Jack,
I know a whole lot about crooked cops. Unfortunately my hometown is full of them and my wife and I have run into them in a profesional manner (or not) on more than one occasion. It is not enough for them to represent the law, they feel they are the law. My wife damn near got thrown in jail one night when a cops son driving drunk piled into my neighbors garage and brand new mini-van. They had just retired and were leaving the next day for FL. The kid never put the brakes on. He drove staight through a stop sign and the only thing that stopped the car was the garage. The kid was so hammered couldnt even get out of the car. The father of the kid who was a cop was called in, at the time he was off duty. Out of uniform he arrived and started a story about the car breaks having failed. He walked out in front of the house and started saying that there was break fluid all over the road. I mean this idiot was really putting on a show. Well screw him, I jumped in the car after they pulled out his drunken ass&*^% kid and pumped the brakes, they were just fine. He started screaming at me about interfering in an investigation. I went out to the street, puddle of water not brake fluid. I warned him not to make something out of this he couldnt prove in court cause I had had enough of these bums. The cop on duty separated us. He was a little embarassed I think of his co-workers rediculous attempt to take us all for fools. Then my wife had her fill of the situation and started in with the cop accusing him of acting very unproffesional. He got in her face and all hell broke loose. She stood toe to toe with this moron until once again the officer on duty calmed the situation down. They never tested the driver for alcohol yet for some reason his passanger was breathalized. Probably ended up sticking it to him.
This is only one small incident we have witnessed. We have been directly involved in other incidents and I have frankly seen too much to ever trust an officer of the law farther than I could throw one. It takes a huge amount of effort to get through this life with your integrity intact and it gets exponentially harder when they pin that little shield on your chest. A retired state trooper friend of mine said it best - "when they went from peace officers to law enforcement officers it went straight in the can." Same job, different attitude toward the law.
Wheh! - rant over.