Essay: "Avon contra Stinger - Part One"

Spoiler alert! The Wire is the best show ever and this blog post assumes you’ve watched all five season.

When you rewatch great television, what was unpredictable seems inevitable. That’s the hindsight bias. When try to predict the future, we’re bombarded with information, some of it pointing one direction, some in others. When we look back and try to explain the past, the information that pointed towards what actually happened looms very large. That’s why we’re so good at forgetting how bad we are at making predictions.

The first three seasons of The Wire are dominated by the Barksdale criminal organization, led by Avon Barksdale, and his trusted lieutenant, Stringer Bell. Although Avon is the top dog, we never actually see him do very much. He spends most of his time cruising from one safe house to another, only dealing with a select few very trusted people. Most of the work is done by Stringer.

Stringer is tall, very muscular, and handsome. Avon, on the other hand, is very lean and there is something shifty and crafty about his face. He always seems to be slouching over and rubbing his long fingers together. But beyond their physical appearances, they are also very different in temperament. Avon is cautious and methodical, but also violent, unforgiving, and covetous. Stringer, by contrast, attends a community college and wears suits. Stringer wants to run his crime organization like a business, without violence or “gangster bullshit.”

Like most people, I imagine, the first time I watched the show, I sympathized with Stringer. Re-watching the series, I’ve come to re-evaluate the relationship between Avon and Stringer. I now believe that Stringer, much more than Avon, is responsible for the downfall of the Barksdale organization. Stringer was simply not cut out to be a gangster.

At the end of beginning of Season Two, Avon is in jail, and Stringer is running the Barksdale organization. Disaster strikes when the organization loses its source of drugs. Without a quality “connect”, their organization loses customers.

Stringer’s response is to partner up with their east side rivals. In exchange for high quality drugs, he will allow Proposition Joe to sell drugs from Barksdale territory. Why bother fighting about territory? Stringer reasons. Dead bodies just bring police attention anyway. Better to just sell their product like any other business, compete on price and quality. Everyone makes money.

To try to make it more palatable, Stringer tells Avon they don’t have enough muscle to protect their territory. Avon rejects it anyway, and hires out-of-town muscle to protect them. Stringer attempts to have that muscle assassinated, but makes a hash of the situation, a decision that leads directly to his death.

But in the short term, his plan works. Avon is forced to accept the new arrangement. Without the turf wars, there is less police pressure, and with the higher-quality drugs, soon the Barksdale organization is rolling in cash, which Stringer skillfully launders into real estate and legitimate businesses.

One thing I didn’t notice the first time (the creators are never quite overt about it) is how soft the Barksdale organization gets under Stringer. It’s full of young meatheads like Bodie and Poot, and old fat guys who sit around and count money, without any of the wiser and harder soldiers like Wee Bay or Stinkum. The sole exception is Slim Charles, a good soldier who never has anything to do.

At the beginning of season three, Avon is released from prison. He immediately sets about rebuilding the organization’s fighting ability, which he does very quickly. Not only that, but his subordinates seem to get smarter and harder (partially because they have more of an opportunity to practice their trade). This includes, but is not limited to, Slim Charles, who learns a lot under Avon’s tutelage. Avon is much more successful in this regard than Stringer, who attempted and failed to turn his gangster employees into little businessmen.

Avon’s immediate goal is to go after Marlo, a rising young gangster who was seized much of Avon’s territory. Stringer doesn’t care about Marlo; they are making money hand over fist, and fighting with him would just bring police attention. Avon becomes quietly obsessed with taking down the young new-comer.

When watching the show the first time, I (like most people) thought Avon was being an idiot, almost unrealistically stupid. His single-minded focus in starting a gang war could only be explained, I thought, by a total inability to imagine life away from “the game.” It struck me a little bit as lazy writing, to be honest, an attempt to manufacture a spectacular conclusion to the season.

However, long time viewers will remember that after Season 3, Marlo Stansfield ends up killing Proposition Joe. Joe’s philosophy (no beefing, just buy for one dollar, and sell for two) eventually puts him in a position where he doesn’t have enough security for his organization, leading him to reach out to Marlo. The deal is that Marlo will provide security, and Proposition Joe will allow him to use his connect. Marlo betrays Joe, and kills him.

So with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that Avon actually was able to correctly identify Marlo as the most serious threat to his organization within only a few weeks of being released from jail. Not only that, but by rebuilding the Barksdale organization as a criminal family (and not a business) he had taken steps to make sure he would not suffer the fate that Proposition Joe eventually did.

If Stringer had not betrayed Avon, I think it very likely that Avon would have out-fought and killed Marlo, and taken all of his territory. And then he very likely would have done to Joe what Marlo did.

What this means is that I needed to go back and re-evaluate my initial appraisal of Avon.  Clearly there was something about this character that I'd missed.

Tune in in two weeks, when I'll post the second half of this essay.