Malik "Poot" Carr is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by actor Tray Chaney. Poot is a drug dealer in the Barksdale Organization who slowly rises through the ranks, but ends up serving time in prison as his institution collapses around him. His time in prison proves to be short, however, and he rejoins his old partners on the drug corners shortly after his release. Eventually, due to the violent nature of the drug trade and the loss of many friends, Poot "outgrows" the lifestyle and pursues a legitimate profession. He has the distinction, along with Wee-Bey Brice and Proposition Joe Stewart, of being the only characters in the drug trade to appear in every season.

Of the seventeen front-line Barksdale Organization gang members to feature in Season One to Season Three, twelve die during the course of the show and three more are imprisoned with long sentences. Poot in many ways is the "sole survivor," and the foil to the heavy casualties suffered particularly by Barksdale's organisation. This is despite the fact that he survives being shot at three times, more times than any other character except Omar Little. He distinguishes himself from the other remaining survivor, Slim Charles, as the only one able to move away from drug trade after the organization's collapse.

Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. (born March 6, 1936) is an American Democratic politician who is currently serving as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, representing DC's Ward 8. Barry served as the second elected mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995 to 1999. In addition to his current term, Barry also served two other tenures on the D.C. Council, as an At-Large member from 1975–79, and as Ward 8 representative from 1992–95. In the 1960s he was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, serving as the first president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Barry came to national prominence as mayor of the national capital, the first prominent civil-rights activist to become chief executive of a major American city; he gave the presidential nomination speech for Jesse Jackson at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. His celebrity transformed into international notoriety in January 1990, when Barry was videotaped smoking crack cocaine and arrested by FBI officials on drug charges. The arrest and subsequent trial precluded Barry seeking re-election, and Barry served six months in a federal prison. After his release, however, he was elected to the D.C. city council in 1992 and ultimately returned to the mayoralty in 1994, serving from 1995 to 1999.