What's up with [some] cops in Chicago?

Mephisto

Philosopher
Mephisto
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Apr 10, 2005
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Did I cover all the bases? Did I remember to use alleged correctly? Am I blaming ALL cops in Chicago?

Nevertheless, what's up with [some] cops in Chicago?

Camera catches Chicago cop beating bartender
By Associated Press

CHICAGO -- An off-duty police officer in street clothes was caught on video by a bar surveillance camera beating up a female bartender half his size, authorities said.

Anthony Abbate, a 12-year veteran of the Chicago force, was charged with aggravated battery and placed on leave pending an internal investigation in the attack Feb. 19 as several bystanders watched, department spokeswoman Monique Bond said Wednesday. She said Abbate is expected to be fired.

The video from Jessie's Short Stop Inn Tavern, shown on television around the nation, shows the 250-pound Abbate shouting at the 115-pound bartender, then walking behind the bar and punching, kicking and throwing her to the ground.

http://pantagraph.com/articles/2007/03/23/news/doc4602948c678c9196889042.txt
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And along the same lines . . .


Six off-duty Chicago cops accused in bar attack

POSTED: 8:32 p.m. EDT, March 25, 2007

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Authorities are investigating claims that six off-duty Chicago police officers were captured on video assaulting four men in a bar, the second report of police involved in an assault to surface in a week.

Adam Mastrucci, Scott Lowrance and brothers Aaron and Barry Gilfand were playing pool at the Jefferson Tap and Grille on December 15 when the off-duty officers attacked them, their attorney Steven Fine said.

Patrol officers responded to a 911 call, but left after speaking to one of the off-duty officers, Fine said. One of the four men required reconstructive surgery for a broken nose and another had broken ribs, Fine said.

Lawyers did not say what may have prompted the alleged incident.

"I don't think this is a case where the police department can say they don't know who they're looking for," he said.

Security cameras inside and outside the bar captured the incident, said Sally Saltzberg, another attorney for the men.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/25/bar.attack.ap/index.html
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Who do you call when something like this happens, a fireman? ;)
 
Mephisto said:
And along the same lines . . .
Who do you call when something like this happens, a fireman? ;)
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A Cop. An on duty cop.

Then, you call Internal Affairs, to make sure the charges weren't dropped.

But what you also do, as a bystander, is not simply watch as another citizen (how do they know it's an off duty cop) attacks a bartender. You try to render aid.

DR
 
Darth Rotor said:
A Cop. An on duty cop.

Then, you call Internal Affairs, to make sure the charges weren't dropped.

But what you also do, as a bystander, is not simply watch as another citizen (how do they know it's an off duty cop) attacks a bartender. You try to render aid.

DR
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I can't believe (after watching the video of the guy attacking the lady bartender) that someone didn't step in and bean that bucolic butthole with a beer bottle [/alliteration] :). The other instance might have been a little trickier - six against four is never good odds.
 
As a police officer, I can say that this is something that we all hate to see. This may be just coincidence; a few high-profile cases occurring in a small group.

However, as we have seen before, there often develops among police agencies a certain "culture" of corruption and acceptance of bad behavior. We saw this in LA, we saw this in New Orleans, and certainly Chicago is not without it's history.
When I started in police work back in '68, it was pretty well accepted in my own department. When I was in the academy, we used to go out on Saturday and ride with a precinct officer as part of the training. On my very first visit to the precinct station, I arrived to hear a horrible banging and crashing from the back room. "What's that?", I inquired. "Oh, that's just officer so-and-so interrogating a prisoner..."
It was well understood that "you get your evens on the street, cause you won't get them in court."
The normal response to a resisting case was to break a nightstick over the fellow's head. (Literally) It was permissible to shoot at "fleeing felons", and one would get attaboys for good marksmanship in such cases.
This was all simply the norm.

What has brought about change in most departments is civil liability. Courts have consistently ruled that agencies, cities, counties, and even individual officers can be liable for damages accruing to assaults, brutality, torture, etc.
(I see that a number of Chicago officials are now being indicted for long-standing institutionalized torture of suspects)

These things are often justified along the lines that "it's war", and "the average citizen doesn't know what we're going through", and "we are the thin blue line that separates the good citizen from the savage criminal", and so on.
These are all deeply institutionalized attitudes, and eradicating them is not easy. In Chicago, we might see the present activities as arising from the virtual state of war that existed in this town since the 20s and the rise of organized crime.
In some areas of the country, things are sufficiently out of control that extraordinary police activities may be seen as justified. We understand that in areas of LA, there is virtual ethnic cleansing going on, with Hispanic gangs forcing black families out of their areas, and black gangs doing the same in reverse. Just wandering into the wrong ethnic area can be a death sentence.
 
