How are these even legal?
All the cops who didn't like corruption have been chased out - a process this article shows in action. All the people who think the culture is unconscionable have quit. Every new hire is trained by people who will tell them "it's normal, everyone does it". And all the leadership, even if they don't engage in corruption themselves, have ignored it or covered it up.
If you're the governor and you decide to crack down on corrupt cops? The cops can simply stop dealing with certain highly visible crimes, claiming they're too busy or whatever. And sure, you can fire some of them - but all the replacements are also implicated in corruption.
Meanwhile, voters don't care about the political minutiae and blame-shifting, all they know is under governor Chris_wot they don't feel safe walking the streets, they want someone tough on crime. You lose the election to your opponent, who gives the cops MRAPs, AR-15s and a license to kill; and suddenly the cops have time to deal with those highly visible crimes.
The trick to avoiding this is that you've got to root out corruption early - before the honest people have been driven out.
They're laminated and full color corruption. How is this allowed?
As long as there's any amount of leeway in enforcement of the law, things like courtesy cards will exist. All it is is a little nudge to say, "Hey. I'm one of you and yours. Let's let it slide."
That will continue to exist even if the cards entirely disappear.
The moment it’s standardised not only in writing, but as a physical object, it should become trivially prosecutable. The existence of these cards should trigger DoJ intervention. (Maybe the Adams administration’s recent failings will prompt this.)
1. The existence of these cards has been widely known about for well over a decade.
2. The DoJ is full of cops as well.
This hypothesis would appear to be disprovable by the DoJ prosecuting cops. (Hint: they do. Including entire police forces.)
Do they exist somewhere else?
The police have wide discretion to issue a warning instead of a fine in most countries as far as I know. But these cards seem to be unique to NYPD. I don't mean that corruption doesn't exist elsewhere but usually it's a little less obvious!
I don't know if it's an actual thing.
Edit: I remember now, it was Jack Reacher season 2.
"Driving while black" comes to mind.
> Many are officers trying to make quota.
This is another thing that should never exist.
It is less corrupt than other systems. Massachusetts has a system of special vip license plates to prevent influential people from being pulled over in the first place.
Two people go through border security, one just a random person and the other is carrying a military passport. One will breeze through security and the other might not.
Why *should* a military passport (or my relative is a cop, or my government ID, or my Boy Scout badge, or my jacket patch for that band you love, or my sports jersey, or my bumper sticker) alter how someone evaluates whether I have broken a law or pose a security threat?
I'm not asking why fallible, busy, and sometimes immoral people behave as if it does. I'm asking why it should.
Does any of these allow someone to break the law with impunity?
There are lots of rotten police, and rotten police practices, in American. And many other nations.
Obsessing over these cards, because they're oh-so-visual and push people's buttons, is a "whack any white mole, which appears in this specific spot, if the sun is currently shining here" approach.
Maybe it feels good, and success is incredibly easy - the moles learn fast - but it won't do squat to reduce your yard's horrible mole problem.