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Home / Setup by a Corrupt Cop Beacause of a Baby?

Setup by a Corrupt Cop Beacause of a Baby?

American police officer and whistleblower

Frank Serpico
Frank Serpico.jpg

Serpico in 2013
Born

Francesco Vincent Serpico


(1936-04-xiv) April 14, 1936 (age 85)

Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Nationality United States, Italy
Other names Paco, Serpico
Known for Whistleblower on constabulary corruption and subsequent shooting
Police career
Department New York Police force Section
Service years 1959–1972
Status Retired
Rank Detective
Badge no. 19076[1]
Shield no. 761
Awards NYPD Medal of Honour
Other work Lecturer

Francesco Vincent Serpico (born Apr 14, 1936) is an American retired detective, all-time known for whistleblowing on police abuse. In the belatedly 1960s and early on 1970s, he was a plainclothes constabulary officer working in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan to expose vice racketeering. In 1967, he reported apparent testify of widespread police corruption, to no effect.[two] In 1970, he contributed to a forepart-page story in The New York Times on widespread corruption in the NYPD, which drew national attention to the trouble.[2] Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed a 5-member panel to investigate accusations of police corruption, which became the Knapp Commission.

Serpico was shot during an arrest attempt on Feb iii, 1971, at 778 Driggs Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The bullet severed an auditory nerve, and left bullet fragments lodged in his brain. The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting were quickly called into question, raising the possibility that Serpico had been taken to the apartment past his colleagues to be murdered. In that location was no formal investigation,[iii] merely Edgar Echevarria, who had shot Serpico, was subsequently convicted of attempted murder.

Much of Serpico'south fame came after the release of the 1973 moving picture Serpico, based on the book of the same proper noun by Peter Maas. On June 27, 2013, the USA Section of ANPS (National Association of Italian State Police) awarded him the "Saint Michael Archangel Prize". During the ceremony, he received his start Italian passport and gained Italian citizenship.

Early life [edit]

Serpico was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the youngest child of Vincenzo and Maria Giovanna Serpico, Italian immigrants from Marigliano, Naples, Campania. He holds both American and Italian citizenship. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the United States Army and was stationed for two years in South Korea equally an infantryman. He then worked as a part-fourth dimension private investigator and a youth counselor while attending Brooklyn College.[4] Serpico later received a Bachelor of Science degree from Metropolis College of New York.[5] [6]

Career [edit]

NYPD [edit]

On September eleven, 1959, Serpico joined the New York City Law Department (NYPD) as a probationary patrolman, and became a full patrolman on March 5, 1960. He was assigned to the 81st precinct, and then worked for the Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) for two years.[vii] He was then assigned to plainclothes hush-hush work, during which he eventually exposed widespread corruption.[iv]

Serpico was a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan to expose vice racketeering. In 1967, he reported apparent evidence of widespread systematic police corruption, and saw no effect[2] until he met some other police officeholder, David Durk, who helped him. Serpico believed his partners knew near his secret meetings with police investigators. Finally, he contributed to an April 25, 1970 front-page story in The New York Times on widespread corruption in the NYPD, which drew national attending to the trouble.[2] Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed a five-fellow member panel to investigate accusations of police abuse. The panel became the Knapp Commission, named later on its chairman, Whitman Knapp.[8]

Shooting and public interest [edit]

Serpico was shot during a drug arrest attempt on February 3, 1971, at 778 Driggs Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Four officers from the Brooklyn Due north police force command had received a tip that a drug deal was about to accept place. Two policemen, Gary Roteman and Arthur Cesare, stayed outside, while the third, Paul Halley, stood in front of the apartment edifice. Serpico climbed up the fire escape, entered by the burn down escape door, went downstairs, listened for the password, then followed two suspects outside.[9]

The police force arrested the young suspects, and institute one had two numberless of heroin. Halley stayed with the suspects, and Roteman told Serpico, who spoke Spanish, to brand a false purchase endeavor to get the drug dealers to open the door. The constabulary went to the third-floor landing. Serpico knocked on the door, keeping his hand on his revolver. The door opened a few inches, just far plenty to wedge his torso in. Serpico called for help, but his fellow officers ignored him.[9]

