William Rawls
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| William A. Rawls | |
|---|---|
 |
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| First appearance | The Target (episode 1.01) |
| Statistics | |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | Late 50s or early 60s |
| Occupation | Deputy Commissioner of Operations in the Baltimore Police department |
| Title | Deputy Commissioner of Operations |
| Portrayed by | John Doman |
| Created by | David Simon |
William Rawls is a fictional Police officer in the Baltimore Police Department played by John Doman on the HBO drama The Wire. Over the course of the series he has ascended to the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Operations. Only brief glimpses have been seen of his personal life, but it has been strongly implied that he is a closet homosexual.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Season 1
Rawls was a Major and commanding officer of homicide in Season 1. He is a careerist, concerned only with maintaining the case clearance record of his unit, and is extremely demanding of his detectives. He was enraged when Detective Jimmy McNulty went around him to Judge Phelan to encourage further investigation of the Barksdale organization. He confronted McNulty about his insubordination and told him he had his attention. Rawls used homicide Det. Santangelo as an inside man in Lieutenant Cedric Daniels' Barksdale detail. Rawls relied upon Sergeant Jay Landsman to handle much of his communication with the men under his command in homicide.
McNulty attempted to placate Rawls by working several old murder cases, most notably the Deidre Kresson case, linking them all to the same gun, and to D'Angelo Barksdale. Rawls was delighted, and wanted to immediately issue a warrant for D'Angelo. When McNulty learned of this, he was dismayed, since arresting D'Angelo was premature and would tip off Avon to their investigation. The detail persuaded Daniels to fight Rawls' push for arrests. Eventually Daniels went over Rawls' head and met with Burrell, convincing him to put the warrants on hold for the time being. This further infuriated Rawls, and he began hounding Santangelo to bring him something he could use against McNulty.
Following the shooting of Detective Kima Greggs in a buy bust gone wrong Rawls became personally involved in the investigation. His first action was to insist that all non-essential personnel, including Greggs' friends in her detail, leave the crime scene. He later spoke to a distraught McNulty and reassured him that he was not ultimately responsible for the shooting but again expressed his hatred for his subordinate. When McNulty convinced Daniels to go around his superiors and try to involve the FBI in the Barksdale case Rawls' got a chance for revenge - he reassigned McNulty to the marine unit after telling him he would like to see him land on his feet and asking where he didn't want to go.
[edit] Season 2
Rawls was promoted to colonel, partly on the basis of McNulty's work on the Barksdale case, but his former detective remained a thorn in his side. When McNulty came across a body on marine patrol, Rawls managed to convince another department that the case belonged to them. McNulty used wind and tide charts to prove that the death occurred in Rawls' jurisdiction. When thirteen dead women were found in a cargo container at the ports, Rawls again tried to avoid responsibility for the investigation, and McNulty again found proof that the deaths fell under Rawls' jurisdiction, earning McNulty a permanent spot on his list of enemies. Rawls had Landsman assign the case to detectives Lester Freamon and Bunk Moreland because he believed they were the best investigators in his squad. He demanded personal reports from his detectives.
When Daniels' detail was re-formed to investigate Frank Sobotka, Rawls eagerly pressured Daniels to take on the responsibility for investigating the fourteen murders. Daniels, hoping to keep his case as simple as possible, initially refused, but was later persuaded to accept by Freamon. In exchange, he extracted a promise from Rawls to give him whatever he needed to solve the murders. When Daniels demanded McNulty, Rawls was ultimately forced to pull McNulty out of marine patrol and return him to Daniels' unit.[1]
The fourteen murder cases proved to be a boon for Rawls, as all of them were solved by Daniels' team at the end of season two.
[edit] Season 3
Rawls was promoted to Deputy Commissioner of Operations when Burrell became Commissioner. They preside over weekly comstat meetings with their district commanders. Rawls is completely ruthless in his pursuit of complete accountability and awareness from his subordinates.
Nothing has been shown of Rawls's personal life, with one exception: he appeared, out of uniform, in the background in a scene which took place in a gay bar.[2]
[edit] Season 4
Rawls was Burrell's first port of call when subpoenas issued by the major crimes unit upset Senator Clay Davis and Mayor Clarence Royce. Rawls suggested that Freamon was the most likely source of the problem and recommended that the unit get proper supervision.[3] Rawls assigned a lieutenant loyal to him named Charlie Marimow to head the unit. Marimow's leadership resulted in an immediate shutdown of the unit's drug-money tracing activities and a return to street level investigations. Rawls preempted a rebellion from Freamon and subdued it by threatening his colleagues and offering him a transfer back to homicide. Rawls also facilitated the move of Greggs from the unit into homicide as a favour to Daniels.
Rawls showed great political acumen when Burrell made the mistake of assigning Greggs a politically significant murder case to slow the investigation down on the Mayor's behalf. He allowed Burrell's plan to go ahead and when it was leaked to the press Burrell fell out of Royce's favour. Rawls appeared loyal but ready to take over in the wake of Burrell's mistake.
Rawls also endeared himself to Tommy Carcetti's campaign. He received word from Lieutenant Hoskins, his insider in the Mayor's office as commander of the mayoral security detail, that Royce had fallen out with State Delegate Odell Watkins. Rawls fed this information to Carcetti so that he could recruit Watkins's support and asked Carcetti to remember him if he was elected. Rawls has become more politically ambitious, wanting the Commissioner title that Burrell holds. Rawls however claims that due to Baltimore's demographics and affirmative action that he realizes he is in the highest possible position in the department he can be in. He states to appease the voters and have a department that is demographically a match to that of the city, an African American police commissioner would have to replace Burrell. Despite being a loyal subordinate, Rawls and Burrell have recently developed a power struggle in the department over who controls the activity in the Department. Rawls however acted only in a manner that was commanded to him by Carcetti who did not think Burrell would change the departmental problems. Burrell became most angered, however, at Rawls allowing the promotion of Cedric Daniels from Major to Colonel at the Mayor's request as Daniels was the most apparent threat within the department to dethroning Burrell as Commissioner.
[edit] Origins
Rawls lack of a sense of humour and distinctive technique for intimidating others is based on real Baltimore CID commander Joe Cooke, although Rawls is far more banal. Simon has also commented that Rawls attitude to the murder rate and his units clearance record is a product of the extreme pressure he is under.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Dan Kois (2004). Everything you were afraid to ask about "The Wire". Salon.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-12.
- ^ Org Chart - The Law. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-22.
- ^ Character profile - Deputy Commissioner William Rawls. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-22.
- ^ David Simon. (2005). 'The Wire "The Target" commentary track [DVD]. HBO.
