Tim Bayliss quotes from Homicide: Life on the Street

Bayliss

Welcome back, Lennie!

Briscoe

Bayliss, right?

Bayliss

Yeah.

Bayliss

So, as a rule, you can only cross the Mason-Dixon line if you bring a really screwed-up case with you?

Briscoe

Hey; if it doesn't make sense, it belongs in Baltimore - right?

Bayliss

I killed a suspect.

Gee

The suspect drew his weapon first?

Bayliss

Yeah.

The suspect fired first?

Bayliss

Yeah.

The suspect attempted to use deadly force and you responded. It's a clean shoot.

Bayliss

I killed a man.

Bayliss

I am a cop.

Lewis

Yeah. And, you know, for my money, you're a pretty damn good cop.

Bayliss

Yeah, but not a very good Buddhist.

Bayliss

What I have is, I have a second in time. I have a split second in an abandoned building with a gun in my hand and every instinct is telling me who I am at that moment. That's what I got left and that's all I got left...and I'm a homicide cop.

Lewis

[sighs] Well, since you're no longer a Buddhist, you gotta look at the bright side, huh? You can have a couple of brewskis.

Bayliss

No, thanks.

Lewis

Oh come on, you can have one beer.

Bayliss

No. Beer ain't the answer either.

No. What do you mean no?

Munch

I won't start an investigation without witnesses, a crime scene, without relevant information as to why that body is on that gurney to nowhere.

Don't detectives like mysteries?

Bayliss

Actually, we hate a mystery. What we like is when we're able to lock someone up right away. There are rules to this business, fundamentals. The phone rings, we pick it up, we write down the address, and we go to where the person was murdered.

Munch

The crime scene.

Bayliss

Exactly. That's what we call it.

Munch

The crime scene.

Bayliss

We go and evaluate and canvas the crime scene, hoping for witnesses.

Munch

Living, breathing witnesses.

Bayliss

We come here after we have processed and canvassed the scene. We do not come here to make the acquaintance of fresh murders.

Munch

Yeah, that'd be stupid.

Bayliss

Seven years ago, I walked in here with a filebox and a lot of idealism. I had a clear vision of justice and morality. And no matter what has happened to me, whatever's happened around me, I still have that.

Giardello

Maybe. But on this job I've seen people change, and sometimes for the worse. And those who change the most are the ones who don't admit it.

Danvers

We'll get Luke Ryland, Tim.

Bayliss

Yeah, I know. These things, they just take time. Patience. Of course, being a murder police, I've learned one inescapable truth. Justice is a bitch.

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.