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COUP D’ETAT UPDATE
Notes on a Criminal Conspiracy
January 6 was the culmination of a plot in the works for months
I could be the last person in America to watch The Wire, the HBO crime drama that ran from 2002 to 2008. Although it never won any awards, many critics regard it today as one of the greatest television shows of all time. Despite this, somehow, it didn’t hit my radar until the pandemic sequestered me last year.
One of my favorite scenes in the entire series is from the show’s third season. In the scene, Stringer Bell, a drug kingpin played by a young Idris Elba, chairs a meeting of The New Day Co-Op, an alliance of some of Baltimore’s most notorious drug dealers. When the meeting adjourns, Bell notices a fellow sitting alone at the edge of the room.
As he draws closer, Bell realizes the young man is scribbling away in a legal pad. According to Robert’s Rules of Order, the man explains, meetings require minutes, so he’s taken the initiative by memorializing the discussions between the group of drug dealers. Upon hearing this, Bell snatches the man’s legal pad, rips out the page of notes, and asks the following question:
Is you taking notes on a criminal f*cking conspiracy? What the f*ck is you thinking, man?
