Cops Quotes

“When I was twelve, my parents had two talks with me.

One was the usual birds and bees. Well, I didn't really get the usual version. My mom, Lisa, is a registered nurse, and she told me what went where, and what didn't need to go here, there, or any damn where till I'm grown. Back then, I doubted anything was going anywhere anyway. While all the other girls sprouted breasts between sixth and seventh grade, my chest was as flat as my back.

The other talk was about what to do if a cop stopped me.

Momma fussed and told Daddy I was too young for that. He argued that I wasn't too young to get arrested or shot.

"Starr-Starr, you do whatever they tell you to do," he said. "Keep your hands visible. Don't make any sudden moves. Only speak when they speak to you."

I knew it must've been serious. Daddy has the biggest mouth of anybody I know, and if he said to be quiet, I needed to be quiet.

I hope somebody had the talk with Khalil.”
― Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give

“But then something happened, Ray, something amazing. Something...

"That white cop sitting next to me? He took a long look at my mother when she came in, just like, absorbed her, and then without even turning to me, he just put his hand on my back, up between my neck and shoulder...

"And all he did was squeeze. Give me a little squeeze of sympathy, then rubbed that same spot with his palm for maybe two, three seconds, and that was it.

"But I swear to you, nobody, in my entire life up to that point had ever touched me with that kind of tenderness. I had never experienced a sympathetic hand like that, and Ray, it felt like lightning.

"I mean, the guy did it without thinking, I'm sure. And when dinnertime rolled around he had probably forgotten all about it. Forgot about me, too, for that matter... But I didn't forget.

"I didn't walk around thinking about it nonstop either, but something like seven years later when I was at community college? The recruiting officer for the PD came on campus for Career Day, and I didn't really like college all that much to begin with, so I took the test for the academy, scored high, quit school and never looked back.

"And usually when I tell people why I became a cop I say because it would keep Butchie and Antoine out of my life, and there's some truth in that.

"But I think the real reason was because that recruiting officer on campus that day reminded me, in some way, you know, conscious or not, of that housing cop who had sat on the bench with me when I was thirteen.

"In fact, I don't think it, I know it. As sure as I'm standing here, I know I became a cop because of him. For him. To be like him. God as my witness, Ray. The man put his hand on my back for three seconds and it rerouted my life for the next twenty-nine years.

"It's the enormity of small things... Adults, grown-ups, us, we have so much power... And sometimes when we find ourselves coming into contact with certain kinds of kids? Needy kids? We have to be ever so careful...”
― Richard Price

“Most people are like sheep. Nice, harmless creatures who want nothing more than to be left alone so they can graze. But then of course there are wolves. Who want nothing more than to eat the sheep.

But there’s a third kind of person. The sheepdog. Sheepdogs have fangs like wolves. But their instinct isn’t predation. It’s protection. All they want, what they live for, is to protect the flock.”
― Barry Eisler, Livia Lone

“When cops are on the job they love lawyers like lions love hyenas, only minus the mutual respect.”
― Reed Farrel Coleman, The James Deans

“Wolf, not dog. You were bitten by a Lycan, not Lassie.”
― Shannan Albright, Dark Passion Rising

“The name Atlantis came from an old book Victoria had never read. A lifetime residency in the ASM paradise was rumored to cost anywhere from 15 to 20 million dollars. The rich and powerful lived under the dome because they considered themselves separate and superior. Few of them left the comfort and security of Atlantis. To them the outside world was weak. Second Sector citizens where miscreant dregs of a defunct society. In order to enter the Atlantian dome one first had to be cleared by a resident. Gate security personnel strictly enforced this rule, even when outsiders carried a badge and gun.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“The cops got out of the car and came straight towards me. My first thought was, How hypocritical… They head straight for the kid all in black…”
― Bella Shadow, Assassin: The Beginning

“I’m sure the ‘I wouldn’t fuck a murder conspirator’ argument wins over many an internal affairs review board. Bring him in. It’ll be in your favor.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“I'm a strict materialist - but the police are brutal materialists.”
― Jack Williamson, Darker Than You Think

