Lt. Daniels
For now, we'll work out of Narcotics,
with Kima keeping the file.
We'll copy everything to Ronnie
at the courthouse and your people.
Santangelo
Fine with us.
Lt. Daniels
McNulty and Santangelo will work
on the open murders...
see if anything can be manufactured.
Kima and my people will do
hand-to-hand stuff in the Terrace.
Buy-bust, quick and dirty.
We put years over top of
some of these people, we'll roll a few.
McNulty
You're not gonna get
Avon Barksdale or Stringer Bell...
or anyone else above the street,
not on street rips.
Lt. Daniels
You don't know that.
McNulty
These guys are good.
They're deep and organized.
They've got everyone running scared.
Lt. Daniels
What do you suggest?
McNulty
Surveillance teams,
DNRs, asset investigation.
Keep gathering string
till we can find a way in.
Either a wired CI or a Title III.
That's what makes this case.
Lt. Daniels
Is that what you told the judge?
McNulty
Okay, so I'm an asshole for that.
But I'm right about this much.
Lt. Daniels
No mics, no wires.
We do this fast and clean and simple.
McNulty
Then you don't do it at all.
Lt. Daniels
What the fu-
Rhonda Pearlman
Seems to me you all could've had this fight
before calling the State's Attorney's office.
McNulty
Let me ask you something.
What do we know about Avon Barksdale?
Greggs
What do we know?
McNulty
The guy's owned
all of Franklin Terrace for a year.
What do we have on him right now?
A DOB? A sheet?
A B of I photo?
We don't even have
a fucking photo of the guy.
Santangelo
Gimme a break, Jimmy.
Two days ago no one on this fucking floor
knew this mope's name.
Now he's some kinda criminal mastermind.
Herc
Shit, I say we go down to the Terrace
and fuck some people up.
Rhonda Pearlman
You all don't need a prosecutor,
you need a fucking referee.
When you know how
you're playing this, give a yell.
Lt. Daniels
We know how we're playing it.
My people are going down
to do some hand-to-hands.
Detectives McNulty and Santangelo are
going to the hall to review old murder files...
and try to manufacture a fresh prosecution.
As things heat up, I'll go to the deputy
and get us more manpower...
but this case is not going to sprawl.
A month from now,
we're all gonna be back at our day jobs.
Rhonda Pearlman
Fine. Bring me your hand-to-hands.
Anything on the murders, you can take
to Ilene Nathan in violent crimes.
I'll clue her in.
Lt. Daniels
Anything else?
Lt. Daniels
One last thing:
No one does anything at all on the street
without me knowing about it first.
Lt. Daniels
Chain-of-command, Detective.
That's how we do things
down this end of the hall.
Lt. Daniels controls conversation as a boss, utilizing his ethos. McNulty in the beginning makes point about the character of the opponent -- "these guys are good." As well, McNulty concedes very well when he says "okay, I'm an asshole for that."
Lt. Daniels
So, give me Sydnor.
Lt. Contrell
No way.
Lt. Daniels
Give me Sydnor and I'll keep Prez.
Lt. Contrell
He's my best man, you can't take him.
Lt. Daniels
I'm taking your worst, remember?
Lt. Contrell
How about Steinman?
Lt. Daniels
I'm working drugs in West Baltimore,
I need a black guy for surveillance.
I need Sydnor.
Lt. Daniels
Jesus, know what Prez did this morning?
Lt. Contrell
Tell me.
Lt. Daniels
He put a bullet through a wall,
dry-firing in the detail office.
Lt. Contrell
Look, no promises.
Lt. Daniels
You give me Sydnor,
I'll carry Pryzbylewski as long as I can.
Lt. Contrell
Fine, Cedric, fuck, whatever. Jesus Christ.
In this vignette Lt Daniels is persistent in his argument that Contrell give him Sydnor. He asks four times in as many sentences. As written, Daniels is persistent without commiting any rhetorical fouls nor resorting to argument by stick. In the show the tone of the actor is exasperated. However, in plain written letter above you can read that Lt. Daniels was 100% effective in his persuasiveness.
