THE SENTINEL: Bernard Kerik: Commissioner to Convict

Bernard Kerik, former NYPD Police Commissioner, was sentenced on February 18, 2010 to four years in federal prison and must surrender on May 17th. He is the first commissioner in over 100 years to be found guilty of corruption.

Kerik pled guilty in November 2009, to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying after his nomination for the Homeland Security post.

Imposing a sentence greater than the recommended two to three years, the judge stated that federal sentencing guidelines did not account for Kerik's violation of the public trust while chief law enforcement officer for America's largest city. The judge also considered Kerik's lying to White House officials while attempting to secure a cabinet position as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

"I think its fair to say that with great power comes great responsibility and great consequences," said Judge Stephen C. Robinson.

As a leadership and security educator who has been privileged to be involved with outstanding law enforcement officials on many leadership, public safety, community policing and crime prevention initiatives, it is particularly disappointing to see their noble profession exploited by Kerik's crimes. His abuses of power are a contradiction to the extraordinary service, dedication and honor of law enforcement personnel in the NYPD and throughout the nation.

Concerned for years about the culture of corruption throughout society, I had an article published in The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine in December 2005 titled American Leadership in an Age of Scandal. It is my hope that these words will some day ring true and character will resound as the quality of our great nation:

Individuals within privileged levels of authority must realize that their positions are of sacrosanct trust and demand conduct beyond reproach. Positions of trust within both the public and private sector must walk along a pathway that is dedicated to service and highlighted by personal character, wisdom and integrity.

... Lincoln serves America to this very day as a model since the higher he rose and the greater the power, the worthier his conduct became. Lincoln's legacy holds the key to reversing the current scandalous trend of a public and private pestilence of corruption since he was not only a great man of profound authority but a man of unquestionable character. His character is inseparable from his thought, word and action and can be concisely understood from his words on February 27, 1860, "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

Hear and understand Abraham Lincoln well, all who are in positions of power and authority over the people of America.

READ MORE