As this is a Moment of Awesome page, spoilers will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Cole Phelps:
Cole Phelps is a walking talking The Ace and The Paragon for much of the game, being seemingly the only By-the-Book Cop in all of Los Angeles. Given how seedy and corrupt the city is, its a miracle that he maintains his Good Is Not Soft attitude throughout most of it. This includes being remarkably free of bias, determined to get things done the "right way", and interested in genuine justice. Even if we find out he's got feet of clay from his wartime misadventures as well as affair, he still stands above other Rockstar protagonists.
In "Fallen Idol", Cole and Bekowsky are approached by a bunch of goons who want them to help them find the guy both they and the police are looking for. Cole acts like a good cop and politely but firmly tells them to stay away. Then...
Goon: At least he's polite. Dumb, but polite.
Bekowsky: But I’m a lot less polite, you smug son-of-a-bitch. So let me put it in ruder terms that even a pair of blockheads like you might understand. The only reason that you don’t have bars on your windows already is because you’re small fry, and we don’t waste our time on small fry. You stay away from Bishop and you stay away from me. Is that clear enough for you, asshole? Now run along back to your boss so he can pat you on the head and tell you what good boys you are.
Another epic shoot happens in "A Slip of the Tongue." Phelps and Bekowsky are getting ready to storm a warehouse loaded with armed Mooks inside. While Bekowsky slips in the back, Phelps will take the front. But before Phelps goes in, he gets the attention of the goons with this immortal one-liner:
"The Fallen Idol"'s entire last section, where you chase Bishop through a collapsing movie set, then have an epic shootout to protect Bishop from Guy McAfee's men, who number in the dozens, and want you, your partner, and most of all Bishop dead. This is a ''Traffic'' case.
Cole's first introduction to Mickey Cohen. When Earle starts to introduce them, Phelps cuts him off by saying "I met his brother-in-law," and walks away. What makes it awesome is that Phelps had just gunned down Cohen's brother-in-law in the previous case. The point is not lost on Cohen.
Cole telling off Roy Earle when he speaks ill of the late Courtney Sheldon. Mind you, Phelps has his gun trained on Earle throughout the whole rant.
Cole: Courtney Sheldon was a corpsman, Roy. He served his country. He went out with a medical kit and an Army .45 into places that made the Valley of Death look like a picnic. He was either naive enough or dumb enough to get involved in the Suburban Redevelopment Fund, along with the mayor, the DA, Monroe, and a certain crooked cop. He was involved in the morphine heist, but he has a puncture wound in his jugular, which makes this a murder case. He was a better man than you'll ever know. You say one more word about him and I will blow your FUCKING HEAD OFF!!!
He also calls him off when he tries to warn him to stop investigating Elysian Fields.
Cole's initial meeting with Leland Monroe, especially if you call him out on building houses on the cheap and lying about the Catalina Island promotion.
And getting even one of his questions right nets you an achievement in the Xbox 360 and Steam versions!
Phelps stopping a runaway streetcar in "A Walk in Elysian Fields"
Phelps takes on a small army of Hughes Security guards in "Nicholson Eletroplating".
Gameplay-wise, running over Roy Earle with a car once you find out that he ratted Phelps out for cheating on his wife with Elsa.
Jack's choice to leave officer school and become a rifleman results in him becoming the kind of Sergeant Rock that his men willingly follow.
Jack also gets a great moment when he gets Courtney out from under Micky Cohen's thumb-he dictates the meeting place and lets Cohen know in no uncertain terms that Sheldon is done dealing morphine and it won't be happening again, Cohen is unfazed due to having several men with him, but then Kelso has his own men pop out from cover shoot at Cohen from above with him pointing out that he could've easily killed Cohen and his men if he wanted to and again demands that the distribution of morphine be stopped, Cohen acts bemused at Kelso and Sheldon then points out that Kelso was a badass during the war- his unit killed over 100,000 Japanese soldiers, with Kelso once personally taking out six of them with nothing but a K-Bar knife, Cohen still tries to act unimpressed by asking if the japs were "little guys" Kelso then remarks that the Japanese were around Cohen's size and leaves. The fact that Jack stood up to one of the most feared gangsters of all time and managed to get him to back down is truly amazing.
Jack Kelso has one on the last case. After Monroe arranges a meeting (which is clearly a trap) with Kelso in his estate, Kelso decides to call his former Marine buddies and stages an all-out assault on the estate. After that, he shoots Monroe in his leg, looks around his office for a bit, and leaves him bleeding before he calmly leaves the estate to find Elsa.
Made even better by what he says immediately after shooting Monroe in the leg.
Jack: That's my opening negotiating position!
Better again by what he says after stomping on Monroe's injured leg while he's down.
Jack: That's my second offer!
He does all of this while bleeding from a gunshot wound in his arm, which he doesn't even acknowledge while Monroe is screaming for a doctor due to his own gunshot wound.
Even before that, Kelso forces his way into the apartment of his boss Curtis Benson at gunpoint. When he orders Kelso to leave, then threatens him, and even warns him to get out of town, Kelso responds "I guess we've exhausted the passive options", and pistol-whips him.
Roy Earle
Even Roy Earle gets one of his own: near the end of "The Black Caesar", a janitor approaches the detectives as they arrive at the Polar Bear Ice Company building.
Janitor: The factory is closed. Has been for years. Not much call for ice anymore, with all those newfangled refrigerators.
Earle: Save it for someone who wants to hear it. How many janitors carry a gat?
[Earle swiftly pulls out his gun as the janitor goes for his and shoots him dead]