Herc
This case isn't shit, Carv.
Carver
I know it.
Herc
We're dancing around
with this motherfucker, typing shit out...
taking pictures of assholes in hats.
What the fuck is that?
Carver
It's bullshit.
Herc
I say we go down there right now.
Right fucking now.
We go into those towers,
and we let them know.
Prez
[chuckles]
Herc
I'm serious.
You got to let these motherfuckers know
who you are.
Herc
You coming?
Prez
I'm with you.
Herc
Carv?
Carver
What the hell?
Herc
Let's do it.
Come on.
[The Towers]
Shut it down. Five-O.
Five-O, five-O, break out.
Carver
Yo, come here, man.
Come here, where you going?
Don't act like you don't know me.
Get your hands up.
Herc
Put that down.
Prez
Drop that shit! Kiss the fucking ground!
Carver
Put your hands up.
Don't look at me like I ain't talking English.
Herc
You got a needle on you?
Carver
Got anything in here that's gonna stick me?
No? What's that?
What you got in your pockets?
You know what?
Put your pants down, man.
Put your pants down
and get down on the ground.
Get down on the fucking ground!
All right, spread your shit out.
Nice shoes. Think a happy thought.
[The Towers]
Why don't you go somewhere else
with that bullshit?
No-good motherfuckers.
Carver
Stay down, man, stay down.
Herc
Y'all can let Barksdale and them know
who owns these towers.
Carver
'Cause we're coming back.
Herc
I'm sick of this shit.
[The Towers]
Kiss my ass!
Carver
We roll out, come back in an hour,
catch everybody dirty.
You'll see how that goes.
[Tower Resident]
That's bullshit, man.
Carver
Yo, stay down, man.
[Tower Resident]
That's fucked up. Man ain't did nothing.
Carver
Want something?
Prez
Move, shitbird.
Kid
I ain't doing nothing.
Prez
Really? I got nothing for you.
Kid
My eye, my eye.
Prez
Who you gonna eyefuck now?
Are you serious?
You bleed on my car?
Don't bleed on my car.
Get your shit off my car.
Carver
What the fuck's the matter with you?
Carver
Got a visual?
Herc
Fuck.
Herc
Get the radio.
Carver
11 :35, Signal 13.
771 Franklin, in the Court.
Herc
Son of a bitch!
Carver
Shots fired, shots fired.
Officers need assistance.
Herc
I'm hit!
Carver
Signal 13.
Officer down, Officer down!
Herc
Shit!
The rhetoric of this scene is subtle. As you read it, it doesn't have any fantastic devices. It's a few cops, Herc, Carver, and Prez shouting commands. There's no reply to the commands. When watching the scene it doesn't stand out, you're watching the picture. Yet, they're shouting commands at tenants of a high rise housing project complex. At the end of the scene those tenants start throwing stuff at the cops and one fires a gun. They're not arguing. The cops don't argue. It's all argument by stick, a rhetorical foul.
Carver
They jumped us, Boss.
Lt. Daniels
Who?
Carver
Fucking project niggers.
Lt. Daniels
What are you doing here
at 2:00 in the morning?
Carver
Field interviews, sir, police work.
Lt. Daniels
Police work?
Herc
Yeah.
Lt. Daniels
I got a 14-year-old 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.
Herc
No, sir.
Lt. Daniels
I got his mother over at IID...
filing a formal brutality charge...
which for Herc will make an even four
in the last two years.
Herc
None sustained.
Lt. Daniels
But all of them true.
Carver
Lieutenant We thought that--
Lt. 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?
Carver
Lieutenant We thought that--
Lt. Daniels
What did you all learn
when you went to the Terrace...
at 2:00 in the morning
to conduct field interviews?
What valuable information did
we acquire from this situation?
IID is gonna be on all three of you
by afternoon...
and 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?
Prez
Me.
Lt. Daniels
Why?
Prez
He pissed me off.
Lt. Daniels
No, Officer Pryzbylewski,
he did not piss you off.
He made you fear for your safety
and that of your fellow officers.
