FBI Raids Johnny Doc, Bobby Henon; How Can We Better Tackle Corruption?

Perp Walk City

With Johnny Md now in the Feds' crosshairs, is it fourth dimension to call back innovatively about taking on our civilization of corruption?

Aug. 08, 2016

Terminal week, when the FBI and IRS were removing boxes of evidence from labor leader John Dougherty's home and office, as well as the Council office of his longtime acolyte Bobby Henon, didn't it feel like we'd seen this motion-picture show before? When it comes to our region and public corruption, information technology's every bit if we're all trapped in a type of Groundhog Day .

Let'southward do a quick review. Nosotros've got ii boldface names who, we now know, have long been wearing wires for the Feds—former Rendell Principal of Staff John Estey and former Treasurer Rob McCord—and nosotros've got now former Congressman Chaka Fattah waiting to find out only where he'll be going on a federally mandated vacation, and for how long. There have been the scandals at Traffic Court, leading to its abolishment. The "sting" of iv Philly state House members. The statewide judicial porn scandal, featuring Supreme Court justices resigning in disgrace, and the wacky Kathleen Kane chronicles. There'due south State Senator Larry Farnese, charged with blackmail in, of all things, a ward election. Farnese holds the no-incertitude cursed seat once held by Vince Fumo, before he "went away," who succeeded the legendary charlatan Buddy Cianfrani, a colorful Due south Philly rogue who once, referring to the prosecutor investigating him, quipped, "If he can't get me, what kind of investigator is he?" Ol' Buddy went away for racketeering and bribery so came right dorsum to South Philly to run his ward.

Vi years ago, into this culture of abuse came a new, unlikely gunslinger, U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger. When Memeger was appointed by President Obama in 2010, the volume on him was that he was a steady manus, an apolitical choice. The Delaware native, a former prosecutor, was competent but didn't projection equally a firebrand. Well, that was six years ago. It has since become credible that Memeger has Philly and the state of Pennsylvania in his crosshairs, and that, though the 51-yr-sometime may announced unassuming, you underestimate him at your peril. Recall of it: If Memeger succeeds in taking down Dougherty, he will have in brusque social club decimated 2 of the virtually powerful, and one time seemingly insurmountable, families in the Philly constellation—Fattah'south and Dr.'southward.

If we're really serious about taking on our cultural affinity for the political perp walk, let's hire Transparency International to come audit us. They've published a " Local Integrity System Assessment Toolkit " that explains in great item how they work with local governments and civic partners to identify and reform weak spots in governmental integrity.

Remember, the FBI went later Dougherty before, when now Congressman Pat Meehan occupied Memeger's chair. Dougherty eluded prosecution, which only made him seem more than powerful amid insiders. At the time, many of them suspected that Dougherty was an FBI informant, particularly when Fumo—his one-fourth dimension mentor, against whom he'd turned—went down. Information technology's immaterial whether Dougherty aided prosecutors or not; what was real was the perception that, owing to his armor of Teflon, the guy must have had friends in high places.

And so Dougherty, his mystique at its zenith, went about building his empire, with tentacles reaching into the Mayor'due south part, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, City Council, and countless boards and commissions. Only now comes Memeger, a competing archetype: The crusading lawman, intent on cleaning up his town. It's a familiar model; across the land, countless politicians have used it to accelerate their political fortunes, including Eliot Spitzer in New York and Chris Christie in New Jersey.

That'due south how we've always taken on municipal corruption, by countering rogue actors with super hero-like men of the constabulary. But how's that working out for u.s.a.? Clearly, nosotros need to punish those who, sworn to uphold the law, pause it—every bit well as those who enable them. But maybe the Groundhog Day nature of this dance we do over public corruption—perp walk, charges, trial, rinse and repeat—has made the electorate cynical and paralyzed.

The evidence suggests that our litany of scandal has done picayune to deter time to come bad acts, despite the law enforcement actions. So maybe we ought to augment our view about how we go nearly enforcing good government.

That's what they've done at the Netherlands Courtroom of Inspect , which has had some success past consciously promoting integrity instead of just fighting corruption. By focusing on integrity in government, they take a pro-active, preventative approach. The Court of Audit—roughly akin to our Congressional Budget Function— analyzes governmental integrity through something called SAINT, (short for Cocky-Assessed Integrity), a adventure assay workshop that is both a diagnostic tool and a way to intervene and change governmental cultures. And they use geo-spatial information systems—GSIs—in the form of cool, interactive mapping to build transparency and have authorities out of the shadows, where corruption flourishes.

Some of the all-time work in taking on corrosive political cultures beyond the globe has been washed by Transparency International , a coalition that fights corruption. They've developed data-checking software that tin place public projects susceptible to risks of fraud, conflicts of interest, and other irregularities. For example, they've culled the voluminous public procurement information sets of European Union countries and take devised software that searches for abnormal patterns such as uncommonly brusque bidding periods or unusual outcomes—no compete bids, for example, or bids repeatedly won past the same company.

51-year-onetime U.Due south. Attorney Zane Memeger may announced unassuming, simply yous underestimate him at your peril. Recall of information technology: If Memeger succeeds in taking downwardly Dougherty, he will have in short order decimated two of the most powerful, and one time seemingly insurmountable, families in the Philly constellation—Fattah's and Doc's.

So here's an idea I've raised before. If we're actually serious almost taking on our cultural affinity for the political perp walk, let's rent Transparency International to come up audit us. They've published a " Local Integrity Organisation Assessment Toolkit " that explains in great detail how they work with local governments and civic partners to identify and reform weak spots in governmental integrity.

Finally, we've just got to care more—you and me. This isn't some abstract, academic concern. At a fourth dimension when our schools, roads and bridges are all crumbling, it's also about following the coin. Some months ago, Citizen columnist Jeremy Nowak wrote nigh this issue and cited a written report out of Indiana University and the University of Hong Kong that plant that the average amount of corruption in Pennsylvania costs each resident of the Commonwealth some $1,300. If enough of us, when watching the news footage of another politician being indicted, come across information technology for what it is—testify of a reach into our pockets in the class of a de facto Corruption Revenue enhancement—maybe then our resignation volition be replaced by outrage and demands for change.

What's clear is that only throwing our bad actors in jail is non enough to make clean up our politics. It more frequently than non simply makes room for a new crowd…doing the same sometime bad stuff. Yes, nosotros should yet punish those who intermission the law. But let's as well remake the political landscape by building upwardly a civilisation of integrity—which, unfortunately, has become too quaint of a term.

Photograph header: Flickr/gosheshe

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/fbi-raids-johnny-doc/

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