>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <00c501bf012d$e04d4660$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: The root of police corruption >Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 09:58:33 -0700 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in in the midst of its biggest >scandal in decades. Here is my letter to the L.A. Times about it. > >Enjoy, > >Peter > >============== > >We must focus responsibility for the current LAPD scandal squarely where it >belongs: the War on Drugs. It seems two good, honest cops went bad when >transferred to the narcotics division. It's an old story, repeated >everywhere from New York City to Cleveland, Ohio. Like us, cops are human >beings, not saints. How many millions of otherwise unaccounted-for cash from >drug busts would we turn in before we began skimming a little off the top? >How many fat payoffs for simply looking the other way would we refuse before >seeing that if we didn't take it, another cop would? How many bags of >cocaine--worth $10,000 each--would we consign to the LAPD incinerators >before we realized, "There's my kid's college education going up in smoke"? > >Whenever police are asked to control morality--crimes in which adult >participants eagerly consent to take part--rather than crimes with unwilling >victims, corruption flourishes. More good cops go bad on vice squads and >narcotics units than all other police positions combined. Let the police >pursue rapists, robbers, extortionists, arsonists, muggers, child abusers, >and murderers. Very few of these genuine criminals would be able to bribe >their way out of an arrest. Let the cops go after real criminals, and we >won't have to go after criminal cops. > >Peter McWilliams > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: