Crusader: The Hell-raising Police Career of Detective David Durk
- ISBN-10
- 0394576489
- ISBN-13
- 9780394576480
- Series
- Crusader
- Category
- Political science (General)
- Pages
- 389
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1996
- Publisher
- Random House
- Author
- James Lardner
Description
When he joined the New York City police department in 1963, David Durk thought he had found the perfect job. The department was not so sure. Durk's previous experience included graduating from Amherst College, studying law at Columbia University, and importing African tribal carvings. He also believed the police should not just enforce the law but be positive agents of social change. In short, he ranked low on the traditional measures of qualification for the police department - he was not blue collar, Irish, or Italian, and none of his relatives were cops. Durk turned out to be a model police officer with a nose for crime and the highest rate of collars among all the rookies in his first precinct. But within the culture of the police, Durk was a problem. Not only did he like to arrest criminals on and off duty, but he quickly saw that the entire structure of the department was rife with corruption. Durk discovered that supervisors at the highest levels, even in the city government, didn't care about graft, extortion, and sloth, and even created the environment where they could flourish. Most cops wanted to be honest, but they were trapped in a system that rewarded them for neglecting their duty and punished them for fulfilling it. The beat cop's unofficial motto was not "To protect and serve", but "Twenty years and out". In the late sixties, after years of fighting quietly through recognized channels, Durk and fellow cop Frank Serpico finally went to the press. Their efforts inspired the formation of the Knapp Commission, which launched the largest investigation of police corruption ever and made Durk and Serpico famous. After Knapp, Serpico left law enforcement forever. Crusader isthe story - part adventure, part tragedy, and part inspiration - of what came next for David Durk, who stayed on. Durk dreamed of using his fame to help eliminate corruption and make the department the place he'd thought it should be when he entered it. He learned many things as he followed the trail of misconduct through every borough of the city, through drug busts and undercover operations, through garment-center stings and tax-evasion scams, from East Harlem drug dens to the offices of Fortune 500 companies. He learned how the city really works. He learned about how the people with flags in their offices feel about a guy who spends his life investigating the people in power. About why you keep it up, when any normal person would keep quiet.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Single Parents: A Reference Handbook
By Karen L. KinnearCasey Foundation . 1995. Kids Count Data Book . Baltimore , MD : Annie E. Casey Foundation . Chambers , Diane . 1997. Solo Parenting : Raising Strong and Happy Families . Minneapolis : Fairview Press . Cherlin , Andrew J. , ed . 1988.
-
Women, Politics, Media: Uneasy Relations in Comparative Perspective
By Karen Ross... American studies report that salient differences in approach and priorities do exist which fracture along gendered lines . ( See , for example , Thomas , 1991 ; Boles , 1991 ; Blankenship & Robson , 1995 ; Schumaker & Burns , 1998. ) ...
-
Climbing the Hill: Gender Conflict in Congress
By Karen Foerstel, Herbert N. FoerstelWhen the voters went to the polls in November 1992 , they gave Harman a decisive victory over Flores , but two years later Harman would have a more difficult battle against still another Republican woman , Councilwoman Susan Brooks .
-
西柏坡研究.四
By 西柏坡纪念馆本书是2015年度国家社会科学重大项目“西柏坡时期中国共产党历史文献整理与研究”（15ZDB043）的文字成果。汇编了近年来社会各界研究西柏坡精神、西柏坡历史、两个务必、“赶考 ...
-
西柏坡研究(三)
By 西柏坡纪念馆20世纪90年代初以来，西柏坡精神研究经历了从初步到逐步深入、从河北省到走向全国、从理论研究到成为现代化建设特别是全面建设小康社会的实践指导这样一个不断发展的过程。
-
Feminism and the Legacy of Revolution: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas
By Karen KampwirthBooth, John. 1985. The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution. Boulder: Westview. Booth, John, and Thomas W. Walker. 1989. Understanding Central America. Boulder: Westview Borge, Tomás. 1984. Carlos, the Dawn Ls No Longer ...
-
American Legislative Leaders in the West, 1911-1994
By Nancy Weatherly Sharp, James Roger Sharp... ROBERT MCMASTER 1967 ELDRIDGE DONALD DELOS 1970 COPELAND THOMAS L 1971 SWAYZE THOMAS ALLEN JR 1973 SAWYER LEONARD ALSON ... K 1919 SULLIVAN EUGENE J 1921 EWART LEWIS R STATE NAME 1 ST SPKR ARIZONA 1912 BRADNER SAMUEL B 292 APPENDIX 1.
-
The State of Social Welfare: The Twentieth Century in Cross-national Review
By John C. Dixon, Robert P. ScheurellThis collection of documents analyzes the global rise and fall of the welfare state in the 20th century. It concentrates on Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Zimbabwe.
-
Human Rights and International Political Economy in Third World Nations: Multinational Corporations, Foreign Aid, and Repression
By William MeyerFinally , shortly after the disaster , UC claimed that they believed the leak may have been caused by the deliberate sabotage of a disgruntled employee ( Bogard , 1989 : 3—4 ) . Bogard's investigation of the Bhopal disaster considers ...
-
Experiencing Citizenship: Concepts and Models for Service-learning in Political Science
By William E. Hudson, Richard M. BattistoniThis volume is part of a series of 18 monographs service learning and the academic disciplines. This collection of essays focuses on the use of service learning as an approach to teaching and learning in political science.