The Asphalt Jungle, Police Commissioner Hardy

Let me put it this way. It’s not anything strange that there are corrupt officers in police departments. The dirt they’re trying to clean up is bound to rub off on some of ’em, but not all of ’em. Maybe one out of a 100. The other 99 are honest men trying to do an honest job. Listen…I know you’re police reporters and you hear this all day long, but I want you to listen with your conscience, not just your ears. We send police assistance to every one of those calls ’cause they’re not just code numbers on a radio beam, they’re cries for help. People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on 24 hours a day, every day in the year. And that’s not exceptional, that’s usual. It’s the same in every city of the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle’s finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over. Think about it. Well gentlemen, three men are in jail, three men dead, one by his own hand. One man’s a fugitive, and we have reason to believe seriously wounded. That’s six out of seven, not bad. And we’ll get the last one too. In some ways, he’s the most dangerous of them all. A hardened killer. A hooligan. A man without human feeling or human mercy.