Comments on: NYPD Cops Demand the Right To Be Corrupt

By: Peter Ramins

Peter Ramins — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:29:12 +0000

It’s heartening to see people protesting *inside* a courthouse and not getting truncheoned, pepper-sprayed, neck-booted, tazered, or shot.

Oh, they were cops?

Oh.

By: From The Desk of Mayor Bloomberg | The Agitator

From The Desk of Mayor Bloomberg | The Agitator — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:47:20 +0000

[...] Oh, now we’re not supposed to use our discretion in handling parking tickets any more? Well, maybe we’ll use it by not coming to your accident scene, [...]

By: Great moments in public sector unionism

Great moments in public sector unionism — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:08:36 +0000

[...] Cage ‘Em” t-shirts from a California law enforcement union [Radley Balko] From the same source, “NYPD cops demand the right to be corrupt.” And on Friday at Cato at Liberty, I gave [...]

By: FreeWestRadio.com » Blog Archive » NYPD Cops Demand the Right To Be Corrupt

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:55:41 +0000

[...] by The Agitator [...]

By: Militant Libertarian » NYPD Cops Demand the Right To Be Corrupt

Militant Libertarian » NYPD Cops Demand the Right To Be Corrupt — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 02:05:51 +0000

[...] Posted: November 4th, 2011 by Militant Libertarian by The Agitator [...]

By: StrangeOne

StrangeOne — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:05:30 +0000

Ken, I believe setting up booby traps of any kind is generally prosecuted as attempted murder, and will result in 1st degree charges if a death results in it. I imagine a similar standard would be applied to razor cameras if they were to slice any delicate piggy digits.

“Your honor, when reporter X affixed the weapon to the front of his camera, he knew full well that officers would attempt to block the device from filming his co-conspirators fellow officers, and as such commited assault with a deadly weapon”

By: marco73

marco73 — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:44:48 +0000

Ticket fixing is just one of the benefits of the badge. Having the PBA back up the practice just points up their own corruption.
As was documented by Serpico and others in the cop field, after ticket fixing then you move up to cleaning up money found on a an arrestee. Put a couple stray dollars in your pocket; I mean, is the arrestee going to file theft charges against you? And you know the PBA will back up a fellow cop versus some low-life drug dealer. (Since practically any non-connected citizen is a low-life.)
Move on up to petty theft during a traffic stop. Honestly, does anyone believe that when a cop searches a car and finds several thousand dollars of “suspected” money, that the cops count every dollar and turn it over to the asset forfeiture guys? It isn’t really theft, just sort of a commission for turning over any money at all. If anyone raises a stink about missing money, its the cop and the PBA lawyer against some out-of-towner. Who is the friendly local judge going to believe?
One of the really corrupt practices are the PBA fund raising calls where they want you to “donate” so you get a sticker on your car that you support local police. Sort of implied, maybe if they stop you and you have a sticker, they’ll extend professional courtesy and not write you a ticket.
Plenty of folks must believe that nonsense, because I see those stickers everywhere.
How’s that new professionalism working out for you, Scalia?

By: Us Vs. Them, who started it? | Douche of the Day

Us Vs. Them, who started it? | Douche of the Day — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:38:10 +0000

[...] NYPD Cops Demand the Right To Be Corrupt Again, WHOM do you (allegedly) protect and serve? View the discussion thread. Phssthpok's blog [...]

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 02:13:48 +0000

Photographers should start strapping razor blades to the front of their lenses. Let the cops reach out and shove that away with their hand.

By: cdavis411

cdavis411 — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 23:52:52 +0000

Where is Serpico when you need him?

