I don't want no more surprises, like that article.
- If mcnulty's planning any more bullshit,
- I got to be able to tell the deputy before the shit flies.
- Then you come home with a favor in your pocket. How bad is that?

- and now you just dog me before I even know the rules. That ain't right, man.
- When you're right, namond, you're right.
- Hey, Mr. P, I want me some of them stickers.
- Zenobia, you have to do your work.
- I want to but I ain't got no pencils.
- I don't want no damn welfare pencil.

- You coming?
- No, I think I'll stay here a while, nurse this.
- Then I'll shove off.
- One more, and put a beer next to it.
- Nigger, what's up? You good?
- Look at you.

- They're throwing my people in police cars and this asshole can't talk?
- I'm done. I'm out.
- I need nothing more to do with you people.
- I don't need the trouble or the money.
- I got a union to run.
- They used to make steel there, no?
- Smoke from the stacks.
- But inside...

- in Baltimore, working, sharing a dark corner of the American experiment.
- He was called.
- He served.
- He is counted. Old king Cole.
- Old king Cole!

- if you had the balls to follow through, you know what would happen?
- A guy like that would be tried and convicted.
- The rest of them would back up so we could push a clean case through.
- But everybody stays friends.
- Everybody gets paid.
- And everybody's got a fucking future.
- You'll just use anyone, won't you?

[Sighs] You coming?
- Maybe later.

- You remember me?
- Do I remember you?
- I was in here the other day.
- You wanted a drink.
- Did I get a drink?
- Afraid not.
- Then why would I remember you?
- You going about it the wrong way here.
- All right.

- Man, I don't know where we at.
- We are in Baltimore, Lamar.
- Baltimore, Maryland.

- use the computer, you can do that any time.
- Anyway, let me show you.
- This here the way to the hard drive.
- This isn't necessary, duquan.
- Just in case I'm busy, Mr. P.
- So you know how to work it.

- Because the one thing
- I'm asking of you guys, the one thing that I'm asking above all, is that you bring me clean numbers.
- Yes, Mr. Mayor.
- You made that clear.
- Very good, then.

- But after the horror movie
- I've seen today... robots!
- Piers full of robots!
- My kid will be lucky if he's punching numbers five years from now.
- While it don't mean shit that I can't take my steak knives to dibiago and sons, it breaks my heart that there's no future for the sobotkas on the waterfront.
- Here, brucie. I think they're your size.

- Hey, yo, banker, cash me out, yo.
- Boy, you want a head on that body, you best hop to.
- That's my money.
- Man, money ain't got no owners, only spenders.
- I tell you something else -
- I like that ring too.
- Boy, you got me confused with a man repeats himself.

- Got your running shoes on? You're in.
- That's the faucet?
- As far as the federal money's concerned, he's everything.
- The faucet, the goose.
- What goose?
- The one that lays them golden eggs.

[Terri] You're letting it ring?
- You're not hanging up after a ring or two?
- I'm making the calls, Terri. Nobody's home.
[Terri] 30,000, Tommy.

- Hey, what up, man?
- This first time, I can go four ounces of rock but hey, if the shit is right, then next time I can step that up.
- Almost ain't worth it for four.
- Just this first go-round. Do right by me,
- I'll turn around and come back on it.
- Where your money at, man?

- But fuck if I can figure out where it gets you in the end.
- But hey, I ain't part of your tribe.
- You're not serious? You can't...
- No.
- No, I'm a fucking joke.
- And so are you.
- Now get the fuck outta here.

- he was never off the case, that you and he are partnered, a task force of two, working it together.
- Fuck you, fat man.
- Not original, but succinct.
- I like your approach.
- Y'all humiliate me once by dropping me into this thing, and now you're gonna shame me again by bringing Norris back.

- Boom.
- He said a contact wound? It doesn't play.
- Gant had no compression, no stippling.
- Wound was to the front.
- He's talking out of his ass.
- But this motherfucker's just taking murders just to take them.
- He's taking life for shooting a cop, what the fuck?
- Might as well spring bird for killing gant.
[Bailiff] All rise.

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: You know what I was thinking? That tonight's a good night. Why? Because my shot cop didn't die. Then it hit me. This is what makes a good night on my watch. Absence of a negative.

