Ethical Obligations: The “Politico” Newspaper, New York (Essay Sample)

Ethical Obligations
Name
Institution
Ethical Obligations
The article that appeared in the “Politico” newspaper on 4th February2013 talks about a court case that involved a senator and a councilman in New York. The Senator of New York state Mr. Malcom Smith, together with the councilman of New York City, Mr. Dan Halloran were arrested. According to federal authorities, the two leaders were arrested for a claimed plan to rig the race of the New York City mayor. In addition, other four political figures were also charged with what was termed as “unappetizing smorgasbord of graft and greed". This involved six more officials who jointly created a corruption corridor that stretched from Queens and the Bronx to Rockland County and all the way up to Albany itself.
Ethical actions refer to actions that are both morally and legally accepted by the larger community. Ethics is behavioral standards that guide humans on how to act in various situations, such as, in parenthood, friendship, citizenship, childhood and professionalism. Acting ethically is not similar to acting out of a feeling or emotion, but rather, feelings or emotions give humans important information for their choice of ethics. Religion, science and following the law do not define ethics. Ethics is simply acting in what is considered right (Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, 2012).
In this regard, one ethical obligation presented in the scenario given is bribery. In ethics, ethical standards are defined as the principles that when adopted, improve virtues such as, good behavior, trust, kindness, as well as, fairness. They, therefore, dictate how people relate to one another, how leaders relates with their follower, and how these followers relate with their leaders. Different leaders operate dynamically, in the work environment or otherwise. Therefore, in the case of Smith and Halloran, where they tried to bribe their way to the top, acted in an unethical manner. Bribery is an act of offering money or gifts that change the recipient's behavior. The gift offered is usually of a dishonest nature. According to the law, bribery is a crime that can be termed as an offering or receiving of money or any valuable item. This is intended to influence a person's or official's actions in return of a legal or public duty. Ethically-proper course of action that would have been taken by the two was racing for the mayor’s seat in a clean and open election. Halloran would have run for the seat without involving people he thought were influential, and who would act as a shortcut to winning the mayor's race. This would have prevented him from lawsuits such as the one he faced, and would have also saved him the money he used as bribery.
This is evidence that, the party chairmen, though not directly, extorted money from Mr. Halloran in order to help him win the mayor's seat. In addition, the Republicans officials that ganged up with Halloran so he could run as a Republican also extorted money from him. Extortion is not only unethical, but it is also a crime. Extortion is unethical, as it is an offense of taking money or other items by means of coercion. Extortions go against the ethical principle of doing the right thing. Extorting money in exchange of doing something wrong is unethical, in regards to the person giving the money or the person receiving it.
The ethically-proper course of action that Halloran would have taken is to contend for the seat without having to bribe the party chairmen and the Republican officials. On the other hand, the party chairmen would not have accepted to be bribed by Halloran. The Republicans officials who accepted the bribes so as Halloran would run as a Republican despite being a democrat would have rejected the offer. By rejecting the offer, all parties would have acted ethically and in accordance with the law.
The third ethical obligation presented in the case is fraud. Fraud is defined as an act of deception practiced deliberately in order to help secure unlawful or unfair gain. According to the article, Smith was willing to use his power as a senator to get state money for a road project. This act was intended at helping a real estate scheme that he thought was being built by an undercover agent. Fraud is an unethical. Deceiving in order to gain something is also unlawful. By Smith accepting to use his power to get state money, showed how unethical he was. Even though he did not carry on with the act, it showed that he is unprofessional, and his actions cannot be termed as ethical.
Rarely a month passes without hearing of a state legislator within New York with an indictment case. Corruption has turned out to be a culture in New York. It is unfortunate that New York State has the largest number of corrupt officials as compared to other states. There has been a flow of corruption charges in the recent days; however, there is nothing to be reported as new on the charges. Therefore, corruption has become a culture in the New York City. This trend is increasing over the days; this is according to the words of Seymour Lachman, a previous Democratic state senator as cited in G...