Media Mum on Protected Codes of Silence, But Can't Shut Up About Alleged Cop Omerta

Go You Northwestern, Bruce!




Once again the Medill Marxist Day Camp at Northwestern University, home of the MacArthur Center for Justice for Some and the Lawyers Who Shill for Them, Bernardine Dohrn's Ghost Payroll Gig, and The Fagin Dave Protess Buy a Cabbie School of Journalism, has coaxed Wild Kit Bruce Dold into another shameless plea for Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers G. Flint Taylor, Jon Loevy and their comrades with today's editorial -

Don't appeal Abbate verdict: Time for City Hall to eradicate the 'code of silence'

Gee, Bruce, this h'yar polemic makes me want to toss on my Atticus Finch Suit, but it is after Labor Day. Dold and Company's  clownish offering is nothing but smoke screen for political power players, lawyers and the Medill Big Progresive Thoughts sausage works in Evanston.

The wake-up call came Tuesday when a federal jury ordered the city and former Officer Anthony Abbate to pay $850,000 in damages to bartender Obrycka. Abbate, off-duty, had beaten her in a bar attack caught on video that went viral.
The city — Chicago taxpayers — also must pay Obrycka's attorney fees dating back to 2007. Combined with what the city's Law Department already has devoted in resources, the tab is about $5 million and rising,  . . .Lesson learned? No. City Hall intends to challenge the verdict through post-trial motions, which are standard in these cases, and if those fail, appeal.
Bad idea. Move on, Mr. Mayor. . . .Within a few weeks, an internal police agency reviewed the case — but not the video at first — and recommended a misdemeanor charge for Abbate. Investigators even took the unusual step of going to Obrycka's home get her to sign a misdemeanor arrest report. But once she realized he was about to get a slap on the wrist, she released the video publicly. It was seen around the world.

Suddenly, the department took her case very seriously. The state's attorney's office upgraded the charges to felonies. Her lawsuit alleged that cops protect cops — that, because of a code of silence, Abbate would have received minor punishment had millions not seen that video.
While the department has strict, written guidelines for cases of alleged misconduct, the trial proved those procedures weren't followed. Ekl argues they still aren't: A too-cozy relationship persists between the department and the Independent Police Review Authority, which handles misconduct allegations. . . .
But for the bad ones, the code of silence, he said, is "alive and well."

It's long overdue that the Chicago Police Department start abiding by its own rules when officers become suspects in criminal cases. As police misconduct expert Lou Reiter testified in Obrycka's case, the vast majority of Chicago officers are decent, moral public servants who never have cause to interact with the Independent Police Review Authority.

No cop ever said Abbate was 'one of their own,' Bruce. No cop ever demanded to give this vicious drunken whale a cintilla of support.

Ask this, Bruce. Who clouted Abbate onto the job, protected Abbate and gave him the comfort to besmear his profession?  Who among the  the Ward players and through the Merit bosses in the department and through"Merit" whispered the command?  The guy on Floor # Five at the Time?  I'm sorry I can not hear you. Please speak up.

How about the code of silence at Tribune Towers?  How about the code of silence at Medill?  How about the code of silence between the Progressive Power Players in academia?  How did Bernadine Dorhn get her gig?  Who hired Bill Ayers at UIC (I believe it was Stan Ikenberry ) . Is there a Code of Silence at Cease Fire which took a $ 1 million buckoons and did absolutely nothing - again?

Can you name one Chicago Police Officer ( Non-Merit Gold Braid types exempt of course) who thinks that Abbate is not a louse?  I can not and I talk to scores of cops a week.

The Code of Silence meme in this case of Abbate and the tiny Polish bartender is a legal gambit to open the door even wider for the likes of Loevy and G. Flint and the Center for Wrongful Opportunities to Be Somebody at Medill.  Is there a Chicago Police code of silence?

Not among cops;  they'll tell you plenty.   Is there a code of silence?  Speak up.

The Code of Silence is another Code of Opportunity, like Systemic Police Torture.

There is a Code falsehood in the editorials in this city.

According to one 19th Century journalist thus always that be - "There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes." John Swinton 1829-1901)