- You mean, quueur, plauzinski...
- Pryzbylewski.
- Benedictine and Brandy.
- That was invented by a bartender over at club 21.
- All that good shit comes out of New York.
- I need every deed transfer involving that company, Harry.
- Today.

- How much you got left?
- Girl, please.
- Ten pages and all the footnotes.
- When's it due?
- Tomorrow, beginning of class.
- Long night for you.
- Long night for me.
- I'll pick up some coffee.

- with a police commissioner that won't work with you.
- I'm not stuck with anything.
- Daniels either comes around or he's done.
- We just anointed him.
- We can't go back on that now. He knows it.
- Either he learns his place or he'll be offering to resign.
- You ain't the only one knows how to play this game.

- we still ain't picked up the mannitol.
- What the fuck?
- Yo, Vincent.
- Where you at?
- Manny? Manny?
- Shit.

- You know, I'm sorry about your loss.
- He seemed like a pretty decent guy, all things considered.
- So when I found out about this,
- I felt like I... owed him.
- The last thing I wanted to do was upset you if there was no point to it. So...
- If there's anything I can help with or any questions you need answered, or whatever.

- What's this?
- Your change. Or so says frank sobotka.
- Sure?
- It ain't mine, for Christ's sake.
- If you don't take it, someone else is gonna.
- Your pop's a good man, zig.

- Corner men out of the pit.
- Release your dogs.
- Yeah! I got that!
- Break your dogs!
- Look at him killing.
- Bait.

- Everywhere we go these days, we seem to be walking into police.
- This is telling us something.
- You're going to leave 15 million dolaria to rot on the pier?
- Lambs go to slaughter. A man, he learns when to walk away. No, we go.
- Call the others in.
- Let them know there is no longer any point.

- Hey.
- Little early for that, ain't it?

- waiting us out.
- I, for one, am a patient motherfucker.
- Don't waste film.
- I been here so fucking long that you're starting to look good to me.
- Anything?
- The drugs go in, they gotta come out.
- I mean, what the fuck?

- Dag, man, not again.
Michael: Where your people at now?
- Need any of your stuff from the pile?
- It ain't no thing.
- Yo, man, listen. Me and bug got our own spot now, so you could come crib with us if you want.

- A few apartments in the low-rises that we've seen used for stash.
- Then we write on those.
- They change stash houses every other day.
- Look, the man upstairs wants to see a circus.
- A couple of days from now,
- I got to show him three rings.
- Christ.
- I'm sorry. We gotta jump.

- I do think it!
- Was it some beef he had?
- Someone on the inside?
- The cop said it was someone who didn't want you to know and so they made it look like it did?
- Nobody did nothing.
- But the cop said...
- He's lying.
- He paid to lie.

- How the fuck?
- How?
- He must have been in that closet the whole time. No one heard shit.
- Call dss. Now.
- Any media out back?
- Bring a cage car around.

Chris: You can look him in the eye now... no matter who he is or what he done you look him right in the eye.

Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Fighting the war on drugs, one brutality case at a time.
Sgt. Ellis Carver: Girl, you can't even think of calling this shit a war.
Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Why not?
Sgt. Ellis Carver: Wars end.

- Kima.
- We're gonna take the boss out.
- Raids? Tonight?
- Can you make it with your kids an' all?
- No, no problem.
- I can take them over to my parents'.
- All right, we'll see you soon.
- Kima, thanks for the call. Bye.

- You like the car you driving in, right?
- You like this crib?
- I put you in this crib. You like it?
- We all got a lot to protect here.
- You need to remind him of that.
- So when it come down to it, he can stand up tall.
- You ain't gotta worry about my child.
- I raised that boy, and I raised him right.

- I don't say it to upset you.
- Just to state a fact.
- He doesn't think so.
- Nobody ever thinks they're stupid.
- It's part of the stupidity.
- You don't need to tell us what happened.
- We know.
- We got you, we got your guns, we got the whole fucking story.
- Where that lawyer at, man?

- Going where?
- What the fuck you waiting for?

- At a bar. Workin' the door.
- You know, it's just...
- Just till I find something a little bit better.
- Yeah?
- Reminds me.
- Your friend called again this morning.
- She said for you to remember your appointment.
- Says there's a job in it, if you still iookin'.

