The Wire tackles the drug trade of Baltimore, following the dealers and kingpins looking to
evade the law, build their empires and keep their enemies off their turfs, and simultaneously the
show follows the cops out to stop the dealers, who themselves are hampered by decision making
from higher up the chain. The Wire explores the city’s bureaucracies, institutions, politics,
education system and the media, highlighting how all of these elements keep the drug trade ticking
and ensure no real long-term changes are ever made to tackle the war on drugs and street crime.
By far the most iconic character of The Wire is no doubt Omar Little,
often considered the heart of the show and something of an enigma as a character.
A persona very much part of modern pop culture and a classic of the small screen,
Omar was played by the late Mickael K Williams. He is a notorious stick-up man, but with the code he
lives by, unconventionally avoids taxpayers and civilians. Essentially, he robs drug dealers,
those already in the game, and he’s already developed a legendary reputation doing this
before the show even starts, with the hoppers and young corner boys afraid of his name alone,
and kingpins like Proposition Joe, Avon Barksdale and Marlo Stanfield constantly wary of him,
since he’s such a thorn in their side. In fact, both Avon and Marlo put bounties on Omar’s head,
and in spite of throwing their weight at Mr Little, are never successful at taking him out.
Omar has made a living robbing drug dealers for more than 15 years. As he says, he stays alive
“one day at a time”. In spite of being highly intelligent, with suggestions that he had a decent
level of education compared to most in the game, and being skilful in surveillance and shootouts,
you do get the sense, watching The Wire, that this character is destined to die someday,
going out all guns blazing in a robbery gone wrong, or maybe being hunted down by
an enforcer of one of the drug kingpins. You just know he’s going to get killed someday,
that a character like this has not been made to last, it’s only a matter of when and who, which
makes it all the more surprising when a small, disturbed child, Kennard, is the one to finally
catch Omar unawares and kill him, while Omar is doing some shopping no less, in an intentionally
blunt and anticlimactic death scene of one of the most iconic characters in television history.
One of the oft repeated images of The Wire is Omar strutting around the neighbourhood,
with people running from him shouting “Omar comin’!” He’ll approach a stash house, demand
that the hoppers hand over the drugs, and walk away, often without a bullet ever being fired.
Sometimes Omar’s plans are elaborate, like dressing up as a wheelchair-bound old man,
or even more extreme unseemly ****. In one scene he makes his demands with his back to
the stash house, where dealers inside tell him they have automatic weapons.
In another scene, he is so nonchalant that he performs a robbery in his
nightgown with no words spoken, just leaning up against the apartment with the drugs.
The slightly surprised look on Omar’s face after the drugs are dropped suggests he wasn’t
even there to rob the place, but just wanted a peaceful morning smoke, but his reputation
precedes him and is so fierce and infamous that the hoppers give him the drugs instantaneously.
But a question does arise. If Omar is so hated by the drug trade, if he is so feared, so sought
after, who does nobody just shoot Omar, take a pop at him while he is strolling around. Again,
it does go back to the point that we pretty much know one day it will happen, but there’s so many
times where Omar is just ambling around. Rather than give up the stash, rather than run away,
why not pull out a gun from the safety of an apartment window and try your luck against Omar.
We before we look at in universe reasons, you could make the argument that Omar walking around
effortlessly robbing drug dealers is a bit of unrealism in an otherwise realistic show,
a few scenes here and there of dark humor and entertainment, just to showcase to us Omar’s rep
and his almost superhuman abilities. But saying that though, apparently the 4 or 5 individuals
Omar was based on actually were involved in similar situations. Sticking with the topic
of realism, an argument can actually be made that Omar’s real-life antics were toned down for the
show, such as the scene where Omar jumps out of a 4-story building and survives. This is based
on an incident involving Donnie Andrews, who actually jumped from a higher floor.
By the time the show has started, we can also assume that Omar has put in the hard work of
busting into doors numerous times, maybe taking out a few people here and there,
building a heavy reputation for himself, and he’s at a place, as a legend of the streets
whose name will ring out long after he’s gone, where these low-level drug dealers just figure
it isn’t worth their lives, and wilfully give up their goods. It’s all part of the game; you have
to accept every now and again you’re going to get robbed by Omar. And we can ask the question
of why nobody just didn’t take a pop at Omar, but again, someone did, didn’t they, eventually?
