Homicide: Life on the Street

Pembleton: You're history. And if I wasn't so busy writing up your statement I'd probably tell you so. I'd say 'son you are ignorance personified and you just put yourself here for the murder of a human being'. I might even admit to you that after all my years working murders I'm still a little amazed that anyone utters a word in this room. Think about it son, when you came through those doors what did the sign say? Homicide Unit. That's right. Who lives in a homicide unit? And what do homicide detectives do for a living? You get it bunk. And tonight you took somebody's life. So when you opened your mouth what in God's name were you thinking.

Brodie (voiceover): What are you focusing on when you first sit down with a suspect? Pembleton: The detective has informed you of your rights, he wants you to be protected he says, because he says 'there is nothing that concerns him more than giving you every possible assistance in this very confusing and stressful moment in your life'. Howard: The detective wants you to know, and we've been doing this a lot long time you have to take our word for it. Your rights to counsel aren't all they've cracked up to be. Pembleton: Once you actually up and call for that lawyer son, there ain't a damn thing we can do for you. No sir, your good friends in the homicide unit are gonna have to lock you all alone in this room and the next authority figure to scan your case will be a no nonsense prosecutor from the violent crimes unit with the official title Assistant State's Attorney for The City of Baltimore. Munch: And God help you then because a ruthless bloodsucker like that will have a O'Donald mover head like yourself half way to the gas chamber before you get three words out. Kellerman: Your best bet is to speak up. Speak up now.

Munch: I'm not saying life can't get better I'm saying it won't. You see the difference.

Bayliss: You see you have the right to talk to an attorney at any time. Before any question, before answering any questions and during any questioning. Munch: Now, the man who wants to arrest you for violating the peace and dignity of the great state of Maryland says you can talk to a trained professional attorney who has read the relevant code or at least gotten his hands on some Cliff Notes. Lewis: Let's face it pal, you're just carved up some drunk in a dun dark avenue bar or bludgeoned your wife to death with a pick axe. That don't make you a brain surgeon. You're gonna need the help of an expert. Believe me, take whatever help you can get. Bayliss: He's right.

Bayliss: You're no ordinary mortician are you? You like to see through from start to finish. You like to bump 'em and clump 'em. Stab 'em and slab 'em. Prep 'em and paint 'em. More bodies, more profit.

Bayliss: See, anything that you say or write maybe used against you in a court of law. Kellerman: Yo punky, wake up. Your talking to a police detective in an interview room is only going to hurt you. Howard: If it would help we'd be pretty quick to tell you that. Stand-up. We tell you have a right not to worry. Anything you say or write will be used to help you in a court of law. Kellerman: Your best bet is to shut up. Shut up now.

Pembleton: We got the shooter, we got his gun, we got vocal eye witnesses and the man's given it up. Bayliss: We need the why. Pembleton: No, no, you need the why. I don't need to know anymore about the man or his problems than this, he shot his neighbours, they waited on his swing for the police to arrive so that he might surrender his freedom. Mr. Jackson has been so helpful and so efficient to ask for more would be ungracious. Bayliss: Come on Frank, one neighbour murders another and you don't want to know what that means. Pembleton: I know exactly what that means. Ten hours overtime and if Mr. Jackson will be kind enough to take it to trial, another twenty hours court pay.

Munch: Is that Mean Street? What are you doing ripping off Scorsese. Brodie: I wasn't ripping him off, I respect the man but he doesn't hold a candle to great documentary film makers like Robert Frank, or Perry Baker, the Masers Brothers, Ken Burns. Munch: Oh, yeah Ken Burns he's the only guy ever to manage to make something more boring than a baseball game. A documentary about a baseball game. Brodie (Voiceover): The rights of the suspect. Give me your thoughts. Pembleton: You are a citizen of a free nation. Having lived your adult life in the land of guaranteed civil liberties you commit a crime of violence where upon you are jacked up, dragged down to police headquarters and deposited in a claustrophobic anti-room, containing three chairs, a table and cold brick walls. Have a seat please. And there you sit for half an hour or more until a homicide detective, a man who in no way can be mistaken for a friend enters the room. He offers you a cigarette. Not your brand. And begins an uninterrupted monologue which wonders back and forth for half an hour or so eventually coming to a rest in a familiar place. You have the right to remain silent. Bayliss: You have got the absolute right to remain silent. Pembleton: Of course you do, you're a criminal. Criminals always have the right to remain silent. Lewis: We're talking about sacred freedoms here, notably your fifth amendment protection against self incrimination. Hey, if it was good enough for Ollie North and Mark Fremon then who the hell are you to incriminate yourself at the first opportunity. Munch: Get it straight, a police detective is paid government-money to put you in prison and explaining your absolute right to shut up before you say anything stupid.

Pembleton: Wait, wait, wait that doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense. What does life and homicide have to do with each other? Brodie: I wanted to juxtapose life and death, you know, the yin and the yang. Homicide is so, you know, a negative. Pembleton: Yes it is, it doesn't get much more negative than homicide.

Pembleton: Domestic. Discount at that. Bayliss: Well it's not, Frank. Kellerman: This isn't even champagne. This is the fake champagne what is it, Method sparkling wine. This is sparkling wine. Bayliss: The French make them do that. It is a trade war thing, Mike. Kellerman: You know you're not supposed to buy champagne at the gas station.

Pembleton: It's too quite in here, the only thing dead in this joint are the phones. Munch: New Years Eve, Frank. When that ball drops the bodies'll start dropping too. Kellerman: I hate New Years Eve. Pembleton: Everybody hates New Years Eve. Brodie: Yeah, another year older and deeper in debt. Munch: It's like having a birthday only nobody buys you any presents.