Characters of The Wire
Marlo Stanfield
The East Side
Omar
The West Side
Prop Joe
Omar was a fan-favourite because, though he was not a character who upheld the law, he followed his own moral code. He even held favour with former US President Barack Obama
In Season One, Omar's boyfriend Brandon is murdered and his body is found completely brutalised as a warning to Omar by the Barksdale organization. As a result Omar strikes up a deal with the Baltimore Police Department, specifically Officer McNulty. He gives information to help bring down Avon Barksdale and his crew, and testifies in court against Bird - a loyal member of Barksdale's gang.
Omar is a character who holds no allegiance to any of the major drug gangs in town but manages to walk freely around Baltimore. He has a reputation, and his entry to any scene is often accompanied by frenzied cries of "Omar's coming" and followed by a mass exodus of people. Because he has no loyalty to any particular organisation Omar is one of the few characters who truly does what he wants. When asked what he does for a living he replies; "I rip and run" (Season Two, episode six), clarified to mean that he robs drug dealers.
Avon Barksdale
Marlo appears as though out of nowhere and becomes a major threat to even the biggest names in the city
Marlo Stanfield enters the show in Season Three and presents competition to both Stringer and Joe. He is the new ruthless man on the streets and is running his own operation.
Baltimore Police Department
Bunk Moreland
Freamon
Kima Greggs
Jimmy Mc Nulty
Bubbles
Barksdale Bell tension
By showing Bubbles' struggle with addiction and his part in the circle of poverty, petty crime, and desperation, Simon provides an insight into the true cost drugs have on the society.
Prop Joe, also known as Proposition Joe
In Season One he is introduced as the main competition to the Barksdale Gang. He is the kingpin of the East Side of Baltimore the way Avon is the Kingpin of the West Side. They have an agreement about territory that results in a relationship between them that is strictly business.
In Season Two when Avon goes to jail things become more complicated. Stringer Bell has a business mind and knows he needs better product so makes a deal with Prop Joe that has them working simultaneously together in business and against each other on the street.
Despite provoking many of the most dangerous and powerful people in Baltimore, and snitching to the police of his own free will, Omar survives until Season Five when his conflict with Marlo Stanfield comes to a head.
Bubbles is a homeless man who lives in the city of Baltimore. His character shows viewers the seedier side of Baltimore and the impact drugs are having on the people who live there. He becomes a confidential informer for Kima Greggs, interlinking the city's drug organisations and the Baltimore Police Department. Bubbles is seen to have an insiders insight to the scene, but isn't particularly criminal so works well alongside the police. He provides a lot of information, but also often provides a new way of looking at the situation in Baltimore.
Stringer Bell
Stringer Bell is the brains behind the Barksdale drug organisation. He has a mind for business and attends classes at the community college. He is shown to be the one really pulling the strings at different points. The moment this is most obvious is when he orchestrates the prison murder or D'Angelo Barksdale and frames it as a suicide. Not only does he retain the trust of Avon Barksdale, but he gets close to the mother of D'Angelo's child.
He remains the key target for the entirety of Season One, finally ending up with a jail sentence with a maximum of seven years. Once in prison and off the streets, he leaves Stringer Bell, his second in command, in charge of everything.
Avon Barksdale is the kingpin of the central drugs organisation The Wire looks at in Baltimore. In Season One he owns the towers, the best territory for dealing the city appears to have. He has influence all over the city but keeps his head down and stays away from as much of the street level violence and drama as he can, keeping him off the Baltimore' Police Department radar for years
Freamon is introduced as an old but extremely intelligent cop, and is set up as a similar kind of man as McNulty, twenty years ahead of him and without many of his proclivities outside of work. His passion drives him to do his job, and he helps out Officer Pryzbylewski by showing him that there's more to policing than waving a gun around on the street.
Beginning in the first episode of Season One, Jimmy McNulty could be seen as the main protagonist of The Wire. Though the seasons go on to reveal that there is no real protagonist to a show with so many characters and storylines, a lot of the action follows McNulty and the case unit he is assigned, trying to bring down the Barksdale organisation.
Kima is partner to McNulty and often goes along with his plans that might be less than rule-abiding, but usually with some more reluctance to flaunt this lawlessness. She is shown as a good match for McNulty with her quick wit and her refusal to take anyone's slack. The respect she has within the Baltimore Police Department, most especially amongst her colleagues in the case unit headed by Lieutenant Daniels is shown after she is shot on the job in Season One.
Herc and Carver
Detectives "Herc" Hauk and Carver are the police officers who work on the ground. They are seen in the never ending loop of arrest and release on the streets where corner dealers are caught, arrested and back on their corners in no time. They oversee the monitoring of "Hamsterdam" in Season Three, and are endlessly frustrated by the lack of action they are able to take.
When Bell takes over the Barksdale operation when Avon goes to jail he begins to run things like a business.
Bunk is a police detective who was introduced as McNulty's partner and remained close friends after McNulty was paired with Greggs. He serves as a sarcastic but clearly intelligent confidant to McNulty. He is one of the best detectives on the show, seeing through the false trails laid to get to the bottom of things.
Bunk and Omar first talk in Season One, where Omar recognises him from the school the both went to. Bunk is the one who pegs Omar's tag line; "A man must have a code" (Season One, episode Five). Following this encounter, Bunk and Omar interact a few times throughout the show, showing how two people from the same place with similar values can be shaped so differently from their circumstances. This is one of the ways Simon shows home a person's circumstances in life can be a major factor in their involvement in crime.
Jimmy has a lot of personal issues, ranging from his relationship with his wife and kids, his alcohol dependence, and his frequent tendency to ignore the rules and go outside the chain of command.
Freamon is a shrewd detective, whose patience with the wire tap and following trails often proves more fruitful than the more heavy-handed policework of some of the other detectives.
Stringer's Downfall
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