“Something doesn’t have to be very big before it’s too big for us and likewise something doesn’t have to be all that small before it’s not worth worrying about.”
Hey, when it comes to advice your first day on the job, what could be more inspiring, right. Newly hired Constable Ross is being shown the ropes by a police sergeant already neck-deep into the kind of corruption attitude that can poison an entire community.
“Never arrest a wife basher if his missus is still warm.”
Yes, indeed, Sgt. Simmonds is a true sweetheart of a guy. The corruption in his precinct runs so deep that domestic violence is not really an act of violence unless its murder. In which it’s not really domestic violence anymore. Kind of a Catch-22 or victims, but unbelievably convenient for lazy police officers.
"I can't afford to get involved, mate. I've got ten thousand dollars’ worth of equipment ticking over out there in the drive."
The logical extension of police corruption is public apathy. When a community comes to realize that they can’t depend on the police for protection because they won’t do their job, there is a trickle-down effect. If the police won’t do their job, why should they public do it for them.
“Did you two freaks think you did me?”
The storyline here is a pretty dark one linking domestic violence and police corruption. When describing the plot and taking quotes out of context, the appearance can be one implying that The Removalists is unrelenting depressing theatrical experience when, in fact, it is more rightly described as a black comedy. A very black comedy, perhaps—the playwright suggests it is “black satire”--but laughs are to be found. Oddly enough—or, perhaps, naturally enough—it is the domestic abuser Kenny who is the center of the black hole of humor in this otherwise distinctly serious play.
