ASAxel Shiff
Ah, my good friends the police. I take care of all their cars. Excuse me, lady.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker[Hooker exits his car, swinging his baton] Hello Axel, nice to see you.
ASAxel Shiff
What do you want, Hooker? Get lost, you're bad for business.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
Good business requires referrals. Get many?
ASAxel Shiff
Oh come on, fade away, will you, Hooker? I'm gonna sic my lawyers on you fast.
This man has a bad attitude problem, Sgt. Hooker.
ASAxel Shiff
Hey, you take a flying leap too, son!
CColter
[in the locker room, changing] Hey, it could have been you killed out there, just as easy as Martinez, remember?
Yeah, well, some of the veterans around here are acting like they wish it had been me.
DDempsy
Well, I heard a lot of them say you screwed up.
SBSgt. Benteen
[entering the room with two other officers] You could have wasted that dirtbag, Romano, and you didn't.
He's a juvenile, Benteen.
SBSgt. Benteen
He is a [claps hands twice] COP KILLER!
SBSgt. Benteen
He's had 18 priors, not a day spent in juvenile hall, a hophead supporting his habit by preying on old people. Now, he's a cop killer.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
[standing at the door] I just talked to the shooting team. Martinez's piece was empty when the creep tried to kill Romano and Romano knew it.
SBSgt. Benteen
[to Romano] Empty?
I counted. He'd fired six times.
SBSgt. Benteen
There's not a living soul to ask if you would count it with nobody to ever know the difference. You could have blown that cop-killing punk away! All right, hey, okay, look, Lily Blossom, you're never going to make it through probation and you better hope you never find yourself in a spot where you're going to need the help of a real cop.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
[angrily pulls Benteen around] Hey! That's the wrong kind of talk around here, Benteen. I suggest you shut your loud mouth and cool off because if I hear it again, I'll put you through the wall.
SBSgt. Benteen
I owe you, Hooker. [points his thumb at Romano] Not him.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
You owe me nothing. I did my job out there. Romano did his. Right now, you're on the edge of not doing yours. Don't you EVER threaten not to back a fellow officer.
[Benteen scoffs, looks at Romano, and exits the room]
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
[to the other officers] Anybody else got anything to say? [to Romano, as the other officers leave] You didn't tell me you knew the gun was empty.
[upset] Does it make a difference to you that it wasn't?
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
You did what the book says.
Look, thanks for what you said to Benteen, but I asked you a question. I've got to know! Is there a difference between what we're taught and what goes down on the street? Under the same circumstances, the same dope-headed, cop-killing, dirt-bag punk with an empty gun, would you have wasted him?
[Hooker sits down on a bench pondering the question as Romano angrily kicks the door before leaving]
[after Minetti is released] I don't understand. Something's wrong, Hooker. I did my job. He killed a man! I brought him to trial. He's guilty. And he's strutting out of here like a peacock, putting dirt on everything that's good and decent. Where's the incentive to do it right the next time if this lousy system doesn't work?
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
The incentive is in knowing how much worse it would be if we didn't do it right. You don't like what happened in there, I don't like it, the people don't like it. It's up to the people to change it.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
[reading computer simulation print-out] Dempsy, your score has dropped since the last time. You're way below average on judgment and accuracy. You shot an innocent bystander, you wounded a fellow officer. You let an armed felon get off two shots before you returned fire and then you hit him in the foot. Dempsy, I suggest more work in the firing range. As for judgment, that will come in time. It had better. You can go now.
[he leaves as Benteen follows, but is stopped by Hooker]
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
Benteen, Dempsy's judgment has taken a nose-dive.
SBSgt. Benteen
Oh, you can't tell jack from these computers.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
These you can. Dempsy has developed an attitude problem, Benteen. You're it.
SBSgt. Benteen
[chuckles] Now, look, Hooker...
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
No, you look and listen for a change! You've got your ideas about this job and how it should be done, that's your right. But you damn well better stop bringing them to work with you.
SBSgt. Benteen
And you damn well better remember who you're talking to. I'm not one of your rookies, Hooker.
[starts to leave, but Hooker grabs him from behind and angrily slams him against the machine]
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
That's right, you're not. But if you think for one particle of a second I'm going to let you turn decent material, like Dempsy, into some kind of swaggering cowboy cop who makes his own rules, you're traveling down the wrong road, friend, 'cause I'm not.
SBSgt. Benteen
I'm giving it to him like it is.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
No, you're not. You're putting it down the way you want it and that's not the way it goes. And it damn well better stop.
What I'm gonna do, Hooker, is take the plunge.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
The plunge?
Hooker, the streets of South Philly are behind me. I'm gonna become a total Californian. I think I'll even buy a surfboard.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
You've been watching those late night beach blanket movies again?
Yeah, well, they are classics, you know.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
Right up there with Casablanca and [[Citizen Kane].
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
You have it all figured out, haven't you? Joyriding, bust, easy hit, stick it to the cop who shot your friend. Walk out of here with a smile on your face.
DHDavid Harmon
You got it, Big Daddy.
Sgt. T.J. Hooker
No, you got it, Sunshine.
T. J. Hooker · 102 quotes
