My writing on cops seems bipolar, doesn’t it?
But maybe that’s the nature of organizations. They are made up of people and people are complex.
The ghost plates thing is really sad. They make fun of it here, but there’s video of them in a police lot inspecting ghost plates. Ghost plates, for those that don’t know, are when people take off, deface, or guard their license plate in such a way that they can speed without being detected by New York City’s many cameras.
Meanwhile, the parking placards, often abused by government officials, are enforced at a rate lower than other 311-type complaints. Not only that, but when DOI staged integrity tests, half the time, the NYPD didn’t both to respond. This came out in a recent DOI report that was mentioned in reporting by both Streetsblog, a website that has been following transportation-related issues in New York for a while, and the New York Times, a website and media outlet that routinely ignores corruption and that is arguably racist and protective of “broken system” systemic abuse.
Then they wonder why journalists are tightening the noose around NYPD.
Let me just put it out there what the problem is.
Cops have an amazing sense of esprit de corps. This is what I admire about them, funny enough. I wanted to be a part of that culture once in 2014, but was not physically healthy enough to go for it. I believed in it as a citizen. I understood things were imperfect, but I also believed that overall things were going in a good direction based on stuff I was reading.
That esprit de corps also causes them to cover up stuff for each other on a systemic level. And cops that don’t believe in using that esprit de corps to break the law are ostracized a la “lamp lighter” Frank Serpico right on up to Adrian Schoolcraft and Mathew Bianchi.
In some ways, I’ve viewed myself in a similar light in our field. Willing to speak out against the darker side of our esprit de corps. Particularly the side that tears each other down while ignoring things like agencies training reporters to edit verbatim testimony or agencies using their considerable influence to manipulate the field away from the profession they ostensibly love.
But the bottom line is that these systems interact with everyday people like you or me.
The NYPD as an organization needs to be better. It’s the individuals that are part of the system that will make it better, no matter how powerless one may feel as a lone individual. I still have hope for the future.
But we don’t solve problems by hiding them. I’m the poster child for that. We must evolve beyond simple esprit de corps and practice moral esprit de corps.
(After this was written but before I could publish, a massive sting on ghost plates was conducted, with the arrest of 66 lawbreakers.)
66 in a sting.
I mourn the death of my faith in the system daily. But my belief in the people within it remains.
What systems are you a part of, reader?