Frank Pembleton quotes from Homicide: Life on the Street

That's what the hospice movement is all about. Giving the patient a say in how they die.

Pembleton

With dignity.

You sound skeptical.

Pembleton

I've seen a lot of death; haven't seen much dignity.

Giardello

Invite Dr. Turner in for a casual conversation and treat her with kid gloves.

Pembleton

And if she declines?

Giardello

A woman decline an invitation from you, Frank?

What would you charge me with, if you could?

Pembleton

How about playing God?

God doesn't make house calls; you and I do.

Pembleton

I don't play God.

Well, that's what you do everyday. You decide who's innocent and who's guilty. You say - you - I'm gonna get you. But you - I'm gonna let you go.

Pembleton

I avenge the dead.

Is that why I'm here? Because you think you need to speak for my patients?

Pembleton

Somebody's got to.

Who the hell are you? You didn't hold their hands when they were screaming and hollering all night long. You didn't mop up any mucus or their diarrhea or their vomit. You didn't clean the pus out of anybody's sores, or throw your body across theirs to keep them in the bed when they were thrashing around in their death throes, with bile and blood gushing from every orifice. You didn't comfort their families who will never ever get over their loss. Detective, how dare you presume to speak for my patients?! They didn't need you then, and they sure as hell don't need you now.

Pembleton

You're not Manuel Rendares, are you?

Bernard Weeks. How the hell did y'all get onto me? I was so damn careful. I've been moving this kind of weight for 5 years and not so much as a traffic stop. Y'all DEA, right?

Bayliss

No.

FBI, Customs?

Pembleton

Nope.

Local narcotics. How long you been onto me? 6 months? Longer? You had to be on me for about a year, year and a half, to roll up on me with this kinda weight.

Pembleton

Nah. We weren't looking for you.

Say what?

Pembleton

We're not local narcotics.

Bayliss

We're Baltimore Homicide. We're lookin' for someone else. This is just a…a mistake.

A mistake?

Pembleton

Yeah.

You roll up on me with 200 kilograms and it's a mistake?!

Pembleton

Well, you haven't by any chance killed anybody in Baltimore lately, have you?

No way.

Pembleton

[exasperated] We just wasted another day.

[stunned] A mistake?

Bayliss

Yeah. Sorry. Get him outta here.

Bayliss

If this case is such a legend, how come I don't know anything about it? I mean, I've been in this unit for 6 years now and I've never heard anyone say anything about Clara Sloane.

Pembleton

Look, when you caught the Adena Watson case your first week in Homicide, and the case didn't go down, nobody had the heart to tell you about her, ok?

Pembleton

You wish you'd stayed with the Sloane case?

Bayliss

Yeah.

Pembleton

Maybe it's good that you passed on it. You know, you started in, another dead little girl, nightmares....

Bayliss

That wound is healed Frank.

Pembleton

Why pull off the scab?

Pembleton

Don't say a single word, Munch.

Munch

What's to say?

The guy give it up? You're coming from a box session, right? That ugly mope? He won't go?

Munch

Suspect demanded to see an attorney.

Oh, he does, does he? Did you give him a taste of the phonebook?

Munch

Uh, we haven't hit anybody with a phonebook around here since '96.

Pembleton

You think if somebody wanted to write a book about us?

Bayliss

What, about you and me?

Pembleton

The unit. Homicide detectives.

Bayliss

Right. Fat chance.

Bayliss

I'm glad we got out of the office. Smell was getting to me.

Pembleton

I hadn't noticed.

Bayliss

You didn't notice the smell? You didn't notice the blood and the powder residue? We're workin' right in the middle of a crime scene.

Pembleton

I noticed, okay?

Bayliss

I knew Keckham pretty well, from the mayor's detail. Decent guy.

Pembleton

I worked with Charlie Moore in the Western. Same sector. He's a good man.

Bayliss

You know something, I didn't see it. Didn't see it coming, didn't see him. And he's comin' in there and he's playin' all hard, but we get a lot of guys that come in there doin' that same thing, you know?

