More depressing news from Wilkes-Barre, where a third local judge, and the 20th person overall, has been snagged in a corruption inquiry. I’ve blogged a number of times about the two other judges that will (hopefully) spend a good deal of time in prison on the charge of “honest services fraud for improperly influencing a court case.” How much to make of all this is unclear, I suppose; it’s just another example of dishonest people abusing their positions, and to be sure there’s plenty of that to go around pretty much everywhere in the country. But I’ve been teaching in Philadelphia for the last 13 years, and I have to say that the culture of corruption in the police and judicial systems in this part of the world is jaw-dropping and very depressing; it’s taken for granted that judges and cops are routinely on the take (it’s well known, also, that judges buy their positions from local party leaders for cold, hard cash). Philadelphia has long since ceased to be the world class city that it was 150 or 200 years ago – but there are pockets of terrific energy and creativity bubbling up in Philly, and lots of new folks bringing new ideas and new enthusiasm into town; I do think, though, that until this corruption culture is brought to heel, it will keep holding it back from any chance of getting back on its feet and dealing with the profound problems that it has.
[Thanks to Mike Davidson for the link]
Charles N. Steele says:
The destructiveness of corruption in govt and business tends to be grossly underestimated, at least in economic theory. I don’t recall any mention of the subject in either my M.S. or Ph.D. programs in econ; it was completely ignored in discussions of how policies work. I subsequently worked in China, Russia, and Ukraine, and then in insurance consulting in the U.S. One couldn’t make any sense out of anything that happened in any of these places/fields w/o understanding the crucial role of corruption, and I now doubt one can have any real understanding of the S&L crisis, or today’s financial mess, w/o appreciating that these are epidemics of corruption. Corruption is possibly more destructive than bad formal policy (not to suggest the two aren’t closely linked).
December 4, 2009, 2:16 pmNunzio says:
Chicago used to be this bad in the 1980s. It’s become a lot better as far as corruption.
The state court judges in Chicago get elected with the support of the party but the cold hard cash buyout here is pretty rare. They’ve also cleaned up the more systemic corrpution in the police department here.
The federal prosecutors and federal agents in Chicago have done an excellent job on this front.
December 4, 2009, 2:17 pmLew says:
The entry is entitled “More judicial corruption in S.E. PA.” But Wilkes-Barre is in the northeastern part of the state.
December 4, 2009, 2:32 pmAultimer says:
Prof. Post is using the little known L’Enfant method for assigning directionals. For Pennsy, he used the town of, um, Renovo the way DC uses the Capitol.
December 4, 2009, 3:29 pmtroll_dc2 says:
Lew is right, but there is a lot of corruption in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties too. The populace in Pennesylvania as a whole seems to expect corruption everywhere and has learned to live with it. For instance, there is an investigation going on right now about teacher applicants in N.E. Pennsylvania being forced to pay school board members and others to get a job; appanently, the applicants just paid and did not complain.
I am originally from central western New York, and I find this attitude weird.
December 4, 2009, 3:42 pmAdam B. says:
Yep. And David teaches at Temple; he knows better. There is no possible way to look at this map and call Wilkes-Barre the southeast.
December 4, 2009, 4:02 pmInstapundit » Blog Archive » MORE Judicial Corruption In South-East Pennsylvania…. says:
[...] MORE Judicial Corruption In South-East Pennsylvania. [...]
December 4, 2009, 4:16 pmMore Judicial Corruption | PAWaterCooler.com says:
[...] Read the whole thing here. [...]
December 4, 2009, 4:26 pmwillis says:
When the attorney general refuses to prosecute the black panther voter intimidation in Philadelphia, one gains a better perspective on the level of corruption in our country and the depressing effect it has on the political process.
December 4, 2009, 4:30 pmPaul A'Barge says:
Democrats
December 4, 2009, 4:36 pmJim says:
Look up political corruption in the dictionary and I am sure you will see a group photograph of the Rhode Island legislature.
December 4, 2009, 4:40 pmNostromo says:
Iowa is a “clean government” state in large part because judges are appointed by the governor from a list of two screened and well known (to the screeners) candidates provided by the local bar association. It works extremely well. Look into it. Consider it. Do it.
December 4, 2009, 4:50 pmBrian McKim says:
Geez, people: PHL is in the Southeast portion of the state. Pittsburgh in the western portion. Every town that gets a signal from the Philly stations is considered in the southeast, every town that picks up PGH stations is in western PA. Everything in between is central Pennsylvania.” Everything else other than that is… sparsely populated extensions of West Virginia, Maryland and New York.
