AMST 3822 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Serpico, Rodney King, Gambling
31 Mar 2019
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Document Summary
Blue code of silence is a normative injunction, but an unwritten one. At its best feelings of loyalty and brotherhood sustaining the code of silence may facilitate policing and protect police against genuine threats to safety and well being. Yet the same code can sustain an oppositional criminal subculture protecting the interests of police who violate the criminal law. Police work is done in unpredictable and sometimes violent environments. Loyalty to fellow officers is a key feature of the culture of policing, regardless of whether criminality is involved. Code of silence so strong that it"s futile to expect testimony concerning corrupt activities from any police officer, even if he himself were caught in a corrupt act and offered immunity in exchange for testimony. Lapd officers seen watching as rodney king was beaten by la police and did nothing to end it. Power of ties of loyalty among the police.
