They Wished They Were Honest

February 20, 2012
Being the chief counsel to New York City’s Knapp Commission, Armstrong was on the scene from the beginning of the citizens commission on police graft in the 1970s and knows the perils and pressures faced by the panel before its eventual success. Armstrong, currently chair of the New York City Commission to Combat Police Corruption, plots the Knapp Commission’s genesis from a 1970 New York Times article with bombshell revelations from rebel cop Frank Serpico, then details Mayor John Lindsay’s lukewarm support of the commission and full-out resistance from police hierarchy until the public breakthroughs. The panel, headed by noted lawyer Whitman Knapp, survived crisis after crisis, tallying payoffs, illegal gambling, loan sharking, and drug sales, with a series of heroes and robbers. Armstrong provides some color and flash with chapters on truth-seeking TV newsman Gabe Pressman, Serpico, a pair of flamboyant patrolmen known as “Batman and Robin,” honored cop and thief extraordinaire William Phillips, and Xaviera “The Happy Hooker” Hollander, who counted powerful politicians and cop bag-men as clients. Anyone interested in urban law enforcement and big city politics will find this book an important, surprising exposé of the corruption and reform of police power.

April 1, 2012

In April 1970, New York police officer Frank Serpico made headlines for speaking out about the force's widespread corruption, which the mayor had allegedly ignored. The Knapp Commission was formed that summer to identify any and all widespread patterns of corruption in the New York Police Department. In this book, Armstrong, chief counsel for the commission, lays out a detailed history of the Knapp Commission. He painstakingly outlines the successes and failures of the commission, and what emerges is a clear picture of both a troubled police department and the individuals who tried to expose it to the public. VERDICT Armstrong cites several books written around the time of these events, such as Robert Daley's Target Blue, but his reliance on his memories, notes, and transcripts enhances the value of this book. Readers who enjoy legal memoirs and books on police and New York City history will find this compelling. An impartial and detailed account of one of the most corrupt eras in recent police history.--Alyssa Vincent, Emporia State Univ. Lib., Portland, OR

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