My jaw dropped as I read this entry from Dr. Frank Kardasz’s blog on police ethics. As you can see from his blog headline, he Dr. Kardasz follows police ethics and earned is P.H.D. studying it. Only reading the article will outline the apparent corruption and gross misconduct that is plaguing our city; I couldn’t summarize it all and do it justice. And I, for one, I’m really shocked by these allegations.
I’ve always respected the police for putting their lives in danger when they clear the streets of violent drug offenders, gangs, and double parkers and we should not forget that fact of their job. But I’ve also feared the police as they have access to surveillance, intrusion, and investigatory techniques that can be misused; in our “scary” world where terrorists lurk around every corner just waiting to release a propaganda attack on our civilized society, we gave law enforcement unprecedented powers which, we now know, were belligerently misused. I ask my wife all the time, “Who will police the police? And who will police those people who police the police?” She gives the cops the benefit of the doubt but she hasn’t been profiled by the police like I have.
My home town had more transparency and I could trust the police to generally do the right thing. While I can’t say that everyone of them were saints, no one ever – to my knowledge – abused their powers or entered the gray area of ethical behavior. Granted, the population when I grew up there was a little less than that of Hoboken – about 30,000 people to Hoboken’s 38,000 – but its not enough to make a difference in the complexity of the government and how it makes itself available to the people.
Anyway, all this long talk is because I was shocked at how abusive our police department seems to be. I’m sure our leaders are as shocked as I am to hear this… or maybe they allow it to happen. I know I don’t feel safe here anymore and I’ll be looking at the police with a closer eye in the future. I hope that the mayor does something about this apparent problem because it makes me believe that by not removing the corrupt people from the city, he himself is endorsing it.
