They put spotlights on me standing there in the road in jeans and workclothes, with the big woeful rucksack a-back, and asked:-Where are you going? which is precisely what they asked me a year later under Television floodlights in New York, Where are you going?-Just as you cant explain to the police, you cant explain to society Looking for peace.

... A state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopolyof the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.

A primary purpose of the police is to enforce the delusions of those with lots of green paper.

The police can use violence to say, expel citizens from a public park because they are enforcing duly constituted laws. Laws gain their legitimacy from the Constitution. The Constitution gains its legitimacy from something called 'the people.' But how did 'the people' actually grant legitimacy to the Constitution? As the American and French revolutions make clear: basically, through acts of illegal violence. So what gives the police the right to use force to suppress the very thing–a popular uprising–that granted them their right to use force to begin with?

There is something about the state putting the power to bully into the hands of subnormal, sadistic apes that makes my blood boil.

Police business is a hell of a problem. It's a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there's nothing in it to attract the highest type of men. So we have to work with what we get...

Responsibility I believe accrues through privilege. People like you and me have an unbelievable amount of privilege and therefore we have a huge amount of responsibility. We live in free societies where we are not afraid of the police; we have extraordinary wealth available to us by global standards. If you have those things, then you have the kind of responsibility that a person does not have if he or she is slaving seventy hours a week to put food on the table; a responsibility at the very least to inform yourself about power. Beyond that, it is a question of whether you believe in moral certainties or not.

They found records and video-cassettes at their place, a deck of cards, a chess set. In other words, everything that's banned.

I know it's become fashionable to depict the police as sadistic Cossacks riding down innocent citizens, but I've become well enough acquainted with law-enforcement agencies across the country to know that's just not the case. Of course, a certain small percentage of policemen are irresponsible...but that doesn't justify the current unjust barrage of propaganda against a tribe of men who are hard-working, underpaid and daily risking their lives to protect us. I'm sure there are isolated instances of police brutality, but the rising crime rate and urban violence constitute a far, far more pressing problem.

If you're going to hit a car, try to be sure that it's not a cop car

They're so broke that they've actually cut essential services. In many places, they've cut policemen, because, who the fuck needs them? Or firemen, son of a bitch, it's much more fun watching something burn down.

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.

I get it,' said the prisoner. 'Good Cop, Bad Cop, eh?'If you like.' said Vimes. 'But we're a bit short staffed here, so if I give you a cigarette would you mind kicking yourself in the teeth?

No! Please! I'll tell you whatever you want to know! the man yelled. Really? said Vimes. What's the orbital velocity of the moon?What?Oh, you'd like something simpler?

Your tragedy is our incentive; we just love to see nice people get into trouble.

You know, if you shoot me you'll lose a lot of these humanitarian awards.

For the middle class, the police protect property, give directions, and help old ladies. For the urban poor, the police are those who arrest you.

When constabulary duty's to be done, The policeman's lot is not a happy one!

A vague uneasiness: the police. It's like when you suddenly understand you have to undress in front of the doctor.