Ranking Characters Of The Wire: The Streets

The East Baltimore drug kingpin was well connected and incredibly savvy at navigating dangerous situations. Compared to the murderous Stanfield organisation or prideful Barksdale crew, Joe would often instil caution and restraint wherever possible in order to ensure a tentative peace between all the Baltimore crews.

Having an arrangement with the heroin smuggler The Greek, Joe broaches the idea of a deal and alliance with Stringer Bell. This later evolves into the New Day Co-Op, a group instigated by Joe in which the various Baltimore groups enforce a truce to maximise all their profits. Joe's intelligence exceeds his fellow kingpins greatly as he shows he has an eye on the bigger picture rather than focusing on petty squabbles.

The mercurial and manipulative Joe made a fatal error however, when he took the rising Marlo Stanfield under his wing. Joe thought he saw the potential in being Marlo's mentor but the young drug lord chose to murder Joe instead so he could take over the Co-Op. Despite being a heroin kingpin, Joe's death feels a lot more sadder due to his creative and unique ways of peacefully playing the other dealers off of each other.