Stop looking at the world through a Mercator projection.
If you were to look at the region through an azimuthal projection, you would see that, loosely speaking, Wilkes Barre is in southeast PA.
It’s a state of mind. It’s an orbit thing. Wilkes Barre is only a couple hours from PHL… 90 minutes if you have a radar detector. Quit nitpicking on the man!
December 4, 2009, 4:54 pmtroll_dc2 says:
If you are right, where is northeast PA?
December 4, 2009, 4:58 pmSeaDrive says:
That would be Scranton.
December 4, 2009, 5:02 pmJames Wallace says:
Its NorthEastern PA or NEPA for short and as of about 1:00 p.m. its 21 that will be sending time at club fed. I live in Wilkes Barre and I know a few of these low lifes, It not just the judges here folks it everyone from school boards to county officers 19 Democrats and 2 Republicans, laywers, real estate brokers, insurance co., everyone I figure a couple of the county commissioners will be next
December 4, 2009, 5:12 pmJames Wallace says:
Here a link …left side read all about all of them
http://www.timesleader.com/
December 4, 2009, 5:19 pmathEIst says:
East, west… Just remember Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburg with Alabama in between.
December 4, 2009, 5:41 pmluci says:
A federal judge once told me that if you needed to give Pennsylvania an enema, the tube would be inserted at Scranton.
December 4, 2009, 6:20 pmlarry price says:
Why would anyone be surprised to hear about corruption involving Pennsylvania politics? Have none of you ever heard of Murtha ….one of the most corrupt pols in DC? If you don’t like the corruption stop voting for the s**theads
December 4, 2009, 6:33 pmMicah says:
Wilkes Barre is more in New York’s orbit than Philadelphia’s orbit. Wilkes-Barre is a different place, culturally and geographically, than Philly.
December 4, 2009, 6:55 pmTioedong says:
Culturally, Wilkes Barre is not Philadelphia, but part of the coal mining region (think corruption in the UMW, the mine union).
Their ex congressman Flood was on the take for years.
Where I lived in Altoona/Johnstown, things aren’t much better…think Murtha…as for judges, it’s the O’Kicki scandal…
Philly was corrupt until the Republicans took over in the fifties, but then it deteriorated. So the Dems took back over, and same old same old.
But next to the Philippines, these guys are amateurs. At least they don’t shoot their opponants… But that’s another story.
December 4, 2009, 7:14 pmAndrew says:
Hey,Nunzio, hows that Balgojevich case going?
Yeah, Chicago is clean now. BHO is in DC.
You are nowhere clean, Blago wanted cash, and just because he got busted, doesn’t mean it is not an ongoing RICO event.
December 4, 2009, 7:15 pmYehudit says:
I lived in Philly for 20 years. It was always on the edge of revival and there were always new people coming in with bright ideas. There was always the next wave of nouveau restaurant culture and yuppies and now hipsters fanning out to rehab quaint crumbly neighborhoods. Every 5 years there would be a feature in the NYT travel section saying exactly the same thing about the new restaurants and revived neighborhoods and how you should really consider a weekend getaway to Philadelphia.
None of it made a dent in the overall culture of patronage and corruption and racebaiting. The same North Philly blighted slums are still there. At the slightest sign of an economic downturn residents flee in droves.
Sorry to be a downer but….
December 4, 2009, 8:09 pmCornellian says:
People get hung up on court decisions involving a few hot button social issues, but this kind of low-grade corruption in run-of-the-mill civil cases is far more damaging to an economy. Without an impartial and independent judiciary to enforce contracts, you don’t have the rule of law, and without the rule of law you don’t have a modern economy. I didn’t realize things were so bad in Pennsylvania, having never lived there, but if that’s what things are like I’m not surprised a business wouldn’t want to operate there.
December 4, 2009, 9:31 pmjgreene says:
I don’t understand the “misunderstanding”. Wilkes Barre and Scranton are both in NE Pennsylvania. Geeze, what a waste of time that I’ve even left a comment.
December 4, 2009, 11:36 pmKazinski says:
The people of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia deserve it. The fact that they keep re-electing politicians like John Murtha, who as an unindicted co-conspiritor in the Abscam scandel 2 decades ago showed his true colors. Say what you will about Republicans, but when a Republican candidate gets accused of credible allegations of wrong doing they do not get re-elected. Democrats will keep electing the same crooks over and over again.