- I am sitting here telling you that the boy is out the game.
- Even if he wasn't out the game, he wouldn't be no problem.
- Well, you know we just want to talk to him, d.
- Avon...
- Let the boy be.
- Just let him be.

- This nigger from New York, from the olden days, bumpy something.
- He'd do shit like run up to a police station by hisself.
- No.
- You know, shit like that.
- Cops be like hiding, like,
- "yo, bumpy, we sorry, man, we sorry.
- "Please go away. Please, please."
- Woof.

- Northwest has been quiet for weeks.
- You're willing to backdoor your lieutenant?
- You ain't changed, Jimmy.
- Shit.
- It's always about your case, huh?
- Do what you can.
- Keep my name out of it.

- to conduct field interviews?
- What valuable information did we acquire from this situation?
- Lid is gonna be on all three of you by afternoon.
- If you don't get a story straight by then, you're gonna have a file thick enough to see the light of a trial board.
- Now tell me, who cold-cocked the kid?

- Now, ladies and gentlemen, we brought you down here because you're here to learn about the new way...
- The new way that we're going to do things on the corners.
- That's downtown.
- Yeah.
- Well, that makes no sense.
- All four.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: You know what you need at a crime scene?
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Rubber gloves?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Soft eyes.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Like I'm suppose to cry and shit?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: If you got soft eyes, you can see the whole thing. If you got hard eyes - you staring at the same tree missing the forest.
Det. Shakima 'Kima' Greggs: Ah, zen shit.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Soft eyes, grasshopper.

- We won.
- Are we happy about that?
- I think so.
- I think we are.
- Yeah.
- You sure?

- Dee, right?
- Yeah. You can't be in here now, man.
- Yo, man, y'all get any final calls this week?
- Yeah, we got some.
- I didn't see any out there.
- Give me a minute.
- Let me finish up right here real quick and I'll go and get one for you.

[Greggs] What the hell?
- Call for backup?
- Not yet.
- Let's see how it plays out.

- Yeah?
- Mcnulty, it's christeson.
- Listen, my case is down an' I wanted to thank you.
- I couldn't have done it othennise.
- No problem.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: The quicker we bring this in and shut it down, the safer we'll all be. I mean, Landsman wants me over to fucking Quantico, have the FBI do a profile.
Det. Lester Freamon: [laughs] You might learn something about yourself.

- Jesus, bunk.
- What time is it?
- 4:30.
- I couldn't sleep, so get the fuck gone.
- What time did mcnulty leave last night?
- Never did. He's in number one.
- Pulling his hair out over some shit.

- Where was her support?
- There were two cars several blocks distant.
- She got turned around in the alleys. She gave her 20 at the north side of wan/vick.
- They went there on the shots?
- Foxtrot finally found her.
- So, we had two units covering the north side and a helicopter up on top, and no one saw any vehicles in flight.

- The reason I'm saying tomorrow, not to push, but day after that I gotta go visit my aunt in Florida.
- We hook up tomorrow,
- I got something real nice to think about on that long-ass bus ride.
- After you.
- What was it again?
- Devonne.

- How much were you using?
- I'm asking if you're gonna be sick in my car.
- A cap now and then.
- You just snorting?
- You'll be all right in a day or two. Come on.

- well, I never seen my brown Colleen that I met in the county down
- That I met in the county down...
- That I met in the county down first, I go in, play nice.
- Then you come in, play bad.
- I ain't playin'.

- 1400 lanvale, in the street, found by the post officer, no suspects, no witnesses.
- Ah, man.
- Better to be lucky than to be good.
- You wanna work the heavy bag?
- Go ahead. Four rounds.

- What moe supposed to be holding?
- 38, thereabout.
- Ain't you the damn fool?
- But then we low.
- If we low, it's cause string want us that way.
- When he want us up, we'll be up.
- Stringer's on top of this shit.
- He on top of everything.
- Go back to your spot, man.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: [about the murderer Omar testified against in court] You really seen him shoot the man?
Omar: You really asking?

- All right.
- You did good, bubs.
- Mcnulty, you know...
- The situation is different for me.
- I mean, for me, I'm...
- Mount up.
- I gotta go.
- Prez will get you a ride, ok?

- Way more.
- Excuse me.
- No. Not right now.
- A half-hour.
- No, so go ahead and fill it up.
- You got the order number, right?
[Man] Man, move your ass.
[Boy] Man, this some bullshit.

