Corruption is Their Business
The True Relationship Between Crime and Law Enforcement
by DOUGLAS VALENTINE
...In 1968, cops walked the beat alone, in blue wool coats, swinging billy clubs. They didn’t act like paramilitary death squads, like they do today, moving around in group formations with bullet proof vests and automatic weapons, in armored vehicles. Along with everyone else, the village cops in 1968 noticed that city cops were moving into the suburbs, buying nice houses, sending their kids to out-of-state colleges, and buying their wives fancy jewelry. Everyone knew how they could afford to do all that.
As Frank Serpico told the Knapp Commission in 1971, after being shot in the face by fellow cops, they were all on the take. First they took a free sandwich, or walked into a movie theatre with their family without paying. If you were a small businessman and you gave things to the cops, they protected you, just like the Mafia hoods. As a cop rose through the ranks, the payoffs got bigger: membership in country clubs, discounts on cars, vacations in Mexico. You might even become president of the PBA, with all the job’s benefits.
Nowadays cops in the NYPD make a better wage, and the bribery often takes other forms; but corruption continues to define law enforcement. The corruption today is largely ideological and the payoffs come in the form of personal power. Cops get to feel extra-special: they can kill with impunity, or turn their backs on the mayor and disrespect him in public (in a way they would never tolerate) for attempting to make reforms that are ideological in nature. The cops can put a gun to your head and make you say the magic words, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
In 2014, cops are so far removed from the public that there is no hope of bridging the gap. Battle lines have been drawn, and you’re either with them or against them. They will judge you on that basis, not according to laws or any rights you think the Constitution and Bill of Rights afford you...
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/02/the-true-relationship-between-crime-and-law-enforcement/