From: Randall Parker 

In article <391b8af2{at}w3.nls.net>, richhong{at}hawksci.com says...
> But as is documented time and again, the ethical "standard"
of the police is
> that one is "clean" if one does not personally commit a
criminal act, but
> that it is wrong to turn in a fellow officer.  By the very reasonable West
> Point standard, this makes every cop who knows of a dirty officer just as
> guilty of being dirty by virtue of not turning him in.
>
> I have often stated that this is the basis of my belief that virtually all
> cops are dirty.  By not turning in every fellow officer whom they suspect of
> violating department regulations, they become just as guilty as the ones who
> do.

I've always wondered where this blue line comes from. I agree with you that
it exists and it its a bad thing. But why does it exist in the first place?

There are so many recent examples of it including Ramparts, the Louima
case, at the federal level the many lies told by agents regarding Waco and
Ruby Ridge, and so on.

Aside: many on the right lose sight of the fact that Waco and Ruby Ridge
were as much an abuse by regular officers of the law as they were an abuse
by the Clintonistas for their own partisan ends.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5