Cowboy Cop/Quotes

""When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher's knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross.""

- Harry Callahan (explaining his reasons for gunning down an Attempted Rapist), Dirty Harry

""He thinks that crooks coming out of retirement is a twist, a new idea. Whatever next? How about a drama involving a policeman who solves crimes, but he's a maverick who doesn't go by the book.""

- The Independent

""I've reached a point, Detective Sydnor, where I no longer have the time or the patience to address myself to the needs of the system in which we work. [...] When they took us off Marlo this last time, when they said they couldn't pay for further investigation, I regarded that decision as illegitimate [...] and so I'm responding in kind. I'm gonna press a case against Marlo Stanfield without regard to the usual rules. I'm running an illegal wiretap on Marlo Stanfield's cellphone. If you have a problem with this, I understand completely and I urge you to get as far fucking away from me as you can.""

- Lester Freamon, The Wire Season Five.

""You just went ahead and tried anyway, fuck what you could or couldn't do.""

- Caphriel, The Sacred and the Profane

"And he was not certain, not certain at all, what he'd do if the prisoner gave him any lip or tried to be smart. Beating people up in little rooms...he knew where that led. And if you did it for a good reason, you'd do it for a bad one. You couldn't say "we're the good guys" and do bad-guy things."

- Sam Vimes, Thud!, an excellent Deconstruction of the trope.

"Da Chief: That was some good work, McGarnicle. But did you have to break so many necks?

McGarnicle: You tell me, chief. You had a pretty good view from behind your desk.

Da Chief: That's it! You're off the case!

McGarnicle: You're off your case, chief.

Da Chief: [Bewildered] What does that mean, exactly?

Homer: It means he gets results you stupid chief!

Lisa: Dad, sit down."

- The Simpsons watching a cop show starring one of these.

"Da Chief: Senator Mendoza is one of the most respected men in this state McBain. And yet you drive his limo off a cliff, break the necks of three of his bodyguards, and drive a bus through his front door?!

McBain: But chief, I have proof dat he is head of an international drug cartel!

Da Chief: I don't wanna hear it, McBain! You're outta here!

[McBain punches Da Chief so hard he flies through his window and falls ten stories into a fountain in the plaza below.]

McBain: Dat makes two of us."

- The Simpsons

"Da Chief: This is unacceptable! That cannon of yours is against regulations! In this department, we go by the book!

[Using said cannon, McBain shoots a massive hole into the thick book of police regulations Da Chief is holding.]

McBain: Bye, book."

- The Simpsons

"Kamina: Voted "loosest cannon" upon graduating the academy... holder of the entire police force's highest arrest record, wrongful OR otherwise... and the only officer in the entire department who's EVER caused more collateral damage than our budget could cover... the legendary lieutenant detective of the GPD's celebrated vice division... the incomparable supercop, KAMINA!! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?

Whore: D-dude, like... NONE of that stuff is anything to be proud of."

- Double K

"--Caphriel, The Sacred and the Profane

Hans Gruber: Do you really think you stand a chance against us, Mr. Cowboy?

John McClane: Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker."

- Die Hard

""Not everything can be solved with your strategy of shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, and then when everybody's dead, maybe think about asking a question or two.""

- President Ulysses Grant, Wild Wild West

""No doubt the arbiters would put you away, after all the documents are signed. But I will have justice now!""

- Alovnek, Boros guildmage, Condemn, Magic: The Gathering

""Howdy-ho, folks. I'm Sheriff Meyers. Be good, or I'll shoot you dead.""

- Fallout: New Vegas