Running head: Compare and Contrast Compare and Contrast April Smolkowicz Georgia Gwinnett College Upon watching the movie Serpico that was located in New York in 1973, and the movie Training Day that was located in Los Angeles in 2001, these were two different movies filmed years apart also geographically thousands of miles apart. I believe that both movies sharing similarities and differences can be discussed in three ways being: police corruption and misconduct, morals and the third category is education value. I will first start with the time period of the 1970’s movie Serpico; a New York police officer transfers to another precinct to work as an undercover police officer. Serpico witnesses his colleges accepting bribes, collecting for their division, committing violence, and refusing to take emergency calls, drawing their guns then shooting at individuals before knowing the situation. While Serpico refuses to accept bribes or anything that was not legal, his colleges in turn didn’t trust him. Serpico being a man of …show more content…
After being shot in the face from a drug bust gone wrong, Serpico resigned from the police force unlike Detective Alonzo who was killed by the Russian mafia. Clearly you could tell that both of these detectives had morals and knew what they needed to do in order to try and correct circumstances that had gone terribly wrong. Serpico was honest and showed integrity. It took guts for him to stand his ground even if that meant putting his life in danger to do what was ethically right. A gold shield was handed to him after he was shot, no ceremony was held. The thing that both detectives have in common is that they didn’t sign up for the corruption they were exposed to and made lasting impressions that they didn’t have to be involved in order to be a good police
I watched the movie Training Day. This movie shows many examples of unmoral and unethical police work. Denzel Washington is a narcotics detective for the LAPD named Alonzo Harris. His methods of enforcing the law are very questionable during the film, if not corrupt. Harris’ job is to train rookie Jake Hoyt over a 24-hour period. Many Ethical dilemmas arise for Hoyt and this presents questions for him whether or not to follow along with Harris, and if his methodology for ridding the streets in South Central Los Angeles is right or wrong. As watching the movie we realize that there are a few theories that came up. Deontological and Teleological ethical systems as well as criminal/ moral culpability and hypothetical and categorical
In chapter three, it gives updates on his situation and explains the steps he took before getting into law enforcement. On February 4th, Serpico’s shooter was arrested; he was twenty-four-year-old heroin addict, Edgar Echevaria. His pervious arrest record shows he was arrested
Michael Dowd, dubbed the name “Dirtiest Cop in New York City”, prospered enough than any US President’s annual salary, calculating by the amount of money he stole in robberies he and his partner, Kenny Eurell, planned in their patrol car to the eight grand a week they were paid from a drug gang leader. He and his fellow partners-in-crime would use police tactics to rob dealers. Certainly, Dowd was not only intelligent in his mischievous ways, but he had balls and didn’t rat out on his partners, which made him fearless of the consequences that might follow. He may be nervous at times, but was never feared of being caught. He was determined, demanding, obnoxious, greedy individual, and would go after anyone that threatened him and owed him money.
He betrayed fellow officers by undermining investigations of gang members close to him, and instructing one to burglarize cops' homes and steal their guns. In addition to Miedzianowski, four other alleged members of his Miami-to-Chicago drug conduit were on trial: Mohammed S. Omar Jr., 31; Omar Feliciano, 27; Lissett Rivera, 30; and Miedzianowski's former girlfriend, Alina Lis, 37 (Lightly T.2001).
Serpico testified against fellow police officers, breaking the “blue code of silence”, which is an unwritten rule among police officers not to report fellow officer wrongdoings, to the Knapp Commission on May 10, 1971. "I hope that police officers in the future will not experience the same frustration and anxiety that I was subjected to for the past five years at the hands of my superiors because of my attempt to report corruption. We create an atmosphere in which the honest officer fears the dishonest officer, and not the other way around. The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist in which honest
Training is one of the most important roles at a law enforcement agency. It is never-ending as “concepts, theories, philosophies, practices, procedures, and techniques are constantly changing to meet social needs” (Iannone et al, 2009, p. 60). Without training, even the best officer will turn into one that is not respected by his peers or society. Gone are the days when an officer is sent to the training academy and has no more except for yearly inservice. This can be accomplished with field training after the academy, roll call training, inservice, emailed updates from the training staff, and outside the agency training. It does not always have to be expensive. Most think that the effectiveness of training can’t be measured, but successful training can easily be seen through “higher morale, less job stress with its high economic cost, greater esprit de corps, a lessened need for punitive discipline, greater effectiveness, in crime suppression, increased public support and confidence, fewer errors, better
Starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, the 2001 film Training Day focuses on the portrayal of two Los Angeles Police Department officers.The story begins with Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, a rookie narcotics detective on his first day of assignment. Jake is in a 24 hour period of field evaluation under the reins of a fellow respected and decorated narcotics officer Alonzo Harris, who is portrayed by Denzel Washington. Jake Hoyt is the ideal “white knight of justice”, an individual who is morally incorruptible, and a person who seeks to defend what is morally correct and to eliminate injustice through proper practices set under federal and state laws and standards. On the other side is Alonzo Harris, a ruthless, selfish, and corrupt narcotics cop who will do whatever it takes to complete the task, whether it violates the procedures and policies. Through the entirety of the film, the concepts of moral ambiguity in situational ethics towards institutional justice and the ethical dilemma of power and corruption amongst enforcement agencies are throughly stressed, analyzed, and reflected. The film illustrates and advances the implicit message of the misrepresentation of the criminal justice system, deception of the effectiveness of institutional justice, and corruption of crime enforcement agencies through the observation, analysis, and deconstruction of numerous examples in normalization to ideologies, and formal elements as suggested through the duration of the film.
