Stanislaus Valchek
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| Stanislaus Valchek | |
|---|---|
 |
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| First appearance | "The Buys" (episode 1.03) |
| Last appearance | "–30–" (episode 5.10) |
| Cause/reason | End of series |
| Created by | David Simon |
| Portrayed by | Al Brown |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | Unknown |
| Occupation | Baltimore Police |
| Title | Deputy of Administration |
| Spouse(s) | Kate (wife) |
| Children | Joan Pryzbylewski (daughter) |
| Relatives | Roland Pryzbylewski (son-in-law) |
Stanislaus "Stan" Valchek is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Al Brown. Valchek was former commander of the Southeastern District, home to the remaining white ethnic neighborhoods in Baltimore, and is a political survivor and bureaucratic player of the first order. Backed by Andrew Krawczyk, the politically influential developer who has a stranglehold on the city's valuable waterfront real estate, and an early backer of Councilman Carcetti's run for mayor, Valchek is never above a political maneuver. When his son-in-law Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski needed a new assignment and a fresh start, Valchek palmed him off on the Barksdale unit Cedric Daniels organized. And when union leader Frank Sobotka clashed with Valchek over a petty church matter, Valchek ordered an investigation into the longshoreman to bring him down. While not the most enlightened or competent commander in the department, Valchek's connection to the city's white voting block ensures that his voice will always be heard. Because of his loyalty to Tommy Carcetti, He is promoted to the Deputy Commissioner of Administration in the Baltimore City Police Department despite the dislike Commissioner Burrell and Deputy Ops Rawls share for him.
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[edit] Biography
Valchek is a Polish American, like the majority of the population of the Southeastern district in which he grew up. He keeps well-connected politically and maintains good terms with various Democratic organizations close to City Hall. This savvy led to a quick and easy rise through the ranks. His son-in-law Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski is generally incompetent as a police officer. Despite his dislike for Prez (he claims to have told his daughter not to marry the man), Valchek consistently protected him from punishment for blatant wrongdoing, such as the time Prez shot his own patrol car up and filed a false report about it.
[edit] Season 1
Valchek only appeared once, in a meeting with Deputy Commissioner Burrell and Lieutenant Daniels, trying to smooth over Prez's drunken blinding of an unarmed fourteen-year-old. Valchek told Daniels that if Daniels helped Prez, Valchek would owe him a favor.
[edit] Season 2
Valchek was the impetus behind the investigation into corruption at the docks, due to a petty feud he had with Dockworker Union Treasurer Frank Sobotka. Both men wished to donate stained glass windows to a local church, and Sobotka refused to withdraw his larger, more expensive window which had been installed first. Valchek became curious as to how the destitute union could afford the expensive window. He ordered his subordinates (including Sergeant Ellis Carver) to begin harassing Sobotka and his union, putting parking tickets on their cars and pulling them over for breathalyzer tests directly outside the bar they frequent. The union responded by stealing Valchek's valuable district surveillance van and shipping it from port to port, sending him photographs from each destination.
Valchek discussed the union with a politically connected friend, Andy Krawczyk, who knew of Sobotka making numerous campaign contributions. Valchek smelled the possibility of illegal activity noticing Deputy Commissioner Burrell's nomination for Acting Commissioner. Knowing that Burrell had trouble finding support with the first district council members, Valchek offered Burrell political influence in exchange for a special unit devoted to investigating Sobotka, with Prez as the lead investigator. Burrell had Colonel Rawls send an investigative team from CID to Valchek, all of whom were highly recommended officers that were in actuality dead weight "humps." When Valchek witnessed the task force's lack of work ethic, Valchek demanded a real police detail led by Cedric Daniels as commander (on Prez's recommendation), threatening to derail Burrel's quest to become Commissioner if he did not agree. Burrell obligingly recreated Daniels' task force.
As the investigation expanded, Sobotka ceased to be the primary target, and Valchek grew furious. He confronted Daniels' team publicly, and was punched by his son-in-law. Furious he disowned Prez and threatened to have him removed from the department. Daniels convinced Valchek to accept a suspension and a letter of apology for Prez to keep his post. Valchek also expressed his gratitude to Daniels for keeping Prez as he realized the problems associated with him dating back to the day when he first told his daughter not to marry him.
