The "blue halo" mysteriously continues to encircle his violent (and convicted) head

Anthony Abbate, the disgraced Chicago cop who was convicted of aggravated battery after being caught on videotape beating the snot out of a female bartender half his size who had apparently angered him by cutting him off for being intoxicated (and whose "blue wall of silence" indoctrinated on-duty colleagues "protected" him from media coverage by using marked squad cars to block reporters' access to one of his court appearances, and then threatened those same reporters with arrest when they complained), was sentenced today to - jail time?

Yeah, right.

Two years' probation plus anger management counseling, despite a prosecutorial request for jail time in the case:

"He taunted her, preened and showed his muscles, boasting, 'nobody tells me what to do,' [the prosecutors] said, in arguing for a prison sentence."

Remarkably, even after the DAs asked for Abbate to serve time in prison, the judge still saw fit to keep this animal on the streets with the rest of the city's law-abiding citizens. Thanks, Your Honor!

Abbate didn't even bother to apologize in court to his victim. In fact, his lawyer even blamed her for the altercation, in spite of ample video evidence to the contrary.

Any readers think any other regular ol' Chicago peasant man, convicted of such a well-documented and highly-publicized physical attack against an innocent woman, would get anywhere near the same sort of consideration from this judge (that would be Judge John J. Fleming, for you Illinois voters)? Yep, that peasant would most likely be sitting in Joliet right this minute, attempting to hide from the felons there who "preen and show their muscles" and announce that "nobody tells them what to do".

Incredibly, Abbate is still a member of the Chicago Police Department (and is presumably still being paid as such) despite his being convicted of a violent felony one full year ago, although today's news story reports that his status (finally) is “suspended pending separation". Don't rush to a hasty decision there, Chief Jody Weis. It's only taxpayer money, after all. Feel free to keep giving it out to convicted criminals who aren't working for you anymore. We're sure the people you "serve" don't mind one bit.

We're glad we ate lunch early today. We doubt we could consume anything right now, as we are quite nauseated.