La Confidential Corruption: Morality
For years police corruption has been a major problem in American society but where is the line between moral and unethical police corruption, many modern movies address this vary issue. Some films portray how types of police corruption can have a positive influence on society, while others show the dark side of police corruption. Many law enforcement agents join the criminal justice with the basic idea of "justice for all," however, most of them do not realize that the nice guy doesn't always win. Even though there are vast amounts of movies which specifically address police corruption we will use three main movies for our argument today, mostly LA Confidential, however, also Training Day. Two main characters in LA Confidential, Bud White and Jack Vincennes, portray officers who have lost sight of why they initially entered law enforcement and work along with unwritten book of practiced ignorance within the department, which only adds to corruption within police departments. But, there is a new man on the beat, Edmund Exley, who has not been around the business long enough to become the unethical officer his peers have descended to be. So where do ethics play a role; what's the distinction between the grass eaters and the meat eaters in the end. Officer Windell "Bud" White, played by Russell Crowe, grew up in a poor family dynamic. Having watched his mother be beat to death by his father after he tried to defend her and was chained to a radiator he inherited a strong animosity toward women beaters. In his police work he took swift action when he witnessed or even suspected any sort of assault against women. However, just as many police officers who fall to corruption he began accepting gratuities. Gratuities of alcohol, which assist in first getting his partner intoxicated on the job, and later is added to a party held in the departments headquarters. This party, while initially a held for Christmas, lead to a group of Mexicans being beaten for
Bibliography: LA Confidential. Dir. Curtis Hanson. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Russel Crowe, Guy Pierce, Kim Bassinger, Danny DeVito. Regency, 1997. Training Day. Dir. Antoine Fuqua. Perf. Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke. Warner Bros. 2001