Serpico was so shot in the face by the doubtable with a .22 LR pistol. The bullet struck merely below the eye, lodging at the superlative of his jaw. He fired back, striking his assaulter,[3] fell to the flooring, and began to drain profusely. His police colleagues refused to make a "10-xiii" dispatch to constabulary headquarters, indicating that an officeholder had been shot. An elderly man who lived in the next apartment called the emergency services, reporting that a man had been shot, and stayed with Serpico.[nine] When a constabulary car arrived, enlightened that Serpico was a beau officer, they transported him in the patrol car to Greenpoint Hospital.[3]

The bullet had severed an auditory nerve, leaving him deafened in ane ear, and he has since suffered from chronic pain from bullet fragments lodged in his brain. He was visited the solar day afterward the shooting past Mayor John V. Lindsay and Law Commissioner Patrick V. White potato, and the police department harassed him with hourly bed checks. He after testified before the Knapp Commission.[10]

The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting were chop-chop called into question. Serpico, who was armed during the drug raid, had been shot just after briefly turning away from the suspect, when he realized that the two officers who had accompanied him to the scene were not following him into the apartment, raising the question whether Serpico had actually been taken to the apartment past his colleagues to be murdered. There was no formal investigation.[iii] Edgar Echevarria, who had shot Serpico, was later on convicted of attempted murder.[xi] On May 3, 1971, New York Metro Magazine published an article, "Portrait of an Honest Cop", almost him, a week before he testified at the departmental trial of an NYPD lieutenant accused of taking bribes from gamblers.[ commendation needed ]

Testimony before the Knapp Commission [edit]

In October, and again in December 1971, Serpico testified before the Knapp Committee:[9]

Through my appearance here today ... I hope that police officers in the time to come will not experience ... the same frustration and feet that I was subjected to ... for the past five years at the hands of my superiors ... considering of my attempt to study corruption. I was made to feel that I had burdened them with an unwanted job. The problem is that the atmosphere does non yet exist, in which an honest police officer tin can deed ... without fear of ridicule or reprisal from boyfriend officers. Police corruption cannot exist unless information technology is at least tolerated ... at higher levels in the department. Therefore, the most important effect that tin can come from these hearings ... is a conviction by police officers that the department will modify. In order to ensure this ... an independent, permanent investigative body ... dealing with police corruption, like this commission, is essential ...[12]

Serpico was the start police officer in the history of the New York City Police Department to step forrard to study, and subsequently testify openly near, widespread, systemic abuse payoffs amounting to millions of dollars.[xiii]

Retirement and activism [edit]

Serpico retired on June 15, 1972, ane month after receiving the New York City Law Section's highest honor, the Medal of Honor. There was no ceremony; according to Serpico, it was simply handed to him over the desk "like a pack of cigarettes".[fourteen] In 2014, Serpico said that the NYPD still had not issued him the certificate that normally would back-trail the accolade.[15] In December 2021, Eric Adams, the mayor-elect of New York City and a former NYPD officer, said "[Serpico's] bravery inspired my police enforcement career" and said that he would ensure that the omission was corrected.[16] [17] On February 3, 2022, Serpico received the certificate, which he greeted with an improvised "21-gun salute" made with the audio of popping bubble wrap.[16] [17] [18]

Following his retirement in 1972, he went to Switzerland to recuperate, spending near a decade living there and on a farm in kingdom of the netherlands, and traveling and studying.[fourteen]

When information technology was decided to brand the movie virtually his life called Serpico, Al Pacino invited the officeholder to stay with him at a house that Pacino had rented in Montauk, New York. Pacino asked him nigh why he had stepped forwards, and Serpico replied, "Well, Al, I don't know. I guess I would accept to say information technology would be because... if I didn't, who would I be when I listened to a piece of music?"[19] He has credited his granddaddy (who had once been assaulted and robbed), and his uncle (a respected policeman in Italy), for his own sense of justice.[20] [21]

He returned to the U.S. briefly in June 1974 to evangelize a nomination speech for Ramsey Clark, candidate for United States Senator, at the New York Land Democratic Party's convention in Niagara Falls. Clark was nominated but lost the general election to incumbent Republican Jacob Javits.

While travelling in Europe from 1979 to 1980, Serpico lived in Orissor College in Corwen, Wales;[22] he was 1 of the founders and Manager of Orissor (which had been known as the Old Union Work House and, more recently, as Corwen Manor: his signature appears on the deeds). He was well known in and effectually Corwen and oftentimes mixed in the town'southward pubs. Afterward a disagreement with Orissor, he stayed for a few weeks in a B&B before returning to New York Urban center in 1980.

