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In the wake of recent police misconduct, Superintendent Philip Cline has handed his resignation to Mayor Daley in a meeting this morning. Though he was originally expected to retire at the end of the year, the recent problems have obviously made an early trip to Del Boca Vista a little more attractive despite comments last Friday that he wanted to stay with the department and that he served at the will of the Mayor.
The two barroom beatings leave a bad mark on an otherwise positive career that began in 2003 and has resulted in declining murder and crime rates. Last month the department announced a double-digit decrease in all but one category from the same time last year. However, the problems of the last few weeks have garnered national and international attention via videos of the beating of a female bartender by police officer Anthony Abbate. In response to Abbate's action, Cline stated, "He's tarnished our image worse than anybody else in the history of the department." That is really saying something in light of a questionable history of the Chicago Police.
That image only got worse as more alleged beating victims came forward, followed by cops who shielded Abbate from the media as he left the court house. Cline quickly demoted the Captain who issued the order to shield Abbate, tickets given to media vehicles were revoked, and Cline denounced the actions.
Cline will stay on until a replacement is found.
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Cline's right. Abbate's crime made the Internet. Surveillance of the police is catching up with police surveillance of those they serve.
Where is the mayor? Why hasn't he spoken out?
daley never speaks out about anything unless it's the olympics or how "green" we are.
This is a shame, Supt. Kline is a decent guy. I hope the next Supt. is as good.
Any thoughts on how we can get some CTA incompetence up on YouTube? Maybe then we could get Kruesi booted.
You know, the mayor has been invited to attend Greenfestival 07 at McCormick Place this month. What do you want to bet he won't show so he won't have to face any tough questions?
What do you want Daley to say? How do you know he hasn't spoken out? Just because you haven't seen anything in the other papers? I suppose this is Daley's fault too. This is a huge Police force. Some or mobsters, crook and cheats while let's hope the majority are honest and good.
Not everything that happens is Chicago is Daley's fault. I don't think he ordered them a) beat people up in bars b) cover it up
Mark, every word the mayor speaks in public is reported. But I haven't seen anything in any of his usual outlets (aka, Fran Spielman, Sun-Times). Even if it's not his fault, he owes the citizens of Chicago a statement, a show of solidarity with them. When he says nothing, he holds himself apart from us. I believe President Bush was faulted for running away from DC on 9/11 instead of standing with the people under seige. Daley isn't even in physical jeopardy on this one.
I don't think anyone is blaming Daley, but the fact is, he has been conspicuously silent on a scandal that is rocking the city and spreading like wildfire over the internet. it reflects on the city. he should have something to say about it.
Mark,
Who's fault is it then? Why do we have to have the FBI or the federal govt. intervene to ever get any results? All these recent bad cops would all be on the street right now if their behavior wasn't caught on video.
Other experts who have probed the Police Department's handling of complaints have come away with similar findings. The Police Department's methods of investigating its own have been deeply flawed for a long time, said law professor Craig Futterman, who has studied the department's handling of complaints against officers.
Futterman, who teaches at the University of Chicago, gathered data for his studies during lawsuits in which he represented alleged victims of police abuse.
"What I see is a picture of impunity within the Chicago Police Department. You have a small number of officers who perpetrate crimes who have absolute impunity," he said.
A relatively small number of police officers are responsible for the vast majority of complaints, he said. Over the last five years, about 5 percent of police officers have a troubling number of complaints against them, Futterman said. About 85 percent of officers have been the subject of three or fewer complaints. But he identified 662 officers, out of about 13,500, with 10 or more complaints.
Even when negative public attention from a police scandal is focused on how the department handles internal investigations, he said, the results are often ineffective.
"There's a big police scandal, and you'll get these big pronouncements, `internal investigation,' `no stone unturned,' and `we're going to do all these great things,'" Futterman said. "And then the dust settles, and it ends up being business as usual."
ferdy: the mayor will most likely attend the green fest because it takes attention away from the scandals, etc. but as is his habit, the press will be told ahead of time that either a) he will take no questions at this event or b) questions will be limited to this topic. And, while daley probably didn't tell the drunk cop to beat up the petite bartender, it's just the culture of arrogance that comes down from the 5th floor of city hall that allows stuff like that to happen, i.e., 'we're the police, we make the laws ... i'm the mayor i can do anything i want ... if i am connected politically to someone, i don't have to worry about the consequences of my actions.'
James - I'm not so sure he'll attend. He didn't even make it to the South Side Irish Parade, sending a red trolley with a family portrait on the front instead. This mayor is so inaccessible, even for relatively innocent moments. There was a time when a citizen could go up to him (I remember encouraging a young woman working on a Chicago Cares project with me to go talk to him about her neighborhood park, and she did!). He's lost a lot of support in the city, but still nobody will challenge him. It makes me sad.
You are all right it's all Daley's fault. Of course it is everything is. He know's from his bedroom and office what goes on in every nook and cranny of this city. Give me a break this is a huge city. Here I will make a statement for him so you can take it from me.
