All Due Respect

The Wire 3×2

Det. Thomas 'Herc' Hauk: Let me ask you a question. Where do you get those hats with the bills over the ears like that? I go into all the stores and the only ones I can find are the ones with the bills in the front.
Justin: No, it's the same. Just turn it sideways on your head.

Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: Truth is, I've been a councilman for almost three years now. ... In Baltimore, a white boy doesn't stand much chance running citywide. Maybe the legislature, if the right seat opens up. But until then, I'm stuck in a job with no power, except getting potholes filled.

Acting Commissioner Ervin H. Burrell: If you're looking for dirt, there isn't any.
Councilman Thomas 'Tommy' Carcetti: There's always fucking dirt. But right now, I'm just looking to know how we can do better.

Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: I don't know. Men of color usually don't do themselves. I mean, take me, for instance.
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Yeah, you got all the reason in the world.
Det. William 'Bunk' Moreland: And yet here I am, still standing.
Off. James 'Jimmy' McNulty: Give or take.

Lt. Cedric Daniels: You ever have one of those "have your cake and eat it, too" days? I believe this could be my first.

Lt. Cedric Daniels: Funny day. I'm the new departmental pet for shutting down a drug war. But I blew my wire for a dead terrier.

Maj. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin: Six months from now, I'm gone. I put in my 30 and the only thing that'll be left of me on that job is an 8 by 11 framed picture in the Western hallway. But you know what? The shit out there. The city is worse than when I first came on. So what does that say about me? About my life?
Deacon: 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.

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 rolling by, what were they gonna do? If they arrested every dude out there for tipping 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 kinds of disrespect.
     Now, this is 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... 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.

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