Frank Serpico: la police est toujours hors de contrôle

Retour dans l'actualité de ce policier qui a inspiré le film de Sidney Lumet mettant en vedette Al Pacino. Serpico a dénoncé des policiers corrompus et il y a presque laissé sa vie. Quarante ans après avoir reçu une balle en plein visage il porte un jugement sévère sur les forces de l'ordre.

 "And today the Blue Wall of Silence endures in towns and cities across America. Whistleblowers in police departments — or as I like to call them, “lamp lighters,” after Paul Revere — are still turned into permanent pariahs. The complaint I continue to hear is that when they try to bring injustice to light they are told by government officials: “We can’t afford a scandal; it would undermine public confidence in our police.” That confidence, I dare say, is already seriously undermined.

Things might have improved in some areas. The days when I served and you could get away with anything, when cops were better at accounting than at law enforcement — keeping meticulous records of the people they were shaking down, stealing drugs and money from dealers on a regular basis — all that no longer exists as systematically as it once did, though it certainly does in some places. Times have changed. It’s harder to be a venal cop these days.

But an even more serious problem — police violence — has probably grown worse, and it’s out of control for the same reason that graft once was: a lack of accountability.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/the-police-are-still-out-of-control-112160_Page2.html#.VFLlbfmG81I