Lt. Daniels
I'm guessing now, but maybe...
he was seen to pick up a bottle
and menace officers Hauk and Carver...
both of whom had already sustained injury
from flying projectiles.
Rather than use deadly force
in such a situation...
maybe you elected to approach the youth,
ordering him to drop the bottle.
Maybe when he raised the bottle
in a threatening manner...
you used a Kel-Light,
not the handle of your service weapon...
to incapacitate the suspect.
Lt. Daniels
Go practice.
You fuck the bullshit up
when you talk to internal...
I can't fix it, you're on your own.
Lt. Daniels has great rhetorical use of division when suggesting a better story (bullshit) of what happened when Prez hit the kid with the butt of his gun. Before that he does a lot of narration. Then he ends it with a proof, "go practice. You fuck the bullshit up when you talk to internal...I can't fix it, you're on your own." Perhaps, as is the case with non-dramatic real-life, there is no need for a formal conclusion, the scene simply ends.
McNulty
Hey, Pat.
We got a job for you guys
to try to run down.
Mahone
...huh
Polk
What is it?
McNulty
We need a photo of this guy, Barksdale.
We need to know what he looks like.
Mahone
So go down to the B of I.
McNulty
You see, that's the problem, guys.
Barksdale's never been arrested
as an adult...
so we don't really have a B of I photo.
He had his juvenile record expunged,
so there's no photo there either.
Mahone
Then you're fucked.
McNulty
Yeah, we are.
McNulty
But seeing as we all came into work today,
I thought, let's try something different.
McNulty
So we know from his mother's
social service record...
that Barksdale grew up
in Franklin Terrace, right?
It occurred to me...
being vaguely familiar
with the high-rises of West Baltimore...
that the housing project
began to take photos...
of every registered resident
as a security measure.
McNulty
Am I correct, Detective Greggs?
Greggs
Yeah.
Mahone
So you want us to go down
to the housing department...
and pull his photo.
McNulty
Excellent.
You know, you and l, we think as one.
We're like two horses together in a harness.
Mahone
Why don't you fucking do it yourself?
McNulty
Sure, if you don't mind sitting in my desk,
reviewing homicide folders...
taking meticulous notes,
trying to run down a few new leads.
It's boring, painstaking work,
but if you don't want...
to travel to the housing department,
I'll switch with you.
Polk
Fuck it, Patrick. Let's take a ride.
Greggs
That was inspiring.
McNulty
I'm a leader of men.
In this scene McNulty first concedes to Mahone's objection "Then you're fucked." Then goes on to state the facts. From this mahone reaches the conclusion himself. Skip ahead, another objection from Mahone "Then why don't you fucking do it yourself?" McNulty responds by using concession, enargeia, and describing the alternative to his choice in painful ways. Polks agrees, agreeing for Mahone as well.
Herc
Long fucking drive.
Me and you drawing another shit detail.
Carver
This ain't a shit detail.
Herc
No?
I'm in Upper fucking Marlboro, Maryland,
and still going south.
Look. Another cow.
Carver
Use your imagination.
This little shitbird, having already been
whipped good by us once...
he sees us, right?
And he starts crying like a little bitch...
because he knows we drove
all the way to Prince George's...
for more of his ass, right?
Imagine we jack him up,
toss him into a small room...
and tell him that Detective Mahone
is near dead from the sucker punch.
No shit. The drunk old fuck
suddenly slipped into a coma.
And now the Commissioner and
Mrs. Mahone are at his bedside in the ICU.
And we've been ordered to come down here,
rip off his scrotum, put it in a jar...
and drive it back to Baltimore, so it can sit
with the fucking bowling trophies...
behind the bar at the FOP Lodge.
Herc
hahaha
Carver
All right? After which...
fucknuts stops whimpering long enough...
to just start giving people up, whoever.
Stringer Bell. Avon Barksdale.
Herc
Yeah?
Carver
Yeah.
Little prick turns on everybody...
and we break the case wide open.
Herc
Cool.
Carver
Right?
Carver using enargia
Bunk
So, from all them hand-to-hands,
nobody flipped?
