Weekend Words: Police
This week, it came to light that the tensions between the New York City police force and Mayor Bill de Blasio may be resulting in fewer arrest and virtually no tickets.
This week, it came to light that the tensions between the New York City police force and Mayor Bill de Blasio may be resulting in fewer arrest and virtually no tickets.
“There are not enough jails, not enough policemen, not enough courts to enforce a law not supported by the people.”
—Hubert Humphrey, speech at Williamsburg, 1965
“The ordinary man is an anarchist. He wants to do as he likes. He may want his neighbor to be governed, but he himself doesn’t want to be governed. He is mortally afraid of government officials and policemen.”
—George Bernard Shaw
“To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.”
—Albert Camus
“When a constabulary duty’s to be done,
A policeman’s lot is not a happy one.”
—W. S. Gilbert, The Pirates of Penzance
“We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder censorship, we call it concern for commercial viability.”
—David Mamet
“The State has but one face for me: that of the police. To my eyes, all of the State’s ministries have this single face, and I cannot imagine the ministry of culture other than as the police of culture, with its prefect and commissioners.”
—Jean Dubuffet
“At one end will be the Railroad Station; at the other end, the Town Hall. The Hall will be built to represent a Town Hall, but actually we will use it as our administration building. It will be the headquarters of the entire project. Adjoining the Town hall will be the Fire and Police Stations. The Fire Station will contain practical fire apparatus, scaled down. The police station will also be put to practical use. Here the visitors will report all violations, lost articles, lost kids, etc. In it we could have a little jail where the kids could look in. We might even have characters in it.”
—Walt Disney, from a memo describing plans for Disneyland
“I’m not against the police; I’m just afraid of them.”
—Alfred Hitchcock
“All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and pretty girl.”
—Charlie Chaplin, My Autobiography
“All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.”
—W. H. Auden, “September 1, 1939”
