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It’s A Fair Cop Definition & Meaning

August 24, 2023
Bill Kimball

For those who like men, there’s Silver Fox DI Lestrade, who, like most of the male cast, wears well-tailored suits. For those who like women, there’s DS Sally Donovan, who’s got legs and the gun to back them up.

Once we have the government dictating language usage, then we’ll start getting language cops. Lt. Christine Malone from the TimeSplitters series.

Justified, because in Demolition Man, the police force had become little more than ornamental, so more attractive officers are probably given preference. Ghost in the Shell Togusa is the youngest and most naive member of Section 9, and the only one who is not a cyborg. Unlike the rest of the team, he’s not an ex-special forces member but used to be a regular police officer. He’s also the only one who has not yet become completely cynical, but the job is steadily pushing him into that direction as well. The title is a play on the British and Australian expression “It’s a fair cop”, said when one admits having been caught fair and square.

And yes, that blue uniform is standard-issue. The Webcomic Girly has a very lampshaded version in the form of Officer Hipbone , and Policeguy is considered one of this – The Casanova had mistaken him for a pretty woman before his haircut.

Halloween, Or It’s A Fair Cop Alice

She shows her badge to Austin and goes, “You have the right to remain sexy, sugar,” to which he replies, “Ooh, I hope there’s a search involved.” Granted that they weren’t being serious at the time. In the new universe Dani is also a police officer for the NYPD. Tract Ais of White Sand is quite pretty, especially compared to other women in the comic. Squid Girl has Keiko Furukawa, a beautiful and absolutely adorable young policewoman. She once traded her uniform for a bikini to stand out less, but ended up standing out more because nearby customers were now attracted to how cute she is.

For much of its history, it was often seen as dismissive or derogatory, though most police officers are just fine with it in contemporary use. In Belarus, there is a beauty pageant called “Miss Belarus Detective” featuring female police officers. A web search brings up photos of uniformed contestants from the last five years (they do not look like dressed-up models so the pageant seems to be the real thing). An episode of COPS followed Desiree Gaudet, a stunningly attractive New Orleans police officer during Mardi Gras. At least twice she was approached by cops from other states telling her she was the most beautiful policewoman they’d ever seen. “Cop” in the phrase “a fair cop” is a noun related to the verb “cop” quoted above.

It comes from the same root as the term cop for a policeman. This may be from the slang verb cop, meaning to seize, originally a dialect term of northern England that by the beginning of the nineteenth century was known throughout the country. This can be followed back through French caper to Latin capere, to seize or take, from which we also get our capture. (See also the piece on cop, a policeman.) So a cop in this sense was an example of a seizure or capture.

Danny Reagan no doubt has some fangirls too. Jessica Alba from Machete as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Sartana Rivera. Officer Lindsey Taylor and Officer Ava Perez in CHIPs fill this trope by the book . Officer Kaz Nicol in Beyond the Lights spends a lot of time without a shirt and is certainly not hard on the eyes. Also one of the few cops on the show who was never hostile to the heroes. Yoriko and Aoi are also fairly attractive and have had suitors of their own.

that's a fair cop

The etymology is simple enough but there’s no reference to WHY it was used. My understanding is that it was an expression used by petty criminals for whom arrest was an occupational hazard to be navigated with the minimum of harm to themselves. It indicated that there would be no attempt to resist arrest and that, therefore, there was no need to use violence against them. The sense of “fair” meant is “honourably, correctly”. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “cop” in this sense means capture.

Words Related To Cop

According to the game, her impeccable arrest record is enough to make her chest swell with pride. Persona 2 gives us Tatsuya’s older brother, Katsuya, who is stated to be the target of all the women on the force’s affection. It’s stated in a TV program on 3 that Tatsuya himself became a cop. Aya Brea from Parasite Eve has quite a few admirers over the course of the game series, including her nameless date at the beginning of the series, Maeda, Pierce, and Kyle.

that's a fair cop

This is ironic given that when The Bill first came out one reviewer praised its realistic look, especially referring to the lack of excessively attractive actors on the show. Crows agent Sophie Moore from Batwoman is very attractive. Captain Holly Short of the LEP from the Artemis Fowl series. Although she starts as a mess of a woman, her looks are a plot point, since she’s the best candidate to go undercover at a beauty pageant despite her unladylike demeanor. Deputy Rita Marrick in Army of One, although given her wardrobe, she is also filling the Ms. Fanservice trope. She starts the movie wearing a Little Black Dress, spends the majority of the film in tight jeans and a crop top, and appears in a form-fitting uniform at the end of the movie in the original ending . GCPD Detective Larry Lance was an attractive Gotham detective for an earlier generation.