But I’m more concerned here with the scenes of Omar walking about,
in clear view of anyone who could have a gun and had a clear shot at Omar.
Why not make an attempt to be the one who took out Omar Little?
Well the guy does walk around with a shotgun, and he is known to wear body armour.
So if you want to kill him, you have to aim for the head. And how many of these young hoppers
are trained and skilful enough with handguns to successfully get a shot at Omar’s face
from a fair distance. I would hazard very few. Not to mention, if you miss, or injure
him without killing him, he’ll be coming after you, so why take the risk. As Omar himself says,
“you come at the king you best not miss.” In one stickup, Omar makes it clear that that he will
take the drugs and walk away, but if not, he’ll be back and will put a bullet in the hoppers.
Why risk your life for drugs that aren’t yours? At worst, the drugs will be stolen,
and you’ll get a telling off from your supervisor, but at least you’ll be alive.
These guys working the package are equivalent to minimum wage employees working paycheck to
paycheck – there is no cause for them to stick their neck out for millionaire drug kingpins.
Who would even be able to take on Omar in a gunfight? The most that some of these
guys have done is shoot stationary cans. Brother Mouzone could give Omar a run for his money maybe,
and possibly Chris or Wee-Bay, but the corner boys just wouldn’t dare.
It's also worth mentioning that, even though he is a one-man army, Omar isn’t alone. He’s
worked in crews before, he has Butchie, he has Donnie – the point being that if you kill Omar,
your troubles won’t necessarily end there, and his people could come for revenge.
And that’s even assuming the guys working the package are even carrying, and it appears most
of them aren’t, due to constant police raids. The ones who do have pistols, and nabbing a headshot
from several yards away against a moving target? The odds aren’t great. And we’ve
seen examples so what happens to those that try to fight back against Omar – their stashes get
robbed anyway. Omar is so good that even kingpins like Prop Joe think twice about messing with him.
Sticking with the guys dealing the package – there is a difference between a solider
and a product handler. The enforcers are armed, but they are far and few between,
because they can bring down a whole organisation if they flip,
so only a few trusted highly-paid people with a certain mindset are part of this elite group,
and its why soldiers like Cutty and Slim are so sought-after. The product handlers, if
nabbed by the cops, can just say they don’t know whose the stash is, and take a light sentence.
If they are armed, that sentence will be a lot heavier, which could lean them towards the idea
of snitching for a lighter sentence. The kingpins know all this; it’s a calculated risk they’re
taking by not having the hoppers armed in many cases. It’s all part of the game. Not to mention,
good muscle is rarer than corner boys and hoppers, so they can’t realistically have armed gunmen
protecting every corner and stash house. Omar likely picked the ones he could easily steal from,
and the crews couldn’t get to him because they had no idea which one he would hit next.
Perhaps the most important point to mention is that Omar does not simply rock up to a stash
house, counting on his rep to get him out in one piece. He spends days, weeks even, scoping out
places, working out routines, number of people, number of weapons. He’s done his homework,
as shown by when he often refers to the hoppers by name, meaning he would be tailing them,
listening to conversations. His work ethic and dedication to detail is why he’s able to ghost in
and out of stash houses much to the fury of the likes of Avon, Stringer and Marlo. There were so
many scenes of Omar just watching drug dealers patiently. He probably avoided places that were
heavy, or he at least used a crew for those kind of jobs, if the reward was worth the risk.
When one of the guys says “we up in here with a MAC-10”, Omar replies by saying “I thinks not,
Terrel”, indicating to the product guys that he knows who they are and what they are carrying.
Also, looking at the issue by saying
‘how could Omar survive for so long’ is looking at it the wrong way. Some criminals are extremely
bold and have crazy stories to tell – Omar’s story is being told because its so amazing,
that’s why his story is in the show, it’s not necessarily a case of plot armour,
because the show is taking from incredible real life incidents and people who defied the odds
for longer than usual, and from there developed a larger than life reputation where his reputation
carried the robberies as much as the shotgun did. There’s probably a thousand Omars who have
tried the same thing and been killed on their first robbery. This character is supposed to
be incredible and difficult to believe, because sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction.
So why do you think nobody just shot Omar? Let me know in the comments below,
subscribe to the channel, and thanks for watching.