"Misconduct City"

[dbacks fan]

My comprehension skills make it possible to read between the lines.....

The lines you see in the mirror?

[guido911]

The lines you see in the mirror?

This?

[dbacks fan]

This?

Yes, that is what I was refering to.

[guido911]

Yes, that is what I was refering to.

You are a meanie..

[dbacks fan]

You are a meanie..

Did I miss something?

[Teatownclown]

You are a meanieBULLY..

In a city where misconduct is rampant, only the bully's rule....

Cocaine is a scourge...so is YIkes chili....

[Vashta Nerada]

The Chicago police department has been found guilty of covering up the beating of a female bartender by a city police officer, and was criticized for honoring a "code of silence" in which officers cover up for one another's misdeeds.

The altercation was caught on surveillance tape, but Chicago police officers ignored the tape's existence and failed to mention in their police report that the assailant was a city cop.  Attorneys presented evidence, including hundreds of phone calls between Officer Abbate and other cops in the hours after the incident, that convinced the jury there was a widespread effort to cover up the attack.

Abbate was eventually charged and found guilty of felony battery and lost his job. On Tuesday, however, a federal jury went farther, condemning the entire police department as well as Abbate for covering up the crime.

Craig Futterman, a law professor at the University of Chicago who has studied the code of silence in Chicago: "The bulk of the Chicago police department isn't made up of officers who go around beating up bar maids and pummeling them gratuitously for no reason or in drunken rage." he said.
"Still, it's something that departments as a whole and police leadership tends to shy away from. I think the best police leaders try to take it head on, and they do have those conversations about what needs to be done, but they need to have support not just in the police department, but from the mayor, too. When you're dealing with an entrenched culture, the rank and file can just wait out that person," Futterman said.
"But for that (video), Anthony Abbate would still be a police officer today. If it became Karolina's word against Anthony Abbate ... this case would have gone nowhere."

In dramatic testimony, Patti Chiriboga, an Abbate confidant, recanted her grand jury testimony that she passed along a threatening message from Abbate to the bar's manager that he would plant cocaine and falsely charge witnesses if they didn't drop the matter and give him the video.  The conversation was secretly recorded by the bar manager and played at trial.

Just days after the owner of Jesse's Short Stop Inn installed security cameras, Abbate went into a rage when Obrycka tried to prevent him from coming behind the bar. Abbate, who testified that he was drunk after downing multiple alcoholic drinks and shots, tossed the diminutive Obrycka to the floor and then whaled away at her with his fists and feet.

"Nobody tells me what to do," Abbate was heard proclaiming on the video repeatedly played at trial.

This civil trial at a federal court in Chicago was unusual. It was the first of its kind to focus almost wholly on the question of whether there is an ingrained code of silence — with most of the 2½ weeks of testimony devoted to that question.

The core issue they had to decide was not whether Abbate beat her, but whether the police culture emboldened him and led him to act with impunity in attacking her.
In the end, jurors not only found that other officers and Abbate's superiors tried to cover up the attack at Jesse's Short Stop Inn, but they concluded that Abbate's knowledge of his fellow officers' willingness to cover him created an environment that led to the attack on Obrycka.

Officer Abbate was convicted of aggravated battery in 2009 and sentenced to probation.

[Vashta Nerada]

A Spokane police officer was sentenced Thursday to more than four years in prison for using excessive force against a mentally disabled janitor who died after being erroneously suspected of stealing money from an ATM.
Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle to four years and three months.
The 65-year-old Thompson was convicted last year by a federal jury of violating Otto Zehm's civil rights by using excessive force and then lying to investigators in the case.

Six years ago, Zehm was beaten and stunned by Thompson, then hog-tied and sat on by other officers until he passed out. The 36-year-old died two days later without regaining consciousness.

Zehm had committed no crime.
On March 18, 2006, police received a report that a man matching Zehm's description might have stolen money from an ATM. Surveillance video showed Thompson found Zehm inside a convenience store and immediately struck him repeatedly with a baton and shocked him with a stun gun.

Other officers arrived and hogtied Zehm, put a rubber mask over his mouth, and sat on him. Zehm passed out and died two days later without regaining consciousness. It was later determined that he had not committed the crime.
His last words were: "All I wanted was a Snickers bar," according to trial testimony.

Anger boiled in the community about the death of Zehm, but the Spokane County prosecutor's office declined to bring charges against any officers.
Amid continuing demands for justice, federal prosecutors eventually charged Thompson with violating Zehm's civil rights through use of excessive force and then lying to investigators.

Prosecutors also alleged the case involved an extensive cover-up by police. That investigation is ongoing.

[tulsa_fan]

Those two stories are very sad.  The individual officer's screw up is bad enough but the continued support of bad apples by others makes me sick.  It gives all officers a bad name, when in fact, most officers are pretty darn good people.  I have a hard time believe too much has changed in TPD when a certain officer is only demoted for what he got busted for, especially after Jordan made this big spectacle regarding his "new policy" where lying will result in immediate firing  . . . . well until the one lying knows the right people. 

[Vashta Nerada]

Like father:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/courts/city-settles-suit-alleging-excessive-police-force/article_67c7d6c9-1234-5732-bb2a-18441f152e4f.html

Like Son:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/crimewatch/tulsa-officer-fatally-shoots-man-during-traffic-stop/article_ad6f628f-ea06-5951-bdee-78162aec1655.html


And another killing, but more lax oversight today makes no throwdown necessary:

http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story/Community-gathers-to-remember-man-killed-in/_t--TyZnaUSnVSfJS03Ssg.cspx