Once, when interviewing the owner of a talent agency for male strippers, he thought they were there for the tryouts. He encouraged Ryan, but said he had enough guys who look like Esposito, who got offended, mentioning he was previously in an NYPD calendar.

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Many of her missions made use of her good looks to get close to male crime bosses. Det. Bobby Simone deserves a mention as well, being played by the very handsome Jimmy Smits. Well, DC Chris Skelton is definitely in the running, as is WPC Annie Cartwright. Then there’s Sam Tyler, who seems to wear a lot of skin-tight shirts with very at least three buttons undone . Search ‘Gene Hunt is sexy’ and see how many hits you get.

  • The sense of “fair” meant is “honourably, correctly”.
  • Birdy Cephon Altera, the title character of Birdy the Mighty is a beautiful Space Police officer.
  • Marge probably counts as one in the episode where she becomes a cop.
  • Almost every single main character on ABC’s High Incident.
  • Noa’s no slouch in the looks department either.

Larry ended up married to the first Black Canary and fathering the second. Tokyo Ghoul has several Ghoul Investigators that earn comments about their good looks. Arima and Akira have both been described as beautiful, while Amon is repeatedly called handsome by admiring women. In her debut episode, Kanauka had practically all the guys in the division falling over themselves asking her out, or simply asking for her phone number, or if she had a sister as beautiful as she is. It actually took Gotoh to get them to settle down long enough just so she could finish introducing herself.

Cop

Researching “fair cop” in the Online Etymology Dictionary didn’t get me very far. Add it’s a fair cop to one of your lists below, or create a new one. This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage. Other theories root cop as an acronym for constable on patrol or as a reference to copper badges early policemen wore in New York .

Also, his partner Kabal was pretty handsome too, before his Emergency Transformation, as Mortal Kombat 9 shows. You encounter a few asari police in Mass Effect, especially when you visit Illium in 2.

Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker, and Rebecca Chambers are all very easy on the eyes, with the second game introducing fan-favorite Pretty Boy Leon S. Kennedy. The children’s game of cops and robbers is attested from 1900. You will understand that this is, and always has been, an entirely fictitious view of the relationship between British criminals and the police.

NYPD officer Carol Shaya was fired after she posed for nude photos in Playboy. She sued the department for wrongful dismissal but lost the case, as described here on The Other Wiki. While he’s more cute in a dorky way than straight-up attractive, the comic’s female characters certainly think he fits. One is dating him, and another has a crush on him. She is somewhat unusual for the trope since she is a butch lesbian who doesn’t seem to care much for traditional male ideas of female beauty. New York Undercover to varying degrees and more realistic than the model-types frequently seen on other police shows, but overall, a very good-looking collection of officers. Det. Ed Green (played by Jesse L. Martin), earns a fair number of points for supplying the sexy voice, tall stature and beautiful smile.

British Dictionary Definitions For Cop 3 Of

A Fair Cop is any police officer who is ridiculously attractive, ridiculously young, or both. This should not, however, carry with it assumptions that they are dumb. Call it the police version of Hot Scientist or, even closer, Good-Looking Privates. Cop has many other senses in English outside the U.S. The more British expression fair cop, or “an admission of wrongdoing,” was notably used in the 1975 Monty Python and Holy Grail. Ghost Trick has Lynne, a pretty teenage redhead who has just been named detective. She seems to attract the eyes and occupy the thoughts of some male officers.

Who Uses Cop?

For a male example, there’s minor character PC Omer Kubat, who’s so good looking other police never believe he’s police even when he’s in uniform. Guard Sally Bishop in Con Air technically fills this trope, even though she is a prison guard and not a police officer. In-universe this proves to be a problem for her once the inmates take over the plane, as there is a convicted rapist on board as well. For those who prefer male officers, the Pokémon Adventures arcs set in Johto have Falkner, who works as a cop in addition to his Gym Leader duties. Clarabelle “Bell” Kawamoto from Jagaaaaaan is a police officer and is very sexy. Kirihara Misaki from Darker Than Black in season 1 and part of season 2 until she quits the police force.