Drunk off-duty cop attacks woman...

[molonlabe]

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_081001804.html

Just saw the beating. Somehow none of those links worked. Woman looks like my daughter and she is working in a bar. I'm outraged. POS is an animal.

 

[ilbob]

This is fairly typical for CPD behaviour. They are known for being corrupt brutes.

There are probably some decent folks on the force as well, but they support each other to the hilt, no matter what.

In my book, that makes them all equally guilty.

 

[lurkersince03]

Robert Hairless, well put.

 

[Deanimator]

CCW holders do not have powerful unions to defend them or to provide lawyers for their defense.

This is the part, aside from the actual beating and witness intimidation, which irks me most.

Unless they've recanted, it is the OFFICIAL position of the Chicago Police Union that under the original charges, the perpetrator SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO KEEP HIS GUN, if the victim had been his WIFE OR GIRLFRIEND. It is ALSO their OFFICIAL position that any NON-POLICE OFFICER convicted of an IDENTICAL act of domestic violence should have his or her gun CONFISCATED, and be FOREVER barred from owning or possessing firearms.

Underneath the actual crime lies a fundamental attitudinal problem within the Chicago Police Department, its members and the union which represents them. That attitudinal problem is a sense of superiority and entitlement which seeks to place them above the law and above the rest of society.

Is this universal to police? Not that I've seen. I've never seen a Rocky River or Berea, Ohio cop claim such a thing. I've only ever seen representatives of the CHICAGO POLICE UNION make such claims, and to a NATIONAL radio audience of literally millions of people. Do other police feel this way? Probably, but we have had the pleasure of actually hearing it from the representatives of the rank and file of the Chicago Police Department. Anybody who doesn't think that Putin's Russia is a model society should be disturbed by that.

 

[Lucky]

Superiority is vague.

The clinical definition comes from the Lieberal lexicon:

Entitlement.


Every time we see something that we feel is completely unfair, we can't comprehend how the officers or politicians or whatever can justify it. They do not share our paradigm, they believe they are entitled to their entitlements. And every aspect of our western patronage societies supports their beliefs, while only old principles from years gone by support our notions of equality.

 

[SaintofKillers]

I want answers as to why it took a month for this man to be charged with this incident. The CPD said it was because the guy was in a substance abuse program and the CPD could not get to him.

My thinking is the only reason why this IS a story is because there is a video. Otherwise it would have been business as usual in CHi-town.

Listening to WLS radio yesterday and a CP officer called and made a statement that this kind of thing happens all the time and that this guy being a police officer should have no bearing on the situation. again

I am not cop bashing here, it just seems to me that some are trying to make excuses for this kind of behavior.

 

[El Tejon]

Saint, I heard that same call on "The Roe Conn Show". I called in immediately and got through but the screener would not put me on, probably because my voice was at the threshold of pain and a couple of octives higher. I haven't been that upset in a while. Unbelievable what passes for normal in Chicago.

Of course it was no big deal to the CPD cop. This kind of thing does happen all the time but to African-Americans, Hispanics, Chinese immigrants, Pakistani shop owners and graduate students who are in the "wrong" neighborhood where there are no cameras so they can be beaten and fleeced in the name of the law.

For those that asked, if the police start to shake you down, make noise, lots of it, step into light, and ask for a supervisor, drop a name, and nowadays get your cell phone out for photos.

 

[Geno]

Charges Upgraded to Felony

I just saw on Fox News that the charges against the off-duty LEO have been upgraded to felony.

 

[Deanimator]

A quote from the current Chicago Tribune online article:

He was arrested for drunken driving in 1992, but the charges were dropped.

I wonder how THAT happened...?

To paraphrase a famous movie line:

"Forget it, Jake. It's Chi-town."

 

[Lupinus]

Yeah we are the only ones professional enough....

At least they are firing him, but how the hell did they try and get off charging him first wit ha misdomener? That is at the very least aggravated assult if not attempted murder. Also nice to know the indoctrination has been doing so well that someone would stand there on a cell phone watching a woman be beat and booted on the ground instead of getting in there and stopping him.

 

[Deanimator]

Yeah we are the only ones professional enough....

At least they are firing him, but how the hell did they try and get off charging him first wit ha misdomener? That is at the very least aggravated assult if not attempted murder. Also nice to know the indoctrination has been doing so well that someone would stand there on a cell phone watching a woman be beat and booted on the ground instead of getting in there and stopping him.