Spiros: [quote after opening credits] They used to make steel there, no?

- What if he came already and we just missed the pick-up?
- Yo, herc, what if your mother and father never met?
- How's shop doing?
- Steady rolling.
- Let's take a ride. Beef run.
- Beef run, where at?
- Pulaski, baby, the good shit.
- Get in the car, man.
- Yo, poot. You the man for an hour.

- to vondas.
- I mean, seeing as you don't need my money...
- Vondas might be happy to have it.
- He don't want to see me, he won't, but if he do, it's you that made it happen.

- Fish gotta swim, you know what I'm saying?
- Like I said, bird was always showing that thing to everybody, talking about this deed and the next.
- I didn't pay him no mind until you all came and showed him some interest.
- Mr. Little, if you wouldn't mind waiting outside,
- I'd like a few words with officer mcnulty.

- You on the list.
- Go on down there any time you want.
- No problem.
- That's the dude right there.
Marlo: A'ight.
Chris: Ya hear?
- Time for y'all to earn your pay, niggers.

- gotta watch your back well, I beg your pardon walk the straight and narrow track if you walk with Jesus he's gonna save your soul you gotta keep the devil way down in a hole

- He told them to go fuck themselves, he'll take the trial board.
- Well, he eats two weeks, and they shitcan him out the unit.
- Area chief?
- Name of rawls, as I remember it.

- in the bottom of the hole in the hole in the hole way down in the hole in the hole in the hole in the hole in the hole way down in the hole

- But that means...
- All the calls to the newspaper.
- The photographs of the missing man.
- We have a wiretap. Mcnulty has a...
- On a cellphone.
- Jesus Christ.
- He wouldn't dare.
- What's the number?
- It's on the papen/vork.

- Look at this sorry shit.
- Motherfuckers do not appreciate nothing that comes to 'em free.
- I'll take it in the back.
- Maybe they got some duct tape will fix it.

- Get some ice cream?
- What did you say?
- You don't have a house?
- What's up with that? A hero needs a house.
- Been a long time since I built a house.
- Hope I remember how.

- What you need to be concerned about is what's seated in the chamber now - a copper-jacketed, hollow point, 120-grain hot street load of my own creation.
- So you need to think for just a moment and ask yourself,
- "what do I have to do before this man raise up his gun again?"
- Let's go.
- Good day to you, sir.

- Come on.
- I said no.
- If there's ever anything you want to talk about...
- There's me, but if you'd rather,
- I can write you a pass to see the social worker.
- Just say when.
- Michael, do you wanna see the social worker?

- I came on in the eastern.
- A piece-of-shit lieutenant was hoping to be a captain, piece-of-shit sergeants hoping to be lieutenants.
- Pretty soon we had piece-of-shit patrolmen trying to figure the job for themselves.
- And some of what happens then is hard as hell to live down.
- Comes a day you're going to have to decide whether it's about you or about the work.

- second-guessing your ass every step, pulling on every last motherfucking thread.
- Yeah. We gonna see how you like it.
- Hey, vern. Hey, vern, vern, vern, vern.
- Just go back on it with me.
- What?
- Shit doesn't play out any differently, I'll give you a back rub you'll never forget. [Laughs]

- Yo, y'all ready?
- Let's bang out.
- Go, go, go! Go!

- What's the matter?
- You don't like being called Boris?
- Sergei.
- No way!
- Boris is way better. It's like the guy from the cartoon. Boris and Natasha?
- Bullwinkle, man. Rocky and bullwinkle?
- You want some coffee, pie?
- No, I'm good.
- Actually, what kind of pie you got?
- Hey, zig, shut the fuck up, huh?

- I'm-a stop past the house and get it.
- It's a present for all you did.
- It's for your desk.
- That's great, duquan.
- Thanks.
- Stop past any time, let me know how it's going with you.

- Gentlemen.
- Doa, central and Baltimore.
- I took a call two days ago.
- The old lady?
- That wasn't a call. That came back natural.
- Look. I'm hung over, Jay.
- Both of you. You're up.

- Keep the cash. Write him a receipt.
- He wants to put a claim in with the city solicitor, he can.
- But they're gonna ask him where he got the pile.
- Uh-oh. The angel of death.
- Who's that?
- Major Reed, iid.
- Lieutenant, a word.

