The Costs of Public Corruption – And The Need for the Public to Fight Back

Excellent article on the website for the Offices of the United States Attorneys
by Patrick Fitzgerald
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois

http://www.justice.gov/usao/briefing_room/fin/corruption.html

Please read the article referenced above, he makes some great points - especially "The Culture of Acceptance".

Some of his key points are:

- There are financial consequences to corruption.

- Corruption changes the face of a community.

- The most harmful consequence of endemic public corruption in a community is the apathy that it engenders – the culture of acceptance.

- The public’s refusal to accept corruption is the first line of defense in the fight against it.

- All residents of a community should know that they can have a voice in stopping corruption and that they need not accept corruption in any degree—at any level of government.