WALL OF SILENCE: CRACKED BUT NOT CRUMBLING

(New York City)-Dozens of cops are chatting outside the Midtown South
Precinct on West 35th Street. But when the Louima case comes up, the
conversation stops. Three clench their lips and shake their heads. Others
fold their arms across their chest. "We're not talking about it, and I
don't think anyone here will," says one. "Why don't you try Midtown North?
They like to talk up there."

Officer Justin Volpe's admission this week that he brutalized Haitian
immigrant Abner Louima in a Brooklyn precinct bathroom in 1997, as well as
the testimony from fellow cops that led to the confession, is rattling
police from New York to California.

It's exacerbating tense relations between white and black officers, and
producing different views of its impact on the "blue wall" of silence that
historically rises around officers charged with misconduct.

For some, like Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir,
the decision by four cops to testify against Officer Volpe proves the wall
has been irrevocably cracked, marking the beginning of a fundamental change
in a closed police culture known for scorning "rats."

But they are in the minority. Police experts and others around the country
say the officers' testimony was simply a response to the horrific nature of
the attack and pressure from the brass to come forward - a clear case of
talk or be punished.

"The sad fact is that there will always be a code of silence, as there will
be with lawyers, doctors, and tobacco executives, although it's probably
stronger for police," says Joseph McNamara, a research fellow at the Hoover
Institute at Stanford University and a retired deputy inspector at the New
York Police Department (NYPD).

More Mortar In The 'Blue Wall'

Indeed, many in the minority community believe the wall was actually
reinforced with a little extra mortar by Volpe's refusal Tuesday to
identify the other officer who was with him in the bathroom. "This is an
indication that the blue wall of silence is absolutely as strong as ever,"
says Sgt. Anthony Miranda, president of the Latino Officers Association in
New York.

Police experts say the wall is the product of a tightly knit culture that
distrusts politicians, the media, and even its own leadership as officers
undertake a dangerous and seemingly impossible job. When they make a
mistake, cops think they can rely only on one another for protection.

"The penal code gives a cop the right to defend himself using reasonable
force, but what's reasonable in a moment of real danger to a cop who thinks
he's in trouble and what's reasonable in a courtroom can often be open to
interpretation," says Mr. Miranda. "The thing that haunts all cops is that,
in defending their own life or someone else's, they could end up going to
jail."

A veteran Los Angeles officer says instances of cops covering up for one
another are not as widespread as some portray. But he admits it happens and
says it is more likely the result of "misguided loyalty" to a partner.

"You have to be ready to count on them to save your life. You work the
streets together, investigate together, often testify together. And you
frequently see each other off duty. You're with your partner more than you
are with your spouse," he says. "But if you see your partner do something
wrong, that's when you have to take the high moral ground. It's the only
choice."

But others say that seldom happens. Veteran defense lawyer Joel Berger
says, in more than a decade of dealing with police misconduct cases in New
York, only once has an officer testified against his partner.

"99.9 percent of all police officers who see a fellow officer engaging in
misconduct will look the other way and not report it," says Mr. Berger.
"How come that cop felt secure enough in the police precinct that they
could do that [to Abner Louima]?" Mr. McNamara, who's studying the NYPD,
believes the situation in New York has been exacerbated by political
pressure to increase arrest and conviction rates. It's so intense, he says,
that cops joke about "testi-lying" to meet quotas. "The cops think, 'The
mayor and the police commissioner have no problem with us lying when it's
for their benefit, so what's the difference in lying about how I got drug
evidence and saying I didn't see another cop hit the prisoner?' " Others
say one of the contributing factors to the protective culture is that most
police departments are organized like military institutions - which raises
problems.

"The military organizational model is designed for places where all of the
big decisions are made at the top and the people at the bottom work as a
group and exercise very little discretion, and that's not what happens in
policing," says James Fyfe, a criminologist at Temple University in
Philadelphia. "The big decisions - the ones that cause city administrations
to fall and cause riots to occur - are made at the bottom of police
organizations, generally by cops who are working alone or with one or two
other people."

Mr. Fyfe says cops should be trained and equated more with social workers,
school teachers, and parole officers because what they're doing is
exercising discretion and "dealing one on one with real tough human problems."

Serpico's View

Frank Serpico, who was forced to leave the NYPD after he exposed corruption
in the department in the early 1970s, doesn't believe the department has
changed much in the past 30 years. "Why does the blue wall exist? Because
there's a code that says, 'Keep your mouth shut and you will be taken care
of,' " he says. "The hierarchy does not take proper action to support the
officers that do come forward."

Few believe the officers who did come forward in the Louima case will face
the same retribution as Mr. Serpico and others who've exposed corruption in
the past. They left departments because of threats and harassment. The
sense is that the crime committed by Volpe was so severe and the pressure
so intense from the top that the officers had no choice but to tell.

Some hope their example will help change the culture - but the change will
have to come from the top. "The attitude has got to be that the guy who
doesn't report it is just as guilty as the guy who does it," says Berger.