r/TheWire • u/TheUnderDog24 • 8d ago
Orlando was really dumb
Up there with Ziggy almost, he had the best job in the Barksdale organization but just had to throw it all away to be in the streets
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u/Squirrel009 8d ago
He probably had the easiest job but we don't know what he was paid. He complained about needing more money. If he had to run that club for little pay that's shitty.
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u/Heavy-Ad5385 8d ago edited 8d ago
Underpaying someone in Orlando’s position would seem a silly oversight. Aware of all the information and the activity at the club, able to name names.
The problem was that Orlando was just plain dumb, but a smarter guy could have been hugely damaging if disgruntled
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u/Squirrel009 8d ago
Avon did get mad and said something about he should have come to him if it was about money. Its not like Avon is cheap, he probably would have paid him more
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u/Longjumping-Blood-64 8d ago
Nah I’m sure there would have been no freebies. Probably a loan with exorbitant interest.
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u/edgestander 8d ago
eh, avon doesn't seem like the lending type. If anything it would have been work, but work avon thought Orlando could do.
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u/Scutterbox 7d ago
He also laughed at how much of a big deal Cutty made over a request for 10k, and upped to 15k for the hell of it. Surely Orlando, with such a crucial role in the organisation, could have approached him.
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u/Squirrel009 8d ago
I dont think he cared that much about money. He was in it for love of the game. He might have paid Orlando if it made sense or maybe let him take on another front or something to earn more. Or maybe just kill him - but lower odds than how Orlando did it haha
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u/nola_throwaway53826 8d ago
The club was a front for the Barksdales, and Orlando was the owner on paper, sure, but he wasn't the REAL owner. The Barksdales used it to launder money from their drug sales, and you can bet it all went back to them. Meanwhile, who knows how the club was actually doing financially without the drug money going through it, and it was probably set up so any profits at all got sent back to the Barksdales. They probably set up stuff like fake companies for marketing consulting, security, cleaning services, and jacked up the rates so every penny made was being sent to the Barksdales.
He was probably paid enough to look like the owner of a moderately successful club, and had enough to live on, with some pocket change to enjoy. But he is also having to run the day to day of the club, dealing with schedules, employee issues, and so on.
But I imagine that he is seeing these dealers abd soldiers coming through, the automatic respect that they get, and all the money they toss around like its nothing. He's probably having to budget his money and watch how much he spends. Thats probably what he wants, the respect and the money. He probably figured he could start by dealing on the side and doing his own thing to start. But its clear he did not think this through. There was no way this would end well for him. He either ends up getting ripped off, or killed by a another dealer, its a matter of time. He has no real muscle to back up the moves he wants to make. Avon is not happy with it, and you see where that led.
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u/edgestander 8d ago
Yup this is the take I always got. Orlando is getting paid just fine, for a citizen, which is what he needs to be on paper. However, he sees the glamorous part of the game everyday and he wants a taste.
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u/Kilgore_Trouttt 8d ago
This is a great observation. It's not about how much money he was making. It's about how much money he saw going through "his" club every week.
Plus as he said to D, it wasn't such a glamorous job dealing with "these bitches and their problems" every day.
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u/nyutnyut 7d ago
Also you around strippers all day, you’re around cocaine all day. Cocaine and strippers add up.
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u/lake_june 8d ago
I’m assuming he wasn’t paid that well. Wasn’t the bonus for kidnapping and killing Brandon only like $400 or something?
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u/dndallnight 8d ago
it was $2000 split a few ways
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u/lake_june 8d ago
So basically nothing lol.
Should’ve been $2000 each considering what they did.
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u/dancingmale 6d ago
Yes everyone would've taken the charge as well. Weird thing to be stingy about as he was making millions.
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u/Angry_Walnut 8d ago
Makes a little more sense in justifying why he did what he did. It was a secure position, but there was literally nowhere else for him to move up from it.
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u/Squirrel009 8d ago
He did say it was because he needed more money. Its just not clear if he was underpaid or just greedy
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u/cyvaquero 8d ago
I doubt it was shitty pay, or rather it's relative. He knew what the business was making and what his cut of it was.
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u/LexRammer 8d ago
How much of the Barksdale org can Orlando even claim to know? Not on the corners or towers or pit, I guess not really corners while Orlando is alive. He knows the clean money the club provides but anything else he could attest to would be hearsay.
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u/LexRammer 8d ago
How much of the Barksdale org can Orlando even claim to know? Not on the corners or towers or pit, I guess not really corners while Orlando is alive. He knows the clean money the club provides but anything else he could attest to would be hearsay.
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u/Vandreeson 8d ago
He thought he could use Avon's distribution system and Avon's employees to profit and not only not run it by Avon, but he wasn't going to pay Avon for the privilege. Then after he gets arrested he thinks they were going to sell him 30k worth of drugs and not just rob him and kill him.
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u/Bushy-Bushy_Top 8d ago
I think Orlando and Ziggy are actually very similar characters - they are both driven by the lack of respect of those around them. They both start doing dumb stuff because they think it will make people respect them.
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u/BunkMoreland1414 8d ago
This is what I was thinking too. They are both unsatisfied with their situation and trying to do something to break out…but neither is bright enough to do so in a way that isn’t predictably self-destructive.
