They've got a gun and a badge, but these government-sanctioned miscreants really belong in an institution of some sort.

<strong>9. Det. Vin Makazian, <i>The Sopranos</i></strong>- Being into Tony Soprano for thousands of bucks in gambling debts, drinking like Liza, and whoring about doesn't necessarily make Makazian (John Heard) a rotten guy. Using his badge to bully Dr. Melfi and her spineless date, though - that ain't right and it ain't fair and it ain't right. Unlike the rest of the cops on this list, he couldn't live with the shame and offed himself by taking a particularly picturesque gainer off a Jer-Z bridge.

<strong>8. Officer John Ryan, <i>Crash</i></strong>- Matt Dillon's cop has some serious unresolved issues with rage and race, as witnessed by his unprovoked traffic-stop fondling of the lovely Thandie Newton. But gosh, because people can't be painted solely in terms of black or white, he still helps her out of a fiery car crash a day or two later. See, racism is complicated! God, we hate this treacly fucking movie.

<strong>10. Sean Nokes, <i>Sleepers</i> and Sgt. Ray Duquette, <i>Wild Things</i> (tie)</strong> - There's something downright creepy about Kevin Bacon: the low-lidded stare, the slow drawl, the way his fingers linger just a little too long on the shoulders of male and female perp alike. Oh, wait—we're supposed to be talking about the sadistic guard he plays in Sleepers and the scammy, scummy detective he portrays in Wild Things, and not Bacon himself? Never mind.

<strong>6. Dennis Peck, <i>Internal Affairs</i></strong>- If you're anything like us, you found it impossible to believe that Dalai Lama-loving Richard Gere could so coldly, terrifyingly inhabit the slimy, wife-groping, gun-planting Dennis Peck. Of course, if you're anything like us, you've also tried hypnotherapy to erase all traces of Gere and his Julia Roberts-accessory roles from your memory.

<strong>5. T-1000, <i>Terminator 2: Judgment Day</i></strong>- Sure, he's not technically a cop. Or a human. Or a he. He's actually some kind of viscous, amorphic goo sent from the future to vaporize a kid, or something. But T-1000 (Robert Patrick) wears and abuses that uniform like a bona-fide member of the LAPD.

<strong>4. Capt. Dudley Smith, <i>L.A. Confidential</i></strong>- One moment, you get an affectionate pat on the shoulder and a warm "laddie"; the next, you eat lead, lest that you reveal his complicity in drug-dealing and related thuggery. Amazingly, Capt. Dudley - played with the proverbial twinkle in the eye by James Cromwell - is roughly 18 times more evil in the "L.A. Quartet" series of James Ellroy novels that fueled the film.

<strong>3. The Strike Team, <i>The Shield</i></strong>- Whether robbing the Armenian mob or blackmailing fellow officers, Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins), and Ronnie Gardocki (David Rees Snell) have never met an extracurricular activity they didn't like. Bonus moral-bankruptcy points: they've killed two of their own, including longtime cohort Curtis "Lemonhead" Lemansky (Kenny Johnson).

<strong>2. The Lieutenant, <i>Bad Lieutenant</i></strong>- Harvey Keitel's copper enjoys his recreational drugs. He boinks and bullies hookers. He's not above leering at teenage gals. In short, he is bad - a "bad lieutenant," if you will.

<strong>1. Alonzo, <i>Training Day</i></strong>- Having Alonzo (Denzel Washington) as your law-and-order mentor, as Ethan Hawke's exquisitely goateed Jake did in Training Day, is like having Benicio Del Toro as your diction coach, or a Kennedy as your sobriety counselor.

<strong>7. Capt. Byron Hadley, <i>The Shawshank Redemption</i></strong>- Clancy Brown's brute of a prison guard can be reasoned with, yes. He can also be counted to beat you into paralysis or threaten to launch you from a rooftop if he doesn't buy your particular line of reasoning. He's sorta like Judge Judy that way.