Extreme Police Corruption 1
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This quote taken from a letter by Lord Acton to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887 is as true today as it was back then. Power, and the corruption that this power brings, is found in every facet of our society. From corporate CEOs to the police officers sworn to protect and uphold the law, extreme corruption continues to tarnish Lady Liberty. Across America, severe police corruption has given a black eye to a noble profession. New Orleans, New York, and Las Angeles have been hit hard by corrupted police officers who abused the power they were given in order to manipulate the judicial system.
New Orleans is one city that has had its share of police corruption. On “Shielded from Justice: New Orleans: Incidents,” the reader is introduced to Officer Len Davis. Officer Davis became so powerful in the New Orleans area that he was “reportedly known in the Desire housing project as ‘Robocop”. He used “brutality and physical intimidation” to manipulate the system he swore to protect. One of his fellow officers is reported to have made this statement, ‘“He’s got an internal affairs jacket as thick as a telephone book, but supervisors have swept his dirt under the rug for so long that it’s coming back to haunt them”’. Officer Davis was finally brought to justice at the expense of a human life. He was so eaten up with power; he openly ordered the death of Kim Groves, “after he learned she had filed a brutality complaint against him”. He was “sentenced to death in federal court, on federal criminal civil right charges, for ordering Groves’s slaying. Less than one month after this sentence, he was sentenced to life plus five years in federal court for his involvement in the cocaine ring”. Davis was brought to justice by the
Extreme Police Corruption 2
effectiveness of a FBI sting...