McNulty
No, that part of town,
Barksdale carries more weight than we do.
Just like all these fucking homicides.
Witnesses lying, witnesses paid off,
witnesses backing up on their story.
Bunk
Can you blame them?
McNulty
Not really.
Every now and then, we visit the projects.
They live there.
McNulty and Bunk lacked decorum.
Wallace
Damn, Bodie. Fucked that nigger up.
They stomped his ass.
How he ain't courtside
for banking a knocko?
Boy, how you get home so quick?
Nigger, what you steal?
Bodie
Camry XLE.
You all want a ride?
It's right around the corner.
Man, Boy's Village ain't shit.
I'm just too bad for that off-brand
little-boy bullshit, man.
It can't hold me.
DeAngelo
laughing
Bodie
What you laughing at? What's so funny?
If you was me,
your ass would still be down there.
DeAngelo
You ever seen a city jail, nigger?
You ever caught a body?
I'm the one who just got home, remember?
Eight months over on Eager Street
with a body on me.
Bodie
Yeah, you got the one.
DeAngelo
Yeah, the one you know about.
You little motherfuckers need to ask around.
Yo, out near the county, right,
on the high end of the Eastside?
They got these apartments, out there, right?
So there was this little shorty
who used to stay out there.
She was, like....
I ain't seen a female that fine since.
I gotta say, Shorty was right.
Wallace
You fucked her?
DeAngelo
No, man, it wasn't like that.
This was a shorty
my uncle was messing with.
They was going on at it for a little while...
till she find out that my uncle got another
little shorty round the way.
More right to say he got a few of them
around the way...
know what I'm saying?
So, she goes off the hook,
talking about calling the police...
about shit she ain't supposed to know.
Poot
Oh, shit.
DeAngelo
Yeah, you know it.
But see, I got some creep to me,
and my uncle, he know that shit.
So they roll me out past her crib.
And they show me how she lives
right on the ground floor, first level.
I go creeping around the back,
to the back window.
I got the .45 on me, the big gun.
I walk up to the window and I look in,
and it's dark as shit...
because it's 3:00 a.m.,
and you can't see shit.
Wallace
What did you do?
DeAngelo
So I pulled out the piece...
and I start tapping with the back of it
on the window.
And it was quiet, but it was loud enough
so she can hear that shit.
That's what she heard, yo.
Sure enough, she comes out.
She's naked and shit.
I don't know why the fuck,
but she has a robe...
and as she slipping on her robe,
she turns on the light...
and when she does that,
and it's light on the inside...
she can't see shit on the outside.
Poot
Damn, she naked.
DeAngelo
She hears that shit on the window
and she ain't got no choice...
but to walk over there and see what it is.
She steps up...
looks out...
see where it's coming from.
Bodie
What happened?
Wallace
He shot her.
Poot
Yo, Dee, if she was all that,
why didn't you fuck her first?
Wallace
Nigger, you sick, just shut up.
Poot
What? I'm just saying....
Wallace
There is something seriously wrong.
DeAngelo uses enargeia.
Stringer
It's been a little hectic down here,
right, cuz?
D'Angelo
String, man, I can't lie.
Them stick-up boys,
they caught us dead up.
And the narcos, shit,
I don't know what the fuck that was.
[Low-Rise]
5-0. Comin' up!
5-0 comin' up, y'all.
Time-out.
Stringer
C'mon, man, what is that?
D'Angelo
What?
Stringer
You gotta get your crew
to understand that...
it's the stick-up crews and the creepers...
that give us the most trouble.
When they start thinking like that...
you're not gonna have any more surprises,
you feel me?
'Cause you know, your uncle and me...
we think you got a snitch up in the shop.
D'Angelo
What?
Stringer
Someone who tips off the stick-up crew.
And you gotta be on that, right?
You gotta be on that.
I'm gonna tell you what you do.
What day is it today, Friday?
What happen on Friday?
D'Angelo
Payday.
Stringer
Not this Friday.
D'Angelo
Why not?
Stringer
No, what you gonna do
is you gonna call 'em...
like you gonna pay 'em
and then you crack 'em.