- These steps.
- Thank you, baby.
- You're good to go.

[repeated line]
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: What the fuck did I do?

- He's dropped here, so the dumpsters cover it from this side, but everyone over there with a window had a view.
- Merit badge for two good little scouts.
- Ma'am, you need some help with that?
- I'm all right.
- Please, it's our pleasure.

- God in heaven, zig, the cops do that to you?
- Ain't the cops.

- You keep your head low, lieutenant. A year or two, you'll be back in their favor.
- Year or two and I'll be a lawyer.
- I got 22 years in.
- I'm putting the papers in this week.
- You're gone, huh?
- What the hell am I doing down here with a law degree, right?
- You take care, mcnulty.
- You too.

- I want that shit. That's good.
- Keep it moving.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: You disappoint me, Stringer. I had such fucking hopes for us.

- I'm your brother.
- I got nowhere to go when I leave.
- Last time I left you alone in my home, you dragged half my kitchen to a pawn shop.
- You remember that?
- But you can keep the door locked, right?
- I'm down here.
- My rules.
- You said.

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: It's like one of those nature shows. You mess with the environment, some species get fucked out of their habitat.
Sgt. Ellis Carver: Did you just use the word "habitat" in a sentence?
Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: I did.

- What the fuck are you doing?
- Copying.
- A telephone.
- This fucking detail...

[Man] We could take him now.
[Woman] Not enough profile.
[Valchek] Fucking feds.
- Be advised, target 27 is on the move.

- 771 Franklin, in the court.
- Son of a bitch!
- Shots fired, officers need assistance.
- I'm hit! Signal 13.
- Officer down. Officer down!
- Shit!

- West fucking Baltimore is on vacation.
- No crews slinging in the low-rises, the towers.
- What the fuck?

- Come on, now.
- A man don't be sheddin' no tears.
- Go on, bug.

- Judy and Johnny just walked through the door like a queen with her king oh, what a birthday surprise
- Lane 4, you got a trucker's code and tag.
- Truck 795 manifest number.
[Man] Keep the papennork you got.
- Pick me a winner, Johnny.

- The point of the co-op is we stand together.
- We share information, and no one fucks with any of us.
- No one fucks with me now.
- That don't mean there couldn't be some unforeseen cir...
- No one fucks with me now.

- The mustard seed group gives out key chains for stretches of clean time.
- So if you've earned it, come on up and get it.
- Does anybody have nine months?
- Does anybody have six months?
- Does anybody have three months?
- Yeah! [Cheering]
- Does anybody have one month?

- Shit.
- Are you fucking serious?
- Fuck, man.
- You keep walking away from jsa, we keep kicking your ass.
- I'm all right with that if you are.
- I ain't walking away from nowhere.
- Check my back pocket.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: The things that make me right for this job maybe they're the same things that make me wrong for everything else.

- The fuck do I care? Go.
- You know, this is some real cute shit you're pulling here.
- Taking the detail money and doling it around like a priest passing wafers.
- I don't know what you're up to but I know this.
- If someone picked up a phone around here, your shit is critically fucked.
- Two nights and a road car.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: So you're my eyeball witness, huh? So why'd you step up on this?
Omar: Bird triflin', basically. Kill a everyday workin' man and all. I mean, don't get it twisted, I do some dirt too, but I ain't never put my gun on nobody who wasn't in the game.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: A man must have a code.
Omar: Oh, no doubt. Hey, man, I knew you from somewhere.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Yeah? I was in Southwestern, before I came to Homicide to work Frederick Road.
Omar: Nah, I mean back in the day. You go to Edmondson, right? Yeah, you was ahead of me. I remember you was the first brother I ever seen play that sport with a stick, uh, what's it called?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [chuckling] Lacrosse, man.
Omar: Fo' sho.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Yeah. I was All-Metro attack. Prep school boys used to pee themselves when they see the ol' Bunk comin' at 'em, you know?
[they laugh]
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Oh, man, so look here, homie. Seein' as how you bein' all charitable with your recollections, what else you got in the way of open murders?
Omar: Goin' to Barksdale?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Goin' anywhere.
Omar: How far back you want me to go?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: As far as you need. Murder stay murder.

