Ethics and Morals

2/7/2014

Today in the news is a Judge who allegedly steered a $43,000 contract to the husband of a business partner and then lied to investigators about her actions.  The Judge is being charged on 19 counts of wrongdoing by the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability.  The board also levied 10 counts against the agency's general counsel, who is a partner in a property management business with the Judge. Why do people in power continue to take risks that might (and should in my opinion) upend their careers. If these wrong doers were regular people, like you and me, granted we likely wouldn't make the paper, but we would certainly end up in a courtroom.  

And what's up with the firemen who refused to help a man who had a heart attack.  Bystanders rushed to the fire station but reportedly were told that they couldn't respond until the family called 911.  Apparently, a fireman watched but did nothing and the man died later in the hospital.  Seriously?   All they had to do was cross the street and help.  Forget policies and procedures, this man needed medical attention and needed it now. How could the firemen simply refuse to do anything?  Forget protocol for a moment, if for no other reason than compassion, why didn't they try and help this man? What a surprise that a fire lieutenant at the center of the investigation submitted her retirement papers after being placed on administrative leave.  What is wrong with these people and perhaps more to the point, the system in general?

You know as well as I do, that a regular person who came across someone clearly having a serious medical problem, would try and do something.  Few of us would just keep walking because we didn't want to get involved.  The man's daughter could have called 911 but under the circumstances I'm sure she was out of her mind with worry about her father, and likely was in shock and panicked (I know I would be).  I'm also assuming that since the firehouse was just across the street, she probably didn't think that she would need to call 911.  I know I would assume that the firemen would do something, and I'd be wrong.

Police Officers have several opportunities to gain personally from their status and authority as law enforcement officers. Police Officers are there to serve and protect and should not be above the law.  Yet it's clear that the Blue Code of Silence among policemen can prevent corruption from becoming public. The investigation of corruption in the New York City Police Department in the early 1970s, divided corrupt officers into two types: meat-eaters, who "aggressively misuse their police powers for personal gain," and grass-eaters, who "simply accept the payoffs that the happenstances of  police work throw their way."  The sort of corrupt acts that have been committed by police officers have been classified as follows, and this is only a partial list:

• Corruption of authority where officers receive free drinks, meals and other gratuties.
• Kickbacks, receiving payment from referring people to other business. This can include contractors and tow truck operations.
• Shakedowns for accepting bribes for not pursuing a criminal violation 

 The public puts a lot of trust in firemen, policemen, Judges as well as appointed city, county and state officials.  They are supposed to be upholding the law and doing the right thing, even if it makes them unpopular.  But we know that there are some of these firemen, policemen, Judges and politicians, who willingly and knowingly do the wrong thing. We read about ethical or moral violations that occur more often than they should. If we can't trust them, then who can we trust?

P