| Cedric Daniels |
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Cedric Daniels is a fictional police Colonel for the Baltimore Police Department, played by Lance Reddick on the HBO drama The Wire . He is a well regarded officer in the department whose focus is on good police work and quality arrests. He tends to have disagreements with some of the higher ranking officers at times but for the most part pulls through completing the task at hand gaining both a good reputation as a commander and investigator within the department. BIOGRAPHY Season 1 Daniels was a narcotics lieutenant in season one and shift commander for Detectives Kima Greggs , Ellis Carver and Thomas "Herc" Hauk . Daniels' commanding officer was Major Raymond Foerster . When Detective McNulty prompted Judge Phelan to start asking questions about the Barksdale drug dealing organization Major Foerster came to Daniels for more information. He wasn't able to offer much as the narcotics division were unaware of Barksdale. He had Greggs write a report and soon after Daniels was given command of the Barksdale Detail. He nominated Greggs as lead detective and described her as the best he had to Foerster. He met with Deputy Commissioner Burrell who told him the case should be made with buy busts in a fast, straightforward investigation. Daniels discussed his new assignment with his ambitious wife, Marla . They worried that it might slow his progression and he promised that he would run the investigation that his superior wanted. Marla's own ambitions drove her to pursue a career in politics and Daniels attended political fundraisers with his wife. At one such function he found himself hiding with the politicians drivers in the kitchen. He met Senator Clay Davis' driver Day-Day who was obviously involved with Baltimore's criminal element. Daniels has a difficult relationship with the insubordinate McNulty that began at their first meeting. Foerster warned Daniels that McNulty was responsible for Phelan's sudden interest. For his part McNulty was warned by his partner Bunk Moreland that Daniels was a career officer and next in line for his own division as soon as a position with a Major's rank opened up. McNulty's FBI contact also alerted him that Daniels had several hundred thousand dollars of questionable Liquid Asset s; it is later implied that these were picked up during Daniels' tenure in the poorly-supervised Eastern district. Daniels initially tried to follow Burrell's advice that the operation should be fast and simple. He shot down McNulty's suggestions of a surveillance operation at their first meeting. Daniels also had difficulties with several other detectives on the detail. He was initially assigned detectives that other districts wanted to remove. Augustus Polk , Patrick Mahone and Lester Freamon appeared to be ageing detectives happy to see out their careers. Mahone was injured in a raid and took early retirement; following this his partner Polk took to drinking more heavily and missed several days work. Daniels insisted that Polk either clean himself up or sign off sick, Polk opted for the latter. Freamon was a different story and proved to be quietly capable and a huge asset to Daniels detail. Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski was a trigger happy detective who had once shot up his own patrol car when he joined Daniels' detail. Daniels was able to convince Prez's commanding officer, Lieutenant Cantrell, to balance taking the difficult officer out of his hands by assigning him Leander Sydnor , a promising young detective. Prez continued his self destructive behaviour conducting an unsanctioned, drunken late night raid on the Barksdale tower operations with Daniels' long standing men Herc and Carver. Prez injured a young boy and Daniels was left to deal with the consequences. He stood by Prez despite his history of problems and defended him to his superiors. In the process he gained the respect of Prez's father-in-law, Major Valchek . Under Daniels supervision and Freamon's tutelage Prez developed into an effective investigator. Sydnor was also a valuable asset to the Daniels' detail performing undercover work and gelling well with the dependable Freamon. Herc and Carver continued to be problematic for Daniels. He suspected them of stealing seized money when the cash they turned into evidence did not match a reported amount. He remained loyal to his men, leniently giving them one day to return it rather than turning them in immediately. As the investigation progressed Daniels' attitude towards the case changed. He risked his career several times in order to protect the case. When Major Rawls wanted to issue a murder warrant for D'Angelo Barksdale based on flimsy evidence, the Barksdale detail was dismayed, since arresting D'Angelo would tip off Avon to the investigation. McNulty and Greggs pleaded with Daniels to fight for their case. Daniels appealed to Rawls and then to Foerster to hold off on arresting D'Angelo, without success. Finally he bypassed the chain of command and met directly with Burrell and an angry Rawls. After a heated argument, Daniels managed to persuade the deputy commissioner to delay the warrants. Later Freamon began to investigate the Barksdale's money trail and found campaign contributions to Baltimore political figures. Daniels team arrested his acquaintance, Day-Day the senator's driver, collecting cash from the Barksdale crew. Rather than seizing the money Daniels' superiors forced him to return the money with no further investigation to avoid the senator's ire. When Burrell, in order to shut the case down, threatened to reveal the source of Daniels' liquid assets Daniels responded by threatening to reveal unspecified dirty information about Burrell. Burrell used Detective Carver to provide him with inside information. Daniels recognised Carver's betrayal. Over the course of the investigation Daniels worked closely with Assistant State's Attorney Rhonda Pearlman . She was instrumental in using her judicial connections to provide Daniels with the warrants and affidavits needed for his teams surveillance efforts. The Barksdale investigation ended with