Al Giardello

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Alphonse Michael Giardello Sr. is a fictional character from the television drama Homicide: Life on the Street. The character was played by Yaphet Kotto. He is based on two Baltimore Police Department Detectives; Roger Nolan and Gary D'Addario. Detective Sergeant Nolan and Shift Lieutenant D'Addario were real members of the BPD homicide unit described in David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets which served as the inspiration for the series as a whole.

[edit] Biography

Al Giardello — generally called "Gee" — is the shift commander of the Homicide unit followed by the series. His rank is lieutenant for most of the series, as his hopes of advancement are usually dashed by political arrangements of those above him. He is introduced early in the series as a widower of mixed Sicilian American and African American heritage. He originates from Southeast Baltimore where his father was from Baltimore's Little Italy and his mother was from a neighboring housing project known as the Perkins Homes. He played three sports and was Prom King when he was in high school. He takes a degree of pride in both heritages speaking near fluent Italian and fraternizing with many of the BPD's African American and Italian American officers alike. According to the episodes "Black and Blue" and "Narcissus", he began his career in the department in 1968.

[edit] Family

Gee is introduced as a widower whose wife has been dead for more than 7 years prior to the first season. According to the episode "La Famiglia" he has three children- two daughters, Teresa and Charisse, and a son, Michael (who is referred to as Al Jr. by Charisse). He has one grandchild by his daughter Charisse. He also expresses missing his late wife in several episodes of the first four seasons as well as his devoted, if on occasion strained, relationship with his children. In Season 4, Gee delays his flight out of Baltimore for a daughter's wedding for so long that by the time he does get to BWI, the weather has made it impossible for him to fly to the event in San Francisco, and he is left devastated. In the seventh season, Gee's son FBI Agent Mike Giardello comes to Baltimore from Arizona and considers leaving the FBI to join the Baltimore Police Department. In the final episode, Teresa and Mike appear at his promotion to Captain, but Gee turns down the promotion.

[edit] As Commander

Gee is generally supportive of his detectives and usually places their success or welfare over the desires of those above him. An early example of this concerned his discovery that his superiors were hiding the fact they were removing asbestos from the squad building. That being said, he can express rage at his detectives that borders on fury and at times felt it necessary to force a detective to apologize to "the bosses" for the good of the squad. Curiously, at his angriest, Gee expresses a kind of whimsical and "bubbly" attitude, but one that comes with threats or hints of menace. Gee is also in many respects "old school"; at times he expresses nostalgia for the Baltimore of his youth. Although he is critical of the abuses he endured in his early days on the police force, he expresses a grudging respect for what he feels the harder approach accomplished, including the fact that in the old days, cop-killers would not survive to face juries and trials. In an episode named 'Black and Blue,' he disagreed with Detective Frank Pembleton's suspicion that a cop had committed a shooting, and implied that loyalty to other cops is above loyalty to the citizenry, including the African-American citizenry. This was relevant, as the shooting occurred in a mostly black neighborhood and had become a racially-charged issue. Giardello tends to allow his detectives to investigate murders in a manner that is more efficient but less discrete, very much unlike the preferred methods instructed by the department's upper command. Gee's command style allows for cases to be cleared and allows his subordinates a form of investigative freedom which may result in more negative press for the department than what the upper command wishes for.

Gee's leadership style and earned respect from his detectives mirrored the real-life dynamic with Lt. Gary D'Addario.

[edit] Relationship with Bosses

The show presents his fighting against "the bosses" as a substantial part of his initial failures at advancement. Giardello is considered to be a renegade commander and a thorn in the bosses' side due to his tendency to alert the media about investigations and command his officers to perform in a way that while effective, is not representative of the department's overall values and objectives. Early in the series, Giardello finds conflict with Colonel George Barnfather, a college-educated bureaucrat who is less experienced on the street and is more interested in appeasing those who outrank him. Barnfather eventually grows to work with Giardello, however, following the African Revival Movement fallout. Giardello finds most of his trouble throughout the department with Deputy Commissioner James C. Harris. At one point in Giardello's career, Harris proved to be a useful ally whom Gee could turn to, that relationship, however, deteriorates with Gee's growing acts of command-oriented rebellion. As Gee allows Detective Frank Pembleton to compromise a scandal involving congressman Jeremy Wade resulting in a lost election, Harris seeks retaliation. To punish Gee for the lost election, Harris purposefully promotes an incompetent and bigoted officer named Roger Gaffney to a captain's position that Gee had earned and expected. As Gaffney is a "fat Irish ass" very much like Gee's racist training partner Mickey Shea, Harris sends Gee a reminder that his days in the BPD will be subject to dealing with contempt from the department's upper command. Gee, however, gets the last word on Harris following the fallout with the African Revival Movement, in which Harris' one-time partner Burundi Robinson provides Gee with incriminating information damaging to Harris' career. Following Harris' departure, Gee eventually is offered a captain's position, which he eventually declines as it is not within the department's Homicide Unit.

[edit] Experiences with racism

As Giardello joined the BPD in 1968 during a racially turbulent era, he was subject to racism at the hands of a predominantly White police department in a largely African American city. One of Gee's first experiences on the force dealt with the Baltimore riot of 1968, which occurred in response to the assassination of African American leader Martin Luther King Jr. According to Gee's childhood associate Felix Wilson, there were few Black policemen in Baltimore when he and Gee were growing up. Gee experienced racism first-hand at the orders of his training officer Mickey Shea, an Irish officer who had forced a young Giardello to ride in the back of the patrol car. Shea according to Giardello was "unwilling to share the front seat of his car with a nigger" and provoked Gee to assault him as a means of getting kicked off the force. Gee had also been held back by other African Americans both professionally and socially. Within the BPD, Gee is repeatedly passed over for promotion to captain by African American commanders Deputy Commissioner James Harris and Colonel George Barnfather for White officers Megan Russert and Roger Gaffney (whom Harris promoted due to his resemblance to Mickey Shea), both of whom are less experienced and less competent. Outside of work, Gee claims that African American women have discriminated against him romantically on the basis of colorism because his appearance was "too black" (It is also noteworthy that Gee's African American supervisors are of a much lighter complexion than him and may hence practice similar discrimination). ^[1] It is also stated by his son Michael that Gee was one of the department's first Black Lieutenants (Michael says he was the first, but Gee is ranked by Black officers such as Harris and Barnfather who most likely made rank before him). Despite the various racial setbacks, Gee nevertheless advances in the department managing to find comradery amongst many of the department's officers while maintaining a supportive attitude of Baltimore's majority African American community.

[edit] The Movie

In the movie, Gee runs for mayor on a platform in favor of drug legalization and builds a considerable lead in the polls. The events of the film lead to his assassination. ^[2] After briefly regaining consciousness in hospital and having one last talk with his son Mike, Gee succumbs to a brain embolism and dies. He subsequently finds himself in a purgatorial version of the homicide offices, where he briefly meets the spirit of Adeena Watson before sitting down to play cards with fellow officers Steve Crosetti and Beau Felton while they wait for the next "arrival".

[edit] References