So I'm watching the evening news with my girlfriend and her mom and it is replaying the big burley drunk Chicago cop kicking the daylights out of the petite female bartender and they ask me would I just stand by and watch or do something so I told them I'd throw a ketchup bottle at the cop's head. In real life, he could have a gun, and a few buddies outside too, and I wonder if doing more than calling 911 would be wise?

I grew up in Chicago and I think, despite the police force's dark past, their current track record is good. Two horrible incidents does not a trend make...If another such incident happens soon, then I think it would be valid to suggest a trend, and there would be firings and press conferences and so on.

Chicago's rep is still tarnished by Capone, and that was like 80 years ago.
 
I agree with both steverino and Bikewer, but it's definitely disturbing to have your city bathed in such an inglorious light. Police officers have a hard enough job to do without this kind of notoriety. I hope the city of Chicago clamps down on this type of behavior hard before it does become a trend.
 
Well it's all relative, Overman. Here in Seattle the mayor's ethics are dicey at best. The governor was elected by some mysteriously found votes, (sound familiar?) and I am starting to learn some scary stuff about our two senators.
 
Bump!

The cop who beat the bartender, Anthony Abbate, is being sued by the bartender and the trial starts today. He was convicted in a criminal trial in 2009 but got only 2 years probation, which wasn't nearly a strong enough sentence IMHO.

The Chicago Police Dept. is also a party to the lawsuit, the suit alleges the CPD tried to cover up and downplay the attack. The city tried to get this part of the suit dismissed, but a judge earlier this year refused citing evidence that they did in fact try to cover for Abbate.
When Abbate left, Obrycka immediately called 911, touching off what her lawyers contend was a cover-up by police concerned over one of their own.

Two veteran Grand Central District patrol officers responded and learned from Obrycka that her attacker was a Chicago police officer and that the entire incident was captured by surveillance cameras. However, the officers didn't mention either detail in their report, according to the court records.

Obrycka's lawyers said that another bartender, Patti Chiriboga, a friend of Abbate's, warned the officer's girlfriend the day of the beating about the damaging nature of the videotape. Abbate and his police partner made some 150 phone calls to other officers and detectives in the hours after the beating, according to court records.

That same evening, Gary Ortiz, another Abbate friend and city employee, went to the bar to ask Obrycka not to press charges, according to the lawsuit. Ortiz relayed that Abbate had offered to pay for Obrycka's medical bills and time off work if she did not complain to the department or file a lawsuit, her lawyers contend. Obrycka declined the offer. According to court records, the city has conceded that Ortiz's action was an attempted bribe.

Obrycka's lawyers also contend that Chiriboga, after meeting with Abbate, warned of problems for the bar and its employees if the videotape didn't disappear.

In a conversation secretly tape-recorded by the bar's owner, Martin Kolodziej, Chiriboga allegedly explained how a desperate Abbate had angrily threatened her to help conceal the beating, even making a veiled reference about her brother at one point.

"He goes, 'Believe me what I tell you.' He said, 'Your life, everybody in the (expletive) bar — this is, this is — I'm backed against the wall,'" a transcript quoted Chiriboga as saying. "'I don't give a (expletive). I did, I did that to Karolina,' he said, 'but I want the tape. I want the (expletive) tape.'

"He calls me — he tells me, 'Do you love your brother?'"

In the same conversation, Chiriboga told Kolodziej that Abbate threatened to falsify charges or plant evidence if necessary.

"You tell Martin to get rid of that tape or there's gonna be people getting DUIs," she quoted Abbate as telling her, according to the transcript. "You might be driving with a pound of (expletive) cocaine on you."
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...r-beating-trial-20121022,0,6092676,full.story

Should be an interesting trial! City attorneys swear they won't settle the case, we'll see. I hope they don't, these dark spaces deserve lots of sunlight.

Btw, I have some friends who are Chicago police officers who have told me Abbate was well known to be an out of control drunk, but that he has clout with higher ups in the department who have protected him for years even before this incident.
 
WildCat said:
Bump!

The cop who beat the bartender, Anthony Abbate, is being sued by the bartender and the trial starts today. He was convicted in a criminal trial in 2009 but got only 2 years probation, which wasn't nearly a strong enough sentence IMHO.

The Chicago Police Dept. is also a party to the lawsuit, the suit alleges the CPD tried to cover up and downplay the attack. The city tried to get this part of the suit dismissed, but a judge earlier this year refused citing evidence that they did in fact try to cover for Abbate.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...r-beating-trial-20121022,0,6092676,full.story

Should be an interesting trial! City attorneys swear they won't settle the case, we'll see. I hope they don't, these dark spaces deserve lots of sunlight.

Btw, I have some friends who are Chicago police officers who have told me Abbate was well known to be an out of control drunk, but that he has clout with higher ups in the department who have protected him for years even before this incident.
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Optimism not warranted. In a Bench trial, Operation Greylord revealed that in Crook County (Chicago,IL ), even a murder case could be fixed for a mere $5000 bribe. Nothing has changed since Greylord. Judges are still chosen via the political patronage system operated by a thoroughly corrupt Democrat Party.
 
