For ten long years, New York Police officer Frank Serpico filed complaints with his superiors against his corrupt colleagues, only for them to go unheeded.
Finally, he went to the New York Times which published a series of in-depth articles beginning on April 25, 1970 that revealed a wide series of corruption within the police department.
One year later, he was shot in the face by a drug dealer in what appeared to be a setup by fellow officers, according to Wikipedia.
The circumstances surrounding Serpico’s shooting quickly came into question. Serpico, who was armed during the drug raid, had only been shot after briefly turning away from the suspect when he realized that the two officers who had accompanied him to the scene were not following him into the apartment, bringing into question if Serpico had actually been brought to the apartment by his colleagues to be executed.
He survived but lost his hearing in his left ear.
Today, on his 73rd birthday, he is known as the fist police officer in the United States to testify openly about widespread, systematic cop corruption-payoffs amounting to millions of dollars.
It is no wonder why he is still hated by many cops.
