And That's The Problem

Forewarning: This story was related to me tonight by a fellow bar regular. We have one bar in common but he goes to several others regularly. The story certainly needs to be taken with a grain or three of salt so I'm not using any proper names or dates. Still the story is at least anectodtally worth hearing.

The Story:

Recently, at or near closing time of a bar, a patron tried to grab a slice of pie from the pizza one of the bouncers (possibly an owner) was eating. The bouncer told him to chill and he should have asked for a piece. Now, the bouncer told him, he needed to get lost. The patron backed off but then challeneged, "What are you going to do about it." (Nothing said indicated if the bouncer was wearing clothing that would have identified him as a bouncer.)

The bouncer got up, locked the door and said, "You had your chance." The bouncer then proceeded to beat up the patron and 2 or 3 of the patron's friends. The bouncer did this while his own friends sat and watched.

After the beating the patron threatened to call the police. The bouncer, an off duty cop, produced his own badge and asked, "Who do you think they are going to believe?"

So many things are wrong here. First is the pressumption of power and might makes right. The off duty copy knew he had more friends in the bar than the patron. Even if he got in trouble during a fight with these drunks he had more than enough friends to back him up. So instead of just tossing them out the door as he should have he physically beats them up. That is assault my friends.

Second, and the most disturbing, is the abuse of power. Not physical power although that is clearly there. No, it is the abuse of official power. The cop started the fight. Despite his supposed claims, "What are you going to do about it," does not equate to a legal self defense argument. The cop started the fight, beat up a group of drunk guys, and then used his official position in law enforcement to intimidate the group into not filing charges.

And the off duty cop was right. If the patrons had called the cops, the patrons would have been arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer by the responding officers. If the public ever would have heard about the incident the group would have had to clear their own names first and the legal system would have been institutionally stacked against them.

Assuming that all the facts of the story are not accurate, this is still essentially the same story that we've heard over and over in the past year out of the Chicago police force. If the story was a bald faced lie told to my friend by the off duty cop then the cop was glorifying those same stories. The stories: officers have abused their official power and their monopoly on legal force to abuse citizens. Maybe this patron deserved an ass kicking. I'm not generally a fighter but maybe I would have reacted the same way. If I had, both he and I should have been arrested for assault and faced the consequences.

This cop never will. And that's the problem