Robert Prey said:
Optimism not warranted. In a Bench trial, Operation Greylord revealed that in Crook County (Chicago,IL ), even a murder case could be fixed for a mere $5000 bribe. Nothing has changed since Greylord. Judges are still chosen via the political patronage system operated by a thoroughly corrupt Democrat Party.
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This case is being heard in a Federal court.

Though note the ex-cop was only given 2 years probation by a Cook County judge after his felony criminal conviction.
 
Years ago, 60 minutes did a little segment on the corruption problem in Chicago. They went in an rented a bar, and did the setup so that it appeared that the place was changing hands.
Then, they started the parade of civil-service workers who had to come by and give thier OK to the various licencing and inspections and so forth attendant to every new business.

Every single one openly and blatantly solicited bribes, right on camera.

We think of this as a third-world or "developing country" problem. A friend of ours, an Americanized Indian, returned home a few years back to attend a wedding. He came back appalled at the degree of corruption. You literally could get nothing done without paying bribes.
In Russia, any auto trip of any length outside of the major cities involves numerous police-run checkpoints where they just tell you how much you'll have to pay to proceed.
You have to tote up the price of gas, oil, and bribes for your destination.

We like to think ourselves free of this nonsense, but in some areas, it's still very much part of the local culture.
 
Bikewer said:
Years ago, 60 minutes did a little segment on the corruption problem in Chicago. They went in an rented a bar, and did the setup so that it appeared that the place was changing hands.
Then, they started the parade of civil-service workers who had to come by and give thier OK to the various licencing and inspections and so forth attendant to every new business.

Every single one openly and blatantly solicited bribes, right on camera.

We think of this as a third-world or "developing country" problem. A friend of ours, an Americanized Indian, returned home a few years back to attend a wedding. He came back appalled at the degree of corruption. You literally could get nothing done without paying bribes.
In Russia, any auto trip of any length outside of the major cities involves numerous police-run checkpoints where they just tell you how much you'll have to pay to proceed.
You have to tote up the price of gas, oil, and bribes for your destination.

We like to think ourselves free of this nonsense, but in some areas, it's still very much part of the local culture.
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Last week a Chicago zoning inspector's conviction for accepting bribes was overturned on appeal, because the $1,200 bribe he admitted taking wasn't big enough.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/156915...h-so-conviction-overturned-appeals-court.html
 
Federal jury finds "code of silence" protected cop:
A federal jury today found in favor of a female bartender who was beaten by an off-duty Chicago police officer in a notorious 2007 attack captured on security cameras.

Jurors held both the city and Abbate responsible. The jury awarded the bartender, Karolina Obrycka, $850,000 in compensatory damages, which her attorneys will collect from the city, they said after the verdict.

Obrycka’s lawyers contended a code of silence protected former Chicago cop Anthony Abbate from punishment until the damning videotape was made public.

Obrycka contended during the trial that Abbate, other officers and higher-ups tried to cover up and minimize her February 2007 beating as part of an unofficial "code of silence" policy within the department.

The trial in federal court came nearly six years after Abbate attacked Obrycka at Jesse's Short Stop Inn when he went behind the bar.

The eight-woman, three-man jury found that Abbate was part of the conspiracy to cover up the beating and that the Police Department had a widespread code of silence that emboldened Abbate to beat up Obrycka.
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Not that it will change anything.
 
I would guess that when you create isolated groups, especially of men or with a masculine element, who also face life threatening dangers, you get an atmosphere for fraternity and machismo. When you give those people power over other people, it creates a recipe that can easily turn into this kind of corrupt abuse of power. Police aren't often praised by their peers for not being biased in the face of what can test loyalty that I've seen.

It would be nice to see more focus on sociology and tribalism being taught as a possible danger in academies to b ever vigilant against, but I have no idea how much or how little they do go over this sort of thing presently.

It's hard for people to be impartial and unbiased, I know that much. And I think that sort of thing should be of paramount importance as something drilled into the heads of the people who choose to live this kind of life.
 
I am disgusted at the city's attorney: " 'This case is a matter of principle,' said Hurd, explaining later that the city won't settle lawsuits by paying damages on behalf of officers involved in altercations while off-duty." Riiiight. The guy had been drinking for over 6 hours and when the bartender tried to cut him off, he attacked her. The cops writing up the incident forgot to mention that the whole thing was caught on videotape. Yes, Mr. Hurd, we are talking about principles, the problem is that your clients seem to be lacking them.
 
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I have to object to the characterization of this a Chicago only issue.

Trust me there are bad cops all over this country doing the same thing.

Only there is no videotape available.
 
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