« Sea-Doo Life Expectancy is 300 hours? | Main | War Profiteer »
March 29, 2007
Chicago Police Close Ranks
Well, it isn't like we didn't see this one coming. When Anthony Abbate, the Chicago cop that pummeled an innocent woman in a Chicago bar, walked out of the Cook County Court House, the police ticketed all the reporters cars and threatened to arrest them for covering the story. Then, they let their man Abbate slip out the back door so he wouldn't have to face the music. Oh, and there's another video of 6 cops beating the tar out of innocent citizens in a Chicago Bar from Dec 15th of last year. That video was never released. Go figgure.
Posted by Rob Kiser on March 29, 2007 at 8:41 AM
Comments
aka Scalia's New Professionalism
Meanwhile, in some alternate universe:
Another development over the past half-century that deters civil-rights violations is the increasing professionalism of police forces, including a new emphasis on internal police discipline. Even as long ago as 1989, we felt it proper to “assume� that unlawful police behavior “would be dealt with appropriately� by the authorities, but we now have increasing evidence that police forces across the United States take the constitutional rights of citizens seriously. There have been “wide ranging reforms in the education, training, and supervision� of police officers (cite omitted).
[…]
Moreover, modern police forces are staffed with professionals; it is not credible to assert that internal discipline, which can limit successful careers, will not have a deterrent effect. There is also evidence that the increasing use of various forms of citizen review can enhance police accountability.
Radley Balko points out that in this universe "police aren’t better trained at respecting civil liberties, they’re better trained at finding ways to get around them."
Posted by: Robert on March 29, 2007 at 3:19 PM