Rewriting History

This year alone there have been no less than 3 books, two non-fiction and one fiction, that attempt to rewrite history and disparage the name of Frank Serpico. I will not name the books or their authors because I don't want to add one bit of additional attention to the less than worthy nonsense that they are writing. One is by a 40 something year old cop, who is still on the force who seems to have had a long history of police corruption within his family's lineage. The other is by a former corrupt cop who turned the tables on his colleagues to save his own hide. The third is by an attorney who was in the DA's office way back when who apparently has some sort of ax to grind.

Frank takes all this in stride -- his reputation is beyond reproach and the many wonderful emails that he receives from around the country and around the world from honest, law abiding citizens trying to live lives of integrity and doing the right thing heartens him. It truly disgusts me that 30 years after Frank put his career, his sanity and his life on the line to do what he had to do, there are still people out there who would try to chip away at his indisputably honorable and courageous actions. None of the "authors" mentioned above even made an effort to contact Frank for an interview! I think that tells most of us everything we need to know. Corruption continues alive and well, not only within the NYPD, but within most branches of any organized bureaucracy.

Thankfully there are also some factual books being written that actually describe the situation as it -- City Room by Arthur Gelb, former editor of the New York Times for many years is a great portrayal of how things actually went down. The recently published Criminal Justice Pioneers in U.S. History by Dr. Mark Jones, Associate Professor Department of Criminal Justice, East Carolina University, and the soon to be published, American's Who Tell the Truth, by Robert Shetterley also provide some good honest perspectives.

Frank is also currently working on his autobiography which will clarify the reality of the situation as it existed in retrospect, and with the knowledge of the many things that he has learned over the last 30 years since the Knapp Commission. You can of course still refer to the Peter Maas book which pretty well explains how things were back in the 60's and early 70's within the NYPD.

Vincent Serpico, Esq.

- posted by Frank @ 1:37 PM