History Main / RabidCop

* ''Film/TheWorldOfKanako'': Ex-cop Akikazu beats up everybody who stands in his way and is very easy to set off. But is also beaten up several times.

The Rabid Cop might be [[DirtyCop casually dirty]], or [[BigotWithABadge bigoted]], or [[KnightTemplar overbearingly self-righteous]], or any combination of the above, but they will all have two things in common: a reckless disregard for civil rights, and [[InspectorJavert an unwavering conviction that any person they've identified as "the perp" actually is a perp (regardless of any contradicting evidence) and deserves to suffer]]. In a GoodCopBadCop routine, they usually take the "Bad Cop" ball and run clear out of the stadium with it, and they're likely to enjoy using TortureForFunAndInformation.

* Although he isn't in the circumstance described above, Alonzo Harris from the film ''Film/TrainingDay'' is the embodiment of this trope. He isn't insane though, just a sociopath.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* ''Film/{{Narc}}'':

The Rabid Cop might be [[DirtyCop casually dirty]], or [[BigotWithABadge bigoted]], ot [[KnightTemplar overbearingly self-righteous]], or any combination of the above, but they will all have two things in common: a reckless disregard for civil rights, and [[InspectorJavert an unwavering conviction that any person they've identified as "the perp" actually is a perp (regardless of any contradicting evidence) and deserves to suffer]]. In a GoodCopBadCop routine, they usually take the "Bad Cop" ball and run clear out of the stadium with it, and they're likely to enjoy using TortureForFunAndInformation.

* ''Manga/SpeedGrapher'': Hibari Ginza casually brutalizes suspects [[SelfDefenseRuse while claiming "self-defense"]], no matter how absurdly implausible her claims are (in one scene she does this while inside of a room full of fellow cops).

* ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu'' features a crazy traffic police officer named Yoko Wakana as a RecurringCharacter. On her first appearance, she relentlessly chases Sousuke and Kaname when they're escaping on a bike, and ends up trashing her patrol car. Later, she drags Kaname into helping her catch a stalker by threatening to arrest her, and later mistakes Sousuke (disguised as Bonta-kun) for said stalker and gets into a shootout with him.

* Several police on ''Series/TheWire'', but the standout examples are Anthony Colicchio, who attacks a teacher when said teacher asks him to move his police car that's blocking the street, and Eddie Walker, who breaks the fingers of a preteen carjacker because the kid's joyride (and collisions with parked cars) gave him additional paperwork to fill out.

The room is small. Help is far away, on the other side of many locked doors. Your arm is chained to the table and a Rabid Cop is [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique spraying spittle into your face]] in a way that convinces you that he has completely ''lost his mind.''

[[caption-width-right:350:I don't have the foggiest where your partner went, but I've got a breath mint you may be interested in.]]

The Rabid Cop might be [[DirtyCop casually dirty]], or [[BigotWithABadge a bigot]], ot [[KnightTemplar overbearingly self-righteous]], or any combination of the above, but they will all have two things in common: a reckless disregard for civil rights, and [[InspectorJavert an unwavering conviction that any person they've identified as "the perp" actually is a perp (regardless of any contradicting evidence) and deserves to suffer]]. In a GoodCopBadCop routine, they usually take the "Bad Cop" ball and run clear out of the stadium with it, and they're likely to enjoy using TortureForFunAndInformation.

The Rabid Cop might be [[DirtyCop casually dirty]], or [[KnightTemplar overbearingly self-righteous]], or anywhere in between, but they all have two things in common: a reckless disregard for civil rights, and [[InspectorJavert an unwavering conviction that any person they've identified as "the perp" really is a perp (regardless of any contradicting evidence) and deserves to suffer]]. In a GoodCopBadCop routine, they usually take the "Bad Cop" ball and run clear out of the stadium with it. Likely to enjoy using TortureForFunAndInformation.

Compare/contrast the (presumed) sympathetic CowboyCop. Not actually a cop but possessing many of the same attributes is the SchlubbyScummySecurityGuard. See PoliceBrutality and TheBadGuysAreCops for when this guy goes too far. KillerCop is when they skip the violence and go to straight-up murder.

