"Dirty" Cops of the Caribbean

The major raid by the U.S. Department of Justice against police and other law-enforcement corruption in Puerto Rico is a shame on two counts.  First and foremost, because it shows how widespread the corruption really is within the law-and-order community.  Second, because it continues to present our public institutions as incapable of "policing" themselves, dependent on the U.S. government to put things in order in our country.

Police corruption, especially pertaining to drug trafficking, is nothing new.  There is just too much money to be made and the opportunity is too great to pass up.  Selling protection, be it to legitimate businessmen or illegal ones, goes back at least 80 years to the "golden age" of gangsters and racketeering in Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S.  Forty years later, New York was rocked by the scandal uncovered by Frank Serpico.  So, our cops are just part of a long line of "dirty" policemen who want a cut of all that drug money that passes through their hands.

Sad, but true. Nothing less, but nothing more.

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