The influence of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs has finally broken out of the film-school ghetto and into the real-world application where it really belongs: law enforcement. A disbanded troupe of rogue Australian cops was exposed this week in a report citing four decades of skull-cracking work by the "Armed Offenders Squad," which had in recent years taken to amending the conventional cop uniform to include black suits, sunglasses and lyrical poetry talents in lieu of Tarantino's more confusing non-linear storytelling:

In one case, a hidden camera in a police interview room filmed detectives bashing a suspect during an interview. The suspect was repeatedly slapped and kicked, pinned to the ground and hit with a telephone when he asked to call someone. The detectives then tell the suspect not to "bleed everywhere." ... A poem written by a AOS member describes "a squad of men all as one, ready to fight until the job's done." "When banks get robbed and policemen are shot. The hierarchy cries, 'Who have we got'. Who can clean up this mess. Let's call on the men from the AOS," reads the poem The poem complains of criminals lying and police being reprimanded for taking tough action, but says: "So long as there's bad crooks, they'll need us around, if they're rid of us then crime will abound."

Sung to the tune of "Stuck in the Middle With You," natch.