guys like Serpico simply do not exist anymore.
It's really quite fascinating.
They probably do but they are either shot or shut down and it never makes the papers.
Things were not as controlled in the 1970s.
Silkwood?
Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange all 'exist'. But they are persecuted for their actions.
Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.
What about Pat Tilman? The issue wasn't police corruption but he was also a man who could not be bought.
Send lawyers,guns and money/The *beep* has hit the fan
No question that it's never easy to be a whistle-blower, so I agree there.
But two thoughts:
Serpico tried, repeatedly, to go to his superiors, coworkers, etc. I haven't read up on it, but did Manning and Snowden try to alert their managers/commanders? Going straight to the NYTimes can get results for sure, but in some (key word) cases, there are advantages to at least seeing if superiors even know about what's going on. Sure, they might be part of the problem. But not in every case.
Also, there's a lot more oversight today than in Serpico's time. His story would have played out a lot differently if dash-cams had been installed in the patrol cars, citizens were holding up cell-phone cameras everywhere, etc. In that sense alone, I agree, it's a different world.
It is incredible how powerful a bureaucracy can be against an individual even or especially if the individual is correct and right.
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