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An NC Poll on Public Corruption

Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Robert Wechsler

While we're in North Carolina, it's worth a look at a new poll of North Carolina citizens on their views of public corruption. The poll is from Elon University, and was conducted a month ago.

According to the press release, 65 percent think elected officials look out more for their own interests than the public’s interest, 73 percent of respondents think corruption is common among elected officials, and 67 percent think corrupt behavior among North Carolina public officials is becoming more common. Those are ugly numbers.

But the good news (although only relatively good) for NC local officials is that they are trusted more than any other officials, according to the full data.

    At which level of government, if any, do you feel corruption is most present? (numbers represent percentages of responses, totaling 100%)
    Local  13.8%
    State  17.3%
    Federal  50.7%
    Every level (v)  12.4%
    Don't know (v)  5.2%
    Refused (v)  0.5%

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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Comments

Larry Hawkins (not verified) says:

Tue, 2013-10-29 19:05

The City of Burlington N.C. came and trashed my personal property , and I presume went through items they could prosper from.... The clean up crew had possession of my property for over 24 hours before they...........presumed took it to the dump.

This all came because I inferred that their "black inspector" was acting like a typical N...R, plus I had staked Cultluss Odlsmobile, to the ground , and emailed the city I was turning it into real property versus , personal property.

They played a trick...............on a follow up inspection , of which all the items that I had ..............passed previous inspections, ................and was never told it was going to be deemed trash.

So My First Amendment Rights were taken.......................and to destroy personal property is a Crime in N.C.

But the City of Burlington N.C., ...............are the law, and Federal Law, and even their ethical procedure can change without a minutes notice.

I have all the facts..................but get this.................the county D.A. would not even consider prosecuting them.... even though I had the facts ..........................Corruption isn't the word for it.......................