Serpico

Frank Serpico:
The reality is that we do not wash our own laundry - it just gets dirtier.

Frank Serpico:
I'm a marked man in this department. For what?

District Attorney Tauber:
I've already arranged a transfer for ya'.

Frank Serpico:
To where? China?

Tom Keough:
Now I ain't sayin' who. They just said ya'... ya' couldn't be trusted, you know?

Frank Serpico:
'Cause I don't take money, right?

Tom Keough:
Frank, let's face it. Who can trust a cop who don't take money?

Frank Serpico:
What's this for? For bein' an honest cop? Hmm? Or for being stupid enough to get shot in the face?

Frank Serpico:
No. Just a division.

Leslie Lane:
[feeling his gun as she's riding on the back of his motorcycle] What'ya need a gun for?

Frank Serpico:
Didya ever hear of Barnum and Bailey?

Leslie Lane:
Yeah.

Frank Serpico:
Well, I'm their lion tamer.

Frank Serpico:
You know that I'm totally isolated in the department. I don't have a friend.

Chief Sidney Green:
Oh, don't give me that bullshit about friends. I've been putting cops away for thirty years. My name's an obscenity to every shithouse wall in every precinct in the city.

Frank Serpico:
I've observed that, sir.

Chief Sidney Green:
Friends! And I fought my way up as a Jew in the department in the days you were supposed to have an uncircumcised shamrock between your legs. I have this nightmare. I'm on 5th Avenue watching the St. Patrick's Day parade and I have a coronary and nine thousand cops march happily over my body.

Capt. Insp. McClain:
Frank, has anyone ever told you that you have a tendency toward self-pity?

Frank Serpico:
No, you're the first.

Frank Serpico:
[to a criminal in custody] I want to talk to you. I want to take you across the street, get you a cup of coffee . . . without cuffs. Now look, I didn't touch you upstairs, right? You take off on me, I'll put one in your back. Understand? Come on.

Frank Serpico:
[testifying before the Knapp Commission] Through my appearance here today . . . I hope that police officers in the future will not experience . . . the same frustration and anxiety that I was subjected to . . . for the past five years at the hands of my superiors . . . because of my attempt to report corruption. I was made to feel that I had burdened them with an unwanted task. The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist . . . in which an honest police officer can act . . . without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. Police corruption cannot exist unless it is at least tolerated . . at higher levels In the department. Therefore, the most important result that can come from these hearings . . . is a conviction by police officers that the department will change. In order to ensure this . . . an independent, permanent investigative body . . . dealing with police corruption, like this commission, is essential.

Frank Serpico:
You stupid f***! You didn't know me? You fired without a warning, without a f***ing brain in your head? Oh, sh*t. If I buy one, motherf***er, I ain't buying it from you.