Not only did he somehow accomplish all this without the DEA knowing, but a number of people – including two wives – reported him to authorities after learning of his radicalization and terrorist connections. Each time the DEA interviewed him, and each time they dismissed any allegations. If they had done their due diligence, it would have never happened.

Headley was not arrested until a full year after the 2008 Mumbai attack, which killed 168 people, including 6 Americans. In response to questions from Indian officials on Headely’s role, James Clapper wrote a review on the Headley “slip up”, saying:

The review finds the U.S. government aggressively and promptly provided the Indian government with strategic warning regarding the LeT’s threats to several targets in Mumbai between June and September 2008…The review finds that while some information relating to Headley was available to U.S. officials prior to the Mumbai attacks, under the policies and procedures that existed at the time, it was not sufficiently established that he was engaged in plotting a terrorist attack in India. Therefore, the U.S. government did not pass on information on Headley to the Indian government prior to the attacks

What this fails to mention is that Headley was a DEA informant for nearly a decade. Not only did he make numerous trips to Pakistan during this time, but also actively raised money, recruited for, and trained with the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. This was all supposedly carried out without the DEA’s knowledge.

Again, going to Judge Phelan in the first episode caused quite a shitstorm for McNulty.

His Major was thoroughly pissed, as were a number of other high-ranking bureaucrats who were perfectly content with worrying about their careers instead of a couple drug-related murders.

Fun fact: the creator of the McNugget, as well as the McRib, was McDonald’s “executive chef” Rene Arend.

McDonald’s went on to make billions and billions of dollars off both of these classic menu items, but Rene didn’t get a cut (no royalties)! He was paid as an executive chef and corporate product developer. Without a doubt he made much more than the average minimum-wage McDonald’s worker, but arguably did not earn the full value of his efforts.

This is echoed later in the series with

“Deserve ain’t got nothin' to do with it”

This is the nature of neoliberal late capitalism, which has widened the divide between labor, i.e. employees, and control over the means of production, i.e. the employer. This means, most people have no way to produce their inventions or creations, so they must instead submit to wage labor beneath those who control the means of production.

As a metaphor, you can think of a Rap artist who doesn’t have access to top engineers, music recording technology, etc. To gain access to these things, he has to give a music label all the rights to his creations.

This would be the common assumption. Most people, even those who live in the worst conditions – like Poot and Wallace – hold on to this idea that America is truly a fair and democratic nation when you get down to it. You get paid what you are worth.

The reality is quite different though…In a recent interview with the Guardian, one prominent executive coach said this:

What would shock readers most when they saw what I see? Let me think. How so many brilliant, arrogant, super-talented young people get abused, sucked dry, burned out and then tossed aside by corporations and banks. In the early days of capitalism it seems the game was to exploit the less gifted; miners, factory workers etc. Today it’s about taking advantage of talent. People are used, then discarded.

This fact is huge. Not only did the state fail to convict when they had a perfectly credible eye-witness, but they also failed to protect this witness from retaliation.

In a neighborhood like this, it’s difficult enough to get witnesses to come forward. Now if you add a dead witness laid out in the street for everyone to see, it becomes impossible to find witnesses.

Though it was probably a retaliation murder to some extent, it was about sending a message more than anything else. Those on the block, as well as the police, get the message loud and clear: This is Barksdale’s world.