After the civil war, local politicians rewarded their supporters with jobs as police officers. The officer were not trained and there was not a standard to become an officer. The are were event when entire departments were involved in misconduct and corruption. There was not much hope in this era because there was a lack of supervision that allowed officers to behave the way that they pleased. (Walker, Samuel, and Richards, M. 1996)
Serpico” is a film that based on the of New York City Police Officer named Frank Serpico and the difficult obstacles he had to face working for the NYPD. Serpico is a “cops cop” that had to deal with persuasive organized corruption, police crime, and ethical dilemmas etc. All these obstacles were hard for Serpico to work with on a daily basis. He refused to take bribes and his co-workers begin distrust him. Serpico informed his superiors about the corruption but they did nothing about it. The superior’s just transferred him from the Bronx. Brooklyn, and Harlem. The higher ups in the police department were more concerned if Serpico spoke to any outside private organizations about the police misconduct.
I’m glad that I chose this book because it taught me that one person can have a huge impact on an issue that he or she feels strongly about. I thought Serpico would have become a replica of those crooked cops. Who would of thought Serpico would be the police officer to deny graft, bribery and other criminal benefits? That’s the most appealing information because who would chose justice over money? Apparently Frank Serpico thought that corruption wasn’t going to get him to a detective rank. He believed the only way was to endeavor. A quote from the book was “the
“Ethical issues regarding corruption and off-duty behavior have become an increasing challenge in criminal justice” (Writing, 1999-2013). Within the criminal justice system, ethics can be complicated by the moral implications of actions. Differences in cultures and different circumstances can affect the individual moral compass. However, all departments of criminal justice operate by a certain code of ethics and by certain standards. But those standards and ethics often become challenged due to issues relating to police brutality, off duty conduct and corruption that we hear about all of the time through the media.
For years police corruption has been a major problem in American society but where is the line between moral and unethical police corruption, many modern movies address this vary issue. Some films portray how types of police corruption can have a positive influence on society, while others show the dark side of police corruption. Many law enforcement agents join the criminal justice with the basic idea of "justice for all," however, most of them do not realize that the nice guy doesn't always win. Even though there are vast amounts of movies which specifically address police corruption we will use three main movies for our argument today, mostly LA Confidential, however, also Training Day.
Training Day is a LAPD movie, but the plot makes it stand out. It’s a story of a rookie cop who has his mind set on a goal. Alonzo, (Denzel Washington), a veteran cop who can get him there. The movie follows the cop duo, which feels like End of Watch, and both movies have the same writer. Training Day is action-packed, and makes you think because it sends a message to the audience and the character. I like this movie too because it asks the audience what’s right and what’s wrong. I would also like to mention that everyone is crooked, yet Jake (the rookie cop)is honest. Alonzo stole money from a drug dealer to bribe a crooked judge to get a warrant to break into a richer drug dealer house and to steal his money, so he can bribe russians to
Special units in police forces are essential to the function of any organization, however some of these special units might evolve into feeling superior to the rest of the agency. The mentality of doing it their own way sets in and more likely than not this behavior is not cohesive with the policies and procedures in place by the agency. Unfortunately, this attitude develops from not being checked, and leads to the unit feeling as though they are untouchable. When not having checks and balances
In 1994 a report by the Mollen commission on police corruption in New York exposed disproportionate corruption within the department. Violent crime, including gang type activity, cops in uniform routinely storming drug locations and stealing narcotics, money weapons and whatever they felt like taking. On duty police officers riding alongside drug dealers, providing protection while the dealers carried big amounts of drugs and cash. The commission also found cops who became drug dealers themselves starting up their own drug dealing networks and delivery centers. (Neighborhood Explanations) Although most officers are honest and hard-working, the Mollen report exposed serious, violent activity by some in the department.