On a recent trip to the library, I picked up a book written by a Pulitzer Prize winner named Colson Whitehead, who I had never heard of.
He has written 11 books, both fiction and non-fiction, and the one that I picked up was titled " Crook Manifesto" , which explores policy corruption in New York City in the 1970's. As the story unfolds, discussion arose about Frank Serpico, the retired New York City policeman, who testified against police corruption in 1971.
Serpico is now 87 years old, and he retired from the police department in 1972 after being shot in the face during a suspicious drug bust. His complete history can be found at the link below, but a few of the highlights are posted below the link.
On a recent trip to the library, I picked up a book written by a Pulitzer Prize winner named Colson Whitehead, who I had never heard of.
He has written 11 books, both fiction and non-fiction, and the one that I picked up was titled " Crook Manifesto" , which explores policy corruption in New York CIty in the 1970's. As the story unfolds, discussion arose about Frank Serpico, the retired New York City policeman, who testified against police corruption in 1971.
Serpico is now 87 years old, and he retired from the police department in 1972 after being shot in the face during a suspicious drug bust. His complete history can be found at the link below, but a few of the highlights are posted below the link.
Francesco Vincent Serpico (born April 14, 1936) is an American retired New York Police Department detective, best known for whistleblowing on police corruption. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan to expose vice racketeering. In 1967, he reported credible evidence of widespread police corruption, to no effect. In 1970, he contributed to a front-page story in The New York Times on widespread corruption in the NYPD, which drew national attention to the problem. Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed a five-member panel to investigate accusations of police corruption, which became the Knapp Commission.
Serpico was shot in the face during an arrest attempt on February 3, 1971, at 778 Driggs Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The bullet severed an auditory nerve, and left bullet fragments lodged in his brain. The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting were quickly called into question, raising the possibility that Serpico had been led to the apartment by his colleagues to be murdered. There was no formal investigation, but Edgar Echevarria, who had shot Serpico, was subsequently convicted of attempted murder.
Much of Serpico's fame came after the release of the 1973 film Serpico, in which he was portrayed by Al Pacino, based on the book of the same name by Peter Maas. On June 27, 2013, the USA Section of ANPS (National Association of Italian State Police) awarded him the "Saint Michael Archangel Prize". During the ceremony, he received his first Italian passport and gained Italian citizenship.
In October, and again in December 1971, Serpico testified before the Knapp Commission:
Through my appearance here today ... I hope that police officers in the future will not experience ... the same frustration and anxiety that I was subjected to ... for the past five years at the hands of my superiors ... because of my attempt to report corruption. I was made to feel that I had burdened them with an unwanted task. The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist, in which an honest police officer can act ... without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. Police corruption cannot exist unless it is at least tolerated ... at higher levels in the department. Therefore, the most important result that can come from these hearings ... is a conviction by police officers that the department will change. In order to ensure this ... an independent, permanent investigative body ... dealing with police corruption, like this commission, is essential ...
Serpico was the first police officer in the history of the New York City Police Department to step forward to report, and subsequently testify openly about, widespread, systemic corruption payoffs amounting to millions of dollars.
As a result of Serpico's efforts, the NYPD was drastically changed. Michael Armstrong, who was counsel to the Knapp Commission and went on to become chairman of the city's Commission to Combat Police Corruption, observed in 2012 "the attitude throughout the department seems fundamentally hostile to the kind of systemized graft that had been a way of life almost 40 years ago."[ Also in the late 1970s and early 1980s, vice laws were generally not enforced to prevent police corruption. Consequently, bookmakers and drug dealers often operated openly out of storefronts, while prostitutes openly advertised and often plied their wares in various "red-light" sections of the city.
Simply put, Frank Serpico is a man of integrity, but so is Colin Kaepernick and Chris Long. Their stories can be read at the links below:
I've been both an insurance salesman, and a used car salesman, and neither profession is held in high esteem by the general public - but they are not the least respected professions.
In order, the worst ones are lawyers, real estate salespeople, telemarketers, lobbyists, and politicians, and there is a bit of overlap in these groups, since many former members of congress become lobbyists, and roughly 1/3 of the members of congress are lawyers.
The absolute worst profession, though, is politicians.
The public's opinion of politicians has never been high, but the recent clown show in the House of Representatives means that the current approval rating of congress is 17%, and it has never been high, even though it rose slightly after 9/11.
There are crooks in both parties. Even though Republican George Santos has no business being in congress, Democrat Bob Menendez also should be shown the door.
Even though I tend to favor Democrats, there are some Republicans who also have some integrity, and they include John McCain, Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, and Jeff Flake.
We just need more people like them in Congress, but getting them elected is a process that moves at a glacial pace.
In closing, I have one word of advice for you:
Vote like your life depends on it - because it does.
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