A Quote by Michael Parenti

You see there are people who believe the function of the police is to fight crime, and that's not true, the function of the police is social control and protection of property.

Michael Parenti

Quote Topics

Believe Control Crime Fight Function People Police Property Protection See Social Social Control True

Quote Author

Michael Parenti
American - Critic
Born: 1933

I am for police function that protects citizens of this great Nation, not a police function that is used to terrorize them.

Dennis Kucinich

Gun laws are an attempt to nationalize the right of self-defense. Politicians perennially react to the police's abject failure to prevent crime by trying to disarm law-abiding citizens. The worse government fails to control crime, the more the politicians want to restrict individuals' rights to defend themselves. But police protection in most places is typical government work - slow, inefficient, and unreliable.

James Bovard

But the reality is that the police serve a certain function, to maintain a certain status quo, and that's one of the things that the movie is about, because it basically gives you three options for looking at the police, as symbolized by Dave Brown.

Oren Moverman

I'm afraid because some police are way out of control. My true feeling with police is this: If they do their job, there's no problem.

Ice T

The police, at their best, do three things; they prevent crime, they respond to crime, and they solve crime. In all three of those buckets, they need the trust of the community to do it, so I believe that if we restore the trust that we will change the way police are experiencing communities and ways that will preserve life and make everyone safer.

DeRay Mckesson

'By Any Means' follows a team of behind-the-scenes crime-prevention team - not police. They basically go to the areas of crime where the police can't touch and organised crime fighting units can't go to - in the public eye - to bring about real justice, treading the line between 'true' justice and what the law says is justice.

Elliot Knight

There are times when I wouldn't rule violence out. I personally don't like violence at all. But it wasn't until we had the Trafalgar Square riots that the Poll Tax went out in Britain. When people take to the streets and fight the police, it's the one thing the government can't control. You can march round in circles for the rest of your life and they can ignore it, but once you start damaging property and fighting with the police, they can't. Even though they tar you with a brush and say you're a set of bastards, they have to actually tone down what they are doing.

Alice Nutter

There is no requirement that police stop a person who enters a police station and states that he wishes to confess a crime or a person who calls the police to offer a confession because volunteered statements of any kind are not barred by the 5th Amendment.

Earl Warren

What we have to ask is this: what can we morally expect of and allow to people whom we deploy to fulfill this or that social role :police officer, school teacher, physician? This may sometimes lead to difficult social decisions - e.g. should police be permitted to illegally import drugs as part of a sting operation? In the end, I think "common - that is, critical - morality" should determine the limits of the police role.

John Kleinig

I no longer believe that we can 'fix' the police, as though the police are anything other than a mirror reflecting back to us the true nature of our democracy.

Michelle Alexander

I think it is important that independent government agencies be put in charge of investigating misconduct so that police departments are no longer allowed to police themselves. There is a conflict of interest there which, I believe, allows police to excuse their own behavior.

Bernie Sanders

It has been said that love is a function of communication. I believe that to be true. I believe, by extension, that human understanding is a function of communication. And the better human beings understand one another, the higher the level of functioning.

Dan Pallotta

While we have come a long way, we must go further if we are to ensure greater diversity and truly modern police forces that reflect the communities they serve and provide police officers able to tackle not only traditional crime but also the changing face of crime.

Theresa May

Let's say you are driving in the U.K., and you are pulled over by the police for speeding, and you try to bribe the police officer with £300 to walk away. I guarantee you that at least 99 times out of 100 you are going end up in handcuffs, and you will be charged with the crime of trying to bribe a police officer.

Bryan Fogel

The function of the prosecutor under the federal Constitution is not to tack as many skins of victims as possible against the wall. His function is to vindicate the rights of the people as expressed in the laws and give those accused of crime a fair trial.