Tuesday, April 03, 2007

What if there had been no videotape? A Counter-point to Mary Mitchell

From Mary Mitchell’s column today:

“[W]hen a petite, young white woman is pummeled by a liquor-crazed police officer, and the videotape is played repeatedly around the world and on the Internet, someone's head is going to roll.

Obrycka's wasn't the worst case of cop abuse against a woman that's been brought to the city's attention.

That happened to the young South Side woman, allegedly at the hands of Herman -- and with the help of other police officers after the fact -- and it is something you'd expect to see only in an R-rated film about dirty cops.” (emphasis added)

The column, titled “What if that beaten bartender had been a black woman?” is offered as "proof" of Mitchell’s belief that when “citizens of color are on the receiving end of police misconduct, the brutality is often treated as if the victim had it coming.” While there may very well be other cases out there to support this supposition, Mary’s case, as presented today, is embarassingly weak.

What Mary fails to even consider as a possible explaination for the disparate responses to the Abbate and Herman incidents is that in only one was there videotape to be played repeatedly around the world and on the Internet. In other words, the existence or lack of graphic visual evidence, and not the skin color of the victims, is arguably the most salient difference between these stories.

So, to return to the title question: what if that beaten bartender had been a black woman, and the videotape was played repeatedly around the world and on the internet? If Mary wants to convince me that no heads would have rolled, she'll need to try again.

9 comments:

Bill Baar 1:58 PM  

I thought the reaction to Abbate was pretty delayed.

It's still pretty lame. Consider Congressman Metcalf lead hearings in the 1970s when the city wouldn't act.

Dock Walls raised Burge during the election. How much coverage to Mitchell give Walls on it?

GOP should really be leading the charge here. (Or the Greens but they've framed themselves with sustainability, not liberation) I don't think they know how to act the radical and it's really time they learned....

...consider the GOP State Senator (or was he a Rep) a few months ago who wrote the column about the GOP reclaiming their heritage as a party of civil rights, of emancipation... well, Police Brutality in Chicago is a great place to start reclaiming.

Bill Baar 2:03 PM  

Would you consider adding a CPD label to this post? I'd like to be able to follow this.

Anonymous,  6:51 PM  

Would you really blame most African Americans from not trusting police after Area 2 and Area 3 torture personified in JON BURGE?

Anonymous,  7:21 PM  

Mary is a racist and an idiot.

But Daley is a racit and idiot to.

How could any human being allow Burge?

Anonymous,  11:46 PM  

The Republicans could really ride this issue.
Imagine Republicans calling for a Federal Conspiracy prosecution of Jon Burge.

Bill Baar 6:46 AM  

Exactly Vic..... exactly.

Anonymous,  2:00 PM  

Do Republicans exist in Cook County? (besides Tony Peraica?)
are they becoming extinct in Illinois?

Police torture (if it is a legitimate issue) with the recent guys getting beat up in the bar, the Abate guy beating up the little Polish bartender, and the resurgence of the Burge et al issue--could be an interesting issue--as it was under Democrats
and most Democrats (including African Americans) seem to not say alot on it.

Anonymous,  2:40 PM  

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica tried to bring out the issue of the Burge torture but the media ignored him. The County is a defendant in a half dozen suits that they are paying a lot of money to politically connected defense lawyers (some of whom like Patricia Bobb sit on the ARDC and also sue the City and cops like Terry Ekl and Lorna Propes--who gets her cases from Fast Eddie Vrdolyak from Cicero)
Commissioner Peraica is also the ONLY Commissioner to vote against the Ed "nephew is a Burge officer" Egan and Bob "11th ward guy" Boyle
8 million and $100,000 a month Special State's Attorneys report--Peraica said taxpayers should not pay--the report was PLAGIARIZED and poorly written and said nothing new but did say Burge should be indicted.

Todd Stroger said the cases should be settled but doesn't do that.
John Stroger never spoke about the police torture of an alleged 200 African American males including electrocution of genitalia.

Anonymous,  6:10 PM  

Todd Stroger supports Burge torture and cover up and waste of taxpayer dollars.

But Nobody cares, so don't worry about it

and most of the victims were criminals anyway

and it is only taxpayer dollars

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