Us and Them

"It's a very fine line," says Mike. "A lot of these guys, when they were younger, they liked the risk, and somehow they went the right way, and became cops. They don't start out saying, 'I'm going to be a corrupt cop,' but little by little . . ."

"It's a very fine line," says the court reporter. "And when they go, who polices the police?"

A vendor calling herself the Light Lady walks in, bearing battery-operated stuffed animals: a rock-around-the-clock crocodile, an elephant that lifts its trunk ("Instant Viagra," she jokes), a plastic figurine of a man blowing bubbles out his butt.

"We should buy the pig one for the Short Stop," says the court reporter.

"Rampart Division pig," says Deana.

A senior officer buys the crocodile for his granddaughter, and as we're watching it do the twist, a report about Rampart comes on TV. Deana turns up the sound, we all watch, and when it's over she mutes the sound, and for a minute the bar is silent, as if everyone is steadying himself for yet another scandal to be absorbed, explained, gotten through. Then someone asks for money for the jukebox. In here, for the moment, they're safe.