Good Luck Today, Bill Cozzi

Today is the 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals review of William Cozzi Jr.'s incarceration.
The expert but partisan blog on this subject is Second City Cop. The comment section of this post from another blog also gives an explanation and a range of civilian reactions.

The Incident
Bill Cozzi was a member of the Chicago Police Department. He was filmed hitting a prisoner in a hospital wheelchair, somebody who had apparently been antagonistic to him verbally and was restrained physically. Video from a hospital security camera shows him walking away from the wheelchair, an expression on his face that shows his last nerve was suddenly reached, and his response. It shows nothing about what came before. Neither does it include sound. Only the violence is unmistakable.

 I also wonder what had happened before. This video is not the full story.

The Punishment
Bill Cozzi was reviewed and disciplined for that action, upfront about it, showed remorse for it, and served out an 18-month probation given him by state court (and duty suspension). From what I have read in the media, it should always be this upfront. Instead, it has been a lesson that honesty is not the best policy.

He was due to return to work when the new Superintendent of Police asked that it he be indicted again, this time as a Federal offense. He was sentenced to 40 months and incarcerated twice as far away from home than Federal regulations normally consider appropriate placement. This means that unlike many prisoners, Bill Cozzi gets few visits from his family and friends, who are very far away. As a police officer in a prison, his position is extra dangerous.

Management Issues

Like some of SSC's commenters, I believe the incident was wrong. I also have a management opinion, which I feel more confident about. Bill Cozzi's incarceration has been a major management mistake of the Supt. Jody Weis, decimating morale. He went outside customary procedure, dissing not just Cozzi but his own agency's review process. What could have been done quietly was done in public without advance warning and untempered by any mercy whatsoever. Whatever good Weis has tried to do with reorganization and new equipment has dissolved in the acid of resentment to his uncustomary, unprecedented, and never repeated disciplinary treatment.

So it's also my belief Bill Cozzi was screwed. The reparations he tried to make were used against him. Today I wish him the very best.

I believe it will help his loyal friends in the CPD believe in the process of law and order that they are sworn to defend.

--Free Bill Cozzi--