Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Do I need to mention that the man is a cop? An off-duty cop gets drunk and beats three people in a span of 6 hours, including a female bartender who refused to serve him any more drinks, and all he gets is probation.
A Chicago police officer avoided jail time today for pummeling a woman who was tending bar, even though prosecutors produced a previously unseen video showing him beating someone else at the bar hours earlier.Anthony Abbate was sentenced to two years probation for beating Karolina Obrycka in February of 2007. He could have gotten up to five years for the attack, which was captured by the bar's security camera and shown around the world....
In arguing for prison time, prosecutors produced a previously unseen video from the bar hours before Obrycka was attacked showing Abbate beating someone else.
In the video, a man in the bar can be seen speaking with Abbate for a few seconds, after which Abbate grabs the man, slams him against a wall and then throws him across the room. The man crashes to the floor and into the bar stools, and Abbate stands over him as the man tries to shimmy away on his back.
Assistant State's Atty. LuAnn Snow said the attack was one of three unprovoked assaults in the span of 6 hours, a violent window into "a day in the life of Anthony Abbate." Authorities did not charge Abbate with the other two alleged attacks.
All part of that "new professionalism" Scalia seems so fond of.
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Comments
Is Chicago still a monument to all things corrupt and base?
It's hard to tell, sometimes.
Posted by: BobbyEarle | June 28, 2009 9:50 AM
Can the bartender file a civil suit for damages? Take him to the cleaners!
Posted by: Boudica | June 28, 2009 9:54 AM
I wonder what the chances are for a civil judgment against him by any 3 of his victims.
Posted by: Hanspeter | June 28, 2009 10:25 AM
You missed the best line:
"If I believed that sending Anthony Abbate to prison would stop people from getting drunk and hitting other people, I'd sentence him to the maximum," the judge said
Yeah, right. How many times has any judge applied that criteria before? Lock up a drug addict? Why bother, they'll just get high again. Lock up an abusive husband? Pass, he'll get out and beat up others anyway. Lock up a mafia hitman? They're incorrigible so we'll give him probation.
The argument isn't just biased, it's bonkers.
Posted by: Tyro | June 28, 2009 11:33 AM
I just took a look at the video - and one thing that really strikes me is that no-one in the bar seems to be surprised or upset by the attack. Even the patrons at whose feet the guy gets thrown remain calmy in their seats. Another guy lights up a cigarette.
Where's the outrage? Someone saying, "Hey - what the fuck?" Everyone acts as though this is normal behavior, which kind of creeps me out.
After the first attack, why was he not kicked out of the bar? The police called? Why was he still there to beat up the bartender?
Another thing I would point out - though it's hard to see - is that he attacks the man from behind. Just goes up behind him, pushes him hard into the wall and grabs the guy and throws him across the room. That's just cowardly.
ex animo-
Jo
Posted by: Jo | June 28, 2009 11:36 AM
Ah - I forgot to say this, which was my point *before* I saw the video...
Although - what this guy needs is probably not jail time, but rehab. If you go out drinking and regularly beat people up, I would say (and I think many would agree) that you have a problem. Was some kind of counseling or rehab or AA part of his probation?
Also a mis-posted comment to another of your posts points out that the police department wants to fire him...
ex animo-
Posted by: Jo | June 28, 2009 11:41 AM
But he has a stressful job! Why, he's just letting off steam, beating up a bartender!
Yet another instance where cops get off easy due to the bizarre notion that they have to follow the law LESS closely than normal citizens
Posted by: Chris | June 28, 2009 12:31 PM
I live in Chicago. In my younger days, I held every job in the restaurant and bar business except manager--that includes bartender and bouncer.
Chicago cops do not get thrown out of bars for beating people. If you call the cops to a bar where cops are beating people, the offenders will wave-off any arriving police--if you're lucky. If the arriving cops stay on the scene they will threaten or arrest the victims. This is how it works here and everyone know it. Every Chicago cop will lie about this publicly. They will say I don't know what I'm talking about, but this is exactly how it works. That's why the police weren't called after the first two beatings and that's why Abatte wasn't thrown out of the bar after the first two beatings.
No one in the bar business will speak publicly about this situation because doing so would be asking for trouble.
Posted by: Dr. X | June 28, 2009 12:50 PM
Jo,
I think this guy definitely jail time, preferably in a facility with some of the convicts who 'tripped' and fell' when he was arresting them. It wouldn't surprise me if there are quite a few of them.
Rt
Posted by: Roadtripper | June 28, 2009 12:52 PM
And here I was thinking that it was generally sentenced worse (though not worse on the books) to attack someone who served/sold alcohol; at least, in my home state, people who attack bartenders, liquor store clerks, and such seem to have the full book thrown at them as opposed to just being treated as minor riff-raff.
Posted by: Tybo | June 28, 2009 12:54 PM
Yeah, Tybo. The unwritten law of the land is never hit a bartender.
Unfortunately, liquor store clerks never get the benefit of that.
Posted by: Jonathan | June 28, 2009 1:13 PM
Yeah, Tybo. The unwritten law of the land is never hit a bartender.
Yeah, that's what the bartender in Desperado thought too.
Posted by: QrazyQat | June 28, 2009 7:31 PM
The cop should be in jail, but the person I'm pissed at is the judge. I wonder how many people he's sent to jail for non-violent drug offenses? He's either corrupt or an idiot (or both).
Posted by: Taz | June 28, 2009 11:07 PM
Had my nose broken at a bar by this 20-yo thug who was trashing the entire joint.
Later, I was told (may or may not be true) that this person was a trainee cop.
Posted by: Paul Murray | June 29, 2009 2:30 AM
So...no one does anything or stands up against this...and nothing gets done.
Big surprise.
Posted by: Richard Eis | June 29, 2009 4:04 AM
Please tell me this guy at least lost his job and is no longer a cop. How can the public trust him to protect them from assault when he is the one assaulting them?
Posted by: catgirl | June 29, 2009 11:00 AM
The Police Review Board is expected to announce a decision on Abbate's status on July 7th.
Posted by: Dr X | June 29, 2009 2:49 PM
The anti-death penalty people and others always use the dumbassed argument 'that it is would stop others then I would do it'. If the argument is true then lets let all the prisoners go as 'it does not stop others from doing it'.
prison and (in some enlightened areas) the death penalty DOES stop THAT person from doing it again.
Lets see 1 cop beats up 3 people and gets off.
1 person beats up 3 cops and gets??????
One other point, did this cop beat up just women & drunks???
Couldn't at least one of these people beat the crap out of the cop????
Posted by: CybrgnX | June 29, 2009 6:12 PM
N.W.A. was right.
Posted by: James Hanley | June 29, 2009 7:29 PM
One thing Ed neglected to mentioned directed is that Abbate's lawyer asserted that - get this - Obrycka assaulted him first, and that he was defending himself.
Problem is, Karolina Obrycka is about 116 pounds dripping wet.
Abbate is, oh, about 250 pounds or so.
I suspect it will not take a mathematician to solve the dilemma of whether this story comes off as some of the most brain-damaged BS ever spouted by a desperate defense attorney.
(Incidentally, the other two beatings did not make the news here, at least on TV. Go figure.)
Posted by: Chris Krolczyk | June 30, 2009 9:17 PM
James, you got your wish on this one:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009361128_webpoliceattack19m.html
Posted by: Rich | July 1, 2009 2:35 AM