why citizens must remember that a badge is not holy oil...

I am sure many of you have heard already (well, maybe not, which is why I feel compelled to share this)...but about a little over a month ago an off-duty Chicago police officer, Anthony Abbate (on the force for over a decade), weighing in at about a deuce and a half, repeatedly threw a bartender to the ground at Jesse's Short Stop, kicked the bartender and threw some haymakers to the head of the bartender for a rather frightening 45 seconds. here's the really disgusting part...that bartender is 115 pound Karolina Obrycka...a small-statured woman. her crime that Officer Abbate felt warranted such a severe beating? she wouldn't serve his drunk ass any more booze.

Abbate was finally arrested this week (even though the events were caught on video and have been plastered over the internet...but be forewarned, it is somewhat sickening) after having made it this long due to checking himself into a hospital (and we all know the odds of a black youth avoiding arrest for a month by heading to the doctor). even then, his arrest did not mean handcuffs or embarrasment or the perp walk or anything of the sort (its nice to be a large white cop sometimes)...just a pleasant "sorry we have to do this to you" affair. interesting, considering they knew when they showed up at his residence that there was atleast one firearm in the house (his service revolver) and anytime there is a known firearm in the house "officer safety" means they kick in the door and stomp on your head...but then that apparently does not apply if you are a white cop.

initially the officer had the book thrown at him...that's right, the district attorney decided to make an example of him and came out with charges of misdemeanor simple battery (again...we all know the odds of a black youth getting charged with simple battery for beating a much smaller woman). but then a funny thing happened...the media around town did not quite let this story go...surprise surprise, a burly CPD officer beating on a woman less than half his size because she wouldn't give him another beer was considered news worthy. and so the district attorney now was forced to upgrade the charges to a felony...go figure, throwing a small woman around like a ragdoll for no reason and then slamming her head with your fist multiple times being charges as a felony.

and the story just keeps on ticking...now it seems Abbate tried the ultimate CYA attempt by using his badge as a be-all-end-all trump card. of course this did not happen until after it became apparent that the bribery attempts to keep the folks quiet would not prevail...and so Abbate decided it would be best to inform the owner of the bar that illegal narcotics would be planted in his establishment if word got out and anyone wanted to see that charges were pressed. wonder which week they taught that at the academy...

and so here is my point...cops are no different than everyone else. there are plenty of them that are scumbags, lying sacks of shit, abusive, criminal, violent, etc. the big problem is that for some reason, adorning that badge makes some believe they have been dipped in holy oil and can do no wrong...and thus we get incidents like this, wherein the law thinks it is above the law (which we all know only applies if you are a Bush or one of the family cronies).

and too many people without the badge buy into the holy oil thing too...and it should never be that way. so if you are ever on a jury and it comes down to "he said, cop said"...remember this...cops aren't special, they just get a badge and a gun. they are just as likely to be assholes as the guy sitting at the defense table...they just won't get handcuffed and charged with a felony when they are.

the common senses have been dulled...