Homicide

Pulling one hand from the warmth of a pocket, Jay Landsman squats down to grab the dead man's chin, pushing the head to one side until the wound becomes visible as a small, ovate hole, oozing red and white. "Here's your problem," he said. "He's got a slow leak."

Every other year I reread Homicide: A year on the killing streets by David Simon. It's more than 600 pages of behind the scenes cop greatness. Like the title suggests Simon, a reporter with the Baltimore Sun, spent a year with the murder police in his city. He reports back on the bureaucracy, idiot suspects and crazy cops who sweep up the bodies and try to catch killers.
There are no white knights, no people seeking vengeance and precious few of them who are even concerned with justice. But what these detectives are, are people who ferociously love their work and take pride in what they do ... well, most of the time.

The book inspired two television shows, Homicide and The Wire. Homicide took stories and the real characters from the book and was one of the best cop shows Evah. The Wire was something more and we'll talk about it some other time.

I'm watching season 7 of Homicide now. I've seen the other seasons but always washed out before season 7.
Know why? Cause Andre Braugher left the show. Andre Braugher played Frank Pembleton, the hard headed, arrogant investigators who was the Beethoven of interrogations. Pembleton rocked, until they gave him a stroke. Then he recovered and finally he left. He came back for the reunion movie though.

I leave you with some Pembleton goodness.

Pembleton: You're not Catholic and you took communion?
Bayliss: Yeah. Is that wrong?
Pembleton: If my God wins, you're screwed.

Homicide The Complete Series Seasons 1-7 DVD SET
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
The Wire: The Complete Series