You tell 'em you're not happy...
with what they fuckin' pass
as work down here.
And when you're not happy,
they ain't gettin' paid. You feel me?
D'Angelo
Yeah, but String, you don't pay a nigger,
he ain't gonna work for you.
Stringer
What, you think a nigger's gonna get a job?
You think these niggers
gonna be like, "Fuck it...
"let me quit this game here
and go to college"?
Naw, they gonna buck a little,
but they not gonna walk.
And in the end, you gonna get respect.
D'Angelo
Yeah.
Stringer
And when that money run out,
they'll come up to you and roll on you...
and ask you for an advance and shit,
when they flat-ass broke.
Them the niggers
that you strike off your list.
But that nigger that stay eatin'...
the nigger that steady rollin',
ain't askin' you for shit...
that's the nigger I want
to hear about. Understand?
D'Angelo
Yeah, man, shit, you know how
to play a nigger into a corner, String.
D'Angelo misses an opportunity to concede and redefine, a combination that makes for rhetoric ju jitsu.
Greggs
You could go to Foerster,
or the Deputy Ops.
Lt. Daniels
Why come crying to me?
Why not go to your friend, the judge?
McNulty
I don't see a circuit court judge
being able to argue...
the city homicide commander
out of three murders...
even if the cases are all weak sisters.
It's put-up or shut-up time, Lieutenant.
Either you step up or you send us all home.
Lt. Daniels
So this is on me?
McNulty
I don't see anyone else
in charge of this detail.
Lt. Daniels
Rawls is a major.
McNulty
Rawls is an asshole.
Lt. Daniels
My point is, he ranks me on this.
McNulty
gives a look to Greggs
Lt. Daniels
Chain of command might mean
nothing to you, McNulty.
McNulty
What'd I tell you?
McNulty does a good either or.
Avon Barksdale
Who's snitching?
D'Angelo
Nobody.
Wee-Bey
Is you sure on that, man?
You done had the stick-up,
then the jump-out.
Now, they running up on Stink.
D'Angelo
My crew, we tight.
All right?
Ain't nobody holding no extra money.
I checked all that.
Maybe your ass just ran a stop
or had a taillight out or some shit like--
Stink'num
You think I'd run a stop with $40,000?
Fuck no.
D'Angelo
Nigger, I don't know.
Avon Barksdale
Something is up.
So go down there today...
tell them hoppers you got
working for you down there...
that this shit is about to change.
Stringer gonna come down there,
he gonna run through the changes.
Until this shit is straight, the Pit is dead.
D'Angelo is on defense and not using any of the tools at his disposal:
- Spot fallacies: Bad proof, Bad Conclusion, Disconnect between proof and conclusion.
- Audience Targeting
By suggesting Stink ran a stop or had a tail-light out he was using the active voice and that is likely to direct anger back at him, not something beneficial when on defense. A better move would have been to use the passive voice.
He also didn't flip back to offense, he just went and left. If he had his wits about him he could have made the topic about a broader issue, as the rest of the gang does as the scene progresses.
Lt. Daniels
Burrell thinks I crossed him.
Marla Daniels
He said this to you?
Lt. Daniels
In so many words.
Marla Daniels
You need to explain then--
Lt. Daniels
Explain what?
That I'm bringing in a case
that goes everywhere?
Today, it was some senator's driver.
Two days from now,
a city councilman, maybe.
He asked for a charge on Barksdale.
That's all he asked for.
Marla Daniels
This thing with the legislative aide,
who could've foreseen it?
Lt. Daniels
He saw it. Burrell.
See, this is the thing
that everyone knows and no one says.
You follow the drugs, you get a drug case.
You start following the money,
you don't know where you're going.
That's why they don't want wiretaps or
wired CIs or anything they can't control.
Because once that tape starts rolling,
who the hell knows what's going to be said?
That son of a bitch McNulty asked me
what the Deputy had on me.
He actually asked me that.
Marla Daniels
What did you say?
