Institutions protecting perpetrators

How wide spread is this phenomenon in our institutions?

We see it with the Catholic Church protecting peadophile priests - moving them to different towns - and not protecting the children - to maintain the status quo, their public perceived perfection, and to hold / build power.

Law enforcement are well known to protect their brothers (and sisters) in uniform from prosecution - planting evidence, lying, creating evidence - and not protecting the public - to maintain the status quo, their public perceived perfection, and to hold / build power.

And we experience it with the health care system - protecting perpetrators of bad research and harmful treatment - and not protecting vulnerable patients - to maintain the status quo, their public perceived perfection, and to hold / build power.

Are there other institutions...wait, are there any institutions that don't suffer from this phenomenon?

 

To find an institution that doesn't suffer from this problem, It would probably be one that treated whistleblowers well. I'm honestly struggling to name one.

My theory is that a whistleblower has found something wrong and felt it ethically important to highlight this. This is the type of behaviour that should be rewarded if the PR of the institution where to be honest. Most whistleblowers I read about have their lives made very difficult, are often dismissed from the institution, and also, worryingly find it hard to find comparable employment afterwards.

I highlight whistleblowers, because in the cases where I have had a complaint, I have had nothing, or very little to lose from doing so. The wrong was done to me. In the case of a whistleblower, the victim is often somebody else, and to raise a complaint is to take a risk.

I'm not sure if my little theory is any good, full blown cynicism, or of any use.

 

The airline industry seems quite transparent about crashes and incidents and as a result has an excellent safety record - I don't hear of them protecting pilots to the detriment of passengers, but it could all be kept hushed so as not to worry the cargo.

 

The model that the airline industry use is now being used in some surgical units to improve safety. From the little I know, immediate reporting of an incident is required, plus a member of the cabin crew has equal status to the pilot.

 

That was the example that had come to my mind. Pilots are grounded if they cannot demonstrate competence. Doctors are not. Policemen are not. Priests are not.

 

In some cases laws are written that make whistle-blowing illegal. In Australia I believe its a criminal offence to divulge certain kinds of information relating to our offshore detention of people arriving by boat without proper paperwork. They just recently kicked out doctors without borders, who were checking on asylum seekers, presumably because they were making public comment.

In corrupt or biased systems the truth is always suppressed.

 

10 Years ago a police Sergeant in Ireland raised concerns about other policemen.

What happened after that is scarely believable.

The commisioner of the police force was involved in a smear campaign against this sergeant which included spreading rumours that he sexually abused members of his own family.

Just last week a tribunal of enquiry ended:

Sergeant Mccabe has received a state apology.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/minister-issues-state-apology-to-sgt-mccabe-37432829.html

 

I'm not sure if this is a good place to put this, but I've been listening to 'The Great British Post Office Trial' over the last 2 weeks on R4, 10 episodes,
each episode around 14 mins

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jf7j

Panorama will also feature this on BBC 1, on Monday 8th June at 7.30pm and will be available on BBC iplayer after broadcast.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gpbv

Individual sub-postmasters accused of, and prosecuted (and sometimes imprisoned) for theft, after encountering problems with the Post Office Horizon computer programme. Institutional denial that the PO systems could be at fault.