Tarnished Badges ? The History Of Corruption Essay, Research Paper
Tarnished Badges ? The History of Corruption
in the Police Department The skin of the man
lying on the ground was dark by nature, his original pigmentation made darker
still by the impact of repeated blows from four nightsticks. Four nightsticks
held by four sets of hands with pigmentation of a lighter degree. A crowd of
about a dozen or so stood by casually, their nightsticks idle as they watched
the scene unfold, a scene that would end with a final score of nightsticks 56,
victim 0 (Dempsey, 1994). This
particular scene was not an occurrence from America?s turbulent 1960s, however
much it might resemble an event from that era. Nor was it a vigilante incident
from the frontier days of America?s wild and untamed west. The scene described
above is circa late twentieth century America, Los Angeles, and California in
March of 1991, to be exact (Dempsey, 1994). This scene, a scene that a
passer-by happened to capture while out experimenting with his new video
camera, was to be replayed countless times across the screens of America?s
television sets during the coming weeks. This scene, which depicted the assault
of California resident Rodney King by four Los Angeles police officers, told a
shocked America that all was not well within its law enforcement system. This
scene, followed by a trial in which all four officers were acquitted, attested
to the fact that, despite a number of reforms and improvement measures,
corruption still exists in America?s police departments (Dempsey, 1994). The
history of the organized police force is a chequered one, and it is a concept
that dates back to the days of the early Romans emperors. One of these
emperors, Augustus, established one of the earliest law enforcement
organizations known to the world about the time Jesus Christ was born (Dempsey,
1994). The sole purpose of this organization, known as the Praetorian Guard,
was the protection of the emperor and palace. Augustus followed this
organization with the formation of the Praefectus Urbi, an urban force designed
to protect the city of Rome (Dempsey, 1994). A third organization established
by Augustus, a group known as the Vigiles of Rome, were originally formed to
fight fires in the city of Rome, but eventually took on the responsibility of
patrolling the city?s streets in an effort to protect Roman citizens from
crime. It is from this organization that the word and the concept of vigilante
originated (Dempsey, 1994).