Tenpenny - a menace or an unlikely hero?

[BlackSnow176]

Hey there!

 

I've been wondering that for years, how do others view Officer Tenpenny's character? Is he really a hero or is he a menace to society?

 

Yes, Tenpenny is a corrupt cop; Yes, Tenpenny was responsible for the death of Officer Pendebury (who was a rat); Yes Tenpenny did pin the murder on CJ and was using him ever since; Yes, Tenpenny did so many other horrible acts as to not be exposed. But overall, is Tenpenny really that bad?

 

"Intimidate those who intimidate others, Carl. It's my job." -- Officer Tenpenny

 

Unlike many other police officers, Tenpenny wasn't a racist who blindly shot at innocent people. He wanted to make Los Santos a better place, even if it meant abusing his powers. After all the horrendous acts he's commited, his ultimate goal was to restore order in Los Santos and eliminate gang violence. He didn't just hate Grove Street and our main characters, he hated all the gangs and wanted them to basically extinct each other. Had he succeeded, the street crime rates in Los Santos would've significantly lowered.

 

Granted a lot of gang members (such as CJ and Sweet) weren't all that bad and were only trying to survive, that wasn't (isn't) the case with most gang members in general. Drug smuggling, prostitution, weapons trading, rape, murder, kidnapping, drive-by's, recketeering are only a small part of the acts they commit to each other and innocent people, and are only giving the black community a bad name by blowing each other's brains.

 

I know for a fact there are many people living in the ghettos who are afraid to go out at night because of the gang violence. Who are afraid that their children might get in the wrong crowd and join a gang. Who are afraid that one day their kid might become a casualty in crossfire between rival gangs. I think that gang crime plays a large part in racism today and the negative stereotypes toward people of color. In his own words, Frank Tenpenny only wanted to take the trash out (even if that meant breaking the law).

 

"Assholes! You never understood what I did! Fifty of me, and this town would be okay! I took the trash out! I did! And I'd do it all again!" -- Officer Tenpenny

 

So my question to you is, how do you view Officer Tenpenny's character overall? Is he really that bad? Is he an unlikely hero or is he just another crooked cop giving police a bad name? A little bit of both perhaps? Please discuss

 

Edited October 28, 2015 by BlackSnow176

[Andromeda-J]

that character has so much controversy in him that this topic might start "gang war" of it's own, but there is a chance this will remain calm if people think with logic but leaving emotions out of this!

Edited October 25, 2015 by Jaanus949

[just Gesha]

First of all I gotta say, that I like Tenpenny and I think he's the best villian! Yeah he knew how to control the streets, but why he was helping gangs if wanted to get them off the streets? I can't say that he wasn't bad, he did many nasty things and still got out clean at the end. He was worse than all of the gangs and things they were doing. There are many ways of getting something, but he didn't choose the right one and it made him a bad guy. Still I love the way this character was made, the way he was talking and acting was beautiful and very frightening for all the characters who made a contact with him.

[Big_Smiley]

What i liked about him that his voice actor Samuel L. jackson did a grate job on his character. Really Wish the present gta's had amazing characters like Tenpenny. To me in the gta series he's an antagonist to never forget. Also loved his hilarious quotes.

 

"I can sh*t on you from such a height, you'll thank god himself took a crap on you" -Tenpenny Classic

Edited October 25, 2015 by GTA_The_Series

[thafablifee46]

?? He wasnt good at all, he would never be a hero

Edited October 25, 2015 by thafablifee46

[Andromeda-J]

"I can sh*t on you from such a height, you'll thank god himself took a crap on you" -Tenpenny Classic

for that i got hillarious thing of my own to say: with the 2dfx and whole map loading script mod you can see SA from such a height that tenpenny would piss and crap himself when he got there to crap on CJ and all that happens so fast he wouldn't be able to aim to crap on CJ!

Edited October 26, 2015 by Jaanus949

[Helegad]

Frank was a bad guy, but in the same way our protagonists are bad people too. I have much sympathy for Tenpenny; he was probably corrupted by his previous superiors just like he does to Pulaski and Hernandez, but Frank at least utilizes his corruption in a way that also cleans up the city. Bad people killing bad people is not so much a bad thing, depending on how much you care for humans, and Frank really did take out the trash, instead of just politicizing and talking about the issue of gang warfare in Los Santos. He's a f*cked up man in a f*cked up world, and I understand a lot of what he did. I might just do the same.

