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Policemen so cherish their status as keepers of the peace and protectors of the public that they have occasionally been known to beat to death those citizens or groups who question that status.

The policeman must be a minister, a social worker, a diplomat, a tough guy, and a gentleman. And, of course, he'd have to be a genius... For he will have to feed a family on a policeman's salary.

The American cinema in general always made stories about working-class people; the British rarely did. Any person with my working-class background would be a villain or a comic cipher, usually badly played, and with a rotten accent. There weren't a lot of guys in England for me to look up to.

Well I grew up in England, and I was in the London police.

In almost all cases now the police are as much an enemy as the others.

I know that all cops are not sterling characters. But you have to have someone to root for. I balance it with rotten cops who will take a bribe, who will beat somebody up.

The police officer's job is to respect the citizens that they are in control of.

I'm not from the working class. I'm from the criminal class.

U.S. society doesn't want to play the role of international policeman.

A policeman, as you discover, has to put up with a hell of a lot of abuse. A man in any other line of work would nail a guy who laid that kind of abuse on him. I know I would.