Tuesday, 5/27/97 Disregard for ethics, abuse of law must be
eradicated CORRUPTION: Atypical ‘Fuhrmanism’ should not
characterize institutions
By Lev Hakak The release last week of a report by the so-called
Mark Fuhrman Task Force reminds us that although the O.J. Simpson
criminal trial ended more than a year ago, Fuhrman’s actions
continue to reverberate. If everything we hear and read about the
former Los Angeles police detective is true, we may conclude that
he abused his power by using any available means to achieve his
goals. The means and the goals were in complete disregard to
ethical and lawful conduct, and they were motivated by racism.
Fuhrman got away with his conduct for many years. The cunning fox
gets away with his conduct for a very long time, but sometimes he
gets caught. Then not only is his fur cut off, but he is also
skinned. It is worthwhile to focus on this phenomenon of
"Fuhrmanism." I define Fuhrmanism as any conduct that, with total
disregard for ethics and law, strives to achieve certain unfair and
unlawful goals by abusing the authority that was given to a person
through the system. And while the motives of this conduct may vary
– whether it be discrimination on the basis of religion, race, sex,
age national origin or simply personal-power hunting – there are
typical characteristics to this conduct: disrespect for the law and
abuse of the authority conferred by the institutional position.
Fuhrmanism in the system is sly and focused. It is a way of life
that saps the energy of its carrier, developing silent devoted
supporters. In a large, established public entity, it may become a
little "club" within the system. After many years within the
system, the Fuhrmans have supporters, contacts, indebted people and
a little network of allies within the system. All of this makes
their place within the system unaccountable, and their status
inconsistent with the system. It is my experience that Americans,
as a whole, are law-abiding, positive, polite, open-minded, kind
people. Fuhrmanism represents a tiny fragment of the population.
The system is huge, and as much as it strives for perfection, it is
imperfect. However marginally the Fuhrman virus may begin, once it
finds its way in, it may seem a dominating phenomenon in the large
entity. For example, it is my sincere belief that the Los Angeles
Police Department is composed of good people who put their lives on
the line every day and experience merciless stress during their
working hours. Like us, they have ideals and dreams and good human
qualities. Now they are under attack, as if all that the LAPD is
doing is plotting evil against innocent citizens. How painful this
must be for these good men and women who have devoted their
professional lives to protecting the community from criminals. How
does the marginal, the nonrepresentative and the atypical element
of an institution suddenly come to look like that institution’s
representative element and way of life? Just when the Fuhrmans
become certain that the system will back them up no matter what,
sometimes their entire sand structure collapses. They might
encounter unique circumstances such as those in the O.J. Simpson
case. In other cases, to their surprise, they might encounter a
sophisticated, tenacious person who refuses to be subdued by their
brutality. Once a person’s mockery of the legal system is
substantiated with evidence, he can no longer get away with it, and
the law, not Fuhrmanism, rules. How do we insure that a great,
positive, successful institution, with an overwhelmingly effective,
positive record, does not become a victim of the few Fuhrmans that
wrongly tainted it? The answer is: Once Fuhrmanism is traced within
a system, it should be stopped immediately. The institution should
shake it off, wash its hands of it and make it clear that it will
not be tolerated. Once Fuhrmanism settles in, it may contaminate
the entire institution. Hakak is a professor of Hebrew language and
literature at UCLA and the recipient of the American Hebrew
Association’s 1996 award for his contributions to Hebrew culture in
America.