“Do you like being a cop?"
"I love it, when it doesn't suck, sir.”
― Edward Conlon, Blue Blood

“Tell them to teach them that when they call you nigger to make a rhyme with trigger it makes the gun backfire”
― Ralph Ellison

“Good cops make their bosses look good, and Hector was a one-man beauty school.”
― Edward Conlon, Blue Blood

“During voir dire, the interviews for jury selection, each person is asked under oath about their experience with the criminal justice system, as defendant or victim, but usually not even the most elementary effort is made to corroborate those claims. One ADA [Associate District Attorney] told me about inheriting a murder case, after the first jury deadlocked. He checked the raps for the jurors and found that four had criminal records. None of those jurors were prosecuted. Nor was it policy to prosecute defense witnesses who were demonstrably lying--by providing false alibis, for example--because, as another ADA told me, if they win the case, they don't bother, and if they lose, "it looks like sour grapes." A cop told me about a brawl at court one day, when he saw court officers tackle a man who tried to escape from the Grand Jury. An undercover was testifying about a buy when the juror recognized him as someone he had sold to. Another cop told me about locking up a woman for buying crack, who begged for a Desk Appearance Ticket, because she had to get back to court, for jury duty--she was the forewoman on a Narcotics case, of course. The worst part about these stories is that when I told them to various ADAs, none were at all surprised; most of those I'd worked with I respected, but the institutionalized expectations were abysmal. They were too used to losing and it showed in how they played the game.”
― Edward Conlon, Blue Blood

“The thing is, I don't even hate cops. To tell you the truth, I actually feel a little sorry for them.”
― Markus Zusak, Fighting Ruben Wolfe

“Baby, you don't need to call the cops to get me in handcuffs. I'll let you do anything you want to me.”
― H.D. Carlton, Haunting Adeline

“Later that day when I passed the Admin lieutenant and the Sargeant standing by the Desk, I said casually, "I'm leaving too, Sarge."
"Okay," he said, and I kept on walking.”
― Edward Conlon, Blue Blood

“I was constantly amazed by how many people talked me into arresting them.”
― Edward Conlon, Blue Blood

“. ‘Because off-duty cops walk around the city wearing sweatshirts advertising they’re cops all the time, never mind it’s a hundred degrees outside. And never mind you look like the youngest cop ever recruited in the history of policing.’
He tsks at me. ‘Have you never seen 21 Jump Street?”
― Sarah Alderson, Out of Control

“A cop is a human creature born stupid and raised in stupidity.”
― Norman Mailer, Tough Guys Don't Dance

“I always thought,' I said, 'that a man became a cop to be shielded from his own criminality.”
― Norman Mailer

“When I had to work Shea Stadium for a Mets-Braves game – Atlanta pitcher John Rocker had recently given an interview in which he denounced New Yorkers of all Colors and preferences – I was assigned to a parking lot, where numerous drivers asked me for directions to various highways. When my first answer – “I have no idea” – seemed to invite denunciation and debate, I revised it to “Take the first left.” For all I know, those people are still lost in Queens. ”
― Edward Conlon, Blue Blood

“We arrived at the police station and they parked and did the whole ‘hassle and grimace’ routine. I inwardly rolled my eyes. I mean really. ‘Hey Bob, looks like you had your hands full today.’ ‘Yeah Bill, she was a murderer; killed a boy.’ Oh geez, gimme a break. I’m fourteen years old and it was an accident. Yes, I’m totally the highlight of the day. I mean, lunatic Joe over there who murdered twelve people and committed burglary so isn’t important.”
― Bella Shadow, Assassin: The Beginning

“I need a favour.’
I raise my eyebrows at him in disbelief. What makes him think I’m about to do him a favour? He’s a stranger. And he’s wearing handcuffs.”
― Sarah Alderson, Out of Control

“tough on crime" prosecutors do not lower crime, and more right-wing states with harsher sentencing policies have higher murder rates.”
― Alec Karakatsanis, Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News

“Copaganda distracts people from the material conditions of our society that both produce and ameliorate crime.”
― Alec Karakatsanis, Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News

“We drove straight to southern Newton for another check. Getting samples was tricky out here because there were even more cops, and just owning a black van was reason enough for a life sentence. I'd had success before, though, just on pure balls. “Yes, officer, I'm Sangamon Taylor with GEE International, we're working on a sanctioned investigation here [whatever that meant] tracking down illegal dumping in the [insert name of town] sewer system. You live in this town, officer? You have children? Noticed any behavioral changes lately, any strange rashes on the abdomen? Good. I'm glad to hear it. Well, it looks like my assistant is just about finished, thanks for your help.”

