He's Still Alive But Obviously Not Sane.
Edward Conlon 's new book about life as a Detective in the NYPD has come out and gotten mostly favorable reviews. However, yesterday's AP wire reported that Frank Serpico--yes, that Frank Serpico--didn't think much of it. Conlon came out and said that the problem in the Department was not widespread corruption but rather "corrosion," a slow wearing away of one's moral compass after constant exposure to society's less savory elements. It is an intriguing concept, but Base10 will withhold further comments until he reads the book. In any event Serpico would have none of it. He claimed that corruption is still pervasive in the Department and cited some unnamed "cops he knows," and described it as "business as usual." Now considering Serpico lives in Switzerland and is now 68 years old, I wonder how much contact these "cops he knows" actually have with the Department. Apparently, he doesn't care for the Ivy League either. Serpico said, "Corrosion must be the Harvard word for corruption. ... Where the hell do you get the truth?" (Conlon is Harvard educated). Serpico has once again illustrated his fall into some time warp constantly replaying the sixties. You can't help but feel sorry for him. I remember the last time he gave testimony before the City Council (I think in the wake of the Diallo shooting) and his comments were pathetic. He blamed police brutality on the fact that cops were killers originally trained in Vietnam and were now patrolling the streets of the city. Apparently no one told him that the generation of cops he was referring to retired about ten years prior to his testimony. The passage of time has not been kind to Frank Serpico.
- posted by Base10 @ 10:17 AM