December 5, 2009, 3:43 amThatguy says:
Four years in NEPA at “da U” was enough for me. The cops were all under federal investigation for excessive force, and when the mountainside fell in on a new walmart (I think) in Carbondale a ton of inventory wentmissing after the cops showed up
December 5, 2009, 10:02 ambailey says:
Actually, Nunzio, the candidates in Cook County have to appear before the Dem Party and pledge their loyalty to the Party if they want to get slated. The word has always been that they have to pony up as well.
December 5, 2009, 10:57 amTempleLaw says:
The historical background of regions in PA varies, and I suspect the tolerance for corruption depends on the size and history of the town or county. The observation that Philly is a NE corridor city, Pittsburg is a midwestern city, and in between is Alabama (I think originally James Carville’s observation) is closer than most people think. Many Scots Irish came through Philadelphia and passed through Pennsylvania on their way down the Appalachian trail. And there have been pockets of eastern European coal miners and German farmers (to provide Paterno with linemen); timber industry near Williamsport, steel in the west, wilderness in most of the upper northern part of the state, and liberal arts college towns sprinkled throughout the state. Many of the comments that presume to understand PA or treat it an as homogeneous entity are laughable.
December 5, 2009, 11:04 amtroll_dc2 says:
1. The Philadelphia Inquirer agrees that Wilkes-Barre is in NE Pennsylvania:
TempleLaw is correct in his observation that “Many of the comments that presume to understand PA or treat it an as homogeneous entity are laughable.” Pennsylvania is at least as varied as New York State (and there are many correlations between the two states).
Yehudit is correct in part in his observations about Philadelphia. Where he goes wrong is in not realizing that there are two Philadelphias: the people who were born and grew up here (too many of them undereducated, insular, and lacking self-esteen) and the people who came here from someplace else (think Center City, Queen Village, Northern Liberties, University City, etc.). The old Philadelphia still controls the politics unfortunately (although Nutter won the mayoralty because of the new Philadelphia).
December 5, 2009, 12:17 pmstephen worob says:
I am from Bucks County where the good old Republician boys club of polotics rule. I was a school board member who was persecuted for exposing pervasive corruption in public education. As my wife battled for her life with stage 4 cancer, the unscupulous Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg protected the pedators and crushed the whistle-blower. As he rendored his evil verdict, he growled,”if you appeal my decision, I will do everything in my power to stop you.” Then, this open courtroom verdict threat was maliciouly ommitted from the transcript and the court reporter lied to protect the judge. To make a very long story short, Pennsylvania is at least as corrupt as New Jersey except in PA, they control the media a whole lot better. Right now in PA. Corruption has tainted our justice system and our courts are being used to protect such corruption. The sad part about this is that these powerful people control the media to keep the public in the dark. My name is Stephen Worob and I just wrote a book called (Pennsylvania a state of corruption.) I wish everyone would Google the title and get the book. For over 2 years, my family was dragged through judicial hell before some ambitious judge stole my family’s future. All of this because I did the job I was elected to do and could not be bought.
December 6, 2009, 7:11 amNancy Swan says:
I predict that bribery just got a running start when the US Appeals Court 5th Circuit overruled the bribery conviction of millionaire attorney Paul Minor and Judge Whitfield in Mississippi.
While Judge Whitfield was hearing his cases, Paul Minor gave the judge over $150,000 in cash, through a third party, as a down payment on the judge’s mistress’ house. The judge was married to another woman. The money traveled across state lines. That is not a bribe? If the US Supreme court removes the Honest Services provision, corruption will flourish in the US.
I was the initial whistleblower in that case. See my story, news, and resources
December 13, 2009, 11:46 amBarbara Ann Jackson says:
Judicial depravity has become as great a reason for national concern as foreign terrorism!
January 16, 2010, 5:57 pmI know firsthand how despicably some judges can behave. (Moreover, not in 17 years, has there been consideration by Congress to impeach a federal judge until the federal judge in my State.) For years I have maintained the http://www.lawgrace.org website which describes JUDICIAL COLLUSION and horrendous abuses of power. Among things depicted on that site, are facts and proof of judicial persecution because of opposing false proceedings, filed in courts through use of the identities of DEFUNCT mortgage companies. . . as the aim is to abet IRS and Securities frauds! ]. . . SEE the entire article @
http://newsblaze.com/story/20100116052108lawg.nb/topstory.html