Bunk Moreland

From The Wire

William Moreland
Bunk Moreland
First appearance	"The Target" (episode 1.01)
Last appearance	"–30–" (episode)
Details
Nickname(s)	Bunk
Gender	Male
Occupation	Detective in the Baltimore Police Department Homicide Unit
Spouse	Nadine
Children	Three
Episode Count	60 credited episodes 54 appearances
Portrayed by	Wendell Pierce

William "Bunk" Moreland is a veteran homicide detective.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Policing Method 1.2 Season one 1.3 Season two 1.4 Season three 1.5 Season four 1.6 Favorite quotes 2 Production 2.1 Origins 2.2 Appearances 3 References

[edit] Biography

Dressing in pinstripes and smoking cigars, Bunk is usually the very picture of a genial epicure. Originally from Edmondson High School in West Baltimore, he lives in Randallstown, MD, a predominantly black suburb of Baltimore, with a wife Nadine and three children (one of whom aspires to be a Chief of Police as mentioned in Season 4). It is unclear when Bunk joined the force, but it can be assumed that he joined in the 1980s due to his age.

Though he is known for making sarcastic remarks during an investigation, and for frequently being hungover at work, Bunk is one of the Homicide unit's veterans and best detectives. He was Jimmy McNulty's long-time partner in Homicide, and the two have remained frequent drinking buddies after McNulty was transferred out. Unlike McNulty, he is loyal to the chain of command in the department and is never insubordinate, but he shares McNulty's penchant for infidelity and alcohol (Bunk is smart enough though not to get caught and develop legal issues unlike McNulty). Sometimes they drink competitively with the loser paying the bar tab.

Throughout the series, he is seen investigating deaths that are related in some way to Major Case unit cases, and keeps an eye on stick-up man Omar Little.

[edit] Policing Method

Bunk's investigative style is based upon psychology and manipulation as he is both a good interrogator and a cop who can tell whole stories about a crime scene from both a glance or a stray word. Like Kima Greggs, Bunk believes "a police is only as good as his informants" and uses this method to attempt to connect the murder of 13 Jane Does to various dock workers in Season 2. Bunk is shown having a thorough understanding of homicide scenes and consistently clears more cases than any other detective in Sgt. Landsman's squad. Bunk is committed to the department as an investigator but not in frivolous tasks as he is shown with an uncommitted attitude to the task of recovering a lost firearm of a fellow officer in Season 3. Bunk is generally an ethical detective but is shown coming to work hungover and seems to condone the beating of criminal suspects by other police officers. This was best seen with Barksdale solider Bird and the shooter of officer Kenneth Dozerman. Because of Bunk's effective investigative strategies and his subordinate attitude, Bunk has found a permanent home in the Baltimore Police's Homicide Unit, the unit which requires the department's most effective detectives.

[edit] Season one

Bunk served as McNulty's lone ally in the homicide unit, keeping him apprised of the happenings there while chiding him for getting involved in the Barksdale case. He is also the primary investigator for the murder of William Gant, who had testified against D'Angelo Barksdale. Omar Little informed him that the shooter is a Barksdale soldier called Bird, and agreed to testify against him in court. Because of this, Bunk persuaded his colleague Detective Cole not to arrest Omar for the murder of Stinkum. When Omar was at the police department, Bunk discovered that they had gone to the same high school, beginning an on-going association between the two.

After one particularly heavy night of drinking, McNulty had to pick Bunk up from a random woman's house. Bunk had locked himself in her bathroom and burned his clothing so that his wife would be unable to find trace evidence of him having slept with another woman.

At Landsman's insistence, Bunk and McNulty reviewed the old Deirdre Kresson murder, which ultimately turned out to be related to the Barksdales, and was solved as part of the final arrests of D'Angelo Barksdale and Wee-Bey Brice.

[edit] Season two

Bunk was partnered with Lester Freamon in Homicide, and they were quickly recognised as the squad's best detectives. This reputation led Landsman to assign them the investigation into the deaths of fourteen Jane Does in a box on the docks, a seemingly impossible case. They were detailed Officer Beadie Russell from the Port Authority, who initially found the bodies. The girls suffocated after the air pipe was deliberately closed off (other than one girl who was murdered and thrown overboard on the previous night).

Bunk and Freamon tracked down the ship which carried the package, and held the ship in port in Philadelphia to question the crew. None of the crew would admit to speaking English, and they let the ship go after learning that two crewman had jumped ship after Baltimore. Based on the few sparse facts they knew, Bunk and Freamon deduced (correctly) that the women were prostitutes being smuggled in from overseas, that one of the girls was murdered by a sailor after refusing sex, and the rest were killed for witnessing the crime. The murderer is one of those who fled, so the investigation is at an impasse, and Bunk and Freamon came under heavy criticism from a frustrated Colonel Rawls for releasing the ship without getting statements.

