Bribes, Graft, Hush Money. 'NYC COPS' on the Take...??? No Way Jose'(My 1960's Story)
At about fifteen years of age, I witnessed my first 'police graft' payment to a NYC Police Sergeant, by my boss.
It was a rather hot Saturday morning at a NYC City Public Pool where I worked a summer job; selling hot dogs, soda, chips, candy and other delightfully, healthy morsels of fine, culinary fare. My job was to stand at one of three, large openings at the concession stand and try to pay more attention to customers orders, rather than eyeball the pretty girls in bikinis...
My buddies and I would rotate between the beverage window, grill and candy/chips/ice-cream sections. The idea being that it would help make the job more interesting, and give the grill and french fry guy a break from behind the heat...That day, 'I' was the unlucky bastard assigned to being cooked.
Soon, I ran out of fries, so upon opening a new thawed out bag of 'fancy fries' I found them half mushy, stuck together and green. My boss had just walked away a short distance to behind a dividing wall, by the back door to greet the Police Sgt. As I approached to show Archie the bad fries, I caught him handing a wad of cash to the cop...
They both shot me a look which easily telegraphed, that I didn't see, what I thought I saw...So, until the Sergeant went on his merry way, I kept my mouth shut. When I asked my boss why he had to give the cop money, he told me, "He came for his pay..."
"You have to pay him?" I asked, kind of confused.
"Yeah...every Saturday. Now go ahead and take care of the customers..."
So, for the next few years, I thought that was how the Police got paid...they didn't get a check from the City; they went around to the local business men every Saturday to collect their salary. I didn't yet know that it was a pay-off from my bosses, who also ran a sports betting and numbers racket on the side...A little loan-sharking always went along with a gambling operation too.
Paying the cops off back in the day, was called "paying tax" on the street; but everyone else called it "graft, a pay-off, on the take, bribery or hush money". In either case, it is 'protection' money; protection from being busted and having to rot in a cage for two or three years. It was simply the cost of doing business, and hasn't changed in NYC or anywhere else when it comes to crime, the Mob, Cops and Politicians. "Money talks...nobody walks."
You may have heard about the NYC Cop, Frank Serpico; the guy Al Pacino played in the movie 'Serpico' His attempt at exposing NYPD corruption back in the late 1960's to about 1972, got him shot in the face, during a set-up, by his own boys in blue. This led to the formation of the bogus 'Knapp Commission' to investigate and correct NYC Police corruption...All it did was to waste even more tax-payers money, and fatten the pockets of the 'connected'
I'm outta here...Keep your head down, and your mouth shut; you'll be fine.
Ciao
Here's a little clip from the NY Times in 1971 Regarding Serpico & the Knapp Commission
Through my appearance here today... I hope that police officers in the future will not experience... the same frustration and anxiety that I was subjected to... for the past five years at the hands of my superiors... because of my attempt to report corruption. I was made to feel that I had burdened them with an unwanted task. The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist, in which an honest police officer can act... without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. Police corruption cannot exist unless it is at least tolerated...at higher levels in the department. Therefore, the most important result that can come from these hearings... is a conviction by police officers that the department will change. In order to ensure this... an independent, permanent investigative body... dealing with police corruption, like this commission, is essential..— https://www.nytimes.com/1971/12/15/archives/excerpts-from-the-testimony-by-serpico.html
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Glad your still angry as always ;-)
Nice to hear from you small1axe...
Curated for #informationwar (by @wakeupnd)
Relevance: Knowledge is power.
Thank you @informationwar and @wakeupnd ... much appreciated.
Who knew there was a cost to "protect and serve" Huh?
Certain jobs should not be entered into for a paycheck, caring, doctors, teaching, law enforcement is definitely up there, right? It should be a vocation entered into by those with the most impeccable morals and integrity that is beyond reproach. It should be an arena entered into by those who genuinely want to be an asset to their local communities in order to make a better world (if hat doesn't sound too OTT.)
Does that sound like the police force that we know nowadays?
Corruption runs deep and paying taxes as you put it becomes an accepted practice within it's ranks. Protection payments sounds like something they should be investigating and building a file on, not partaking in.
I realise that you are chronicling an event that took place many years a go but alas I think the tendrils took a hold and we all know the media stories of those dishonored officers who indulge in such similar shady practices to this day.
Here's to hope of society changing one day soon to a more nourishing, transparent clean way of existing. I hope this is not a Utopian, pie in the sky naive world view that I harbour from my days of believing in father Christmas.
Thankyou for this gritty, fries eye view of a real "exchange" taking place on the street by a morally repugnant public service official this could have been a a scene in many a cop drama or movie but sadly it is not a piece of fiction just a tale of a "piece of work"
Have an amazing journey my friend :)
Yup, things have not changed for the better since then. Corruption was, and remains rampant throughout governmental operatives. The hand is always out, to take in the shadows.
I used to want to be a cop, and work in Internal Affairs, but I also wanted to have a family and not be shot in the face. The later won out in the end. Still can't stand a dirty cop though.
Great post!
Thanks for tasting the eden!