Pembleton

You think we were supposed to know he was the one? That this punk, out of all the other punks who come through the squadroom, this one's goin' over the top? Please.

Bayliss

Well, I'm runnin' around in my gun locker and I'm tryin' to get my backup gun cause my gun is in my desk. It's in the bottom left drawer. He's blowin' up the place, and my gun is sittin' down there; it's sittin' with the pencils, with the paper clips.

Pembleton

Nobody was ready.

Bayliss

Well, I'm ready now.

Pembleton

Ready for what?

Bayliss

Anything, Frank. Anyone.

Kellerman

He had a gun! That is the truth! He had a gun. [lowers arm]

Pembleton

The gun is down?

Kellerman

He had a gun; he had it!

Falsone

The gun is down. Mahoney lowered his gun. You fired. You were no longer in fear of iminent threat. You shot him down.

Pembleton

Give me your badge, Mike.

Pembleton

I have this one son of a bitch sighted. I have my gun up, and, I don't know. I don't. I blanked. I froze. I didn't even hear the shot. Next thing I know, Tim's layin' on the ground, lookin' up at me. Bleedin'. Because of me.

Frank, don't do this. You didn't know this was gonna happen.

Pembleton

Dear God, make Bayliss fight. God, please. I swear, I will do anything. Let him live. I'm askin'. I'm beggin'. Help my friend. I want him to live.

Giardello

Frank.

Pembleton

[throws badge on table] I'm done.

Giardello

What?

Pembleton

Bayliss is in there because of what? A partner who can't get him through safely to the end of the shift.

Giardello

Look, this is not your fault.

Pembleton

Yeah, it's mine. And I'll carry it. I gotta carry it. Bayliss is in there because of me. And you. And Lewis, Kellerman, and Stivers. All of it. But what is it? What is it really?

Giardello

Frank.

Pembleton

It's a lie. A damn lie. Now, maybe you can live with this lie, but, me, I just walked into the box with a man I served with. A fellow detective, Kellerman. I watched him turn to dirt. You told me to do it. I did it. Now you want me to look away. Live this lie. If I had listened to you...if I had just listened, I never woulda come back to the job. Then Tim, Tim is not layin' in that bed, with all those damn tubes stickin' out of him. I know that smell. Smells like death. I couldn't listen, could I? There's no truth for me anymore, not anymore. I can't be out on the street. I'm never goin' back in that box ever again. It's done. I'm finished.

Pembleton

Do you think you mean anything to anybody, do you think, in this city?

No.

Pembleton

But I'm here, I'm extending you my kindness. I give you what you want out of goodwill and it's not about a dollar. If you ask me for ten, I'll give you ten, a hundred, you got it. I'm respecting you. But you gonna sit there and piss on me? I'm gonna send you to hell, Mr. I ain't got a name, so feel sorry for my moocher ass.

Pembleton

You know why I left Homicide?

Bayliss

Why?

Pembleton

Because I could not hear one more confession. I got sick of hearing people confess to me. Like some Jesuit, I'd just sit there in the box listening to some guy, not only admit to having just killed someone, but cop to all the other crap in his life that, over the course of his life, had led him to that point.

Bayliss

You would have made a great Jesuit, Frank.

Bayliss

I know how James feels. Gotta stop those that are gonna hurt the innocent.

Pembleton

James is a lunatic. Certifiable.

Bayliss

His son gets killed. He's gotta do something. Hey, say, uh, say one of your kids gets hooked on drugs.

Pembleton

One of my kids what?

Bayliss

Gets hooked.

Pembleton

They wouldn't.

Bayliss

Well, just say that they did.

Pembleton

They're not going to. It's not gonna happen. Case closed.

Bayliss

So you have no sympathy for James, for what he's going through.

Pembleton

James is trying to lay the blame on Gee because in his heart of hearts he knows he's responsible for what happened to his kid.

Bayliss

I appreciate how he feels.

Pembleton

Well, you can appreciate it all you want to, Tim, but there's a line between right and wrong.

Bayliss

Yeah, well you're the expert on that, Frank. Nothin' lumpy about you. You know all.