Yes, there are two Americas’ Virginia, they exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. One tolerant and broadminded, the other intolerant and narrow-minded! Sincerely, thinkingblue, from the TOLERANT AND BROADMINDED USA PS: Joe (You Lie) Wilson, et al reside in the other America!
posted by thinkingblue at 3:45 PM
posted by thinkingblue at 4:11 PM
NYPDIn September 1959, Serpico joined the New York City Police Department (NYPD) as a probationary patrolman. He became a full patrolman on March 5, 1960. He was assigned to the 81st precinct, then worked for the Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) for two years. He was finally assigned to work plainclothes, where he uncovered widespread corruption.Serpico was a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn and the Bronx to expose vice racketeering. In 1967 he reported credible evidence of widespread systematic police corruption. Nothing happened, until he met another police officer, David Durk, who helped him. Serpico believed his partners knew about secret meetings with police investigators. Finally, Serpico contributed to an April 25, 1970, New York Times front-page story on widespread corruption in the NYPD. Mayor John V. Lindsay appointed a five-member panel to investigate charges of police corruption. The panel became the Knapp Commission, named after its chairman, Whitman Knapp.Shooting and public interestSerpico was shot during a drug arrest attempt on February 3, 1971, at 778 Driggs Avenue, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Four officers from Brooklyn North received a tip that a drug deal was about to take place.Two policemen, Gary Roteman and Arthur Cesare, stayed outside, while the third, Paul Halley, stood in front of the apartment building. Serpico climbed up the fire escape, entered by the fire escape door, went downstairs, listened for the password, then followed two suspects outside.The police arrested the young suspects, and found one had two bags of heroin. Halley stayed with the suspects, and Roteman told Serpico (who spoke Spanish), to make a fake purchase attempt to get the drug dealers to open the door. The police 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 enough to wedge his body in. Serpico called for help, but his fellow officers ignored him.Serpico was then shot in the face with a .22 LR pistol. The bullet struck just below the eye and lodged at the top of his jaw. He fired back, fell to the floor, and began to bleed profusely. His police colleagues refused to make a "10-13", a dispatch to police headquarters indicating that an officer had been shot. An elderly man who lived in the next apartment called the emergency services and reported that a man had been shot. The stranger stayed with Serpico. A police car arrived. Unaware that Serpico was one of them, the officers took him to Greenpoint Hospital.The bullet had severed an auditory nerve, leaving him deaf in one ear, and he has suffered chronic pain from bullet fragments lodged in his brain. He was visited the day after the shooting by Mayor John V. Lindsay and Police Commissioner Patrick V. Murphy, and the police department harassed him with hourly bed checks. He survived and testified before the Knapp Commission.The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting quickly came into question. Serpico, who was armed during the drug raid, had been shot only 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 brought to the apartment by his colleagues to be murdered. There was no formal investigation.On May 3, 1971, New York Metro Magazine published an article about Serpico titled "Portrait of an Honest Cop". On May 10, 1971, Serpico testified at the departmental trial of an NYPD lieutenant who was accused of taking bribes from gamblers.MORE HERE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Serpico
posted by thinkingblue at 9:46 AM
posted by thinkingblue at 9:16 AM
posted by thinkingblue at 12:13 PM
posted by thinkingblue at 8:38 AM
Get informed, know your rights and stop Republicans from overturning our Republic so they can bring forth a Plutocracy.
posted by thinkingblue at 7:48 AM
posted by thinkingblue at 10:03 AM
EXCERPT: In Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, the Republican crusade to reward large corporations while punishing the poor has hit a snag.
A bill proposed by Republican state legislators would force recipients of food stamps to spend at least two-thirds of their benefits on items from a list of “healthy foods” while outright banning the purchase of certain ‘junk foods’ such as chips and soda. This is a great, petty, way for the state GOP to thumb their nose at the FDA, which has officially stated it has no plan to categorize foods for SNAP recipients. It’s also a wonderful way to show the poor how committed Republicans are to making their lives harder. Republicans should know that quite a lot of fast and junk food is heavily subsidized, making it much cheaper than healthy foods, leading to obesity among the poor. Taking junk food away from those living on meager food stamps allowances could be tantamount to starving them. It also arrogantly assumes that being poor means someone doesn’t know how to feed themselves and their family.
Sociopath in Psychiatry. noun,1. a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.~~~Sociopath in Medicine. n.A person affected with an antisocial personality disorder.
posted by thinkingblue at 9:29 AM
thinkingblue
posted by thinkingblue at 9:49 AM
Yes, there are two Americas’ Virginia, they exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. One tolerant and free-thinking, the other intolerant and close-minded! Sincerely, thinkingblue, from the TOLERANT AND FREE-THINKING USA PS: Joe (You Lie) Wilson, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh et al reside in the intolerant America!