By: supercat

supercat — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 20:16:25 +0000

I tend to believe that feedback patterns tend to be accurate predictors of behavior. People who can to expect get away with doing something which is wrong, but which benefits them, are likely to do so. When people do something wrong, it’s important that they be punished not so much because punishing them for behavior already committed will affect their future behavior, but rather because it is important that anyone considering doing something wrong have an expectation of punishment. One major problem with some simplistic cost-benefit analysis in issues of criminal prosecution is that it merely focuses on the effect of punishment on someone who’s committed a crime, rather than on the expectations such punishment or non-punishment will create in others.

If one could rely upon benign dictators to remain benign, secrecy regarding punishments or lack thereof would actually be a good thing. Punishing people is expensive, both in terms of direct cost (e.g. cost to imprison them) and also in terms of opportunity cost (persons in prison can’t very well make money and pay taxes on it). In some cases, it’s necessary to keep people locked up because that’s the only way to prevent them from harming others. Often, however, if a benign dictator could let people escape punishment while successfully making everyone believe that those people had been punished, that would actually be better for everyone concerned. Of course, from a practical perspective that would be difficult to achieve even with the most benign dictator. Further, giving rulers the power to secretly and unexpectedly grant leniency also gives them the power to selectively exempt their friends from laws which apply to everyone else.

The “Wheel” in “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” might seem an insane way to dispense “justice”, but it would probably be more effective than it might appear. One major problem with most punishments is that they can effectively destroy the life of those who might otherwise be productive members of society, without substantially deterring those who wouldn’t. If, instead of being thrown in jail for a six months, a person had to spin a wheel with a 90% chance of being let go and a 10% chance of being locked up for five years’ solitary confinement, facing the wheel would for many people be a stronger deterrent than would six months in jail, but 90% of otherwise-productive convicts would avoid having their lives destroyed.

By: Cops vs. Law and Order

Cops vs. Law and Order — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 17:07:26 +0000

[...] On the east coast, cops admit that corruption is a perk of their jobs, and get all indignant about being prosecuted. [...]

By: David

David — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 04:14:51 +0000

By: Bergman

Bergman — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 01:15:14 +0000

Is it too much to hope that Tony Baloney is one of the indicted?

Re: Roy, #5:

I know you meant racketeering, but that typo is funny. Illegal use of rockets is something for the FAA to regulate, not the FBI. Though I suppose, given how the NYPD claims to be able to shoot down aircraft, it’s possible they do have rockets.

By: Mario

Mario — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:39:58 +0000

Funny, the reporters who were blocked and in some cases pushed by police were “just doing their jobs”; after all, they were “just following orders” given by their editors. Couldn’t the cops have shown a little “courtesy”?

By: Rojo

Rojo — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:35:18 +0000

@nospam re: “just following orders”

Look at the signs the NYC cops are holding at their protest: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/nyregion/officers-unleash-anger-at-ticket-fixing-arraignments-in-the-bronx.html

By: JOR

JOR — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 20:43:53 +0000

“With recent attempted murders of protestors by police at the Oakland occupy protests, at some point the military is going to have to make a decision.”

Touching fantasy, but the military is not the one magical government agency free of corruption and evil. It’s the one government agency that makes the corruption and tyranny of the rest of them possible in the first place. That is its purpose, that is the oath its members swear.

If it ever comes to open war (of whatever intensity) they’ll almost certainly be on the cops’ side; hell, a lot of cops came from the Marines, Army, or whatever.

By: Flight 714

Flight 714 — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 19:43:34 +0000

Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association

wow.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:51:52 +0000

“the Right To Be Corrupt”

Sounds like the sequel to the “Beat the Crowds” t-shirt.
http://tinyurl.com/4jwc6g

F U! IMA KOP!

By: John Regan

John Regan — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:27:23 +0000

Well, I didn’t mean to suggest by saying “rinky dink” that it wasn’t important in the larger sense. But I think they do like to concentrate on things like that because the implication to the general public is that they are very scrupulous, so that obviously nothing terribly serious could be going on.

Whereas the truth, of course is the opposite. Arresting a bunch of cops for ticket fixing is like attacking a five alarm fire with a squirt gun.