A Real World-wide Image Problem for Chicago

My wife recently returned from a visit to NYC and as we have heard the Michael Abbate video of him allegedly beating a small female bartender for not serving him more liquor was shown in New York.  As almost everyone in America, and now most of the televised world now knows, Chicago has a problem with police officers using the power of the badge to service their personal needs.  This is a huge public policy issue, and one can only hope that the State’s Attorney will follow up on these cases appropriately and that Mayor Daley’s proposed reform will help address these problems.

What I find fascinating is that this issue has given Chicago a very serious black eye on the world stage at a time when the city is competing for the opportunity to host the 2016 Olympics.  My question is this, where is the outrage?  Where are the continuous blogs from those so terribly troubled about the reputation of Chicago.  Where are the Alderman who had so great a fear about the city being ridiculed for something this terrible?

They all showed up for foie gras, when it promoted their political agenda, but I guess this real and serious problem isn’t quite as useful.  I believe that the foie gras story was exploited because the Tribune had its own agenda for the recent local elections supporting, as always, the local business community and wanting to make some elected officials look foolish.  At the local level nearly every blogger who wrote about the outrage of foie gras ultimately showed their colors and came out for Gordon.  There has been coverage in the papers, none or almost none on the blogs but I hope that the coverage starts or continues and intensifies to show that the policy this city has for addressing police malfeasance is broken, the department’s culture of not addressing these problems is partially to blame and that the citizens find this unacceptable.