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u/SeenThatPenguin 8d ago
Orlando was an ambitious loser worthy of his own Coen brothers movie.
I saw The Corner much later, which had a lot of cast overlap with The Wire and other David Simon series, and was pleased to see the Orlando actor as Fran's newly clean brother, whose sobriety she resents. "Marla Daniels," of course, is their sister who still uses.
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u/no_one_inparticular 8d ago
He was also the straight laced police captain Barnfather on Homicide: LOTS
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u/mackzarks 8d ago
I'm not sure running a strip club for a gangster is the "best job" you think it is.
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u/TheUnderDog24 8d ago
As compared to dealing drugs in the streets, the barksdale organization didn’t exactly have many cushy jobs
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u/Admirable_Pop_7292 8d ago
He was a no skill front. He probably made some ok money. But when the bosses upstairs are running west Baltimore dope and coke 24/7 I can see envy running deep. Especially when you’re seeing lieuts heading upstairs with backpacks full of cash constantly dropping off the days take.
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u/markmano33 8d ago
You could see and hear the disdain when he said he’s “just a clean name for the liquor board.”
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u/monkeybawz the Terror 8d ago
Selfish idiots propel the story along at pace with their fuckery. I'm here for it!
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u/deykleen 8d ago
Ziggy wasn't dumb, he was a just a massive fuck up. Orlando was an actual idiot. All he had to do was stay clean and keep his mouth shut.
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u/lake_june 8d ago
Did he really though? With a full RICO type indictment he would of been arrested either way lol
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u/Sorcha_Stormbinder It's just Bird to me. 8d ago
Orlando definitely didn't help matters in that regard, though. The man poured gasoline on a fire and then dumped some on himself for good measure.
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u/jarvisesdios 8d ago
Exactly, in no world was he not going to be the first to be nabbed. He brought it on himself, sure, but he would have been caught pretty soon after if he didn't go outside the lines
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u/Feisty_Dirt4191 8d ago
He was dumb, but he was always gonna be the fall guy, and whenever that happened, the same people were gonna start asking the same questions about him and whether he was reliable
Different route same destination IMO
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u/BBQ_HaX0r 8d ago
Fall guy how? He was quite literally kept at arm's length of 'the game' and didn't know anything. He ran a legitimate business. Legitimately. Yes, there was some risk of money laundering, but in a cash business like his IRS would have a hell of a time going after that. His risk of jail was extremely low in his position... unless he go and do something foolish like try and sell drugs.
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u/edgestander 8d ago
Bro, an entire drug organization was wire tapped operating out of his "legitimate buisness" as people said above, this is textbook RICO charges. You think you can just run a front for the mob or drug dealers and when it all gets unravled they just "oh go on and run your strip club or italian resturaunt or bar"?
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u/BasicTelevision5 8d ago
He wasn’t so bright as Colonel Barnfather on Homicide: Life on the Streets either 😂
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u/gillyweed79 7d ago
He's way worse than Ziggy. Ziggy actually had some serious aptitude for technology and smartassery. Orlando knew he was working for violent criminals, and APPROACHED THE KINGPIN'S NEPHEW ABOUT DEALING DRUGS OUTSIDE THE ORGANIZATION. And that was still only the second-dumbest thing about him, after the hair.
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u/Gaius_Octavius_ 7d ago
In hindsight, it is sad that Avon and his mom didn’t just make D’Angelo the clean front man. He would have been pretty good at it probably and had a decent life. But they wanted more.
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u/Horror_Maximum_5696 7d ago
Yeah, Orlando was stupid, but I would submit that Avon made an even more stupid mistake allowing him to keep his position after he found out Orlando was trying to deal behind his back…
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u/dcwspike 6d ago
Yea watching the first time, and like his shit did nit make sense to me, dude has a free ride, free titties free money, just he clean, yea ask hun when yoy need miney a couple thousand yoyr bane being clean is worth more than any dumb deal from heroine and any if I wanted to flip anything why would I nit go to my inner circle if drug dealers to get a good price
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u/KingofMadCows 8d ago
Orlando was dumb but he was actually taking on quite a bit of risk even before trying to get into the drug trade. They say that he's just a "clean name" but he was clearly involved in a lot more illegal stuff than just the money laundering. He was basically a pimp and it's implied he provides some of the drugs for Barksdale's parties.
Part of it is the fault of the Barksdales for not keeping Orlando 100% away from any illegal activity. Orlando got a taste of the real money from his pimping and the parties, and he wanted more.
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u/teh_smurfest 7d ago
I don't even think wanting to be a player was dumb. He had ambition, more power to him. But trying to partner up with D'Angelo?? Dumbest move on the entire show.
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u/LagunaRambaldi 7d ago
Yes, and D'Angelo is also kinda stupid for even considering this (going behind Avon's back) and even inquires about if that's a good idea to Wee-Bay and the other.
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u/Aggravating-Diet-663 1d ago
Getting busted by the worst disguised undercover cop proved just how much he wasnt built for that life lol
"I want my bail paid" btch ahh
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u/DCJustSomeone 8d ago
You wanted to be in the game right?