"Of course I am against this." "Any office that is embarrasing the city and doing criminal activity should be jailed." "What do you want me to say, you know I love the City and I certainly don't need more scandals while I am trying to get the Olympics"" This is an on going investigation and I can't comment more." Mayor Daily
Don't you all think he asked for Cline's resignation???
Mark - I don't wish to be as unpleasant as you are, but you cannot speak for the mayor and you haven't addressed why he hasn't spoken to us. If you wish to be blind on this, I can't help that, but many of us are very disappointed in his lack of leadership on this point.
Ferdy - Maybe because you don't matter to him.
Because Daley doesn't really matter to me what he thinks. I don't need him to get up in the morning. I tend to look at what he has done over all not how he responds to every little incident.
Maybe so. Multiply me by 3 million, and that makes all of us who don't matter. That's pretty sad.
Daley did say something btw this morning:
But Daley also said he was "outraged" by the recent conduct of Officer Anthony Abbate and other unnamed officers who are accused of beating citizens in separate barroom incidents caught on videotape.
Daley said that the majority of Chicago police officers are dedicated and hardworking but also said that the misconduct of the off-duty officers should have been handled immediately.
from the Tribune
And when the next horrible police incident happens he'll say the same thing and nothing will happen.
Navin - In all seriousness what do you want to happen? You know they are all very protected by an Union.
I just don't get what you all think Daley is suppose to do all the time. Everything that happens is not his fault. Did he hire Abate? Did he cover up Abate? Did he even know about it?
I would bet he finds out about a lot of things just like we do the media or his people do through the media. Do you think he sits in on every meeting in every department of the city. Do you think he knows if the street cleaner is late or misses your street?
Yes, Daley did say something this morning: "Maggie, what's for breakfast?"
He said nothing about the police, Ross. You hurt your case by lying.
Da Mare was on CNN for like an hour this morning talking about this. He said we need some police violence to keep up with L.A. in the quest for the Olympics! For this same reason, public transit is being made way less effective as well.
LMFAO -
You should change the name from the Chicagoist to the Daleyist.
Abbate being on the CPD at all is pretty much classic Daleyism, if not directly traceable to Daley. When Abbate applied to be a cop, published reports indicate that he had a prior DUI conviction (normally a disqualification), but he also had a dad who was a retired cop. In a period when the CPD was attempting to make itself more diverse, hiring of a whith ethnic guy with a strike against him just stinks of clout.
Hiring of the unqualified based upon their parentage is precisely what Daley stands for.
I would hate the see the shape of the City if you all were charge. You make is sound so damn easy. If Daley was so damn bad he won't keep getting re-elected.
Organize and get a decent challenger next time. Are you all going to bitch for 4 years about him.
Mark - Language! Do you kiss your alderman with that mouth??
blows maybe.
Navin and Ferdy, you both act like Mark knows who the Cook County state's attorney was during many of the years Jon Burge was torturing arrestees. Sheesh.
When Philip Cline said he was going to take a bat to the Chicago Police officer he was joking. Philip Cline is so obese he look like a penguin. His hands can hardly move, he needs help cleaning himself down below. If you want someone that can put a bat to good use, I suggest Mayor Daley's son, Patrick Daley. Patrick Daley can put some hurtin on someone with a real major league swing. ChicagoClout wishes the next top cop better luck and less video. Most Chicago Cops are Heroes!!!
Patrick McDonough, did Pat Daley swing a bat? Didn't think so. It was one of his punk classmates. Stop saying shit about people you don't know and obviously know nothing about.
In order to believe Daley's press conference today, you have to also believe that Monique Bond, the mayoral aide embedded in the police department (she was the woman dressed in white walking with Cline), completely disappeared from December until today.
The mayor's office, not Cline, controlled what did or did not get revealed about these scandals. For Daley to pretend he's surprised is almost as ridiculous as how he pretended he was suprised the city had to come up with taxdollars for the Olympic bid despite his claim otherwise.
Take a look at behindthebid.blogspot.com for their perspective on the mayor's latest tactic.
I don't know if Cline is good or bad, but this was definitely Daley making Cline the scapegoat.
Monique Bond is at the CPD to make sure City Hall knows EVERYTHING, so yes, it's ridiculous.
I saw BEHINDTHEBID.BLOGSPOT.COM. Great site and hit the nail on the head. This is all about throwing Cline under the bus to protect Daley's image.
Now with my blog commenter hat on (since I don't like railing against Daley or Cline in a post thats purpose is to report a news story), Obviously Daley can't stop every cop from doing something bad, my only concern is with the post-election negative headlines.
You know if I were writing a political drama, it would be a pretty great storyline to have the Superintendent of Police not saying anything until after the election, and then he takes the fall for a rash of misconduct. He wanted to retire anyway.
Any body read Mary Mitchells article(today’s suntimes )about the Black women who was pulled over, taken back to her apartment,assaulted with a police baton and then raped, all by a Chicago cop? Then how the police tried to cover up by later arresting her for prostitution- charges were dropped when the officers failed to arrive in court. They then attempted to bride her. Any one really serious about examining and thinking about what’s going on here? Why wasn’t this in all the papers? And no it wasn’t just about it being on video tape.