Posted on 11/03/2014 3:55:30 AM PST by yldstrk
In the opening scene of the 1973 movie “Serpico,” I am shot in the face—or to be more accurate, the character of Frank Serpico, played by Al Pacino, is shot in the face. Even today it’s very difficult for me to watch those scenes, which depict in a very realistic and terrifying way what actually happened to me on Feb. 3, 1971. I had recently been transferred to the Narcotics division of the New York City Police Department, and we were moving in on a drug dealer on the fourth floor of a walk-up tenement in a Hispanic section of Brooklyn. The police officer backing me up instructed me (since I spoke Spanish) to just get the apartment door open “and leave the rest to us.”
One officer was standing to my left on the landing no more than eight feet away, with his gun drawn; the other officer was to my right rear on the stairwell, also with his gun drawn. When the door opened, I pushed my way in and snapped the chain. The suspect slammed the door closed on me, wedging in my head and right shoulder and arm. I couldn’t move, but I aimed my snub-nose Smith & Wesson revolver at the perp (the movie version unfortunately goes a little Hollywood here, and has Pacino struggling and failing to raise a much-larger 9-millimeter automatic). From behind me no help came. At that moment my anger got the better of me. I made the almost fatal mistake of taking my eye off the perp and screaming to the officer on my left: “What the hell you waiting for? Give me a hand!” I turned back to face a gun blast in my face.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
When I decided to join the Feds in 71, my dad who was a cop told me he was upset by my decision as he believed I was able to do better. He added, I have one piece of advice for you: never trust a cop.
A few years later, An LT in a city intel unit I was working with was arrested by DEA agents with 2 lbs of heroin. I could not believe it but my dad’s advice rang again in my ear. A few years later I left for better pastures.
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What a great commentary by Frank Serpico. If only more good cops like him would find their balls and stand up against any corruption they see in their departments, including excessive force. They seem so out of control now days, killing dogs for fun, flash banging babies in cribs, shooting dead unarmed mentally ill people etc, etc.
And the worse their reputation gets, the worse will become the personality and intellect of new recruits to police work, until finally only bullies and those yearning for authority (an authority which they are too weak or warped to acquire naturally) will put on the badge. In the end too few healthy and honest men will want want to do the work... What a horrible downward spiral.
not surprised
Power corrupts. It’s why the government shouldn’t have much power.
Cops are the muscle of the state. Like the muscles of a malicious brute, they are as brutish and unthinking as the government they serve. A good government would not tolerate, let alone, reward a bad cop. Ours does.
Cops should be like Serpico? After reading the entire article I disagree.
If the police are still out of control then everything else is being confused with reality. Too bad cops don’t have to measure up like the guns they use on the job. Individual gun parts and the full assembly are held to precise dimensional and other tolerances and are measured accurately with instruments of quality. So why not hold the law enforcement officer carrying the gun to similar standards?
I believe that is Serpico’s point, that the police need to be held to objective external standards.
Why is that?
Excellent article worth the time to read. He did give six recommendations for ways to improve police departments. The only one he didn’t give is to disband the police unions.
And you can’t legislate morality.
It seems clear, after reading this article, that his agenda, his shtick if you will, is not about police corruption but about defining himself as a victim. I’ll give him this...he can vouch for 1970s drug units in NYC. There’s a whole other continent of local LE cultures. And 40 years has passed. 40 years and a fortunate abandonment of “warning shots” and the other antiquated nonsense on which he’s hanging his hat. C’mon Serpico...time to move on.
I didn’t know that he (Serpico) still has that bullet lodged in his head. Forty years is a long time to have a bullet lodged in your head and not think anything of it. What’s he supposed to think, that it was a blessing in disguise?
An excellent follow on story to his was the account named Prince of the City. There is a book and follow on movie.
Interestingly, most remember the French Connection case due to its book and famous movie staring Gene Hackman. What most don’t know is the drugs were stolen, inside job, from the property room of the NYPD.
” And you can’t legislate morality.”
The hell you can’t. Or at least you can legislate behavior. That is the point behind most common laws. Do (this), and face the consequences.
Great to hear you say that.
A college professor who was a terrible liberal was the first (much to his credit) to point that out to me. I've carried the thought with me ever since.
Our laws are or at least were drawn directly from history's great moral codes, first among them the Ten Commandments.
I saw corrupt stuff in the military that really changed my attitude while serving. Some examples: A General who thought nothing of traveling with his girlfriend/secretary to all kinds of events at taxpayer expense.
collecting over a thousand dollars to purchase a pistol for a change of command.
Senior non-commissioned officers forcing enlisted members to join AUSA, CFC, and other crap while getting kickbacks from said organizations.
Try and report this stuff and you would never get promoted and be placed on every crap job available.
You can legislate ideals of morality as law but that doesn’t necessarily bring about morality per se. Even the punishment doesn’t necessarily bring about morality unless you have a majority of the incarcerated being “model prisoners” and then from their release continue to be “model citizens”.
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