Corruption as a Social and Legal Issue

The phenomenon of police corruption is a problem of long standing in the United States. Corruption is not unique to the US, of course. As Ivkovic notes (2003:593), cases of police corruption have been discovered in Asia and South America as well as in Los Angeles and New York in recent years. Nevertheless, the history of the country is peppered with proven cases of corruption in cities both large and small. The record of the police in a small town, West New York, which is near New York City, is that a fairly large group of officers was involved in a diverse range of illegal activities. Some officers appear to have exacted protection money from known gambling racke

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nt Alexander Oriente. They were each sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. If that suggests that the Orientes (for example) are paying their debts to society, however, an editorial comment inserted into Serrano's text cites two things int hat regard: first, that if the racketeering crimes (illegal gambling, prostitution) were legalized there would have been no case brought because no bribery or kickbacks would have been necessary; and second, the many more people who are serving life sentences for marijuana dealing (Serrano 2000:2). There are no heroes in the West New York police story, a fact emphasized by Serrano's analysis (2000) of the widespread evidence of police conduct in the notorious Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department that came to light in the 1990s, as well as other cases around the country. According to Serrano, the real problem with every next case of police corruption and misconduct is that it threatens the very fabric of civil society and the legitimacy of the state. "When the government is illegitimate . . . and the agents of the government act like gangsters instead of as responsible constitutional leaders, it can lead to an internal state of confusion and inevitably results in the cannibalization
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Approximate Word count = 1772
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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