We had to check three manholes before we made a bingo. Newton had its very own sewer system with its own manholes, which made things confusing. I was forced to deploy the above-mentioned speech while Bart was checking number two. Usually it was hard to convince them that you worked for a real environmental group, but the Zodiac on top of the van, with GEE in orange letters, made it all look plausible. I'd have to remember that trick. Word got out on the radio, and at manhole number three, a cop actually stood there and directed traffic around us while we worked.

Which doesn't necessarily mean we fooled them, but they could see we weren't out to cause trouble, and things went a lot more smoothly when they stood there with their flashing lights. And that's mainly what a cop wants: things to go smoothly.”
― Neal Stephenson, Zodiac

“-Signor Valier, cosa significa essere uno sbirro?- chiese, tetro.
La domanda era arrivata solo con qualche minuto di ritardo.
-Esserlo anche quando non ti piace- risposi.”
― Paolo Lanzotti, La voce delle ombre

“Rapes on the reservations are a big scandal. The victims are mostly full-blood girls, too shy and afraid to complain. A few years back the favorite sport of white state troopers and cops was to arrest young Indian girls on a drunk-and disorderly, even if the girls were sober, take them to the drunk tanks in their jails, and there rape them. Sometimes they took the girls in their squad cars out into the prairie to "show you what a white man can do. I'm really doin' you a favor, kid." After they had done with them, they often kicked the girls out of their cars and drove off. Then the girl who had been raped had to walk five or ten miles home on top of everything else. Indian girls accusing white cops are seldom taken seriously in South Dakota. "You know how they are," the courts are told, "they're always asking for it.”
― Mary Crow Dog, Lakota Woman

“There was no such character as “the kindly cop on the beat” in New York in those days. The cops were sworn enemies. By the same token we, the street kids, were the biggest source of trouble for the police. Individually and in gangs we accounted for most of the petty thievery and destruction of property on the upper East Side. And since we couldn’t afford to pay off the cops in the proper, respectable Tammany manner, they hounded us, harassed us, chased us, and every chance they got, happily beat the hell out of us.
One way, the only way, that all of us kids stuck together regardless of nationality was in our cop-warning system. Much as I loathed and feared the Mickie gang or the Bohunk gang, I’d never hesitate to give them the high-sign if I spotted a copper headed their way. They’d do the same for me and the other 93rd Streeters.
The cops had their system, too. If a patrolman came upon a gang fight or a front-stoop crap game and needed reinforcements in a hurry, he’d bang his nightstick on the curb. This made a sharp whoinnng that could be heard by cops on other beats throughout the precinct, and they’d come a-running from all directions, closing in a net around the point the warning came from.
In my time I was grabbed, nabbed, chewed out and shin-whacked by the cops, but never arrested. This may sound miraculous, considering all the kinds of trouble I was able to get into, but it wasn’t. My Uncle Sam the auctioneer, don’t forget, was a wheel in Tammany Hall. Nephews of men in the Organization did not get arrested.
For another thing, the cops went mostly for the gangs, the most conspicuous targets, and I was not a gang boy. I was a lone wolf. This made me, in turn, more conspicuous to the gangs. Gang boys couldn’t tolerate loners. They called me a “queer” and worse. Today, I guess, a kid like me would get all kinds of special attention from the authorities. They’d call me an “antisocial nonconformist”-and worse.”
― Harpo Marx, Harpo Speaks!

“The cops could invent all kinds of trouble to get you into.”
― Harpo Marx, Harpo Speaks!