Street level characters of The Wire

Street-level characters comprise a large part of the cast on the fictional HBO drama series The Wire. Characters in this section range from homeless drug addicts up to drug king-pins in charge of entire criminal empires.

Avon Barksdale was the head of the Barksdale organization in season one. He comes from the projects, lives in the projects and plans to stay in the projects. For most of season 1 he is the target of a homicide detective Jimmy McNulty who seems to be the only authoritative figure aware of his presence or his empire that spans the most sought after territory in Baltimore for drug dealers. Avon is uniformly feared by all other drug dealing criminal organizations in Baltimore due to his ferocity but due to his 'West Side' mentality is no threat to 'East Side' gangs. Together with his closest friend Russell "Stringer" Bell, Avon and their enforcers hold a monopoly on the drug trade in West Baltimore through intimidation and murder.

Stringer was Avon Barksdale's second-in-command, closest friend, advisor and the main strategist behind coordinating their street dealing organization which he does as the main contact for all business, while he attends a business college in relation to his aspiration as a clean businessman. Together, they operate out of a strip club which is a front for money laundering owned and licensed under a clean member of their gang. Stringer is portrayed as more humble and quiet than Avon but is every bit as ruthless as his friend. He has aspirations to eventually leave the streets and drug life as a whole behind him despite his close and long relationship with Avon. In the third season Bell is killed by Omar and Brother Mouzone in his own commercial building that was in development at the time.

D'Angelo Barksdale was Avon's nephew and a lieutenant in his drug dealing organization. He was mainly responsible for leading the corner boys in their street dealings and coordinating their earnings and performance. He was the main connection between the upper levels of the crew and the street kids that were selling the product. He struggles with the morality behind his trade and came close to informing on the crew because of it, only relenting because of loyalty to family ties his mother reminded him of before signing. He took the sentence and went to prison where he was killed by a hitman sent by Stringer Bell in season 2.

Bodie was a dealer who came of age working for Avon Barksdale. After the Barksdale organization dissolves, he is briefly independent (supplied by the New Day Co-Op) until Marlo forces him to join his crew. He is shot in the head by Michael Lee with Snoop and Chris providing a distraction after being seen having a conversation with McNulty, because Marlo suspects he may be a snitch.

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