Bunk also worried about the William Gant murder; state's attorney Ilene Nathan threatened to drop the charges if the police were unable to find the key witness, Omar Little. Bunk repeatedly reminded McNulty of this, and eventually McNulty was able to find Omar, with the help of Bubbles. Omar testified quite successfully, and Bird was locked away for a maximum term.

Later, Bunk and Russell returned to the port in Philadelphia and found video evidence implicating Sergei, whose testimony led to the solving of the Jane Doe murders, as well as aiding the Major Case unit's investigation into Frank Sobotka.

[edit] Season three

When the city deals with five homicides in one night, Bunk had to leave his son with McNulty at an Orioles game to investigate one of them. He quickly recognized the scene of Omar Little's drug robberies, and (wrongly) believes one of the victims to be an innocent taxpayer. He became incensed, and obsessed over her death, continuing to investigate it even after his superior officers Landsman, Colonel Raymond Foerster and Rawls ordered him to find the stolen weapon of Officer Kenneth Dozerman, who was nearly killed in a failed drug bust led by Sergeant Ellis Carver. They all considered the weapon's recovery to be a top priority, though he thought it was a frivolous use of his abilities.

Bunk met with Omar, confronting him about the "innocent" victim. Omar informed him that she was part of his crew, and states that he would never kill an innocent person. As Omar states no one will talk to Bunk about the murder and she died in the game, Bunk is able to guilt him about his negative influence on the world due to the collapse of their old West Baltimore neighborhood. Bunk sickenly states that predators like Omar are all that still exist in their old neighborhood which was once a community despite the hardships existent in the neighborhood.^[1] As a way of assuaging this guilt, Omar found Dozerman's gun and returned it to Bunk.

Bunk was also one of the investigators of Stringer Bell's murder, during which Bunk used the acronym "BNBG" - Big Negro, Big Gun - to sum-up witness Andy Krawczyk's stereotypical description of the murderer. ^[2] Bunk realized Omar was the shooter but did not conclude the case. After the investigation, he told McNulty the city's homicide rate would probably reach 300 by new years noticing how McNulty had slowed down on his consumption of alcohol.

[edit] Season four

Bunk investigated the murder of Fruit, one of Marlo Stanfield's drug dealers. He was unable to find his main suspect, Curtis "Lex" Anderson, and it became clear that Lex was murdered, but no leads were forthcoming. At the same time, Bunk was surprised at McNulty's seemingly successful attempts to get his life back on track.

Omar Little contacted Bunk after Chris Partlow framed him for murdering an innocent woman in a convenience store robbery. Bunk initially ignored him, reasoning that Omar was guilty of several other unproven murders (including Stringer Bell), but Omar appealed to his sense of honor. He tracked down new evidence proving that Omar's witness Old Face Andre lied, leading to Omar's release. In exchange, Bunk extracted a promise from him to never kill again.

Freamon transferred back to Homicide, and the two were partnered again. Freamon managed to find Lex's body and, in the process, more than twenty other bodies, all of which are linked to Marlo Stanfield after Bunk gets key testimony from Lex's mother.

[edit] Favorite quotes

Throughout the series the character of Bunk is known for the following statements:

• "You happy now, bitch?" is a line repeated towards fellow officer Jimmy McNulty.

• "BNBG", an old acronym for an unknown shooter in the Baltimore Homicide Unit which stands for "Big Negro Big Gun."

Bunk also has a tendency towards making unusual and humorous statements when he is heavily intoxicated.

[edit] Production

[edit] Origins

Bunk is based on a retired Baltimore City Police Detective named Rick Requer, an African American officer who joined the force in 1964 as a Western District patrolman who eventually moved into the Homicide Division.^[3]

[edit] Appearances

Season one appearances
The Target	The Detail	The Buys	Old Cases	The Pager
The Wire	One Arrest	Lessons	Game Day	The Cost
The Hunt	Cleaning Up	Sentencing

Season two appearances
Ebb Tide	Collateral Damage	Hot Shots	Hard Cases	Undertow
All Prologue	Backwash	Duck and Cover	Stray Rounds	Storm Warnings
Bad Dreams	Port in a Storm

Season three appearances
Time After Time	All Due Respect	Dead Soldiers	Amsterdam	Straight and True
Homecoming	Back Burners	Moral Midgetry	Slapstick	Reformation
Middle Ground	Mission Accomplished

Season four appearances
Boys of Summer	Soft Eyes	Home Rooms	Refugees	Alliances
Margin of Error	Unto Others	Corner Boys	Know Your Place	Misgivings
A New Day	That's Got His Own	Final Grades

Season five appearances
More with Less	Unconfirmed Reports	Not for Attribution	Transitions	React Quotes
The Dickensian Aspect	Took	Clarifications	Late Editions	–30–

[edit] References