** Zeke Banks from {{Spiral}}. Despite describing himself as the only good cop in the department, at the midpoint of the movie he breaks a man's leg, pours alcohol on it and hits the bone where it's sticking out of the leg. He's also an all-round asshole to people he's not beating up, like his ex wife and by extension, women in general.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': It's the overriding characteristic of the Jedi Knights (especially Mace Windu) in the prequel trilogy. (The costume designer even mentioned dressing the Jedi in black so they would look like intergalactic police officers.) They become increasingly vigilante-like and subversive in their attitude toward the Republican Senate until they finally decide that they must execute (okay, forget "execute", ''lynch'') Chancellor Palpatine in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' because he is a Sith Lord and because he could just manipulate the courts into setting him free if he were ever arrested. During the attack on Palpatine, Windu seems to have totally lost his mind - and, in that light, Palpatine and Anakin Skywalker's murder of him looks less like the Dark Side and [[WoundedGazelleGambit more like self-defense]].

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'':

Compare/contrast the (presumed) sympathetic CowboyCop. See PoliceBrutality and TheBadGuysAreCops for when this guy goes too far. KillerCop is when they skip the violence and go to straight-up murder.

* ''ComicBook/SinCity'': Even the Basin City cops who aren't [[DirtyCop actively corrupt]] or [[TheBadGuysAreCops on the payroll of the bad guys]] are usually pretty violent. For example, Lt. Liebowitz is perfectly fine with beating Hartigan right back into a coma in order to get a phoney confession from him (Hartigan still refuses), and he deals with the Colonel by just shooting him in face, though that guy ''really'' had it coming.

* Richard Chance, in ''Film/ToLiveAndDieInLA'', is an already hot-headed Secret Service agent who goes off the rails after his partner gets killed. He's brash with authority figures, doesn't like it when the rules get in the way of his plans, takes evidence without following protocol and resorts to ''blackmail and armed robbery'' to further his investigation. His antics [[spoiler:lead to the accidental death of an undercover FBI agent and his own killing]]. At the end of the movie, [[spoiler:Vukovitch]] follows in his footsteps.

** Nick Tellis himself is not far off from being a violent cop too. The reason why he was kicked out of the police force was because of him shooting a drug dealer holding a child hostage, resulting in one of his bullets hitting a pregnant woman.
* [[Creator/TakeshiKitano Detective Azuma]], the titular ''Film/ViolentCop'' [[note]]The movie is also Kitano's directorial debute [[/note]] is more of a VigilanteMan than an actual policeman. Azuma operates on a BlueAndOrangeMorality and upholds it with extreme violence regardless of the law. His MO is to simply terrify local hoodlums into turnig themselves in before he beats them to death. His colleagues treat him with a mix of disgust and admiration. Unsurprisingly, this approach works well against local JapaneseDelinquents but is completely useless against well-organized and connected crime syndicates who have most of his department on the take. [[spoiler: Most humiliatingly, Kikuchi, Azuma's rookie patrner who spent most of the movie being bullied by him, eventually lashes out by betraying Azuma to the mob and becoming a full-blown DirtyCop after his death.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': It's the overriding characteristic of the Jedi Knights (especially Mace Windu) in the prequel trilogy. (The costumer even mentioned dressing the Jedi in black so they would look like intergalactic police officers.) They become increasingly vigilante-like and subversive in their attitude toward the Republican Senate, until they finally decide that they must execute (okay, forget "execute", ''lynch'') Chancellor Palpatine in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' because he is a Sith Lord and because he could just manipulate the courts into setting him free if he were ever arrested. During the attack on Palpatine, Windu seems to have totally lost his mind - and, in that light, Palpatine and Anakin Skywalker's murder of him looks less like the Dark Side and [[WoundedGazelleGambit more like self-defense]].

* ''Film/{{Airheads}}'' gives us LAPD SWAT leader Carl Mace, who's only idea of dealing with a bunch of hostage takers is "kill them all" and constantly manipulates things so he will be allowed to storm the building or the hostage takers will exit and he can shoot them, even sneaking a ''sub-machine gun'' to an office clerk that got stuck sneaking around a la ''Film/DieHard'' so he can shoot them (and it's not unsubtly implied that he was already pretty angry before but then totally lost it when he found out that his wife was having an affair).

