They Wished They Were Honest

The Knapp Commission and New York City Police Corruption
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-231-15354-6
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 510 g

In fifty years of prosecuting and defending criminal cases in New York City and elsewhere,Michael F. Armstrong has often dealt with cops. For a single two-year span, as chief counsel to the Knapp Commission, he was charged with investigating them. Based on Armstrong's vivid recollections of this watershed moment in law enforcement accountability prompted by the New York Times's report on whistleblower cop Frank Serpico They Wished They Were Honest recreates the dramatic struggles and significance of the Commission and explores the factors that led to its success and the restoration of the NYPD's public image.

Serpico's charges against the NYPD encouraged Mayor John Lindsay to appoint prominent attorney Whitman Knapp to chair a Citizen's Commission on police graft. Overcoming a number of organizational, budgetary, and political hurdles, Chief Counsel Armstrong cobbled together an investigative group of a half-dozen lawyers and a dozen agents. Just when funding was about to run out, the "blue wall of silence" collapsed. A flamboyant "Madame," a corrupt lawyer, and a weasely informant led to a "super thief" cop, who was trapped and "turned" by the Commission. This led to sensational and revelatory hearings, which publicly refuted the notion that departmental corruption was limited to only a "few rotten apples."

In the course of his narrative, Armstrong illuminates police investigative strategy; governmental and departmental political maneuvering; ethical and philosophical issues in law enforcement; the efficacy (or lack thereof) of the police's anticorruption efforts; the effectiveness of the training of police officers; the psychological and emotional pressures that lead to corruption; and the effects of police criminality on individuals and society. He concludes with the effects, in today's world, of Knapp and succeeding investigations into police corruption and the value of permanent outside monitoring bodies, such as the special prosecutor's office, formed in response to the Commission's recommendation, as well as the current monitoring commission, of which Armstrong is chairman.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Armstrong, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte Regionalgeschichte der USA: Einzelne Staaten, Städte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Korruption
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Innen-, Bildungs- und Bevölkerungspolitik
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Verwaltungsrecht Verwaltungspraxis Polizei

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Foreword1. The Beginning2. Staffing and Funding3. Lurching Into Action4. Gabe5. Teddy and Xaviera6. The Great Meat Robbery7. George8. Some Rough Spots9. Leuci10. Toody and Muldoon11. Batman and Robin12. Waverly Logan13. Super Thief14. The Freshman15. Phillips at Work16. Problems17. Tank and Slim18. Phillips19. The Dynamic Duo Again20. The Eve of the Hearings21. The Public Hearing: Phillips's Testimony22. The Public Hearings: Droge23. Serpico24. Aftermath25. Phillips Epilogue26. Special Prosecutor27. ReflectionsIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Michael F. Armstrong is a partner at the law firm Lankler and Carragher in New York. He was the chief counsel to the Knapp Commission and an assistant United States attorney in theSouthern District of New York (chief, Securities Fraud Unit), as well as district attorney for Queens County, New York. Currently chair of the New York City Commission to Combat Police Corruption, he served as advisor to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo regarding allegations of political influence in the state police and continues to work on high-profile cases, which have involved such people as financier Louis Wolfson, boxing promoter Don King, accused would-be wife killer Claus von Bülow, and Queens County Borough President Donald Manes.