- Lt. Daniels feels the pressure of Burrell, who, as his boss, has a strong enough ethos to determine the future of Daniels' career. McNulty took a jab at Daniels by asking what Burrell had on him, poking a hole in his own ethos. The scene shows that logical answers can be dangerous to relationships. Imagine that the public knew of all of the drug money that politicians in the city were taking? They would lose their jobs, the mayor would be replaced, those people who serve at the pleasure of the mayor (like Burrell) would also be replaced. It's dangerous, logos. So we see Daniels feeling the pressure.
Proposition Joe
This some of Avon's shit.
You got Avon Barksdale chasing
your ass all around town...
and you still find time to take his shit.
Omar
It's your shit now.
Proposition Joe
What I want with that?
Omar
What anybody want with that, man?
Proposition Joe
How much you asking?
Omar
Oh, we free.
Proposition Joe
Free?
Omar
I'm saying, I got a little proposition for you.
Proposition is,
you get four G-packs for free...
you give me some better idea
on how I can reach Avon.
Proposition Joe
How to contact him?
Omar
You all just had a game, right?
How you get a hold of him to parley?
Proposition Joe
We talk now and then.
I page his ass.
Omar
Okay.
Okay.
Proposition Joe
That all you need?
A number?
Omar
I make do with it.
And a code for one of his peoples.
Proposition Joe
What Wee-Bey use, 07?
Omar
07.
Proposition Joe
What makes you think
I ain't gonna take this off your hands...
and throw your ass up outta here?
Omar
Come on, man, Avon goes down,
the projects be open market again, right?
Proposition Joe
Let me understand.
Avon loses $100,000 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?
Omar makes use of the advantageous.
McNulty
No way.
Rhonda Pearlman
Why not?
McNulty
Because a player wouldn't be
the name on the liquor license.
He'd have a connect for Barksdale's coke.
He wouldn't walk into state troopers.
Greggs
He got a charge and now
he's talking out his ass.
McNulty
Face it. You're never gonna get Avon
or Stringer in the same room as the dope.
We make this case on their voices alone.
Rhonda Pearlman
So maybe he can't buy from Barksdale.
Maybe he can only buy
from Savino or Wee-Bey.
Greggs
Fuck him, then.
We already got Wee-Bey tied to a murder,
and Savino's the runt of the litter.
Rhonda Pearlman
We can take what Orlando
gives us about the club.
The money laundering, maybe, or the girls.
For that kind of cooperation,
I'll drop a few years and call it fair.
McNulty uses deductive logic.
Maurice Levy
If he calls me for anything,
I'll tell him to turn himself in.
I'm going to do that.
McNulty
Not good enough.
Maurice Levy
Excuse me?
McNulty
We need him now.
Rhonda Pearlman
No, thanks.
Perhaps as an officer of the court...
McNulty
Ronnie here is being polite.
She's a member of your twisted little tribe.
She's putting it into
your twisted little language. Me?
I wouldn't wipe my ass
with a Baltimore lawyer.
McNulty
No offense.
Maurice Levy
None taken.
McNulty
I mean, I'm willing
to let you little ratfuckers suborn perjury...
blow smoke up a judge's ass
and jury-tamper your balls off...
without losing the slightest bit
of my sunny disposition.
Fuck me if I don't let you structure
your cash into briefcase fees, either.
That's between you and the IRS.
Neither one of you is anyone's friend, right?
Rhonda Pearlman
What Jimmy is trying to say is--
McNulty
No, what Jimmy is saying is if you want
my nose closed to your shit...
you have to throw me something
when I need it.
And right now I need Savino Bratton
in bracelets.
Maurice Levy
I don't know where he is.
McNulty
You repped him the last four felonies.
I guess you can get word to him
if you want to.
A police may die, Morrie,
and Savino was there.
He comes in this afternoon...
and he takes the drug charge at least.
Maurice Levy
Or what?
McNulty
Or we send tactical teams
into his momma's house every night...
until there's no house left to worry about.
You get a target letter
from the state's attorney's office...
followed by subpoenas
for every bank account...
in your fucking name.
And let's see if all those cash deposits
match the reported income.
Maurice Levy
I'm hearing this from him...
and I understand that he's distraught.
