on sale now at amazon

on sale now at amazon
"I don't like this book because it don't got know pictures" Chief Rhorerer

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

Newsday expose on police misconduct is tip of the iceberg


BY: THOMAS F. LIOTTI

The exhaustive and commendable expose by Newsday into police misconduct in Nassau and Suffolk Counties reveals the underbelly of the criminal justice system to the lay public but for those of us who must frustratingly deal with an errant system each day, it is just the tip of the iceberg masked by corrupted elected officials who have an interest in seeing to it that things stay as they are. Newsday should continue its work because it alone may be successful in awakening the public's conscience to the issues of public corruption and police misconduct. It is rampant and deadly. It demands immediate action from all elected officials.
Following the Knapp and Mollen Commissions in New York City, the socalled Armstrong Commission was established to prosecute cases of police misconduct. In contrast, to independence of such a special prosecutor, District Attorneys and elected officials stand for election and accept campaign contributions from police unions. No wonder we hardly ever see criminal legislation that might curtail some of the more prevalent misconduct.
We need a Special Prosecutor statewide to deal with these cases and we need Civilian Complaint Review Boards to conduct real investigations and not the white washed versions run by Police Department Internal Affairs. Nassau and Suffolk should have Ombudsmen or women appointed for a term of years much like F.B.I. Directors appointed for a term of ten (10) years.
Campaign contributions to District Attorneys, judges and elected officials by the P.B.A. should be outlawed. Salaries and pensions by corrupted police should be revoked. If taxpayers want an honest government, they must fight for it. Newsday can not do it alone even if they do again win the Pulitzer Prize for their investigation which they should.
Thomas F. Liotti is an attorney in Garden City and Village Justice in Westbury. He is the former Chair of the Nassau Bar Association Civil Rights Committee.