 

Our protagonists in San Andreas were just gangbangers with character development and selfish morals. No more, no less. Still, by the end, Carl had done more to end gang warfare, and still had a few good moral principles left. It's poetic that Carl was the one to kill Frank, but it really made no difference to anyone outside of his immediate family and circle of good friends. Their cat and mouse game had just run its course, and somebody had to die.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Helegad

[BlackSnow176]

Frank was a bad guy, but in the same way our protagonists are bad people too. I have much sympathy for Tenpenny; he was probably corrupted by his previous superiors just like he does to Pulaski and Hernandez, but Frank at least utilizes his corruption in a way that also cleans up the city. Bad people killing bad people is not so much a bad thing, depending on how much you care for humans, and Frank really did take out the trash, instead of just politicizing and talking about the issue of gang warfare in Los Santos. He's a f*cked up man in a f*cked up world, and I understand a lot of what he did. I might just do the same.

 

Our protagonists in San Andreas were just gangbangers with character development and selfish morals. No more, no less. Still, by the end, Carl had done more to end gang warfare, and still had a few good moral principles left. It's poetic that Carl was the one to kill Frank, but it really made no difference to anyone outside of his immediate family and circle of good friends. Their cat and mouse game had just run its course, and somebody had to die.

 

My point exactly. That post deserves a hundred likes ^^

 

In a way, CJ eliminated gang crime in Los Santos all by himself (in case you took all turfs).

Edited October 26, 2015 by BlackSnow176

[Helegad]

Frank Tenpenny is one of my favorite antagonists in gaming. He's a bad guy from one wide angle and a good guy if you compare him to our protagonists or even just think about it enough. Samuel L. Jackson did a fantastic job with Frank; despite how many movies I've seen Sam in and all the wonderful memories I have of them, I still don't instinctively remember that it is him when seeing Tenpenny. I'm involved in the characters rather than the media itself. That's a natural sign of great writing and acting.

[Lemoyne outlaw]

i always thought of tennpenny as a bad guy and a jerk. but after reading this post he might not be that bad.as the player your being blackmailed and forced to work for him. so we dont like him for that. but as a civillian and regular person i would think he is helping. yea he is corrupt and has done bad things but he did want to get rid of these stupid gangs and stop crime. but he couldent do it his way without breaking the law himself. he was going to kill cj too. but he got to cover. that shows that cj and his group werent invincible from him either. i guess its like they say there is two sides to one coin. us the players hate him because he is hasseling us. but from a civillian pont of view cj is just street trash and tennpenny is helping.

[Son of Zeus]

Tenpenny joined the CRASH with good intentions, but I think he was corrupted by his senior like Hernandez was corrupted by Tenpenny.

 

So Tenpenny just kind of went along with it. He knew he'd be in trouble if he tried exposing the corruption of LSPD, so he kept shut. When he became the head, it became easier to manipulate things.

 

He takes bribes like weed from gangs and assures them that the LSPD won't bother them. We all know he loves weed, so he's happy with the arrangement with all gangs. He plays an even bigger game, constantly manipulating gangs into fighting other gangs(like we saw in Catalyst). Then the CRASH can rush in and pretend to save the day(like in Green Sabre).

 

 

So we can conclude that Tenpenny joined CRASH as a young cop with good intentions of cleaning up the city(like Hernandez), but was changed by the system. Now he's a menace to the society because he isn't really doing anything to clean up the city, he's happy with his weed and power. But he isn't dumb, he knows that he's got to present a good image to the society; so he plays a game of percentages. Manipulating gangs, then rushing in to save the day.

 

We know he plays a smart game because he wasn't convicted in the trial. He'd covered his tracks and was about to dissappear from LS forever- because he feared someone may expose him.

Edited October 27, 2015 by Son of Zeus

[Xing of Virtue]

Who in God's name can sympathize with that motherf*cker, piece of sh*t, gangbanging, cocksucker Tenpenny?

[hasidichomeboy]

Hermandez was pretty much the only decent cop in the game.

