Stretch


 * "Oh, no, no, show some respect here, n****. The man they couldn't hold down is back. Come on, now."
 * ―Stretch to Franklin Clinton in the mission The Long Stretch

Harold Joseph, better known as "Stretch", is a character in the Grand Theft Auto series, who appears as a main character and the tertiary antagonist of Grand Theft Auto V.

Stretch was a senior member of the Chamberlain Gangsters Families and a former friend of Franklin Clinton and Lamar Davis.

Background
Harold Joseph was born in Los Santos and joined the Chamberlain Gangsters Families at a young age. He eventually worked his way up through the ranks and became a senior and respected veteran "OG" member within the gang, also earning his nickname "Stretch". He also became friends with up-and-coming members Lamar Davis and Franklin Clinton. However, Franklin developed an antagonistic relationship with Stretch, presumably due to his reckless and selfish behavior. Lamar, however, idolized Stretch from a young age.

At some point prior to 2013, Stretch was arrested and taken to prison for an unknown crime that he presumably committed for the CGF.

Renatta Sidwell posts a message on his Lifeinvader after his release from prison critical that he hasn't been to visit her or "the little one", implying he is shirking his paternal responsibility.

Personality
From his appearances, Stretch is shown to be an extremely murderous, violent, brutal, bloodthirsty, sadistic, selfish, reckless, cold-blooded and trigger-happy gangster, who for some reason, shows a very strong mutual dislike towards fellow gangster Franklin Clinton and the two frequently argue, leaving Lamar to pick a side, however most of the times Lamar tries to stay neutral to their conflict and tries to resolve their issues.

The possible reason for Franklin's dislike of Stretch could be due to Stretch trying to pull Franklin into the life that put him in jail in the first place, and also due to Stretch's selfish personality and his routine gangbanging life, while Stretch appears to dislike Franklin due to his attempts to leave the hood and make something real for himself as well as for skepticisms and his doubts about the deals they make and that Lamar and Stretch should also leave the hood and get some jobs which won't get them killed in the process.

He appears to have a very short temper, assaulting Franklin for poking fun at him for "dropping the soap" in prison, and is also very merciless as shown when he immediately, and without hesitation, shoots an unarmed D twice in the face when he discovered that he had betrayed them.

In spite of his recklessness, Stretch is also very deceitful and manipulative, as shown when he secretly defected from the Families to the Ballas in prison, feigned loyalty to the Families while he was actually a traitor (unbeknownst to most) and several times used his influence on Lamar to manipulate him and try to make him think that Franklin is a snitch and to make deals with the Ballas which are actually set-ups for Franklin and Lamar to be killed. After the shootout at the scrapyard in The Long Stretch, he pins the blame on Franklin and Lamar for killing D and the Ballas, even though he too participated in the shootout and was the one who shot D to start with.

Appearance
Stretch is a short, bulky man with numerous tattoos covering his body. He wears usual CGF clothes including a white T-shirt, blue shorts, a green hat and a silver chain. He has no hair at all.