In one of the last episodes of Season 1 of "The Wire," Stringer Bell, the second-in-command in Avon Barksdale's drug gang, orders a hit on Wallace, a young dealer who he fears will deliver them to police. To carry this order out, he enlists Bodie Broadus, Wallace's friend but also a violent young dealer who is determined to do whatever he can to rise in the ranks of the gang. Upon receiving his task, Bodie is willing and eager to carry it out, and convinces his and Wallace's friend Poot to help him out. Before the murder takes place, the three boys go out to eat at a fast food restaurant. Bodie rudely questions Wallace's manliness, and Wallace replies that Bodie doesn't need to always act so tough. But Wallace eventually replies to Bodie's prodding by saying "I'm a man." When the three boys go back to the towers, Poot and Bodie corner Wallace in a room, and Bodie pulls a gun on him. Wallace begins to cry and appeal to his friends to have mercy, but Bodie is disgusted, calling him "weak." He hesitates to shoot, however, until Poot finally tells him to get it over with. But after shooting Wallace once, Bodie finds himself unable to finish him off when he survives it. Poot then steps in to put his friend out of his misery.
These two scenes, in the restaurant and in the towers, serve to illustrate the masculine ethic of the street. The ability and willingness to do violence is prized above all, and any showing of mercy is seen as contemptible weakness. This theme is reinforced by a scene earlier in the season, where Stringer upbraids DeAngelo Barksdale, a drug lieutenant in the gang and nephew to Avon, for showing leniency to a dope fiend that attempted to cheat them out of money. Furthermore, those individuals who are most ruthless and merciless find themselves at the top of totem pole on the street, as Avon and Stringer command through fear of their reputation, fear earned by their willingness to commit violence and eliminate threats.
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