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Shortfuse may not have gone about this in the right way. The accusations may or may not be true. I can certainly think of more subtle ways of saying them.
However, NYPD is not without some history of heavyweight corruption.
Remember Frank Serpico? That wasn't just a movie.
From New York Magazine:
"Serpico Testifies
May 3, 1971
When: October 1971
Background: For years officer Frank Serpico testified against bad cops, collected evidence against corruption in the New York City police department, and repeatedly failed to get superiors to act on his allegations. He wasn't a popular guy in the precincts.
Getting nowhere inside the system, Serpico contributed to an April 1970 New York Times expose that reported that police were earning millions of dollars a year from payments from drug dealers, mobsters, and even small businesses. The story leads Mayor Lindsay to form the Knapp commission the following month to investigate the charges. A year later Serpico is shot in the face during a drug raid but survives. Officers do not call for aid and Serpico believes he was set up.
"A high-ranking police official said later, 'that when word came in that Serpico had been shot, this building shook. We were terrified that a cop had done it'."
— From the May 1971 New York article, "Portrait of an Honest Cop" by Robert Daly"
One would certain hope that NYPD has stayed "clean," but it is a huge bureaucracy and there are lots of opportunities for greed, graft, bribery, etc.
Because the department acted heroically on 9/11 (which it did), does not mean that it is squeaky clean throughout. The "Blue wall of silence" make it pretty hard to prove wrongdoing in any police department.
Nor does an assertion by Shortfuse that it is corrupt mean it is so.
However, attacks either way by those of us with no real proof really get us anywhere.
I will say that since my early trips to New York in the 1960's, the Department has certainly done a lot to foster a better image in terms of friendliness and cooperation with the public -- evry NY cop I've worked with while doing projects there has been great -- but so has the rest of the city.
I have a huge amount of respect for NYPD, but it's not blind respect.
__________________
Fraternally,
DeltAlum
DTD
The above is the opinion of the poster which may or may not be based in known facts and does not necessarily reflect the views of Delta Tau Delta or Greek Chat -- but it might.
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