There are still cops who have a conscience, thank God:
A top Bronx cop was caught on tape telling an NYPD whistleblower to specifically target “male blacks 14 to 21” for stop-and-frisk because they commit crimes.
Stop “the right people, the right time, the right location,” Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack is heard saying on the recording.
“He meant blacks and Hispanics,” Officer Pedro Serrano, who made the secret recording, testified Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
“So what am I supposed to do: Stop every black and Hispanic?” Serrano was heard saying on the tape, which was recorded last month at the 40th Precinct in the Bronx.
McCormack said to focus on the Mott Haven section, where the problem “was robberies and grand larcenies.”
“I have no problem telling you this,” the inspector said on the tape. “Male blacks. And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem [to] tell you this, male blacks 14 to 21.”
During cross examination, City lawyer Brenda Cooke got Serrano to admit that McCormack never said he wanted Serrano to stop all blacks and Hispanics.
“Those specific words, no,” he told her.
Serrano’s tape and testimony were introduced as evidence in a class-action lawsuit against the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk tactic brought by four black New Yorkers who claim they were targeted because of their race.
In 1971-72 the Knapp Commission investigated the corrupt NYC police department. A few cops were fired or reduced in rank. A few.
Two of the cops who gave the Knapp Commission the details of police corruption didn’t get off so easily.
*Frank Serpico was shot in the face and almost killed by a paid assassin who was never arrested. After he recovered and returned to duty, no cop would work with him or even remain in the same room with him. So he quit.
*William K. Phillips Jr. was convicted of two murders that he didn’t commit and spent over 30 years in prison. The evidence used against him was later determined to have been mostly fabricated by his fellow cops.
Serrano had better watch his back.