No doubt ranks of OC are flushed with real and imagined hard-core cases, knuckled-plaited tough-guys.

But aren't there cops who were genuine no-s**t-takers when it came to facing off against these hoods.

Thinking of a by-gone era, Joe Petrosino, Mike Fiaschetti. Certainly Fed Gabriel was no lay down Sally. So much hoopla around the Gottis etc. these law enforcers are kinda lost in the shuffle. Damn shame.

In the early 1970s, the Knapp Commission investigated and exposed the wide spread corruption in NYPD. Perhaps PB knows more about it, but one of the witnesses, Frank Serpico, testified against a NYPD captain who had taken money from a gambling operation based in the Bronx, I believe. He was the first police officer in history of the NYPD to openly testify against the widespread corruption.

In 1973, Serpico´s life and story was turned into a movie with Al Pacino in the lead role. I haven´t watched it in a long time but I remember it was a good movie. (Don´t know how accurate it portrays Serpico´s life and struggle though.)

"Through my appearance here today...I hope that police officers in the future will not experience...the same frustration and anxiety that I was subjected to...for the past five years at the hands of my superiors...because of my attempt to report corruption. I was made to feel that I had burdened them with an unwanted task. The problem is that the atmosphere does not yet exist...in which an honest police officer can act...without fear of ridicule or reprisal from fellow officers. Police corruption cannot exist unless it is at least tolerated...at higher levels in the department. Therefore, the most important result that can come from these hearings...is a conviction by police officers that the department will change. In order to ensure this...an independent, permanent investigative body...dealing with police corruption, like this commission, is essential.."

- Frank Serpico, in front of the Knapp Commission 1971