Serpico again in title role as reformer
WHISTLEBLOWING EX-COP Frank Serpico is “content” with how a new documentary about him turned out, but he doesn’t think law enforcement has gotten any better since his 1972 departure from the force.
In fact, the 81-year-old Brooklyn native (photo) says that institutional corruption has gotten worse. “It’s metastasized,” he told us at the “Frank Serpico” premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. “It’s gone to the top.”
For starters, Serpico claims that one official who ignored his complaints of police corruption in the ’70s – later admitting that having done so was a case of bad judgment – went on to become a judge.
“So that’s where your corruption is,” he ranted. “It’s like dung, it floats to the top.”
The feisty NYPD Medal of Honor winner who sniffed out malfeasance among New York’s Finest when he was walking a beat still sees injustice everywhere he goes — and in some cases, in places outside his jurisdiction.
“First of all, I don’t want to wander, but how we stole the land from the Native Americans, what we did to African-Americans, what we’re doing to the Palestinians ...” he said. “It’s all about power and money.”
In 2015, Serpico, who does indeed wander, campaigned on an anti-corruption platform in a failed run for a town board seat in Stuyvesant, the Columbia County community he calls home. Serpico also told us that since leaving law enforcement, he’s tried to spread his anticorruption message by performing in community theater productions.
Most New Yorkers are already familiar with Serpico’s tale, thanks to Sidney Lumet’s 1973 classic “Serpico,” which earned Al Pacino an Academy Award nomination for playing the title role.
Though this real life ex-cop, who tells his story to the camera for the first time in this new documentary, doesn’t sound ready to give himself an Oscar just yet. When asked if he’s happy with the film, Serpico gave a definite maybe.
“Am I’m happy?” he asked. “I’m never happy, I’m content.”