Mar 28, 2007 10:55 pm US/Central
Airing Of Beating Tape Hurts Morale, Cop Says
by Mike Parker
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Officer Anthony Abbate was allegedly caught on a security camera beating a female bartender after she refused to serve him another drink. The video has been played thousands of times across the country.
Jesse's Shortstop Inn Tavern
The Chicago Police Department is outraged and embarrassed by a series of accusations of bad behavior by some officers and as CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, that the bad publicity reportedly has a negative impact on morale.
The videotape that shows a female bartender being brutally beaten by an off-duty Chicago police officer has been seen time and again on local and national newscasts, and around the world.
The man who heads Chicago's police union says enough is enough.
"Because there's such a rush to judgment and because the overplay of something like this actually goes along with the impetus that police officers are guilty until proven innocent," said Mark Donahue, president of Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police.
Donahue says the constant airing of the tape is hurting police morale.
At a news conference Tuesday night, we saw and heard how it has affected the police superintendent.
"The past two weeks have been disheartening for me personally," Supt. Phil Cline said Tuesday.
But Donahue is more concerned about the effect of the video on the rank and file. The constant airing, he says, has hurt morale and has damaged the police-community relationship. He says its time for television newsrooms to put the tape away on the shelf.
"I think once it's been out there for a certain period of time, and I think that two weeks is a lengthy period of time, I think the public gets the gist of what happened," Donahue said.
"It's important that the media does their job but I think it's important that the media does their job fairly," he added.
Wednesday night CBS 2's assistant news director said the station will continue to use the images as they are necessary to tell stories.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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