QOTD: Frank Serpico
by digby
He wrote this piece about the NYPD for Politico a while back. It’s scathing as you might expect. This excerpt says it all:
And today the Blue Wall of Silence endures in towns and cities across America. Whistleblowers in police departments — or as I like to call them, “lamp lighters,” after Paul Revere — are still turned into permanent pariahs. The complaint I continue to hear is that when they try to bring injustice to light they are told by government officials: “We can’t afford a scandal; it would undermine public confidence in our police.” That confidence, I dare say, is already seriously undermined.
It is. But if people dare to express that loss of confidence the police will just refuse to respect legal authority and stop doing their jobs to shut the public up. It’s quite a racket.
h/t to @atinyrevolution
.