the arrest of leader Avon Barksdale and his nephew D'Angelo along with soldier Wee-Bey Brice and several other members of the organization. Convictions were secured against all three and Wee-Bey confessed to several unsolved homicides to prevent fallout reaching other members of the organization. The result was unsatisfying for Daniels because Avon Barksdale's conviction was for minor offences and second-in-command Stringer Bell escaped uncharged to continue the organization's drug trade. Much better results were within Daniels' grasp when his team convinced D'Angelo to testify against the Barksdale organization, however, D'Angelo's mother Brianna talked him out of this course and he ended up taking a twenty year sentence for his family. Daniels' work on the Barksdale case certainly hurt his career; at the end of the first season, he is seen exchanging pleasantries with a newly-minted major, a position that he had been on the fast track for. However, he has won the respect of his unit for a dedication to their cases which surpasses that of their other commanding officers. Season 2 Daniels was reassigned to the evidence division following the dissolution of the Barksdale detail. He was given the post as punishment for defying Burrell, despite the investigation producing several arrests. Trapped in what seemed to be a dead-end job, Daniels planned to leave the department and become a lawyer. He was given a second chance when Major Valchek insisted (on Prez's recommendation) that Daniels be given command of a special detail he had requested to investigate union leader Frank Sobotka . Daniels realised Valchek had asked for him personally in exchange for offering Burrell political support and used this fact to leverage several promises from Burrell. Daniels stood his ground even though Burrell had the DEA file on Daniels unexplained income. Daniels later confided to his wife that Burrell "knew" confirming that the allegations against Daniels were correct. Daniels insisted on picking his own detectives this time and forced Burrell to agree that if the investigation was successful then Daniels would become commander of a permanent unit. Daniels detail initially consisted of Prez, Greggs and Herc. Rhonda Pearlman again acted as Daniels' courthouse liaison. Daniels allowed Carver the chance to rejoin the team despite his previous treachery. Daniels told Carver he believed that after his previous actions Carver would be the last to betray him again, but insisted that Carver's promotion to sergeant would be in name only as he felt he had not earned his stripes. Daniels campaigned for McNulty to rejoin the team but was denied by a vengeful Colonel Rawls, McNulty's old commander. Daniels did convince Rawls to let him have Freamon, who had been assigned to homicide after the Barksdale detail. Sydnor had returned to his district and could not be detailed. Daniels' detail worked closely with Bunk Moreland who was investigating multiple homicides at the docks and Officer Beatrice Russell who was detailed to Bunk's investigation from the Port authority. Russell blossomed into a capable investigator with Daniels team and was instrumental in coming up with the idea of cloning the ports computers to monitor smuggling. Daniels finally persuaded Rawls to let McNulty return by agreeing to take on Rawls' murders from the docks. The investigation progressed and the detail linked Sobotka's union to a smuggling operation run by a mysterious figure called "The Greek" , Sobotka's nephew Nick was proven to be involved in drug dealing and Sobtoka's son Ziggy was arrested for a homicide during the investigation. Ziggy killed George "Double G" Glekas in a warehouse involved in the Greek's smuggling. Daniels detail was not informed of Ziggy's arrest and this gave The Greeks time to clear out the warehouse. Valchek became disillusioned with Daniels when he learned that the focus was shifting away from Sobotka onto "The Greek" and he involved the FBI. Valchek insulted the detail and Prez in a heated meeting and Daniels was forced to once again defend Prez after he punched Valchek. Daniels quickly collected statements from all the officers and agents present and successfully convinced Valchek it would be best to accept an apology from Prez.
Season 3 Daniels success in the Sobotka investigation meant that Burrell had to honour his promise to let Daniels form a permanent Major Case Unit. His Unit initially consisted of Detectives McNulty, Greggs, Freamon, Sydnor and a new officer named Caroline Massey . The detail returned to investigating the Barksdale organization and their association with Proposition Joe , an East side drug kingpin with links to "The Greek" from the Sobotka investigation. Daniels separated from his wife, Marla, partly because of her dissatisfaction at his failure to progress in the Police Department. He found that her attempt to enter politics after their separation further hindered his climb through the ranks, as she was running in opposition to a close ally of the mayor's. Nonetheless he continued to support her through her political career, attending functions in uniform and acting the part of a devoted husband. After his separation from his wife, Daniels briefly was living in the detail office, then after moving into a bachelor apartment started a relationship with Rhonda Pearlman . Cedric remains skeptical about making the relationship between him and Pearlman public as he is still appearing as Marla's husband in order to help promote her bid for city council. Daniels claims that it will look bad for Marla's political career for him to be seen separated from her with a white woman.
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| Year | 2004 |
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| Title | Character profile - Lieutenant Cedric Daniels |
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| Publisher | HBO |
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| Accessdate | 2006-07-22 |
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| Url | http://wwwhbocom/thewire/cast/characters/cedric_danielsshtml |
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