In New York state, advocacy groups like the one tenaciously demonstrating recently, among many others, are pushing for legislation that would set up an oversight commission on prosecutorial conduct. The bill, now in its third incarnation as A8634 and S6286, would apply similar safeguards and oversight on county DA offices as the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which was established in 1975. There's an uphill fight to get this bill passed, and that's only the first step. Governor Cuomo cannot give mere lip service to being on board; he must not get in the way of implementation as he was quick to do with the Moreland Commission (which he set up and then disbanded when it threatened his own turf, and perhaps him). U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was not pleased with that move, but there's no word about whether he is still investigating the now defunct commission. He has his hands full: it was his office that brought indictments against both Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos, and that's in addition to some of the banksters his office has managed to nab.
So there are some good guys who have some power. Maybe it takes a naturalized citizen like Bharaha to play David to the Goliath of American corruption. And if New York can muster the support to enact the new commission, we will still need its clones in many other parts of the country. As Ferguson fades, another remote, heretofore unremarkable town or suburb gets their 15 minutes of fame when its citizens film their own version of Cops Gone Wild. But who will film the under-the-table deals made by the prosecutors?
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