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Comment by badcppdev | Hacker News Reader

This person is actually quite optimistic: "This is going to take one, two or more years to root out those who are corrupt," he said.

Also being an optimist I wish that everyone accepted that "bad apples" are going to appear in any organisation and that weeding them out is a required part of the governance.

Priests, Police, Teachers, Politicians, Lawyers, Priests, IT Developers, Managers, Doctors, Priests... clear, quick processes are needed in all of these areas to safeguard both victims and alleged miscreants.

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Don't forget Priests.

It's definitely good that they're realistic about it, it at least gives a sense that they're taking it seriously, as opposed to having a couple of scapegoats and calling "job done, we're good now, you owe us your trust again".

As I get older, I've found this to be true for a number of things: "don't worry, it's only for the rest of your life".

This should be a permanent effort.

"The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance" - John Philpot Curran (often misattributed to Thomas Jefferson, at least according to https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jeffers... )

Precisely. It never "roots out". Use and subsequent abuse of power is a fundamental human trait. All we can do to rectify it is to put systems and bodies of people in place to punish infractions that harm both the institution and society and, where possible and reasonable, prevent the people who might abuse said power from entry into the organizations in the first place.

> Use and subsequent abuse of power is a fundamental human trait.

yes, and worse: people who want physical power over others will seek out lines of work where they can do this. A police force will never be free of the concern that it is attractive to abusers. It will have to be managed always.

Maybe this abuse of power falls under the umbrella of corruption but IMHO it's a very different thing to "corrupt" practices such as e.g. taking a bribe, or giving the mayor's son a free pass for speeding. Calling these abusers "corrupt officers" seems disingenuous.

I suspect there is a bit of a tipping point effect though. If only 0.1% of your profession is an abuser of power, then those around them will react when they see them do it. If 10% are, it's normalised, and people will let it slide. So as you make progress with the rooting out, there comes a point where it gets easier to keep it clean after.

> one, two or more years

Are you sure it's not just dry British understatement?

> Are you sure it's not just dry British understatement?

From TFA:

> The Met's Stuart Cundy said ... Speaking to reporters at New Scotland Yard, Mr Cundy said there were plans to hold around 30 misconduct hearings and 30 gross incompetence hearings each month ... This is going to take one, two or more years

If I can try to translate from English Establishment:

"Look we know that the London Met Police's reputation, while never good as such, has recently nosedived to the extent that we simply cannot get away without being seen to do something about it. So we're going to be seen to do this, and we'll continue to be seen to do it for a year or so. That should get use though this crisis.

What's that? Stop the Met from being institutionally racist, sexist, and homophobic? Lol, not possible and not of interest to us. If we get most of the ones who have rape and murder as hobbies that's good enough."

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