Dragnet 1967 (TV Series)

D.H.Q.: Night School (1970)

Marion Charles: Kelly

Quotes 

• Sergeant Joe Friday : 1.

  [Joe returns to the office of Professor Grant the week after being voted out. After a discussion in the office, Grant agrees to give Friday a chance to speak to the class in his defense, followed by another vote. But there's a catch--Joe will need a two-thirds vote this time] 

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Joe: All right--let me say, for the record, if you vote to let me come back to the class and I see anybody else holding, I'll arrest him just the same as I did Jerry Morgan.

  Jack : But why should we let you come back at all?

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Tell me--what's the idea of this class? To get to know each other, right? Well, I'm a policeman. You ask me any question, as long as it doesn't involve a case now under investigation or before the courts, and I'll tell it just like it is.

  Kelly : Do you like being a policeman, Joe?

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Sometimes, no. Sometimes it hurts.

  Kelly : Why are you, then?

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Because it's my profession.

  Jack : Kicking little people around.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : You consider someone who sells narcotics to be one of the "little people," do you?

  Jack : Yeah, man--if someone wants to smoke a little dope or drop a pill, who's the victim? The guy who's doing it. Now shouldn't he have the right to do anything he wants with his own body? Man, it's a crime without a victim.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : When you say using dope is a "crime without a victim," who's picking up the tab for all the lost wages, the stolen property, and the destroyed lives? How many overdoses have you seen come through your hospital, Barbara?

  Barbara : Quite a few.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : How many die?

  Barbara : [sadly]  Too many.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Kids?

  Barbara : Most of them.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : The County of Los Angeles is spending a million dollars a month just handling kids who use and sell dope. Now who's the victim? We are. All of us.

  Bob : Sergeant, I'd like to ask you a question.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : All right, ask it.

  Bob : If you were Chief of Police, how would you handle the narcotics problem?

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Pretty much the way it's handled today.

  Bob : I disagree: We need tougher laws. We should really crack down on 'em.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Maybe so. But half of you people in this room are in an uproar because I enforced one of the laws already on the books. Let's get to the bottom line here... the law--your law--tells us we're supposed to arrest people when they commit crimes--when they break those laws. We arrest them, and the courts don't see fit to punish them. Or if they do, and they're sent to prison, it doesn't seem to do any good because every year there are more and more people breaking the law. And every year we're finding it more difficult to recruit policemen, because they don't want to put up with the frustration, the public apathy, and the abuse, and the low wages. Now I don't like being called a "pig" any more than some of you like being called a female dog's relative.

  Jack : Tell me something, Sergeant; what's your personal opinion of marijuana? We already know your official one.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Prejudiced.

  Jack : [smugly]  Now why do you say that?

  Sergeant Joe Friday : I see the results--every hour on the hour, every day. The kids--I've seen what it does to them. Every time you pick up a youngster who's dropping acid, nine out of ten times he's holding marijuana. I judge weed by the company it keeps.

  [pause] 

  Prof. Grant : I think it's about time we put this to a vote.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : I'd like to say one more thing if it's all right.

  Prof. Grant : All right, get it over with.

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Nine of you people think I violated your trust by arresting Jerry Morgan. Okay. But when did we vote to suspend the laws of the State of California? I haven't missed a class here-now when did we do that? You don't like the laws on marijuana, then you and your friends get together and you change them. Now this question of trust. Isn't trust another word for responsibility? Well, I have responsibility that I've sworn to uphold. That's my trust. What about Jerry Morgan's responsibilities? As a citizen he's supposed to obey the law. That's his trust. Now when I gave my oath I agreed to enforce ALL the laws--not just the ones I agreed with. I think you people paying the bills have a right to expect me to live up to my word. Now we've been rapping on and on about doing our own thing.

  [Grimly] 

  Sergeant Joe Friday : Well, that's my own thing--'keeping the faith, baby'

  [a catchphrase used by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell in the late 60s] 

  Sergeant Joe Friday : --with the people of this city. Thank you for listening to me.

  Prof. Grant : [Professor Grant takes the floor and puts the matter to a vote. He counts the votes to expel Friday and the votes to allow him to stay]  Eight to eight. That makes it a tie. I believe we had an agreement.