Det. Roland 'Prez' Pryzbylewski: What if they're not sneaking anything off this time? What then?
Det. Lester Freamon: Ah then, tragically, you will have wasted yet another day in a life you've already misspent in the service of the City of Baltimore.

Nick: Today we got ships, Uncle Frank. Today. The writing's on the fuckin' wall.
Frank: Fuck the wall.

- Never mind, I got it right here.
- All stringer, all the time.
- Er, Theresa d'agostino, please.
Woman: Can you hold, please?
- Yeah, I'll hold.
- She's not in the office.
- You wanna leave a message?
- No, I left one already.

- Back channel is the way to go.
- See? The police commissioner done fell off his ass.
[Woman on intercom] Can lhelp you?
- Um... I need to see Mr. Prezbo.
- Someone will come down.

- gotta watch your back well, I beg your pardon walk the straight and narrow track if you walk with Jesus he's gonna save your soul you gotta keep the devil way down in a hole

- What?
- What kind of cat are my eyes like?
- A big cat.
- You here with them and no one else?
- I said that.
- You wanna dance?
- Hell, no.
- You want a drink?
- No, I don't do that neither.
- What do you do?

- I didn't have as much to say about it as you.
- And why not?
- Because you...
- You wanted this.
- I just... I didn't want to disappoint you on it.
- I don't think I could be more disappointed than I am right now.
- You need to go.

Brother: Is there an alley entrance?
Omar: Boarded up on both sides. We gonna have to go through the front.
Brother: That's a change for you, isn't it?

- Sound like she got it all figured.
- Bitch got it figured out, all right. She cuttin' us loose without notice. Nothin'.
- Like comin' home, findin' our shit in the street.
- She don't give a fuck about you, avon, none of it.
- She had the nerve to talk to me on this, like she gonna set things straight so I don't tell no lies.

Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: So what do you think?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: I think this is a tragic motherfucking miscarriage of justice. I think it deserves a special grand jury, and if not, the President should appoint an independent prosecutor. Oh, no no, no no, actually, I think Kofi Bryant and the United fucking Nations should get involved.

- Baltimore.
- I know Baltimore, but where?
- You know Turner station?
- Down past dundalk, near the point.
- The point. So, you're a country girl.
- You mean county.
- Where I'm from, the county is the country.
- Where was that?

Dep. Comm. for Operations William A. Rawls: [after telling Landsman to stall a murder investigation] American democracy. Let's show those Third World fucks how it's done.

- What say, Omar?
- Ain't no thing.
- You know I got something for you, right?
- Wouldn't come around unless I did.
- What up, butch? How you holding up?
- Except for fretting on you, I'm good.
- It's for my people.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: [both investigating a crime scene] Ah, fuck.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Motherfucker.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Fuck, fuck, fucking fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: What the fuck?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Ah fuck.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Fuck! No.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Ah,fuck.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Fuck it. how the fuck?
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Motherfuck. Aw, fuck. Aw fuck.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Fuckity, fuck fuck, fuck fuck, fucker. Ah fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Ah, fuck, fuck, fuck. Motherfucker.
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Fuckin' A. Fuck.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: What's that?
Det. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Motherfucker.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: Fuck me.

- Marvin Thompson? Short guy...
- What is your name, officer?
- Detective sydnor, sir.
- Major crimes?
- Shit.
- Enjoy your day, sir.
- Son, we're gonna see about this.

State Sen. R. Clayton 'Clay' Davis: My brother, let's be fair. I'm providing you with the opportunity to go head to head with the state's attorney in a case that's going to be front page news. For all that profile? Sheeee-it, partner, you should be paying me a fee. Seriously, dog, for twenty thousand cash to my campaign committee, I'll get myself indicted federal, let you go to trial on that. Beat the feds like a stepchild and really make a name for yourself. Fuck you? Naw, son, I'm going to make you. Motherfuckers going to be wiping their ass with Johnnie Cochran's memory and carrying your business card in every damn pocket before we done.

- If you full of shit, pal,
- I'm gonna know it quick.
- What happens to me while you checking?
- Eager street. Cityjail, motherfucker.
- Blue came home last week.
- I ain't seen him since.
- Uh-huh.
- Yeah.
- I can't believe it.