Serpico however speaks out nigh police brutality, civil liberties, and police corruption, such as the attempted cover-ups following Abner Louima'south torture in 1997 and Amadou Diallo'southward shooting in 1999.[23] He provides support to "individuals who seek truth and justice even in the face of corking personal risk", calling them "lamp lighters"; he prefers that term in place of the more conventional "whistleblower", which refers to alerting the public to danger,[24] in the spirit of Paul Revere'southward midnight ride during the American Revolutionary State of war.[25]

In an October 2014 interview published by Political leader entitled "The Police force Are Still Out of Command... I Should Know", Serpico addresses contemporary problems of constabulary violence.[26]

In 2015, Serpico ran for a seat on the town board of Stuyvesant, New York, where he lives, his showtime foray into politics.[27] He lost the ballot.[28]

Amidst police officers, his actions are all the same controversial,[29] simply Eugene O'Donnell, professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, states that "he becomes more of a heroic figure with every passing year."[30]

On Baronial 19, 2017, Serpico gave a oral communication which was broadcast alive on Facebook equally he stood with NYPD police officers in New York City on the banking concern of the East River at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in back up of Colin Kaepernick, for his protests alleging a civilization of police brutality. Serpico was quoted, "I am hither to back up anyone who has the courage to stand up confronting injustice and oppression anywhere in this country and the world."[31]

Effect on the NYPD [edit]

As a effect of Serpico's efforts, the NYPD was drastically changed.[fourteen] Michael Armstrong, who was counsel to the Knapp Commission and went on to become chairman of the city's Commission to Combat Police Corruption, observed in 2012 "the mental attitude throughout the section seems fundamentally hostile to the kind of systemized graft that had been a way of life near 40 years ago."[32] Also in the late 1970s and early 1980s, vice laws were generally non enforced to prevent police corruption. Consequently, bookmakers and drug dealers frequently operated openly out of storefronts, while prostitutes openly advertised and often plied their wares in diverse "cerise-light" sections of the urban center.[33]

Personal life [edit]

On June 15, 1972, Serpico left both the NYPD and U.S. to motility to Europe. In 1973, he lived with a woman named Marianne (a native of the Netherlands), whom he wednesday in a "spiritual marriage"; she died from cancer in 1980. Later on her expiry he decided to render to the The states.[9]

His merely child, son Alexander, was built-in March fifteen, 1980, out of wedlock. Later on going to a tribunal to competition child support payments to the mother, who Serpico has claimed told him she was on the contraceptive pill (an allegation she denied, but her friend testified against her). The tribunal ruled he had to pay effectually $900 per month.[34] Alexander died of a suspected drug overdose on May 12, 2021.[35]

On June 27, 2013, the United states of america Section of ANPS (National Clan of Italian Country Law) assigned him the "Saint Michael Archangel Prize", an official award past the Italian Land Police force with the Sponsorship of the Italian Ministry building of Interior. Francesco Serpico is now an Italian citizen: during the aforementioned ceremony, he received his commencement Italian passport after extended inquiry past the president of ANPS U.s.a., Main Inspector Cirelli, who established the Jus sanguinis, assuasive him to proceeds Italian citizenship.[36]

Depictions in media [edit]

  • Serpico, a 1973 biography by Peter Maas,[37] sold over 3 million copies.[38]
  • The 1973 biography was adapted for the 1973 motion-picture show Serpico, which was directed past Sidney Lumet and starred Al Pacino in the title role.[37]
  • In 1976 David Birney starred as Serpico in a TV-flick called Serpico: The Mortiferous Game (also known as "The Deadly Game"), broadcast on NBC.[39]
  • The NBC TV-motion-picture show served as a pilot to a brusk-lived Serpico TV series the following fall on the aforementioned network.[40] [41]
  • Frank Serpico, a 2017 documentary.[42]
  • In the episode of All in the Family "The Taxi Caper", which aired on Dec 8, 1973, Serpico is mentioned every bit one of the "new breed" of New York Metropolis police officers.
  • In the episode of It'south Always Sunny in Philadelphia "Bums: Making a Mess All Over the Urban center", which aired on November 8, 2007, Charlie Twenty-four hours plays a character who is modeled on the Al Pacino depiction of Frank Serpico.[43] (The actor playing the titular "bum" of the episode, Tracey Walter, was in the original Serpico moving-picture show.[43])

See also [edit]

  • New York City Law Department corruption and misconduct
  • Adrian Schoolcraft, secretly recorded law conversations from 2008 to 2009
  • Robert Leuci, known for his piece of work exposing corruption in the police department and the criminal justice organization

