Bad News

It seems to come in threes. Or maybe thirties, we can't really tell. First up was the allegedly drunk PPO. Ok, maybe it wasn't first, but it's a convenient starting point for this post. Who can tell where all this crap starts lately? We warned everyone without contract protections (PPOs) to watch their asses.

Next up, we have the 16-year vet involved in a domestic:

• After chasing his estranged wife's friend down the block but failing to catch him, Officer Donald Branch returned to his wife's house, got a shovel and smashed out the windows of the man's truck, prosecutors allege.

  Tuesday's altercation between Branch and his wife resulted in felony charges against the Chicago Police officer. Branch, 37, allegedly put his hands on his wife's neck, slapped her and pushed her to the ground before pointing his gun at her male friend, prosecutors say.

  "This is a very severe, violent crime," Assistant State's Attorney Michael Evans said.

We won't make any judgments as to fault or blame. We don't know the back story and we don't really care. An observation though - "estranged" means that the soon-to-be ex-wife can pretty much sleep with whoever she wants.

Finally, and this should be overly worrisome to any who DOES have contract protections, the Cozzi indictment:

• A Chicago police officer was indicted this week on a federal charge of violating the civil rights of a man beaten while handcuffed to a wheelchair, an incident that was caught on videotape.
  
  A federal grand jury indicted William Cozzi, 50, on one count of violating the man's civil rights during an arrest at a Chicago hospital in August 2005, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Cozzi will be arraigned at a later date.

Again, we make no judgments. We've seen the tape played on the news and we'll keep our own counsel on it. What we wonder aloud about is this:

• Cozzi pled guilty to the charge, received probation and went to anger management classes as directed by the court;
  
• the arrestee sued the City and settled for $125,000;
• the Police Board determined that Cozzi should be suspended for two years. If we aren't mistaken, Cline took the unusual step of appealing the Board decision to ensure Cozzi was fired. We thought this action failed and Cozzi served his two years suspension and was in the process of being re-treaded;
• Thursday, a single count Federal indictment is handed up, derailing for the moment, perhaps forever, Cozzi returning to duty.

A few ways to read this:

• Clout is dead;
• Clout will not be expended in "heater" cases;
• If J-Fed doesn't get his way from the County Courts, the Police Board and the Appellate Court, he'll go for the simple "civil rights" indictment to enforce his will.

Hell, there's no indication that the arrestee who got the settlement even appeared in front of this Grand Jury. We wonder. Debate among yourselves.