COP'S ‘MOB' PAST

If you can't trust the Police then who can you trust?

There are 40,000 police in NYC and the vast majority of them are honest,hard working,and underpaid.

Prosecutors say Silvestri was an associate of the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante crime family, and that the veteran cop gave mobsters address and telephone information about loan-sharking customers who were late in payments. >>

I'd say he's a Benny.

‘SICK' N.J. COP IN COCAINE BUST
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/808210/posts

As per my post on your other thread, it's the dumb ones that are getting caught using drugs. The smart ones are making money off the WOD.

Yes they are and that's why this country will always have a drug problem, too much money to be made.

Yeah the movie "Serpico" brought that out...

"Benny" in this story and the other guy's a "Piney". Coleus, you're showing your "shore" side.

Shore I am.

lol!

Then why does that "vast majority" cover for these criminal cops?

They don't!

You really don't know jack about what goes on. You don't know how many cops use the confidential info line and you don't know how many investigations are conducted. You don't know how the Internal Affairs Bureau conducts blind integrity tests such as leaving a $20 on a guy's beat and seeing if he vouchers it or puts it in his pocket. I've seen the tapes, peed in the urine cup and been lectured by the Chief of IAB (who happens to be a really nice guy). Departments from around the world come to us for suggestions as to how to fight corruption.

You're just mouthing off. I'd bet that 1/10th of 1% of cops here have some kind of issue with corruption. But when the guys that are paid to root it out do their jobs it becomes fodder for the haters and not proof of how effective the oversight is. Considering our numbers, salary and how much money floats around crime scenes I think our track record is fabulous.

Oh yeah, we also beat the national trend of rising crime and saw a 6% drop this year (we have the lowest rate amongst the 25 largest cities). Our murder rate amongst cities with at least 100,000 residents puts us right in between Provo, Utah and Cucomonga, CA- and done with a massive increase in anti-terrorist work and a declining number of officers.

None of my comments are meant excuse what this man seems to have done. To hell with him, he's a disgrace to his shield and a danger to the rest of us if this is true. He destroyed the hard work of his fellow cops and maybe even exposed them to danger, so to hell with him.

Whoops. Just got back from a night of shaking down dealers, snorting coke and handing out cyanide to little children. You know, the usual thing for NYPD cops on their nights off..

Yes, many are. I have many relatives who are cops and they do a good job. But as this article states, many believe that they are above the law which they are not.

http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/12/17/213815.shtml

That's good, and NYC has had good leadership recently. But the national trends are not good: Credentials, like Moose's Ph.D. are up (and we reimburse that tuition), while effectiveness even in serious violent crimes like murder is down to about a 65% solution rate on average and below 50% in places like D.C. (It used to be that bad in NYC, too.) There are Third World cities that do better than that, and the historic long-term rate in the U.S. is above 80%. Just to put into perscpective what we are calling a well-run PD: What's the solution rate for property crime in NYC? Multiply that by the reporting rate, and I could steal the badge off your chest and odds are very slim I'd get caught.

My town has good cops, and very good public schools for that matter. But the overall trend is that policing is taking the same unionized, corrupted (both individual corruption and systemic corruption in the form of siezure abuse), decadent path that public education is taking. And only cops can turn it around.

What struck me about this article was how this bad cop's colleagues could be so blind to any sign he was corrupt. It isn't credible coming from the mouths of people who have an instictive feel for criminality. They wouldn't hesitate to characterize a scumbag as a scumbag, but have no opinion on this cop's behavior. It sure looks like the blue wall of silence from this angle.

Let me start by saying that your comment that the vast majority of cops cover up for the corrupt ones was made on a thread involving the NYPD. I'm not qualified to speak other than in general terms about other departments. We focus on violent crimes because of the damage done to the victims, on both a physical and psychological level. Property crime will always take a backseat. If the public saw fit to fund us at a level sufficient to do things such as a DNA analysis at burglaries it would be done. As it stands now our resources are limited and our responsibilities are increasing.

"I could steal the badge off your chest and odds are very slim I'd get caught. "

Just so you know, that is looked upon as a very serious offense here these days post-9/11. You'd get it FMCDH so to speak. I'd never forgive myself if my shield was used to commit some terrorist act. Plus, I'd lose about a ton of vacation days for "failure to safeguard department property" and I intend on keeping every minute! I know what you're saying though. Believe it or not, we're losing officers left and right here for higher-paying departments and to retirement. We've lost about 3000 cops since the height of our strength a few years ago while adding lots of new duties. Unfortunately, something has to give. When it comes down between guarding a sub-river train tunnel or chasing pickpockets you know which problem is going to get the short end.

I'm just starting to get a grip on law enforcement's problems. The profession has been under attack from the left since the 60's and also now takes hits from the right as well. The drive to increase standards (my department requires at least 60 college credits and I myself have 3 years of post-graduate education) has led to a bidding war for the best officers since fewer people are willing to enter the profession. Why take a chance that a good faith mistake may lead to your incarceration or to being sued civilly? The job was risky enough without the Sharptons of the world practically determining department policy. You mention the negative impact of the unions, and normally when it comes to civil service I would agree with you. But who is going to come to my aid when some career criminal claims that I abused him, or if I'm involved in a shooting? My union is really about giving us some political leverage against the professional leftist cop-haters that have so much influence here.

As for this cop in particular- Its not like he engaged in an ongoing pattern of noticeable behavior. Maybe he made a phonecall to someone. No way anyone would know that unless IAB already had him under surveillance. Maybe he grabbed some shell casings once. If you're not watching a guy like a hawk upon arrival at the scene I can see him getting away with that. Thats all they've got. He wasn't driving around making payoff pickups instead of answering calls, or stealing drugs for resale. He had a mobbed up family member and tried to help him out. The only people who might have found out about that was whoever did his background investigation when he was first hired. From what I've heard, the guy was also a dedicated and active officer that had a lot of people's respect. I think people overestimate the whole "blue wall" thing. If your job and pension, your life basically, are on the line because of some crooked jerk you're going to at least make the anonymous phonecall and get your case number from IAB and CYA.

Being a cop should not require more than a high school education, which says something both about how debased a high school diploma has become and how needlessly complexified being a cop has become.

NYC is also an almost unique case in that resources may be quite tight. But in most cities, simple things like failure to go out and work default warrants on people that are very easy to find is what makes the crime rate double what it should be (or more!).

New York also has a strong system for combatting police corruption. Not all cities have as strong a system, and many that have what appears to be a similar system don't run it nearly as rigorously. And NYC is unique in other ways: SWAT and other special training and squads have a real need in NYC. In most places these things are toys for wannabes. In most places, the resources to work property crime are there is the priorities were set correctly. Even in NYC, the murder solution rate was pulled up from the pits by re-deploying cops. No radical revolution, just a few less desk pilots. But in most other places, it would be possible to do a lot more because resources are slack and there is a whole lot more waste.

And yeah, stealing a badge in NYC is kind of a more noticable property crime that would get some resources applied to it. But not everywhere.