The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

In a slashing jeremiad, Bouza (The Police Mystique) presents a hard-hitting analysis of the moral rot that sustains political and institutional corruption, greed, crime, hedonism, racism--forces that he says threaten to destroy the fabric of American society. A police reformer who has headed the NYPD's Bronx division and the Minneapolis Police Department, he looks unflinchingly at the Mafia's stranglehold on several industries; urges that drug enforcement efforts focus on top-level operators rather than on street criminals; and outlines a tough program to combat domestic terrorism. Examining the savings-and-loan scandal, white-collar crimes, Wall Street profiteering and venal politicians, Bouza calls for corporate democracy, a vigilant, muckraking media, tighter government regulations to ensure fiscal integrity and rewarding of whistle-blowers. With crusading zeal and a scattershot approach, he links the decline in values to mind-numbing TV and video game violence, exploitative religious cults and money-hungry televangelists, rappers' misogynist lyrics, a welfare system that fails to demand recipient accountability and a popular culture that exalts sports and entertainment heroes but discards teachers and sages. His call for moral renewal is buttressed by practical strategies. (Oct.)