# Great Jack Webb Monologue on being a cop



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*This is Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday explaining what it is to be a cop to the young rookie, played by actor Kent McCord. *

*Click on the picture of Jack to view*

 
*Video Description*

Jack delivers the following speech about the trials and tribulations of being a police officer to a rookie undercover officer suspected of robbing a liquor store.

"It's awkward having a policeman around the house. Friends drop in, a man with a badge answers the door, the temperature drops 20 degrees.

You throw a party and that badge gets in the way. All of a sudden there isn't a straight man in the crowd. Everybody's a comedian. "Don't drink too much," somebody says, "or the man with a badge'll run you in." Or "How's it going, Dick Tracy? How many jaywalkers did you pinch today?" And then there's always the one who wants to know how many apples you stole.

All at once you lost your first name. You're a cop, a flatfoot, a bull, a dick, John Law. You're the fuzz, the heat; you're poison, you're trouble, you're bad news. They call you everything, but never a policeman.

It's not much of a life, unless you d on't mind missing a Dodger game because the hotshot phone rings. Unless you like working Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, at a job that doesn't pay overtime. Oh, the pay's adequate-- if you count pennies you can put your kid through college, but you better plan on seeing Europe on your television set.

And then there's your first night on the beat. When you try to arrest a drunken prostitute in a Main St. bar and she rips your new uniform to shreds. You'll buy another one-- out of your own pocket.

And you're going to rub elbows with the elite-- pimps, addicts, thieves, bums, winos, girls who can't keep an address and men who don't care. Liars, cheats, con men-- the class of Skid Row.

And the heartbreak-- underfed kids, beaten kids, molested kids, lost kids, crying kids, homeless kids, hit-and-run kids, broken-arm kids, broken-leg kids, broken-head kids, sick kids, dying kids, dead kids. The old people nobody wants-- the reliefers, the pensioners, t he ones who walk the street cold, and those who tried to keep warm and died in a $3 room with an unventilated gas heater. You'll walk your beat and try to pick up the pieces.

Do you have real adventure in your soul? You better have, because you're gonna do time in a prowl car. Oh, it's going to be a thrill a minute when you get an unknown-trouble call and hit a backyard at two in the morning, never knowing who you'll meet-- a kid with a knife, a pill-head with a gun, or two ex-cons with nothing to lose.

And you're going to have plenty of time to think. You'll draw duty in a lonely car, with nobody to talk to but your radio.

Four years in uniform and you'll have the ability, the experience and maybe the desire to be a detective. If you like to fly by the seat of your pants, this is where you belong. For every crime that's committed, you've got three million suspects to choose from. And most of the time, you'll have few facts and a lot of hunches. Yo u'll run down leads that dead-end on you. You'll work all-night stakeouts that could last a week. You'll do leg work until you're sure you've talked to everybody in the state of California.

People who saw it happen - but really didn't. People who insist they did it - but really didn't. People who don't remember - those who try to forget. Those who tell the truth - those who lie. You'll run the files until your eyes ache.

And paperwork? Oh, you'll fill out a report when you're right, you'll fill out a report when you're wrong, you'll fill one out when you're not sure, you'll fill one out listing your leads, you'll fill one out when you have no leads, you'll fill out a report on the reports you've made! You'll write enough words in your lifetime to stock a library.

You'll learn to live with doubt, anxiety, frustration. Court decisions that tend to hinder rather than help you. Dorado, Morse, Escobedo, Cahan. You'll learn to live with the District Attorney, testifying in court, defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, judges, juries, witnesses. And sometimes you're not going to be happy with the outcome.

But there's also this: there are over 5,000 men in this city, who know that being a policeman is an endless, glamourless, thankless job that's gotta be done.
I know it, too, and I'm damn glad to be one of them."


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## LA Copper (Feb 11, 2005)

Classic! Makes me want to join up all over again!


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## Wiggum_1 (Dec 9, 2004)

I remember another Jack Webb monoloogue, it was the episode where they were questioning a neo-nazi who allegedly planted some bombs in schools that were being segregated and refused to say where they were. At the end when they were taking him in, Joe Friday says ( and this isn't an exact quote so forgive me if I get it wrong)
" You're always talking about minorities.. Well you're a psycho, and there a minority too. " Dum-dum-dum-dummmm.


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## irish937 (Sep 13, 2005)

I still have that article in my cite book from 1995. I think I found it in the PAX Centurion around that time. I thought it hit the nail on the head (mostly). We have the best job in the world.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

More Jack Webb

 
*Video Description*

(1967) Sgts. Joe Friday and Bill Gannon break up a gang of high school shoplifters who call themselves "The Mod Squad"... and in the process talk some sense into a smart-talking kid.

Another one

 
*Video Description*

CAUTION: Do NOT be drinking a beverage while watching this clip. Funny !!!


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## Wiggum_1 (Dec 9, 2004)

Man, I don't know wich is worse, a verbal bitch-slap from Jack Webb, DI or Gunny Sgt. R Lee Ermy !


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