* The titular ''Film/DirtyHarry'' Callahan tap-dances between being this and being a CowboyCop. He can be pretty damn brutal to crooks (to the point that when he's accused of PoliceBrutality by the Scorpio Killer on the first film, he points out that it's obvious the Killer is trying to set him up--because if it had actually been him, the Killer wouldn't have even been able to ''walk'' afterwards) he still tries to at least follow the rules for police combat encounters.
* The second film, ''Film/MagnumForce'', has a whole group of these as a DeliberatelyBadExample. They start the film by going after criminals that have gotten OffOnATechnicality, but they perform their exterminations with an absolute disregard for collateral damage (even killing fellow cops that get in the way), and Harry asks to them on the denouement what will happen when they eventually become bold enough [[DisproportionateRetribution to start shooting anybody they can classify as "criminal", even jaywalkers and owners of really messy dogs]], with the answer given to him being "we will do as we please".

* Little Bill, the BigBad of ''Film/{{Unforgiven}}'' is a small-town sheriff, formerly-outlaw, who abuses his authority as an excuse to [[PoliceBrutality let out his outlaw side on the people he technically arrests]]. This culminates in [[spoiler:torturing an (innocent) man to death and then [[DeadGuyOnDisplay propping up his corpse outside the town saloon as a warning]]. Which turns out to be his undoing when the man's friend, another former-outlaw who is even more AxCrazy than Bill is, comes knocking.]]

** Mac Taylor does get his moment, though, in the crossover episode of where his girlfriend is kidnapped. Mac is pretty much raging by the time they can question one of the guys involved and yells and slams his hands down on the table. He gets told that Christine never made it to Vegas and is being held in New York. Several of the interrogations in the ''{{Series/CSI NY}}'' half of the story are quite intense as well.
** ''[=CSI=]'' also provides us an InUniverse {{Flanderization}} example on the episode ''"Lab Rats"'', with the [[RPGEpisode prototype-tabletop-game]][[ShowWithinAShow -within-a-show]] having Detective Brass as a man who [[DissonantSerenity nonchalantly]] uses violence against those who don't answer his questions or resists arrest. Various other episodes throughout all of the franchise's shows also provide examples of cases where a cop losing control and brutalizing a suspect makes things harder to the investigation.
*
* John Walker from ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' proves to be unique example in episode three, when he assaults a civilian who he knows helped the people he’s looking for. [[spoiler: He also brutally murders an unarmed man, who while a terrorist, was begging for his life and wasn’t responsible for his friend Lemar‘s (accidental) death.]]

** Elliot Stabler can be a ''very'' violent person during his interrogations, especially when ItsPersonal or, as the father of four children, he comes up against anybody who WouldHurtAChild. Elliot can reach a boiling point so hot that multiple people have to come physically restrain him. No wonder him and IAB were so well-acquainted. Many theorized the series would not end until he actually killed someone, ending his massive fall from grace... and ironically, he did end up off the show due to a killing in the precinct, although it was A) a 'clean' (wholly justified) shoot of someone that was shooting up the holding cell, and B) happened to be a 14 year old girl he was wholly sympathetic with. He couldn't take the guilt and handed in his resignation letter shortly afterward.

** Dana Lewis is also an example of this. Though she did have a running gag where, in every episode she was featured Elliot would end up being hurt in some way, the episode "Penetration" ends with her chasing down her rapist and cornering him in a warehouse with her gun drawn, and she actually tries to shoot the guy. The episode "Secrets Exhumed" ends up with her being arrested and thrown in prison for 25 years when it's revealed that long ago she killed her ex-boyfriend's girlfriend out of jealousy and spite, and [[TheAtoner spent the next few decades as a cop trying to redeem herself and do good for society.]]

* Played for laughs in a courtroom sketch on ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''. Police Constable Pan Am is called to the witness box and immediately starts smacking everybody around with his baton. His testimony, which he reads straight out of his notebook, clearly indicates that he and other officers beat a confession out of the defendent.

