Brotherly Corruption

May 5, 2010

Here's a link to NPR's summary of the Philadelphia Daily News' Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of police corruption in the City of Brotherly Love. If you think this sort of corruption exists only in Philadelphia, you are wrong. The cops in Philly just got caught by a couple of ace reporters.

NPR.

Hat Tip: JR

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I heard this interview live on WCAI yesterday, an ...

I heard this interview live on WCAI yesterday, an NPR affiliate. Of course these revelations should come as no surprise to anyone who has lived in the more 'challenging' neighborhoods of our major cities. Do you think New Haven is any better than this, even today? Can U say Billy White and his merry gang of beat-down pranksters? I had my own unfortunate encounter with Mr. White, where he almost took my head off. Offcr. Roach intervened on my behalf. Nothing came of this incident where I was a witness to illegal and unlawful beat-down behavior on the part of New Haven cops in my neighborhood.
The cops are part of the problem, and not part of the solution in so many inner-city neighborhoods. But the politicians and elected representatives are slow to acknowledge, accept responsibility and make corrections. You too, Mr. Mayor.
The only difference is that Philly, with 1.5 million residents, is ten times as large as New Haven, making it one big happy hunting ground for corrupt police officers. Police corruption goes waaay back in Philly. A definitive book in this regard would be The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal by J. Patrick O'Connor, 2008. I was in attendance at a book-reading and signing by the author and his assistant, Prof. Johanna Fernandez, at the Labyrinth Books Store in New Haven, Summer of '08.
I have a signed copy of this book in my library, and urge anyone to read and study it to understand how cozy the relationship between local police and prosecutors' offices have become in Amerika. In my own CT cases, the State suborned the perjured testimonies of two police officers. One officer claimed to be the arresting officer when I did not even see him that day. I named the arresting officer to the Court. Neither the judge, the prosecutor, nor the defense table requested the presence of the New Haven officer whom I named to test my own credibility.
The Court was not interested in the truth. They simpley wanted me to be found guilty of trumped-up charges that were entirely false and malicious. The State of Konnecticut either knew the charges were false, or should have known if they had done a proper investigation. These things go on all the time in some of our major cities. Some jurisdictions are worse than others.
Philadelphia is apparently one of the worst, and Baltimore is also a close contender for the prize. It is interesting to note that the DA who originally prosecuted Abu-Jamal subsequently became Mayor of Philly and then Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. That would be none other than Ed Rendel, which proves that corruption extends all the way to the top in the great, historical state of William Penn.
Philadelphia is a v. interesting city, a case study of massive urban decay beyond belief. They do have good restaurants and wonderful clubs in the most unlikely of places. I tried to start a business there in '99. When someone smashed the window of my storefront, the city placed a police officer in front of my store until I was able to get down from CT in order to fix.
Like anywhere else, you have good cops and bad. In uniform, they all look the same, which is unfortunate and why they should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us, and not a lower--which is typical. They have mad parking meter ladies down there. In Center City, you can't leave your car for five minutes w/out getting a ticket. Those tickets ain't cheap!

Posted on May 7, 2010 at 12:23 am by William Doriss

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Brotherly Corruption

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