325 Quotes by Ben Aaronovitch

And they can hold a sustained conversation, which indicates human levels of intelligence. Although, to be fair, I’ve met some bare stupid people who could have a conversation, so that might not prove anything.

People are conditioned by the media to think that black women are all shouting, and head shaking and girlfriending and “oh no you didn’t” and if they’re not sassy, then they’re dignified and downtrodden and soldiering on and “I don’t understand why folks just can’t get along.” But if you see a black woman go quiet the way Tyburn did, the eyes bright, the lips straight and the face still as a death mask, you have made an enemy for life, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred. Do.

The media are doing this, not because they have a sinister motive, but because they love to feel that they are influencing events. That’s why they hate politicians so much, because politicians have direct power and they do not.

I don’t like my bacon sandwich to be curiously snuffling at my fingers. But sometimes being police means holding your breath and fondling a pig.

I didn’t ask why anybody would want to risk the electric two-step on the tracks because, as police, all three of us knew that there wasn’t anything so stupid that somebody wouldn’t try it sooner or later.

Zach Palmer, who was half human and half – we weren’t really sure what, including the possibility that the other half might be human as well.

It’s a police mantra that all members of the public are guilty of something, but some members of the public are more guilty than others.

The night may be dark and full of terrors, I thought, but I’ve got a big stick.

Policing is about moving from the unknown to the known and then further – to the provable.