[Nah nah nah Gta 6]

Tenpenny is by far one of the Series' best antagonists, he was definitely a bad guy and a corrupt cop, but he did his job right and pretty much can singlehandedly start a city riot.

 

I wonder what Tenpenny would go on to do if he escaped from Carl and got into that motherf*cking Plane? What would he do next? What city he would go to?

[DragonpokeZ]

Tenpenny was allied with the Ballas and Vagos, and more specifically, Big Smoke's drug empire, even if he claimed to be fighting all gangs in general. Had he been pinning all gangs agaisnt each other any of these would've happened when you came back to LS, or even before:

1. There would've been a war of Ballas vs. Vagos
2. He would've brought other gangs to fight the Ballas and Vagos
3. He would've gotten in the way of Smoke's operations (which clearly didn't happen, because even without the yay from SF Smoke's empire flourished enough to have be disguised as something legal)

Even if Tenpenny had just left Smoke alone, his empire wouldn't be as strong. Tenpenny probably helped him in exchange for some drugs or money

Edited October 28, 2015 by DragonpokeZ

[BlackSnow176]

Tenpenny joined the CRASH with good intentions, but I think he was corrupted by his senior like Hernandez was corrupted by Tenpenny.

 

So Tenpenny just kind of went along with it. He knew he'd be in trouble if he tried exposing the corruption of LSPD, so he kept shut. When he became the head, it became easier to manipulate things.

 

He takes bribes like weed from gangs and assures them that the LSPD won't bother them. We all know he loves weed, so he's happy with the arrangement with all gangs. He plays an even bigger game, constantly manipulating gangs into fighting other gangs(like we saw in Catalyst). Then the CRASH can rush in and pretend to save the day(like in Green Sabre).

 

 

So we can conclude that Tenpenny joined CRASH as a young cop with good intentions of cleaning up the city(like Hernandez), but was changed by the system. Now he's a menace to the society because he isn't really doing anything to clean up the city, he's happy with his weed and power. But he isn't dumb, he knows that he's got to present a good image to the society; so he plays a game of percentages. Manipulating gangs, then rushing in to save the day.

 

We know he plays a smart game because he wasn't convicted in the trial. He'd covered his tracks and was about to dissappear from LS forever- because he feared someone may expose him.

 

Exactly (although I disagree with him not doing his job) ^^

 

Tenpenny was like the hero Los Santos deserved, but not the one it needed.

 

Tenpenny was allied with the Ballas and Vagos, and more specifically, Big Smoke's drug empire, even if he claimed to be fighting all gangs in general. Had he been pinning all gangs agaisnt each other any of these would've happened when you came back to LS, or even before:

1. There would've been a war of Ballas vs. Vagos
2. He would've brought other gangs to fight the Ballas and Vagos
3. He would've gotten in the way of Smoke's operations (which clearly didn't happen, because even without the yay from SF Smoke's empire flourished enough to have be disguised as something legal)

Even if Tenpenny had just left Smoke alone, his empire wouldn't be as strong. Tenpenny probably helped him in exchange for some drugs or money

 

That sort of reminds me of certain greedy and rich people that financed both sides of certain wars in the past 200 years, control a certain country by buying its tyrants government, running the banks all over the world, as well as being the puppet masters of many politicians all around the world (with their hands up their asses), and trying to brainwash everyone through lies and deceit the media in order to become their puppet masters as well (something in which they have succeeded for the most part). Tenpenny is a saint compared to Them.

Edited October 28, 2015 by BlackSnow176

[Helegad]

We know he plays a smart game because he wasn't convicted in the trial. He'd covered his tracks and was about to dissappear from LS forever- because he feared someone may expose him.

 

Well, sort of. He probably feared more for his own life. The riots started seconds after the not guilty verdict. Frank was like a figurehead for the LSPD's corruption, and I wouldn't want to get on such a violent city's bad side. So I'd wager that he holed up with Big Smoke immediately after the trial concluded, pre-empting Carl's rampage through the crack factory and smackdown on Big Smoke, after which he could get the hell out of dodge with a sh*tload of Smoke's money with much less risk to his own life; remember, he turned up suspiciously quickly after Smoke died...

Edited October 28, 2015 by Helegad