Франческо Серпико: Сыбайлас жемқорлыққа қарсы күрескен полицей

American police officer and whistleblower (born 1936)

Francesco Vincent Serpico (born April 14, 1936) is an American retired New York Police Department detective, best known for whistleblowing on police corruption. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a plainclothes police officer working in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan to expose vice racketeering. In 1967, he reported credible evidence of widespread police corruption, to no effect. Serpico later received a Bachelor of Science degree from City College of New York.

On September 11, 1959, Serpico joined the New York City Police Department (NYPD) as a probationary patrolman, and became a full patrolman on March 5, 1960. He was assigned to the 81st precinct, then worked for the Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) for two years. He was then assigned to plainclothes undercover work, during which he eventually exposed widespread corruption. until he met another police officer, David Durk, who helped him. Serpico believed his partners knew about his secret meetings with police investigators. Finally, he contributed to an April 25, 1970 front page story in The New York Times on widespread corruption in the NYPD, which drew national attention to the problem.

Serpico was shot during a drug arrest attempt on February 3, 1971, at 778 Driggs Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Four officers from the Brooklyn North police command had received a tip that a drug deal was about to take place. Two policemen, Gary Roteman and Arthur Cesare, stayed outside, while the third, Paul Halley, stood in front of the apartment building. Serpico climbed up the fire escape, entered by the fire escape door, went downstairs, listened for the password, then followed two suspects outside. The police arrested the young suspects, and found one had two bags of heroin. Halley stayed with the suspects, and Roteman told Serpico, who spoke Spanish, to make a fake purchase in attempt to get the drug dealers to open the door. The police went to the third floor landing. Serpico knocked on the door, keeping his hand on his revolver. The door opened a few inches, just far enough to wedge his body in. Serpico called for help, but his fellow officers ignored him. fell to the floor, and began to bleed profusely. His police colleagues refused to make a "10 13" dispatch to police headquarters, indicating that an officer had been shot. An elderly man who lived in the next apartment called the emergency services, reporting that a man had been shot, and stayed with Serpico. The circumstances surrounding Serpico's shooting were quickly called into question. Serpico, who was armed during the drug raid, had been shot only after briefly turning away from the suspect, when he realized that the two officers who had accompanied him to the scene were not following him into the apartment, raising the question whether Serpico had actually been taken to the apartment by his colleagues to be murdered. There was no formal investigation. On May 3, 1971, New York Metro Magazine published an article, "Portrait of an Honest Cop", about him, a week before he testified at the departmental trial of an NYPD lieutenant accused of taking bribes from gamblers.

Serpico retired on June 15, 1972, one month after receiving the New York City Police Department's highest honor, the Medal of Honor. There was no ceremony; according to Serpico, it was simply handed to him over the desk "like a pack of cigarettes." In 2014, Serpico said that the NYPD still had not issued him the certificate that normally would accompany the honor. In December 2021, Eric Adams, the mayor elect of New York City and a former NYPD officer, said "[Serpico's] bravery inspired my law enforcement career" and said that he would ensure that the omission was corrected. On February 3, 2022, Serpico received the certificate, which he greeted with an improvised "21 gun salute" made with the sound of popping bubble wrap. Following his retirement in 1972, he went to Switzerland to recuperate, spending almost a decade living there and on a farm in the Netherlands, and traveling and studying. He has credited his grandfather (who had once been assaulted and robbed), and his uncle (a respected policeman in Italy), for his own sense of justice. He returned to the U. S. briefly in June 1974 to deliver a nomination speech for Ramsey Clark, candidate for United States Senator, at the New York State Democratic Party's convention in Niagara Falls. Clark was nominated, but lost the general election to incumbent Republican Jacob Javits. While travelling in Europe from 1979 to 1980, Serpico lived in Orissor College in Corwen, Wales; he was one of the founders and Director of Orissor (which had been known as the Old Union Work House and, more recently, as Corwen Manor: his signature appears on the deeds). He was well known in and around Corwen and frequently mixed in the town's pubs. After a disagreement with Orissor, he stayed for a few weeks in a B&B before returning to New York City in 1980. Serpico still speaks out about police brutality, civil liberties, and police corruption, such as the attempted cover ups following Abner Louima's torture in 1997 and Amadou Diallo's shooting in 1999. He provides support to "individuals who seek truth and justice even in the face of great personal risk," calling them "lamp lighters"; he prefers that term in place of the more conventional "whistleblower," which refers to alerting the public to danger, in the spirit of Paul Revere's midnight ride during the American Revolutionary War. In an October 2014 interview published by Politico entitled "The Police Are Still Out of Control I Should Know," Serpico addresses contemporary issues of police violence. In 2015, Serpico ran for a seat on the town board of Stuyvesant, New York, where he lives, his first foray into politics, but was not elected. Among police officers, his actions are still controversial, but Eugene O'Donnell, professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said in 2011 that "he becomes more of a heroic figure with every passing year." On August 19, 2017, Serpico gave a speech which was broadcast live on Facebook as he stood with NYPD police officers in New York City on the bank of the East River at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge in support of Colin Kaepernick, for his protests alleging a culture of police brutality. Serpico said, "I am here to support anyone who has the courage to stand up against injustice and oppression anywhere in this country and the world."

As a result of Serpico's efforts, the NYPD was drastically changed. Also in the late 1970s and early 1980s, vice laws were generally not enforced to prevent police corruption. Consequently, bookmakers and drug dealers often operated openly out of storefronts, while prostitutes openly advertised and often plied their wares in various "red light" sections of the city.

On June 15, 1972, Serpico left both the NYPD and U. S. to move to Europe. In 1973, he lived with a woman named Marianne (a native of the Netherlands), whom he wed in a "spiritual marriage"; she had two children; Marc and Jessica. She died from cancer in 1980. After her death he decided to return to the United States. Serpico was represented in his suit by Karen DeCrow, former president of the National Organization for Women. Alexander died of a suspected drug overdose on May 12, 2021. On June 27, 2013, the USA Section of ANPS (National Association of Italian State Police) assigned him the "Saint Michael Archangel Prize", an official award by the Italian State Police with the Sponsorship of the Italian Ministry of Interior. Francesco Serpico is now an Italian citizen: during the same ceremony, he received his first Italian passport after extended research by the president of ANPS USA, Chief Inspector Cirelli, who established the jus sanguinis, allowing him to gain Italian citizenship.