Food For Thought - A New Golden Age For Russia

[Eduard]

I'm curious to know if anyone has any documents, reliable reports or studies to support that the majority of police in America during the 60's and 70's were corrupt. This is the first I have heard of this and frankly find it hard to believe.

How soon they forget - http://gangresearch.net/GangResearch/Chicago/Summerdale%20scandal.pdf
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/04/what_frank_serp.php
http://www.emich.edu/cerns/downloads/papers/PoliceStaff/Managing%20the%20Police%20Agency/Police%20Corruption--FBI%20Investigations%20are%20not%20the%20Answer.pdf
I suppose no one on this forum ever heard of Serpico, who blew open widespread corruption in the New York police force, and has continued reporting on police corruption to this day?

My neighbor is a former cop, now quadriplegic after a motorcycle accident... the stories he told me... He feels that his accident was a blessing because if he didn't become disabled he would have wound up dead for sure...his words...  I'm not gonna repeat his stories here but trust me he and many other cops in his department did some really bad things.
I'll say it again, people are people and given the opportunity a percentage of them will be corrupt whether they are Russian or American.

[Noch1]

Is there corrupt cops in the western world, yup % I don't know.
But I am guessing it is small and only on large level crimes. ( mostly drugs)

Now tell me, How many corrupt cops in Russia? %
I am betting 100%

Your comparing apples to dump trucks!
Its not even the same conversation.

[jone]

Is there corrupt cops in the western world, yup % I don't know.
But I am guessing it is small and only on large level crimes. ( mostly drugs)

Now tell me, How many corrupt cops in Russia? %
I am betting 100%

Your comparing apples to dump trucks!
Its not even the same conversation.

+1

[Eduard]

you are missing the point. What I keep saying is that people are people and given exactly the same set of circumstances you will have a similar percentage of people who will do the right thing versus the wrong thing

[calmissile]

To put things in a little better perspective.....
During the 60's there were many corrupt cops and judges in America.  I know from personal experience, and it is not in Chicago.  It is from nearly everywhere I lived.  Seattle to Montana to Oregon to two cities in California.  I would venture to say that nearly every police force, DA, and judiciary had some corrupt members.  What was the percentage?  I have no idea, because I only know about the ones I had contact with, or read about in the news.  I also had some cops that were our social friends and fishing partners.  I would not socialize with any corrupt cop or official.  They also do not talk about the others that are corrupt, so it is difficult to know how widespread it is/was.

Seattle was notorious for crooked cops.  I remember one gang on cops that were in a ring that robbed furniture stores, etc.  and the group was caught accidentally by a rookie on patrol.  All was in the newspapers.    Also a corrupt judge that would dismiss female DUI cases if they were to visit him in his apartment.  A sting operation busted him and last I heard he was trying to become a boxing fighter.  He was disbarred also, and was working for a union in Seattle as a legal aid or something.  As a teenager I was busted and beat up by two Seattle cops for not having a valid drivers license and skipping school to test out my car for the first time.  Seattle cops are/were also tied in protection rackets.  A relative owned a restaurant in Seattle and had to pay off the cops on a frequent basis.   This was the environment of Seattle during the 50' and 60's.

The corruption in Montana was  less.  Mostly tied into the vices, prostitution, etc.

Los Angeles was famous for the corruption in the 60's.  There was a series of books written about the corruption of  LA cops and recent history of LA and Orange county seems to indicate it has not changed much.

Over the past few years and most recently , there have been many politicians and public officials indicted, tried and sent to prison over corruption in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and Orange counties.    The problem is rampad,  it is just that we like to think of ourselves as being not a corrupt society.

I would not go so far as to say that the majority of cops and officials are corrupt.  It would appear that it is much less than the systemic problem in FSU countries.  Nevertheless, it has been with us a long time in the US and not likely to change soon.

[Hammer2722]

I don't think anyone is arguing that there is no corruption in America. Never has been so ingrained in the society as it is in the FSU.

[ECOCKS]

I don't think anyone is arguing that there is no corruption in America. Never has been so ingrained in the society as it is in the FSU.

Yep.

[cc3]

Not to belittle your Founding Fathers, just a malign, Machiavellian thought: maybe they were already affluent enough not to bother ?

In fact, Thomas Jefferson died deeply in debt. The modern era ex-leaders, such as Al Gore and Bill Clinton, are the ones enriching themselves from the entrenched 'money-ocracy' (best government money can buy) that rules Washington and the nation.

[IAmZon]

EDUARD "people are people and will to the same given exactly the same set of circumstances"   True, and important qualifier.


Getting back to the probably changing landscape in Russia .... add to this the article I referenced to start this thread.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/11/25/russia-introducing-the-putin-doctrine.html


Does this forward the initial thought of this thread, or question it?

[Eduard]

EDUARD "people are people and will to the same given exactly the same set of circumstances"   True, and important qualifier.

good to see that at least one person understood what I was trying to say )

[Eduard]

Just finished watching L.A. Confidential a 1997 movie with Kim Basinger based on a true story of police and political corruption in LA in 1950s. Very entertaining to watch and may provide some enlightenment.

[ECOCKS]

Just finished watching L.A. Confidential a 1997 movie with Kim Basinger based on a true story of police and political corruption in LA in 1950s. Very entertaining to watch and may provide some enlightenment.

Except of course, that it is Hollywood, it does give a bit of indication that even the way the fictional accounts are portrayed is most often if individual corruption rather than being systemic and institutionalized throughout a department.


Other fun corruption movies and series would include, The Big Easy, Sopranos, Cop Land, etc. but, again, this is fiction from a source which makes money with sensationalism and suspension of reality. Careful of using them as sources though or people will think all our hookers look like Julia Roberts and Laura San Giacomo.

[Eduard]

[size=78%] Careful of using them as sources though or people will think all our hookers look like Julia Roberts and Laura San Giacomo.[/size]

they already do, Ed