1. Note from the current Tribune story that the Chicago PD LIED about the State's Attorney's Office allegedly being informed about and agreeing with the original laughable misdemeanor charge. The fix was definitely in, UNTIL it was discovered that there was video of the bestial attack.

2. While I despise the cowards who stood around and watched the woman being battered, they probably had a well founded fear of retaliation on the part of the Chicago PD. In fact, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of anyone who forcibly intervened being in danger of their lives, both from the coward who beat the woman, and from his friends and co-workers. That having been said, anybody who stands around and just watches such a thing is despicable filth. I'd rather get shot by the Chicago PD for bashing in that degenerate thug's head with a bottle of Glenlivet, than to have to spend the rest of my life knowing that I was a sniveling coward.

 

[Elza]

Personally, I don’t buy the “every barrel has a few bad apples” argument. Any cop (ANY COP) that serves as a brick in the “blue wall” is just as guilty as the one that perpetrated a crime. “But if they come forward they will suffer retribution from their fellow officers.” Then what, precisely, does this say about THOSE officers?! Those that cover up or remain silent are equally guilty. And, if the bad cops so outnumber the good cops that the good cops can’t help in the clean up we are in far worse trouble than even I thought we were.

 

[SkiLune]

In Chicago, do the police run stings where they send seemingly intoxicated people into bars, to determine whether the bartender will serve them?

I know this happens in other parts of the country. This woman was obeying the law, and was beaten by an off duty cop. Lucky it was on video. I know of instances of police misbehaviour that are not taped, and the victims won't pursue it because they don't want to cause trouble with the cops because they know they can't win and don't want to risk retribution. Some bad cops take advantage.

.

 

[SaintofKillers]

El Tejon makes some good points when being shaken down by a member of law enforcement. The few times I have been stopped by law enforcement for traffic violations I always drive into a public area. Gas station, restaurant parking lot etc. For my safety and the officers.

I will say with the exception of once in my early twenties my exp. with the law has been nothing but respectful from both sides. The time I didnt get respect, I deserved it.

But I think that some in the law enforcement community have watched COPLAND one too many times.

 

[PedalBiker]

If this was an isloated incident and if this guy was "just one bad apple" they wouldn't have hired him or kept him on the force given his past behavior. This is part of a pattern of graft and corruption that goes all the way to the top. Without a corrupt mayor and police chief this would never have happened. The guy was tainted goods when they hired him, and he's just proven it again.

What makes me the maddest is that the guy had a record from the start, and even after it's plainly obvious he's a raving, violent criminal his buddies on the force give him preferential treatment. In my book that makes them accesories after the fact and criminals too. Cops are supposed to work for the folks who pay their salaries not their buddies in arms.

It just raises the question; if the Chicago Police Department was so willing to cover this up what else is under their rug? It's the cockroach theory in spades. Down in Mexico the Federales went into Tijuana and disarmed the corrupt local cops, is Chicago like Tijuana, unable to police their own so badly that the feds need to come in and clean house? It's sickening, positively sickening. The crime is bad enough, the official tolerance is worse.

 

[SkiLune]

Robert Hairless: That was an outstanding post. Thank you for putting it so well. I had a few incidents with some, well, less than professional police officers. Ironically, it was these incidents that sealed my decision to get training in handguns and self defense. I realized that police job is to investigate crimes, not to "serve and protect." As someone here said, that is false advertising.

 

[Deanimator]

Cops are supposed to work for the folks who pay their salaries not their buddies in arms.

Not in Chicago.
Not in the past.
Not in the present.
Not in the future.
Not ever.
Not in Chicago.

Down in Mexico the Federales went into Tijuana and disarmed the corrupt local cops, is Chicago like Tijuana, unable to police their own so badly that the feds need to come in and clean house?

As a former longtime Chicagoan, I can say with authority, YES. Chicago is THE most corrupt [and racist] city in the United States.

And it will NEVER change because the people who live there like it that way, just as Sunni Iraqis liked Saddam's regime. Saddam's regime ran on greed and schadenfreude. Daley's still does.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

"In fact, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of anyone who forcibly intervened being in danger of their lives."

Yup. Only a short run in a squad car to the Beaubien Woods down south.
Nice place to settle disputes in private. There are many others I'm sure, but I grew up near there and it was a regular thing. Had someone intervened the responding CPD would have acted like Hells Angels; all on one. That is the nature of blind loyalty. It's like the line from Blade Runner in Chicago: "You know the score pal, if you're not cop you're little people". That said there are plenty of good Chicago Police officers.

