"An off-duty Chicago police officer convicted of pummeling a female bartender half his size was sentenced Tuesday to two years probation and anger management classes for the videotaped attack that appeared worldwide on the Internet and cable news channels."
We have seen before how the media tends to portray white males who commit acts of violence as inherently non-violent beings who just did something stupid that one time they like kicked the shit out of someone. Society has a tendency to construct violence as out of character for white men while ascribing violence as being inherent to certain other non-dominant groups.
In this latest case of White Gandhi Gone Awry, the 250-pound police officer Anthony Abbate was shown on videotape punching and kicking a 125-pound female bartender who refused to serve him more alcohol because, pursuant to her legal duty, he was over-served. Amazingly, he claimed self-defense:
"Abbate acknowledged during the trial that he was drunk during the incident. But he said Obrycka pushed him first as she tried to remove him from behind the bar" [emphasis added].
It's understandable. It's probably very scary for a large men who has entitled himself to someone else's booze to be "pushed" by a small women who trying to keep him from taking it.
Prosecutors sought a prison sentence but the judge "didn't see aggravating factors to justify a prison term." Since, you know, a man drunkenly attacking a woman half his size isn't enough of a harm in and of itself. Or, as his defense attorney explains it to us:
"He's not a bad man, he did something bad." He characterized the incident as "one silly, stupid act."
The Chicago Police Department is apparently "looking into" firing Abbate. Whoa-ho-ho there! Why get crazy and take things that far when it's clear that the man is a really great guy who just got drunk and did something silly that one time?
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