ABSTRACT
Anthropology has devoted much effort to exploring the moral and ethical realms. The police could display compassion was a comforting message to convey to New Yorkers and beyond. The police have to accept or even promote moral justifications for practices that can no longer be considered as deviant since they are the norm. The officers used what they called adjustment variables, arresting easy prey, namely marijuana users and undocumented immigrants, both identified via stop and frisk. For deputy commissioner, as for almost everyone in his institution, moral deviance consisted in corruption; that is, bribery and extortion. In one of his most influential books, Albert Hirschman proposed a three-option interpretation of the reaction to a situation with which one is not satisfied: exit, voice, and loyalty. The consequence of the situation is that the institution is remarkably stable over time and extremely difficult to reform.
