Hero detective Frank Serpico's son dies of apparent OD in NYC home

[danny burstein]

Hero detective Frank Serpico's son dies of apparent OD in NYC home

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-frank-serpico-son-dead-app
arent-od-20210512-lm3dwcz72renddxnuiktkuvhky-story.html

[Big Mongo]

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-frank-serpico-son-dead-apparent-od-20210512-lm3dwcz72renddxnuiktkuvhky-story.html

Hero detective Frank Serpico’s son dies of apparent OD in NYC home

By JOHN ANNESE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAY 11, 2021 AT 8:52 PM

The son of Frank Serpico, the crusading whistleblower NYPD detective who testified against corrupt cops, died of an apparent drug overdose in his Manhattan home, police sources said.

Cops found Alexander Serpico, 41, dead in his Wall Street apartment Monday, with drug paraphernalia near him, sources said.

Police were summoned to the apartment after a building manager found the younger Serpico shortly after 1 p.m. Monday, cops said. The city medical examiner’s office will determine his official cause of death, cops said.

The younger Serpico worked as a film editor.

Frank Serpico, now 85, exposed corruption inside the department in the 1960s and early 1970s, then testified against his fellow officers before the Knapp Commission.

Taking a stand turned him into a pariah in the department, and in 1971, when he was shot in the face and left for dead during a drug arrest, his partners never put out a call on their radios that a police officer had been shot. He survived the shooting because an elderly neighbor alerted 911.

His story was immortalized in the 1973 Al Pacino film, “Serpico.”

Frank Serpico did not immediately return a phone calls seeking comment Tuesday night.

With Larry McShane

[Lenona]

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=alexander-serpico&pid=198634643

SERPICO--Alexander, 1980-2021. Alex Serpico, 41, of Manhattan, died at home on May 7, 2021. A prodigiously talented film editor, Alex brought happiness to millions through his work with Saturday Night Live and innumerable television productions. More importantly, Alex was a warm, sensitive and loving man who forever brightened the lives of those lucky enough to know him. Alex leaves behind a hole in our hearts that can never be filled, but loving memories enough for a thousand lifetimes.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0785350/
(this is longer than you might expect)

Also, it's worth noting, unfortunately, that when he was born, his father, in an infamous court case, tried to refuse to support him on the grounds that it was the mother's choice to have the baby, not Frank's. (At first, he won - but the verdict was overturned, IIRC.)

The late Village Voice columnist and NYU journalism professor Ellen Willis mentioned that case twice in her 1985 essay "Looking for Mr. Good Dad." You can read it on pages 84-89 in her book No More Nice Girls - and I think it's in another anthology of hers as well. While she sympathized primarily with mothers in such cases, she wrote "at the same time, yes, it's unfair to the Serpicos that all the men whose sexual activity hasn't happened to result in unwanted fatherhood can say, 'Tough luck, buddy, but it's not my problem.' "

(From what I could infer, Willis was saying that unwed fathers should be entitled to more help from the state.)

Also, as columnist Katha Pollitt pointed out, in 1998, about a different case in New Mexico, any man could claim his girlfriend lied about being on the Pill even if she didn't lie. (What she didn't mention was that, had that father won his case - he didn't - it would only be a matter of time before MARRIED men could make the same claim about their wives and thus legally abandon their children.)


Lenona.

[danny burstein]

In <67c5ced5-4b90-4dba...@googlegroups.com> Lenona <leno...@yahoo.com> writes:

[snip]

>Also, it's worth noting, unfortunately, that when he was born, his father, =
>in an infamous court case, tried to refuse to support him on the grounds th=
>at it was the mother's choice to have the baby, not Frank's. (At first, he =

>won - but the verdict was overturned, IIRC.)

>The late Village Voice columnist and NYU journalism professor Ellen Willis =
>mentioned that case twice in her 1985 essay "Looking for Mr. Good Dad." You=
> can read it on pages 84-89 in her book No More Nice Girls - and I think it=
>'s in another anthology of hers as well. While she sympathized primarily wi=
>th mothers in such cases, she wrote "at the same time, yes, it's unfair to =
>the Serpicos that all the men whose sexual activity hasn't happened to resu=
>lt in unwanted fatherhood can say, 'Tough luck, buddy, but it's not my prob=
>lem.' "

[snip]

reference's like this are why we lurve you, Lenona!


--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

[Lenona]

Thank you.

And I need to correct something - it seems Frank never really "won" in the first place.

https://www.pasadenafamilylawfirm.com/family-law-blog/2020/december/serpico-and-his-duty-to-pay-child-support/

And from 1983 - this has interesting details near the end:

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/04/nyregion/serpico-loses-battle-over-child-support-in-court-of-appeals.html

And, from 2015, when Frank ran for office - ALL of the few comments are fascinating - some are by the author:

https://bonnierussell.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/frank-serpico-deadbeat-dad-wannabe-is-running-for-office-would-his-son-vote-for-him/

[Lenona]

Might as well throw this one in too - it's from 1981.

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/06/nyregion/paternity-suit-focuses-on-feminism-and-freedom.html

[jmi...@gmail.com]

On Thursday, May 13, 2021 at 9:32:43 PM UTC-4, Lenona wrote:
> Might as well throw this one in too - it's from 1981.
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/06/nyregion/paternity-suit-focuses-on-feminism-and-freedom.html

This was really interesting, thanks Lenona!

[Lenona]

Incidentally, from 1998 until 2015 or so, there was a good deal of fierce Internet chatter about "choice for men," aka "paper abortions" and "legal paternal surrender." (However, from what I've seen, the number of men who support the idea never rose above a certain level, so those men stopped trying to recruit supporters and don't talk as loudly as they used to. The last publicized court case in the U.S. that I know of was the case of Matt Dubay, in Michigan, 2006 - and, like the others, he lost. Maybe more and more people came to realize what Katha Pollitt pointed out.)

Here's what I said elsewhere, in 2013 (edited):

I can't see it happening.

Why? Because no politician who wants to stay in office is going to support or even allow a law that would cause the real abortion rate to skyrocket - even if that were only temporary. You don't want THAT on your political record.

Not to mention that if the male barrier contraceptive Vasalgel really does make it to the U.S. AND becomes truly popular, "Roe vs. Wade For Men" is truly doomed. The family court judges will see to that. (Of course, Vasalgel also has the potential to cut WAY down on paternity fraud, unwanted abortions, unwanted adoptions, etc. Makes you wonder why there isn't a little more support for it among men. Some men's rights activists think it will restore the patriarchy, but other MRAs resent it in part because they believe men in long term relationships shouldn't have to deal with contraception at all - that it's "women's work.")

And, on top of everything else, most Americans believe that ALL children should be supported, and that taxpayers shouldn't have to do that when we know who the father is.