No TV show can exactly capture the criminal justice system and actors.  Law and Order (in all its iterations) is pretty much the Disney+ treatment.  The two closest in my opinion are Homicide : Life on the Street and The Wire.  Both developed by a former Baltimore Sun crime reporter and a former Baltimore detective who became a teacher.

In Boston, I even attended a lecture on The Wire at Harvard.  Several of the main actors and the real life inspirations for the characters were present, including the real life Omar (Look up YouTube Orioles closer Felix Bautista).  A few civil rights leaders were there and the eminent attorney and professor Charles Ogletree.  I will say this though – I’ve never heard so many uneducated dumbass questions asked at such a unique forum.

The two questions that I would ask someone when I find out they are a fan of the series are the following:

1.  How would you rank the seasons of the series? (3, 1, 4, 2, 5)

2. Who is your favorite character?

For me, it wasn’t one of the cops, judges, or prosecutors.  It was Stringer Bell, the second in command of a drug enterprise.  Intelligent, organized, pragmatic.  Reached for things beyond his grasp.

Too much of a gangster to be a businessman.  Too much of a businessman to be a gangster.  At the end (apology for spoiler), he gets cornered by two hitmen who want to kill him for different reasons (one is Omar).  He is so badass that he briefly tries to negotiate for his life, realizes it is futile, accepts his fate, and goes down giving his killers the order to shoot him.

When the cops search his home, they find a well-furnished apartment with business literature all around.  They wonder to themselves who this man really was.

In my casework, I did not see too much evidence of high level thinking or planning.  A good number of my cases involved poor impulse control, spur of the moment actions, and other premeditated evil motivated by vengeance or lustful depravity (including against children, and also by children – don’t ask).  But once in a while, I saw something that made me go wow.  A Hmong gang in Minnesota had a big brother-little brother program for mentoring – including firearm training and forgery.  In this case, I also saw someone take his last breaths on this planet.

But back to Stringer Bell (played by the inimitable Idris Elba).  I identify with him a lot.  Probably not as ruthless, but I get him and why he did what he did.  When the game is stacked against you, your mind is your greatest asset, weapon, and shield.  Ironic that his death was hastened by his caution – always insisting that doors should be locked/closes, this detail prevents his escape.