Posted: Monday, 13 April 2009 11:24AM
Big Brother And Big Sister Are Watching
Steve Corbett Reporting
Monday, April 13, 2009
Keep calling the cops.
We need all the help we can get.
Increasing the number of federal agents working in Northeastern Pennsylvania is a good idea.
I asked a special agent for the FBI last week if he might suggest to his bosses in the Philadelphia regional office that a few dozen more agents be posted here to help in the ongoing federal probe of public corruption in Luzerne County.
The special agent said he doesn’t get involved in staffing decisions.
So I now ask you, the people who pay the taxes and depend on elected and appointed public officials to uphold the public trust, to call and write the FBI and make the same request.
By the time I return next week after a few days of rest and relaxation, I hope that the feds have agreed to open up satellite offices in Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre and Scranton from which to operate an ongoing anti-corruption sweep.
I suggested on the air last week that good citizens even consider housing agents in the guest rooms of their homes for the duration of the investigation. Call it a “Fed and Breakfast” program, suggested one astute listener.
How about “Feed a Fed?” another suggested.
I was only half kidding.
Northeastern Pennsylvania has earned the lion’s share of feds. With the history of corruption that includes members of congress, judges, other public officials and even cops, we deserve more rather than less law enforcement.
The Scranton office of the FBI once even boasted an organized crime unit that specialized in the Mafia. Now, even though a reputed mob boss and a mob associate play significant roles in the ongoing probe, the unit is long defunct and the agent who headed up the local gangbusters retired.
He was a good cop.
I was a guest at his wedding more than a decade ago when he married another FBI agent and hosted a wedding reception where current United States Attorney General Eric Holder appeared as a guest.
The special agent had become friends with Holder when Holder prosecuted a fraud case that stemmed from jury tampering and involved a right-hand man for the late Mafia boss Russell Bufalino.
The case also involved Dunmore moneyman Louis DeNaples, who is currently facing perjury charges stemming from allegations that he lied about his connections to organized crime when he successfully applied for the state’s first slots casino gambling license.
Maybe Holder can return to hard coal country for an encore.
The newly-married FBI couple made their home in New England, another hotbed of organized crime and public corruption. That’s where the Boston office of the FBI made history by employing a mole agent who wielded great power in government and law enforcement while helping organized crime bosses kill the competition - sometimes literally.
Even the FBI has its share of bad seeds. But the feds are pretty much all we’ve got when it comes to fighting white collar criminals and crooked politicians. I’ll include the IRS, the DEA and the ATF in my recruitment bid to help clean up public corruption.
And I implore you to write and call and help if you can.
Last week the FBI made a rare public plea for information about job selling in Northeastern Pennsylvania public school districts. Officials made that plea in the midst of an investigation that includes a grand jury. They did so because of you – people who called “Corbett” and offered your stories about being asked for cash in return for work.
Big brother and big sister are watching – and listening, too.
We have for perhaps the first time in the history of this region seen positive reaction to ongoing corruption complaints.
But now we have to pitch in more than ever. If possible, we must help even if we’re afraid. We must speak out even if we’re worried about retribution.
Not everyone can come forward, though. That’s why those of us who can help must help.
Strength exists in numbers.
And there are more good citizens than bad citizens, more of us than them.
Keep calling the cops.
A battalion would be nice.
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