* Jack Malone of ''Series/WithoutATrace'' can be pretty worked up and he will do anything to get information on on those poor missing people.

* Sergeant Hank Voight of ''Series/ChicagoPD'' is normally extremely brutal, but controlled and calculating in his use of violence. When he gets properly pissed however, his colleagues know to simply go along with the mayhem rather than try and do anything to stop him.
On ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', after most of the corrections officers at Litchfield quit their jobs shortly after Litchfield was privatized, the MegaCorp that now owned the prison suggested hiring veterans in their place. Great, except these were {{Shell Shocked Veteran}}s, many of whom would become easily frustrated with inmates, and failed to differentiate between their jobs as soldiers and their current jobs as corrections officers at a ''minimum security'' prison.
* ''Film/TheWorldOfKanako'': Ex-cop Akikazu beats up everybody who stands is his way and is very easily to set off. But is also beaten up several times.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Desperation}}'': Collie Entragian, who casually inserts the words "I'm going to kill you" into the Miranda rights he reads, and then proceeds to shoot and kill Peter Carver right in front of his wife Ellen. He turns out to be [[spoiler:possessed by the AncientEvil known as Tak]].
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
** THAT! IS! NOT! MY! COW!. Vimes does whatever he can to not turn into one, to the point that he [[spoiler: actually has a Vimes-esque entity in his mind to prevent him from succumbing to the darkness.]]
--->"Who watches the watchman? I do."
** Sergeant Detritus has three questions for suspects, usually delivered [[NoIndoorVoice at some volume]]: ‘Did you do it?’, ‘Are you sure it wasn’t you what done it?’ and ‘It was you what done it, wasn't it?’. Fortunately, he's easily derailed into giving up by cunning tactics such as simple denial.
* Averted in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Changes''. Rudolph tries his best to play the Bad Cop, but all his desk-pounding and spittle-flecked screaming manages to do is cause Harry to crack up and the other interrogator ends up ordering him out of the room. It probably helps that Harry has seen Rudolph ''freak out'' whenever confronted with the sort of thing he deals with all the time.
* Captain Zuccho from ''Literature/{{Incompetence}}'' has a HairTriggerTemper, to put it lightly. Asking him to calm down will result in him randomly ''shooting at the pavement''. Reputedly, he is on Prozac, but it doesn't seem to be helping.
* In the Creator/DaleBrown book ''A Time for Patriots'', a group of FBI agents are so desperate to find a scapegoat for the WesternTerrorists' dirty bomb attack they failed to stop that they go after Patrick [=McLanahan=] and his son.
* In the Mario Puzo novel from which ''Film/TheGodfather'' trilogy was mined, Albert Neri starts as a prime example of one of these. [[KillerCop Then he gets worse.]]
[[/folder]]

* Mac Taylor does get his moment, though, in the crossover episode of ''{{Series/CSI}}'' where his girlfriend is kidnapped. Mac is pretty much raging by the time they can question one of the guys involved and yells and slams his hands down on the table. He gets told that Christine never made it to Vegas and is being held in New York. Several of the interrogations in the ''{{Series/CSI NY}}'' half of the story are quite intense as well.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' provides us an InUniverse {{Flanderization}} example on the episode ''"Lab Rats"'', with the [[RPGEpisode prototype-tabletop-game]][[ShowWithinAShow -within-a-show]] having Detective Brass as a man who [[DissonantSerenity nonchalantly]] uses violence against those who don't answer his questions or resists arrest. Various other episodes throughout all of the franchise's shows also provide examples of cases where a cop losing control and brutalizing a suspect makes things harder to the investigation.
* On ''Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack'', after most of the corrections officers at Litchfield quit their jobs shortly after Litchfield was privatized, the MegaCorp that now owned the prison suggested hiring veterans in their place. Great, except these were {{Shell Shocked Veteran}}s, many of whom would become easily frustrated with inmates, and failed to differentiate between their jobs as soldiers and their current jobs as corrections officers at a ''minimum security'' prison.