Watch now--that bar will be closing down and changing hands. The powers that be will never allow it to stay open. It will be marked. The funny thing is it's Richie who WANTS all the video and encourages merchants to set it up.

 

[Deanimator]

That said there are plenty of good Chicago Police officers.

The question I have about that assertion [which may or may not be true] is how could someone maintain any integrity IN such an organization?

Non-cops who endanger the organization are disposable. So are cops. Ask Frank Serpico.

I believe that the only way one can survive in such a system is to become deeply complicit in it. I believe that Solzhenitsyn, Conquest, Antonov-Ovseenko and DeJonge back me up on this.

I also believe Solzhenitsyn when he says that such a system cannot survive without the active complicity of its potential victims.

If Chicagoans actually cared about any of this, they wouldn't give the Chicago PD a moment's respite. They'd hound it into reform or out of existence. Instead, they will do neither. That's because they LIKE it. I know my own mother does.

 

[BigO01]

And some people think the Cops in America wouldn't storm their homes and take their guns away and Kill them LOL .

Hitler and Stalin would be proud of this POS !!!

 

[yhtomit]

Sounding like ambivalent police procedure books ...

Prior to this thread and a few others on this board, I've never thought too much about the Chicago police department.

Having seen the way some Chicago policemen behave, it seems like a transplanted version of James Ellroy's books about L.A., or some of the worst aspects of cops in the (mostly pro-police, and excellent) books about the LAPD by Joseph Wambaugh, who was himself a long-time LAPD officer.

There's some self-selection at work here, too, though, and I wonder ... is the unhappiness with the CPD that I'm reading here a fair representation of "ordinary citizens" perceptions of it? I know, I know -- "isolated incidents" often aren't, but ... well, is it really as bad in Chicago as it seems? Sad, if so -- it's a nice city in many ways. The few times I've been there, I've been impressed.

timothy

 

[Neo-Luddite]

"How could someone maintain any integrity IN such an organization?"

Not easily I'm sure. Like any institution the CPD has good and bad individuals in it. I doubt it will EVER change in Chicago in particular. That's the way they likes it over by dere. That's why I live in the sticks.

 

[El Tejon]

timothy, it's a nice city if you are just visiting. Nothing like Chicago in the Spring. When I go up to Chicago to visit I always cross the street when I see a cop and I go "into the light". If you stick to the touristy areas, you are golden. Once you venture deeper into the city, you are a target.

But to answer your question, when I lived in Chicago (Old Town/Gold Coast) I was told by the natives to never call CPD as they will shake you down or plant something on you (note these were residents of the Gold Coast, not Ida B. Wells or Cabrini-Green). No matter what I heard, saw or had done to me I never, ever called the cops.

I only talked to the cops twice in Chicago. Once I went across the street from my apartment for coffee and cigarettes (writing a paper) and found 3 CPD talking guns. I corrected their errors [] and then ran off when they tried to engage me more. "Hey, you're not from around here, right?" (Time to go. I probably shouldn't have butted in on the conversation but I heard men talking about guns and was incredibly homesick for talks like this and could not help myself).

Second time was the attempted "street fine" incident. I would trust NOPD, Boston or NYPD before I trusted a Chicago cop.

 

[Autolycus]

I dont think that the majority of people I know who are Chicago PD are corrupt or that the majority of Chicago PD is corrupt at all. I think that there are going to be quite a few bad apples in the department as it is the 2nd biggest department in the country.

However I think that the dept. brass are the ones who ordered him to be picked up for a misdemeanor and are trying to sweep this under the rug. That is who I blame. The people Mayor Daley appoints most of all.

The individual officers who try to cover this up are guilty as well.

 

[Deanimator]

Not easily I'm sure. Like any institution the CPD has good and bad individuals in it.

In such a system, you must at best, turn a blind eye.

That leaves two types of cops in the Chicago PD, criminals and those who avert their gaze from them. The alternative is to risk one's career, and indeed one's life to most assuredly swim against the current. How many Chicago cops do you think are willing to do that? How many publcly acknowledged examples have there been in say, the last twenty years? If there have been some, but they CAN'T be publicly acknowledged, what does THAT say about the system?

The police version of "stop snitching" is no more morally defensible than the non-police version. Perhaps Officer Abbate and those of his ilk should be required to doff their blue uniforms and wear the baggy shorts and other garb of the "stop snitching" movement...