- but if we pull one down off the shelf, ain't none of the pages ever been opened.
- He got all them books and he ain't read near one of them.
- Gatsby, he was who he was and he did what he did, and 'cause he wasn't ready to get real with the story, that shit caught up to him.
- I think, anyway.

- Burrell won't be there forever.
- Burrell will be the next police commissioner.
- And you know it.
- But you've got the law degree.
- With your police experience, half a dozen firms would think you're a prize.
- You've got options.
- Just because they don't...
- You're right, you're right.
- I'll put in my papers.

[Woman] I'm going uptown if this motherfucker gonna close at midnight.
- Hey, killer.
- I got something for you, come here.

[Man] Les hombres! Les hombres!
- Les hombres!
[2nd man] Wait up, amigo!

- Like I said, I'm blind.
- I thought you might know, though.
[Moreland] Mm-hm.
- You can tell him from me,
- I'm hoping he might need this in court some day.
- Hmm.

[Man] If you'd been here earlier, you'd have seen a beating.
- Clean. Not a fucking thing in there.
- Pick any door in the low-rises.
- What are the chances?

- Rawls came to me.
- Asked if I would take the homicides.
- You should.
- Those girls in the can really suffocated.
- They really died in that fucking box.
- You pick this case up, you might eat those open murders.
- But you let it pass, you got to ask yourself how you want to live your day-to-day.

- This is the second time this week I had to pay for a sitter 'cause he was workin' late.
- With all that money he make, you can afford it.

- Oh, shit.
- Dee?
- Yo, Dee.

- Deputy ops.
- No, this is Daniels. Cedric Daniels.
- He's now in the commissioner's office.
- Yes.

- you can work my package.
- This is the shit you had out here last week. The dimes that moochie was slinging?
- The shit was good. Moochie sold out quick.
- All right.
- I'm saying, I'm gonna send my man around with the dollars.
- Keep it real, yo.
- Whatever.

- You take what you have, you build on it.
- It's all good. Just put it up on the calendar. We should meet.
- Yo, slim.
- You see them two niggers right there?
- They over there getting high in the middle of all this.
- Now where the fucking discipline at, yo?
- Fuck, toss them niggers.

- What are you saying, man? What's up?
- Nothing, man.
- Nothing at all.
- Those are stringer's people.
- You wanted us to be about bodies.
- We had this kid marlo working for stringer but he might be going to war for those corners.

- Boy will meet you outside when you ready to roll.
- I'm ready now.
- No, dog, not from me you don't.
- Later, butchie.
- Your man avon ain't got no flex.
- 'Fraid not.

- we just gotta keep the devil way down in the hole
- Down in the hole down in the hole gotta help me keep the devil down in the hole

Lt. Dennis Mello: All right, listen up, you mutts, this is complicated. I mean, it isn't complicated if you went to college or, I don't know, your mothers actually stopped drinking for a minute while they was pregnant. But for Baltimore City Police, this is complicated.

- Kid, what apartment?
- Come on, kid, what's the apartment?
- 11-m.
- Ok, 11-m. Is that so hard?
- What's your dob? Come on, kid.
[Daniels] What?
- It's him.
- Who?

Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: Anyone else having trouble with the writing on the wall?

- Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
- Fucker oh, fuck.
- Fuck, fuck, fuck.
- Motherfucker.
- Fuckin' a.

- That guy still has a base?
- After all the shit he's pulled?
- I'll tell you one thing that fella right there is looking pretty damn mayoral.
[Wilson] More than nerese, definitely.
- With the profile he gets from this,
- I'd say it's Mr. Bond's race to lose.
[Bond] ...And remain under common court.
- Senator Davis will have to account for that money.

- Soon, though, soon.
- So, you ain't big on coming here, right?
- Tell you something. You about to see your uncle, you understand me?
- This is family.
- I know.
- Family is what counts, family is what it's about.
- Family gonna always be there
- 'cause it's blood.

- No, I'm a traveling salesman.
- I travel and, you know...
- Where do you live?
- I'm not gonna tell you that.
- I live out of town.
- I don't think we can help you tonight.
- Thank you.
- You sucked. I mean, really.
- Fuck if I thought I was gonna be interrogated.
- I'm just looking to get laid, right?

- Hold on.
- What the fuck are you staring at?
- How are you liking homicide?
- Loving it. Why?
- Anyway.
- It's on the way, boss.

1000 Best The Wire Quotes

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