Justice System Quotes

“Never discount woman’s intuition Zack. That is real.”
“I never discount a woman’s anything, dear. The world would be a better place if woman were in charge.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Benjamin Blaine,” he muttered. Glad that asshole is locked up for the rest of his miserable life.
But Jack was not naïve; he knew that there were thousands like Blaine, across America, spurred to action by the sinister rhetoric of a racist president. Either way, they were equally as dangerous, perhaps more so.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“If someone wanted to smuggle Sarin gas into the city, how would they do it? Where are the obvious and less obvious points of entry? How would they weaponize it?”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“A white supremacist with a conscience? Why don’t I believe you, Stone?”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Come on, Jack. Be reasonable. Let’s run this up the chain of command.”
“Acker will never approve, and even if he does, we would have to deal with some Barney Fife type cop up in Manistee, and he would never agree. I’m screwed either way.”
“Who’s Barney Fife?”
“He’s an old television character…oh…never mind...”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“How does a guy like Bart afford a boat like this? Does bigotry pay that well?”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“The enveloping fog was eerie, like a tightening vice, given the possibility of a Sarin gas attack in Dearborn proper. Was the fog a sign of evil about to descend on the city?”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“How could a man “disappear” amidst all those elite law enforcement officials? Would things have been different if we were in charge?”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation.”
― Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy

“Dearborn and its’ police department only needs to do what they normally do. A higher level of vigilance is probably wise.”
What we normally do? Handling terrorist threats had become the new normal.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“The vast majority of states continue to withhold the right to vote when prisoners are released on parole. Even after the term of punishment expires, some states deny the right to vote for a period ranging from a number of years to the rest of one’s life. This is far from the norm in other countries—like Germany, for instance, which allows (and even encourages) prisoners to vote. In fact, about half of European countries allow all incarcerated people to vote, while others disqualify only a small number of prisoners from the polls. Prisoners vote either in their correctional facilities or by some version of absentee ballot in their town of previous residence. Almost all of the countries that place some restrictions on voting in prison are in Eastern Europe, part of the former Communist.
No other country in the world disenfranchises people who are released from prison in a manner even remotely resembling the United States. In fact, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has charged that U.S. disenfranchisement policies are discriminatory and violate international law.”
― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

“I saw the prison as an institution within which a proportion of the unproductive population of late capitalist societies could be housed, controlled and conveniently forgotten.”
― Thomas Mathiesen, Prison on Trial

“It is true that some public defenders are good lawyers and want to be effective advocates, but the institution is structured, so as to discourage their efforts.”
― Margaret Burnham

“There is nothing more vengeful and determined in this world than a cowboy with sore balls, and Gerry soon found out. He also found that white people are good witnesses to have on your side since they have names, addresses, social security numbers, and work phones. But they are terrible witnesses to have against you, almost as bad as having Indians witness for you. (" Scales ")”
― Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008

“I grew up in a neighborhood that was impoverished and in pain and bore all the modern-day outcomes of communities left without resources and yet supplied with tools of violence. But when someone in my neighborhood committed a crime, let alone a murder, all of us were held accountable, my God. Metal detectors, searchlights, and constant police presence, full-scale sweeps of kids just walking home from school--all justified by politicians and others who said they represented our needs. Where were these representatives when white guys shot us down?”
― Patrisse Khan-Cullors, When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

“Jack turned from his men and gazed out onto Michigan Avenue. It was a dreary spring day. The nasty weather mirrored how he was feeling after hearing the news of another potential terrorist attack in his beloved city.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Crime scene techs determined that Breitner had escaped underground, through a sewer drain below the warehouse. Smart move, asshole; you planned this escape and let the others take the fall. I will hunt you down, tough guy. I will find you…”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“If I was too busy, I wouldn’t have offered.”
Not too busy-nobody around to torture or murder? I should shoot this bastard right here, right now!”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Let’s just say that I am tired of sharing my city.” Am I speaking your language, asshole?”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Your infiltration idea sounds dangerous to me. I say we get Breitner, now. What’s a group without its leader? I’d call in the Feds, sooner than later. Cut off the head of the snake…”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“But this thing can go wrong in so many ways for so many reasons I can’t count them all.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“You could easily identify Blaine’s guys; they looked like white nationalists, but not these Breitner boys. These guys were your next-door neighbors, wife, two-point-five kids, a dog, a nice car, and a house in the ‘burbs.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Sure, wise guy. This ‘catch the bad guys’ stuff is way over the heads of us backwards country cops, right?”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Jack Dylan was about to face federal charges for stalking a victim and murdering him. He would probably be charged with murder in the first. If convicted, Jack Dylan faced mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole. Drastic action was required, and Shaheed knew with absolute certainty the one person he needed to call.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“...in the constant conflict between loyalty and service to policyholders versus loyalty and service to stockholders, the stockholders would emerge victorious every single time... He could not understand, though, how elected officials could take pro-insurance stances against the citizens who elected them. Carriers don’t vote, dammit; people do!”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“We’re still investigating. I’d like to charge him with being a complete asshole.”
“Sounds like Jack,” replied Zack. “But that doesn’t make him a murderer.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“...if the evidence points to his guilt, the fact that he’s a cop won’t mean shit. Murder is murder around these parts, cop or not.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“The first nonpartisans to observe the crime scene were the cops who arrived within seconds of the blast. And they immediately determined that Jack Dylan had murdered Bart Breitner. Things do not look good for Jack; things do not look good at all.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“A half-hour later, Zack, Micah and Matt Jordan, Micah’s crime scene specialist, were standing in the lobby of Manistee police headquarters, waiting for Alexander.
“What’s he like?” Micah asked.
“A little to the right of Buford T. Justice,” replied Zack, referencing Jackie Gleason’s classic portrayal of a country cop in Smokey and the Bandit.
“I love Buford T. Justice. If I were an actor and I could choose to play only one part, it would be Buford T. Justice.”
“Great role, Micah, but Buford is not the type of cop you want if you are trying to prove your client’s innocence.”
“Suppose not.”
A door opened, and Alexander walked out into the lobby. Micah started chuckling. Buford T. Justice!
“What’s so funny?” Chief Alexander asked.”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue

“Things are not as the prosecutor would have you believe, and the last time I checked, a man was still innocent until proven guilty in this country and in this state...”
― Mark M. Bello, Betrayal In Blue