References [edit]

  1. ^ Maas 1973, pp. 49, 268.
  2. ^ a b c d "Serpico Testifies". New York. 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d Serpico, Frank (October 23, 2014). "The Police Are Still Out of Control". Politico.com.
  4. ^ a b "Biography". Frank Serpico.com. 2007. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved October 24, 2007.
  5. ^ Daley, Robert (1973). Target Blue: An Insider's View of the N.Y.P.D. New York, NY: Delacorte Press. p. 37. ...Serpico got his B.S. degree from City College long after he became a cop.
  6. ^ Burnham, David (June 19, 1970). "Policeman Tells Trial of Payoffs". The New York Times. New York, NY. p. 1 – via TimesMachine. ...Patrolman Frank Serpico, a 34‐year‐former City College graduate who has been on the strength for more than 10 years.
  7. ^ "Cops take their say". Inter gate. 2007. Archived from the original on August 22, 2007. Retrieved Oct 25, 2007.
  8. ^ Burnham, David (May 22, 1970). "Lindsay Appoints Corruption Unit of measurement". The New York Times.
  9. ^ a b c d e Phalen, Kathleen F. (January–February 2001). "Frank Serpico: The fate that gnaws at him". GadflyOnline.com . Retrieved October 25, 2007.
  10. ^ Marcou, D. (September i, 2015). Constabulary Dogs: Bully Cops in American History. Thunder Bay Press. ISBN9781620260098.
  11. ^ "The Man Who Shot Serpico Is Convicted in Brooklyn". The New York Times. June 1, 1972.
  12. ^ "Excerpts From the Testimony by Serpico". The New York Times. December 15, 1971.
  13. ^ Burnham, David (April 25, 1970). "Graft Paid to Police Here Said to Meet Millions". The New York Times.
  14. ^ a b c Kilgannon, Corey (January 22, 2010). "Serpico on Serpico". The New York Times . Retrieved October fourteen, 2013.
  15. ^ McShane, Larry (February 4, 2014). "Frank Serpico has yet to receive 1972 Medal of Honor certificate from NYPD". Daily News. New York. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  16. ^ a b Associated Printing (Feb 4, 2022). "NYPD honors whistleblower Frank Serpico — 50 years tardily". AP News. New York City. Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  17. ^ a b Annese, John (February 3, 2022). "Frank Serpico finally gets his formal Medal of Laurels document from the NYPD". Daily News. New York. Retrieved February half-dozen, 2022.
  18. ^ Pavia, Will (Feb iv, 2022). Written at New York. "Frank Serpico finally gets his Medal of Laurels from New York police after 50 years". The Times. London. Archived from the original on Feb five, 2022. Retrieved February vi, 2022.
  19. ^ Grobel, Lawrence (2008). Al Pacino. Simon & Schuster. p. 32. ISBN9781416955566.
  20. ^ Pehme, Morgan (September v, 2012). "Doing the Right Thing". cityandstateny.com. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
  21. ^ Doino Jr., William (September 9, 2013). "Serpico's Stand". First Things . Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  22. ^ "Frank Serpico reveals how he concluded up in a 'cult-like' group in Wales later on exposing NYPD abuse". Daily Post (Northward Wales).
  23. ^ Tyre, Peg (September 23, 1997). "Serpico resurrects his decades‐erstwhile criticism of NYPD". CNN. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
  24. ^ Cooper 2013.
  25. ^ Offstein, Evan H. (2006). Stand up Your Ground: Building Honorable Leaders the W Point Way. Greenwood Publishing Grouping. p. 86. ISBN9780275991432 . Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  26. ^ Serpico, Frank (October 23, 2014). "The Police force Are Still Out of Command". Pol . Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  27. ^ Kilgannon, Corey (September 8, 2015). "Serpico, Seeking Seat on Town Lath, Sees Abuse and Pledges to Fight It". p. A24. Retrieved September iii, 2017.
  28. ^ Bekiempis, Victoria (Nov 4, 2015). "Frank Serpico on Lost Political Bid: 'Information technology Volition Save Me a Large Headache'". Newsweek . Retrieved September 3, 2017.
  29. ^ Shaer, Matthew (September 27, 2013). "134 Minutes with Frank Serpico". New York . Retrieved October xiv, 2013.
  30. ^ Iverac, Mirela (October three, 2011). "Decades Later on Breaking the Blue Wall of Silence, Ex-Cop Frank Serpico Enjoys the Quiet Life". WNYC . Retrieved October xiv, 2013.
  31. ^ "Frank Serpico joins NYPD officers for rally in support of Colin Kaepernick". The Washington Mail service . Retrieved August 26, 2017.
  32. ^ Roberts, Sam (June 30, 2012). "Rooting Out Police Abuse". The New York Times . Retrieved Jan 27, 2014.
  33. ^ Dombrink, John (1988). "The Touchables: Vice and Police Corruption in the 1980s". Law and Contemporary Problems. 51 (1): 201–232. doi:ten.2307/1191720. ISSN 0023-9186. JSTOR 1191720.
  34. ^ "Serpico Loses Boxing Over Child Support in Court of Appeals". The New York Times. May 4, 1983.
  35. ^ Moore, Tina (May 11, 2021). "Serpico's son dies of apparent drug overdose, police say". Archived from the original on May 11, 2021.
  36. ^ "Serpico diventato italiano; cittadinanza allex decttive della polizia di New York" [Serpico became Italian: citizenship to the New York police force detective]. America Oggi (in Italian). June 29, 2013.
  37. ^ a b Thompson, Tony (August 25, 2001). "Peter Maas". The Guardian . Retrieved May 24, 2015.
  38. ^ Maas, Peter; Serpico, Frank (2005). Serpico: The Classic Story of the Cop Who Couldn't Be Bought. New York: Perennial. ISBN978-0-06-073818-one.
  39. ^ "Serpico: The Mortiferous Game (1976)". Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  40. ^ "Big Picture, Small Screen: 20 Picture-Based Boob tube Shows From Worst to All-time". Rolling Rock. April 21, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  41. ^ "Serpico: The Mortiferous Game (1976)". British Film Plant . Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  42. ^ "Frank Serpico". IMDb. November 1, 2017.
  43. ^ a b "Bums: Making a Mess All Over the City". IMDb. November fifteen, 2007. Retrieved April twenty, 2019.