I understand that.
Am I hearing this from
the state's attorney's office as well?
Rhonda Pearlman
You are.
Maurice Levy
I'll see what I can do.
[Outside Levy's Office]
Rhonda Pearlman
Fuck you, Jimmy!
You didn't tell me that was coming.
McNulty
He'll bring him in.
Rhonda Pearlman
He will if he can, that's not the point.
McNulty
What's the point?
Rhonda Pearlman
The point is that Morrie Levy is a past
officer of the Monumental Bar Association...
and unless I want
to spend my whole life as a fucking ASA...
I can't spend my afternoons
pissing on people who matter.
McNulty
Another career in the balance.
Rhonda Pearlman
Fuck you.
McNulty
No, fuck you.
If only half of you
in the state's attorney's office...
didn't want to be judges...
didn't want to be partners
in a downtown law firm...
if you had the balls to follow through,
you know what would happen?
A guy like that would be indicted,
tried and convicted.
The rest of them would back up...
so we could push a clean case
But no, everybody stays friends.
Everybody gets paid.
And everybody's got a fucking future.
Rhonda Pearlman
You'll just use anyone, won't you?
Jimmy uses the advantageous by explaining to Levy why it's to his disadvantage to protect Savino. Rhonda pointing out that Jimmy may have gotten his way at the cost of Pearlman's relationship.
McNulty
How is she?
Lt. Daniels
In and out of the morphine drip.
They got her stabilized is all I know.
Go on in.
McNulty
No.
Lt. Daniels
Unfreeze your ass off that wall, then.
Either pay your respects,
or get your head back into this case.
McNulty
Fuck this case.
Lt. Daniels
Fuck it?
Now you're just gonna, what,
call off your little crusade?
McNulty
Is that what you think it was? A crusade?
Avon Barksdale was a way
to show everyone how smart I was...
and how fucked up
the department is, that's all.
Just put Jimmy McNulty
up on your shoulders...
march him around the room,
break out the keg.
It was never about
Avon Barksdale, Lieutenant.
It was all about me.
Lt. Daniels
You think I didn't know that?
You think we all didn't know?
Listen, this case is gonna move forward...
with you or without you.
McNulty
This case got her shot.
I put a battery up her ass...
and got her thinking
this case meant something.
And you know what?
Burrell, Rawls, and them, they were right.
This case means exactly shit.
Lt. Daniels
I know it meant damn near nothing to me
when you came in beating the drum.
But now we got that woman
in there, that good police...
breathing through a fucking tube,
because it meant something to her.
And the shooters who dropped Kima?
They're still in the wind.
And whoever sent those motherfuckers
into that alley...
he needs to get got, too.
So you can stand there,
dripping with liquor-smell and self-pity...
if you got a mind to, but this case...
it means something. Now.
After feeling terrible at the shooting of Greggs, for what is the first time, McNulty does not use the advantageous. In a way, he betrays his ethos by stating that his caring was all about him, not the pursuit of a drug dealer.
One of the important strategies of argument is based on stance theory. And in The Wire, David Simon, a rhetorician par excellence, writes Maurice Levy as a defense lawyer for drug kingpins who knows exactly the stance to take when he is defending his client in a sentencing meeting with the prosecution.
Maurice Levy
You all know that Baltimore city jurors
are capable of just about anything.
Now, look, if you want to sit
around for months on end...
going through a bunch of half-heard...
half-said telephone conversations
and see how well you do...
I'll certainly respect the effort.
Rhonda Pearlman
It's not just talk on the wire.
We've got seized money
and lot of dope on the table.
Eileen Nathan
And a lot of violence.
Maurice Levy
All of which stops
way short of Mr. Barksdale.
You know this.
Lt. Daniels
All of it except for the New Jersey bust.
That one he eats.
Maurice Levy
Maybe he does.
Maybe he pleads to one count
of attempted possession...
and takes, I don't know, maybe three, four.
Maybe he can arrange
for everyone you have...
on those tapes to follow suit.
You get five-year pleas from those
with no prior felony convictions...
10 years for those with one prior,
15 for two or more.
