Police Quotes

I would rather have honesty and character than prestige and wealth. I can walk and ride the streets of this city, hold my head up, and look all men in the face.

They formed up in marching order, whilst at their lead rushed a man … shouting wildly, ‘Fall in and follow me’ …. As the crowd continued to advance an order was given: ‘Draw-Ready-Charge!’ Men in the crowd went down like ninepins, and the rest fled helter skelter. Constables wearing bandoliers filled with bullets and with rifles at the ready were jumping out of caged cars…. Batons were useless and the police were compelled to fire.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced

The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may only resort to force only against those who start the use of force.

The innocent are frequently punished instead of the guilty

I was arrested when I was 19 for inciting a riot.

Law enforcement, however, in defeating the criminal, must maintain inviolate the historic liberties of the individual.

There are always risks in challenging excessive police power, but the risks of not challenging it are more dangerous, even fatal.

...no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.

Racialized oppression and dehumanization is woven into the very fabric of our nation — the effects of which can be seen in the lawful lynching of black and brown people by the police, and the mass incarceration of black and brown lives in the prison industrial complex,

In Mafia states government officials enrich themselves and their families and friends while exploiting the money, muscle, political influence, and global connections of criminal syndicates to cement and expand their own power…Top positions in some of the world’s most profitable illicit enterprises are no longer filled only by professional criminals; they now include senior government officials, legislators, spy chiefs, heads of police departments, military officers, and, in some extreme cases, even heads of state and their families.

I think vigilantism is a pipe dream, because the larger need is for a justice system that works. Now, Batman cannot be Batman without police commissioner Jim Gordon, because every time he catches a villain, he tries to send them to Gordon. So, the idea is to help the justice system to work. I don't think it can work in real life, though.

Everywhere we look we see the encroaching shadow of the police state.

[Referring to gun control:] You've got to protect your legitimate sportsman and hunter, but by God, you've got to protect your police officers too.

If you look at the history of the FBI, it has become effectively America's political police.

So the first task of a police force is not to fight crime and enforce the law. It is to establish legitimacy with the law-abiding citizenry and then fight crime and enforce the law.

When I was director of public prosecutions, from 2008 to 2013, I had a first-rate counter-terrorism team, who worked closely with the police and the security and intelligence services to defeat and disrupt terrorism.

If violent crime is to be curbed, it is only the intended victim who can do it. The felon does not fear the police, and he fears neither judge nor jury. Therefore what he must be taught to fear is his victim.

Every bullet fired from the barrel of a police pistol was my bullet. If you call that murder, then I am the murderer.

A spectre is haunting Europe-the spectre of Communism. All the Powers of old Europe have entered into holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Where is the Party in opposition that has not been decried as Communistic by its opponents in power? Where the Opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?

It is foolish for people to think they can align themselves and be safe in a police state.

I want to say 'I Shot The Police' but the government would have made a fuss so I said 'I Shot The Sheriff' insteadbut it's the same idea: justice.

Without the burden on the police to adhere to the requirements of the 4th Amendment, you loose the dogs.

Learning about crime in great detail forces us to ask ourselves how it happened, how the victims and perpetrators got to that point, how the law works, how the police force functions.

I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.