Talking without connecting …

… A Different Sort of Criminal Code - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

In Coyle’s milieu, language is primarily a tool of manipulation and intimidation with which men who don’t like each other pry what they want out of each other. “I can certainly understand a man doesn’t want to rat on his friends,” Foley tells Coyle, after informing him that one bust won’t be enough to curry the judge’s favor. “I should’ve known better’n to trust a cop,” Eddie replies. “My goddamned mother could’ve told me that.” Foley, icily indifferent, repays him with this lapidary advice: “Everybody oughta listen to his mother.” Coyle is hardly a sympathetic character. All the same, Foley’s dismissive words underscore the way that men locked in battle disregard each other’s humanity and pain.