First Blood - Authority and Responsibility in Law Enforcement
Deputy Lester: [referring to the mistreatment of Rambo]
I was just talking to Mitch, and he said that Gault and a couple of the deputies were... a little hard on the guy.
Capt. Kern:
Assholes!
Sheriff Teasle:
It doesn't make one goddamn bit of difference, Dave, and you know it! If one of my deputies... gets out of line with a prisoner then the prisoner comes to me with it. And if I find out it's like he says I kick the deputy's ass! Me! The Law! People start fucking around with the law then all hell breaks loose! Whatever possessed God in heaven to make a man like Rambo?
Trautman:
God didn't make Rambo... I made him!
Teasle:
Who the hell are you?
Trautman:
Sam Trautman, Colonel Samuel Trautman.
Teasle:
Look, we're a little busy this morning, Colonel. What can I do for you?
Trautman:
I've come to get my boy.
Kern:
Your boy?
Trautman:
I recruited him. I trained him. I commanded him in Vietnam for three years... I'd say that makes him mine.
Teasle:
I wonder why the Pentagon would send a full-bird Colonel down here to handle this.
Trautman:
The Army thought I might be able to help.
Teasle: [scoffs]
I don't know. In what way? Rambo's a civilian now, he's my problem.
Trautman:
I don't think you understand. I didn't come here to rescue Rambo from you. I came here to rescue you from him.
Teasle: [clearly offended by Trautman's words]
Well, we all appreciate your concern Colonel, I will try to be extra careful!
Trautman:
I'm just amazed he allowed any of your posse to live.
Teasle:
Is that right?
Trautman:
Strictly speaking, he slipped up. You're lucky to be breathing.
Teasle: [sets aside paper, annoyed at the remark]
That's just great. Colonel, you came out here to find out why one of your machines blew a gasket!
Trautman: [[w:Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla warfare; [w:Vietnam War|Vietnam; [w:attrition warfare|attrition]
You don't seem to want to accept the fact that you're dealing with an expert in ], with a man who's the best! With guns, with knives, with his bare hands! A man who's been trained to ignore pain! To ignore weather! To live off the land! To eat things that would make a billy goat puke! In ] his job was to dispose of enemy personnel... to kill, period! Win by ]... well, Rambo was the best!
Teasle:
Now we're afraid, what do you and the special forces suggest we do with the psychopath?
Trautman:
Let him go.
Lester:
What?
Trautman:
For now. Defuse the situation, defuse him. Provide a little...gap, and let him slip through it. Then put out a nationwide APB. In a couple of weeks you'll find him in Seattle or someplace, working in a car wash. There'll be no fight and nobody else will get hurt.
Teasle:
I do my own work. I don't figure the best way to do that is to close my eyes and hope he gets picked up in Seattle!
Col. Trautman:
Well if you send your people in there after him they'll get killed!
Sheriff Teasle: [getting more irritated]
You know, we're just a small, hick-town sheriff's department, Colonel, but we're expected to do our duty just like our heroes in the Special Forces.
Trautman:
In Special Forces we teach our people to stay alive in the line of duty.
Teasle:
No shit, I never thought of that.
Trautman:
You want a war you can't win?
Teasle:
Are you tellin me that two hundred men against your boy is a no-win situation for us?
Trautman:
You send that many, don't forget one thing.
Teasle:
What?
Trautman:
A good supply of body-bags.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.