Further reading [edit]

Books

  • Johnson, R. A. (2006). "Whistleblowing and the police". Ruthers Journal of Law and Urban Policy. 3.
  • Maas, P. (1973). Serpico, The Cop Who Defied The System. New York: Viking Press. [ ISBN missing ]

Newspapers

  • Arnold, Martin (April 26, 1970). "Mayor's Commission Investigating Police Corruption Here Meets Tomorrow to Determine Procedures". The New York Times. .
  • ——— (May 11, 1971). "Crusading Policeman: Francisco Vincent Serpico". The New York Times. .
  • ——— (Dec fifteen, 1971). "Serpico's Lonely Journey to Knapp Witness Stand". The New York Times.
  • Burnham, David (April 25, 1970). "Graft Paid to Constabulary Hither Said to Run Into Millions". The New York Times. .
  • ——— (May nine, 1970). "Console on Police May Be Replaced". The New York Times. .
  • ——— (May 22, 1970). "Lindsey Appoints Corruption Unit". The New York Times. .
  • ——— (June seven, 1970). "Knapp Says Laws Spur Law Graft". The New York Times. .
  • ——— (February five, 1971). "The Mayor Visits 'a Very Brave Human'". The New York Times. .
  • ——— (May 2, 1971). "15 Police Trials Begin Tomorrow". The New York Times. .
  • ——— (May fifteen, 1971). "5 Promoted to Detective For Fight on Police Graft". The New York Times.
  • ——— (December 15, 1971). "Serpico Tells of Filibuster on Constabulary Inquiry". The New York Times.
  • Cooper, Charlie (March 23, 2013). "'To whistleblow is similar a death penalty': v people who risked everything to speak out". The Independent. .
  • McShane, Larry (December 22, 2012). "Despite distance and decades, whistleblower Frank Serpico is never too far from his NYPD by". The New York Daily News . Retrieved December 30, 2012.
  • "After the Knapp Hearings". The New York Times. December 28, 1971.
  • "17 Policemen Hither to Get High Award". The New York Times. May 18, 1972.
  • "The Man Who Shot Serpico Is Bedevilled in Brooklyn". The New York Times. June 1, 1972.
  • Models of Mettlesome Citizenship: Robert Shetterly's Americans Who Tell The Truth; retrieved January 13, 2015.

External links [edit]

  • Official website
  • Media related to Frank Serpico at Wikimedia Commons

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Serpico