* ''Film/{{Airheads}}'' gives us LAPD SWAT leader Carl Mace, who's only idea of dealing with a bunch of hostage takers is "KillEmAll" and constantly manipulates things so he will be allowed to storm the building or the hostage takers will exit and he can shoot them, even sneaking a ''sub-machine gun'' to an office clerk that got stuck sneaking around a la ''Film/DieHard'' so he can shoot them (and it's not unsubtly implied that he was already pretty angry before but then totally lost it when he found out that his wife was having an affair).

[[folder:Anime And Manga]]
* John "Sleepy" Estes, the titular ''Manga/MadBull34'', who currently graces the page with the picture on top. He doesn't do PoliceBrutality--he does Police ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Overkill]]'' (like carrying ''about a dozen hand grenades strapped like a loincloth under his pants'', just in case).

* Lt. Carter Blake in ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' is a psychopathic police officer with immunity from the local precinct (why, nobody knows) who prefers beating a suspect rather than extracting any information, has no problem with breaking the law in order to investigate, and will have no qualms about killing. Initially, he's rather reserved to just beating suspects, and then he roughs up a psychologist who has done absolutely nothing. And then does everything in his power to assure those affiliated with the investigation that [[PapaWolf Ethan Mars]] is the Origami Killer. [[TheProfiler The FBI agent attached to the investigation, Norman Jayden]], isn't convinced, and the two have a very rough rivalry. If Ethan is arrested, then it leads to a [[MoralEventHorizon scene where Blake will mercilessly beat Ethan into unconsciousness]]. Jayden can intervene and punch Blake, which will prompt him to hold Jayden at gunpoint, waiting for the perfect opportunity to kill him.
** It doesn't stop there. One possibility at the end of the game has Blake [[spoiler:ordering his squad of officers to gun down Ethan who had finally reunited with Shaun, his ten-year-old son, after having gone to incredible lengths to save him from drowning in the warehouse's well, all while the aforementioned son watches in horror as his beloved father's body falls to the ground, lifeless. All because Blake refused to believe anyone but Ethan could be the Origami Killer and the instant the obviously unarmed man clutches his left hip in agony instead of keeping his hands up, Blake gives the order to shoot]]. Needless to say, Blake is by far the most hated character in the game, even the actual killer doesn't come close. The worst part? In any good ending [[KarmaHoudini he gets away with everything]].
* Saren Arterius of ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''. As a Spectre, he's essentially a Council space cop with no strings attached, and he plays it to the hilt - making frequent usage of the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique, pursuing his own ambitions on the side and pinning the collateral damage on people he doesn't like. He's the same sadistic, racist government law officer we've seen in many other works - just relocated to a sci-fi setting. And this was what he was like ''before'' he went JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope.

* Manny Pardo from ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'' starts off as a mere CowboyCop with little regard for protocol, but as the game progresses he starts showing off more Jerkass tendencies. He becomes a full-on Rabid Cop when he [[spoiler: executes an unarmed and surrendering Tony.]] It's also hinted at that he's [[spoiler: the Miami Mutilator.]]

** The [[MightyGlacier Bulldozer]] is a cop clad in nigh-impenetrable armor, and is dead set on ruining your whole day.
-->''Watch me CRUSH THIS GUY!''
-->''Stay alive, SO I CAN KILL YOU MYSELF!''
-->''You are so FUCKED!!''
** The [[GlassCannon Cloaker]] is a psychotic law enforcer, capable of taking down a player with one DivingKick attack, and issuing a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown with their baton.
-->''Alright, the safe word is "PoliceBrutality"!''
-->''We call this a difficulty tweak!''
-->''[[BreakingTheFourthWall Now go to the forums and cry like the little bitch you are!]]''

-->''Taser gun set to "almost kill"!
-->''Rubber diaper, anyone?''
-->''Shock treatment prescribed!''

[[folder: Web Comics]]
* Webcomic/AxeCop, although it's strictly PlayedForLaughs, doesn't hesitate to [[OffWithHisHead chop off the heads]] of everyone known to be a Bad Guy.

[[folder: Western Animation]]