Eileen Nathan
What about the murders?
Maurice Levy
Maybe we acknowledge
you've got Mr. Brice cold for the
murder of Orlando Blocker
and wounding of the police officer.
Rhonda Pearlman
Who?
Lt. Daniels
Wee-Bey.
Wee-Bey's lawyer
Representing Mr. Brice...
I'm fairly confident that
to avoid the death penalty...
he'll proffer to at least a half dozen
of your open murders.
Eileen Nathan
Naming co-conspirators?
For that kind of cooperation,
I'd be willing to consider straight life.
Maurice Levy
No, indeed.
I believe Mr. Brice is ready
to take sole responsibility...
for all of his crimes.
Still, you walk away
with at least a half-dozen clearances.
Rhonda Pearlman
Assets.
Maurice Levy
You take the strip club,
you take whatever trucks and cars...
you can link to the drug trafficking,
and also whatever cash you've seized.
Lt. Daniels
He's got dozens of other properties:
the funeral parlor, the towing company.
Maurice Levy
No. You get the cars,
because you can tie them to illegal activity.
But there's nothing else in his name to take.
Rhonda Pearlman
So, you keep most of the money,
most of the real estate...
and Stringer Bell stays on the street
with his hand on the throttle.
Maurice Levy
If you have a charge against Mr. Bell, file it.
Otherwise, I understand that nothing
in all those hours of tape implicates him.
Rhonda Pearlman
Three or four years ain't enough, Maury. Not for Avon Barksdale.
Maurice Levvy
No? Make an offer.
Maurice makes an introduction, which starts with a commonplace statement. The commonplace he chooses is "You all know that Baltimore city jurors are capable of just about anything." What makes this a commononplace is that it is not, strictly speaking a fact, that jurors are capable of anything in Baltimore. However, among his audience - other lawyers and a police lieutenant - who have seen unpredictable outcomes in the Baltimore courts, it is a shared opinion and that is as good as a fact, rhetorically. That shared opinion constitutes a commonplace. Then Maurice narrates a vision for the future that is favorable to him and unfavorable to his audience.
Rhonda, the prosectutor takes her stance and starts with the facts. Eileen, Rhonda's team member, continues with that statement of fact. Maurice counters, also on the facts. Liuentenant Daniels counters, also on the facts. Facts form the strongest rhetorical stance. In this room of characters we see rhetoric so well played in a way that only a screenwriter can provide.
Now the next part is where Maurice is executing his prepared plan, which was constructed in a previous scene. He and Mr. Barksdale, drug kingpin, agreed that in order for Mr. Barksdale to get the best deal possible, they would need to deliver the people below him to the prosecution in a structured plea agreement. That is scapegoating and not a good tactic. What Maurice is doing is setting the terms. If an ethos raising apology is what a person does in their own defense of a screwup, this is an ethos raising plea agreement.
The conversation moves forward to Mr. Brice naming co-conspirators. The facts known to the audience of the show are that Mr. Brice had many thugs that he murdered innocent people with, among those "co-conspirators," is Mr. Barksdale. Here Team Barksdale is staying a strong rhetorically arguing unit. As well, Maurice uses the advantageous, speaking to what is good for his audience, when he says "Still, you walk away with at least a half-dozen clearances."
The scene ends. And it ends well for Mr. Barksdale. And it ends with Maurice Levy, who set up the initial plea offer, asking the prosecution to make him a counter.
Along the way, Maurice Levy defended his client using dictates of his situation. He relied purely on facts, the strongest stance possible. He used the advantageous to make the outcome look good to his audience. As this argument occurs, it is easy to see that the prosecution has no love for Maurice Levy, to say the least. If you see yourself as someone who comes from a good place of humanity, the natural tendency in an argument is to want your opponent to walk away happy. You want the argument to be a win-win, to be a step toward a future that everyone can enjoy, for all to be glad they had the opportunity to argue. But if thats not possible, you want to be on the good side of a win-lose.
No one ever has the identical view of the future, therefore, as you deliberate and create it, you'll need consensus.
And that's all he wrote.