Back in the 1990s, I walked a beat as a New York City street cop in Harlem.

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While the Marines are here, they say it's unfortunate, but they're going to be playing the role of street cop to a large extent.

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He said his policy is never to call as a witness a police officer who has lied in the past, but he said Lee would likely be an exception, because "a street cop doesn't have Dr. Lee's reputation" or his grounding in science.

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He is often respectfully called a "grunt, " reflecting his climb to the department's upper ranks while seeming to recall the lessons of his street-cop days.

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And I must say they weren't much cop when I went to Oxford Street yesterday and asked if I could pay in euros, they'd never heard of them.

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This cutting edge cop show was rewarded with a following that made Hill Street Blues appointment television on NBC on Thursday night. (A trend which benefits the network to this day.) Every TV drama since, from ER to The Sopranos, owes a debt to Hill Street Blues.

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If Hill Street Blues belongs in the conversation about the greatest series of all time, Cop Rock is a contender for the worst.

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At one corner, I saw a cop grabbing the arm of a woman in front of me and pulling her into the street.

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