The stories of this period took an increasingly condemnatory tone pertaining to contemporary court decisions concerning the rights of the accused , which often involved Tracy being frustrated by legal technicalities . For example , having caught a gang of diamond thieves red-handed , Tracy was forced to let them walk because he could not '' prove '' beyond a reasonable doubt that the diamonds were stolen . As he saw the thieves get off without penalty , Tracy was heard to grumble , " Yes , under today 's interpretation of the laws , it seems it 's the police who are handcuffed ! " In the 1970s , Gould modernized Tracy by giving him a longer hair style and mustache , and added a hippie sidekick , Groovy Grove . Groovy 's first appearance in print , as it happened , occurred during the same week as the Kent State shootings . Groovy remained with the strip , off and on until his death in 1984
Kent State shootings
Kent State shootings
Dick Tracy