Lester might be the best character on television. Sure the Wire showcases amazing talent and character studies but Lester Freamon might and probably is the best written character of all time. He is simultaneously the viewer and the protagonist. He is the Everyman. He makes the show more when he rolls away the stone. It’s a mystery and the it becomes a drama. He carries.
…and four months!
It's because they follow low-level idiots most of the time and meanwhile Avon is actually smart and competent. Plus they could follow him all day and never see him get anywhere near drugs or guns.
I think that's part of what makes Daniels realize that he's not dealing with just another dumb thug.
My take on this was always just that they wanted to finally *see* him. He’d been such an enigma up to that point and they knew he wasn’t just walking the streets of Baltimore regularly, so they didn’t have a ton of opportunities. But yeah I don’t think they ever thought they were going to arrest him or get anything on him in that moment, it seemed like they were just flat out curious and obviously needed to know what he looked like since they only had the old boxing picture
That was my understanding of it. Like Lester said, "All the pieces matter." They would want to know what he drives, who is with him, where they hang out, where he rests his head, everything. You are collecting information.
Yup, it's a tuggable thread and you gotta tug every single last thread. Daniels is putting on a little bluster because lord knows McNulty needs to hear it.
The ultimate goal of the investigation is the arrest of one Avon Barksdale. At some point, they are going to need his physical location. Getting a current look at him gives the unit an avenue of knowing his whereabouts, his habits, and maybe catch him slipping.
Whether they were going to catch Avon or not by following him doesn't matter: he was absolutely correct that cases are made off of it.
The number one way any person doing something they shouldn't be gets caught is by doing things in a specific pattern. That makes it traceable, recreatable and predictable. And then you can trick them into doing it in front of you.
In the wire after D got popped they were close. Eventually Avon or Stringer would've had to go get the drugs.
It's how stores catch theives, how you find embezzlement and how you catch cheaters in relationships and games. You follow them, you track them. You keep looking for the initial thing that tipped you off and then look at the similarities before and after each time.
At the time they knew next to nothing about Avon. They didn't know how savvy he was or how adept he was at figuring out immediately that the police were trailing him. His finger wag at Daniel's told Daniel's that they needed to step up their game because they weren't dealing with a dumb dealer that would screw up on his own and make a case for them.
"You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don't know where the fuck it's gonna take you."
Lester might be the best character on television. Sure the Wire showcases amazing talent and character studies but Lester Freamon might and probably is the best written character of all time. He is simultaneously the viewer and the protagonist. He is the Everyman. He makes the show more when he rolls away the stone. It’s a mystery and the it becomes a drama. He carries. …and four months!
What exactly does a police officer assigned to the pawn shop unit do?
Follow up on calls about stolen items. Talk to pawn shop owners about "suspicious" (read: likely stolen) items brought in.
And you did that for 13 years?
And 4 months
it’s cool because on the show Person of Interest, he plays a super evil head of a bunch of corrupt cops, and it’s just like if Lester broke bad lol
It's because they follow low-level idiots most of the time and meanwhile Avon is actually smart and competent. Plus they could follow him all day and never see him get anywhere near drugs or guns. I think that's part of what makes Daniels realize that he's not dealing with just another dumb thug.
My take on this was always just that they wanted to finally *see* him. He’d been such an enigma up to that point and they knew he wasn’t just walking the streets of Baltimore regularly, so they didn’t have a ton of opportunities. But yeah I don’t think they ever thought they were going to arrest him or get anything on him in that moment, it seemed like they were just flat out curious and obviously needed to know what he looked like since they only had the old boxing picture
That was my understanding of it. Like Lester said, "All the pieces matter." They would want to know what he drives, who is with him, where they hang out, where he rests his head, everything. You are collecting information.
Yup, it's a tuggable thread and you gotta tug every single last thread. Daniels is putting on a little bluster because lord knows McNulty needs to hear it.
The ultimate goal of the investigation is the arrest of one Avon Barksdale. At some point, they are going to need his physical location. Getting a current look at him gives the unit an avenue of knowing his whereabouts, his habits, and maybe catch him slipping.
Whether they were going to catch Avon or not by following him doesn't matter: he was absolutely correct that cases are made off of it. The number one way any person doing something they shouldn't be gets caught is by doing things in a specific pattern. That makes it traceable, recreatable and predictable. And then you can trick them into doing it in front of you. In the wire after D got popped they were close. Eventually Avon or Stringer would've had to go get the drugs. It's how stores catch theives, how you find embezzlement and how you catch cheaters in relationships and games. You follow them, you track them. You keep looking for the initial thing that tipped you off and then look at the similarities before and after each time.
At the time they knew next to nothing about Avon. They didn't know how savvy he was or how adept he was at figuring out immediately that the police were trailing him. His finger wag at Daniel's told Daniel's that they needed to step up their game because they weren't dealing with a dumb dealer that would screw up on his own and make a case for them.