Valchek went to the FBI to try to refocus the investigation on Frank Sobotka, which prompted a series of raids including Sobotka's arrest. Valchek delighted in personally making the arrest, and held Sobotka in the union offices until a press gaggle had assembled outside so that he could publicly humiliate him. Sobotka was ultimately killed, but the surveillance van was still being shipped around the world.[1]
[edit] Season 3
Valchek set up a meeting between acting Commissioner Burrell and Tommy Carcetti, a city councilman from Valchek's district, knowing that Carcetti was setting up deals behind the back of Mayor Clarence Royce. Royce then pressured Burrell to have the crime rate decrease district by district before re-election. When talking with the other commanders, Valchek claimed he would put more foot patrols in his district's housing projects, use more of his flex squads, request more overtime and cheat the stats if he needed to (turning burglaries into larcenies, and downgrading assault charges amongst other things) in order to reduce the crime in the southeastern district. In the midst, Valchek was surprised and amused hearing remarks from Bunny Colvin the Western District commander who stood up to Deputy Rawls questioning how to "juke the stats" with dead bodies. When talking with the other commanders, Valchek also overheard Colvin suggesting drug legalization to decrease the felonies in his district. Later, Prez accidentally shot a plain clothes officer, and complications by racial issues threatened his job. Although Valchek used all of his influence, and Daniels and several other African American officers were willing to testify (per Valchek's request) that Prez was not racist, Prez chose to leave the department.[2]
[edit] Season 4
Valchek mentored Herc in political maneuvering, after the officer stumbled across Mayor Royce engaged in a sexual act. Based on Valchek's advice, Herc got a promotion to sergeant.
When Tommy Carcetti started running for Mayor, Valchek funnelled him inside information using moles like Jay Landsman, such as the murder of a state's witness named Braddock. When Valchek later leaked that Burrell replaced a veteran detective with a rookie on the Braddock case, the fallout led to the Mayor deciding to replace Burrell as commissioner. Before this can happen, Carcetti is elected Mayor, and Burrell manages to keep his appointed position.
As a reward for loyalty, Carcetti informs Deputy Rawls that Valchek is to be elevated in rank to Deputy Commissioner of Administration. At the promotion ceremony, Valchek's wife and daughter are present while Prez is conspicuously absent. As departmental power shifted, and Carcetti began plotting to oust Burrell, Valchek pointed out to Deputy Commissioner Rawls that newly promoted Colonel Daniels was more likely to be the next Police Commissioner than Rawls, if only because Daniels is African American.[3]
[edit] Season 5
Valchek is shown early in the season leaking the department's real police statistics over the increased crime rate to Mayor Tommy Carcetti. He urges that both Burrell and Rawls should be fired for two straight quarters yielding a 4% increase in violent crime. He also suggests that Carcetti should promote him to Acting Commissioner at least until Cedric Daniels or another African American is named to the permanent post. Carcetti and assistant Norman Wilson both agree that Valchek is unfit to deal with the city council president and minister alliance even on an acting basis but keep the statistics nonetheless. It's later revealed that Valcheck is a prime source for Baltimore Sun reporter Roger Twigg.
Unable to take disciplinary action for a crime increase due to the department's lack of funding, Carcetti decides he will give Burrell a free pass assuming clean statistics are delivered. When Burrell delivers juked stats to the Mayor's office showing no increase or decrease in the crime rate, he is unaware of the crime stats Valchek has leaked to the Mayor. With the clean and juked statistics in his possession, Carcetti has ammunition to fire Burrell and leaks a story to the Baltimore Sun with Cedric Daniels' photograph in an effort to appease the city's African American voters about the consideration for a change of Police Commissioner.
In the series finale, Cedric Daniels is named commissioner but resigns to prevent an FBI case against him from going public. Valchek is then seen accepting the position of Acting Police Commissioner by new mayor Nerese Campbell.
[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 - Major Stanislaus Valchek. HBO (2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-22.
