Read "The Penalty" by Gouverneur Morris online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"True that policemen take money in exchange for protection? True that they practise blackmail and extortion? Of course it's true. Whenever a big temptation appears loose in a city half the people who get a look at it trip and fall. Oh, I'd like to reform this city, Miss Barbara -- and this country. I'd like to be dictator for six months."
"Who wouldn't? " said Barbara. "But what would you do? Where would you begin?"