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| Disgraced Chicago police commander accused of torture freed from prison | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Jon Burge, the disgraced Chicago police commander who federal prosecutors say was the architect behind two decades of serial police torture, was released from federal prison Thursday. | Jon Burge, the disgraced Chicago police commander who federal prosecutors say was the architect behind two decades of serial police torture, was released from federal prison Thursday. |
| Advocates for about 120 men and women who were tortured under his rule are pressing the city and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to pass a proposed ordinance that will help exonerated victims transition back into society and provide compensation that they are legally denied. | |
| “The vast number of torture survivors have not received any compensation whatsoever and cannot sue the state because the statute of limitations has run out – that’s why this reparation ordinance is so important,” says Joey Mogul of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial Project. | |
| “All of the survivors are not only entitled to financial compensation, but psychological, vocational, as well as other services in order to help them cope and survive the torture they struggle with every day.” | |
| Federal prosecutors alleged that Burge headed a rogue band of police personnel named the “Midnight Crew” between 1972 and 1991 that systematically tortured and abused black men and women to coerce false confessions. Methods they used included suffocation, beatings, burnings, electric shock to the genitals and other methods that caused severe physical and mental injury. | Federal prosecutors alleged that Burge headed a rogue band of police personnel named the “Midnight Crew” between 1972 and 1991 that systematically tortured and abused black men and women to coerce false confessions. Methods they used included suffocation, beatings, burnings, electric shock to the genitals and other methods that caused severe physical and mental injury. |
| Burge finally ended up in court in 2010, but because the majority of cases dated back so far, the statute of limitations had run out, which prevented prosecutors from pursuing more serious charges. After a month-long trial, he was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury after falsely denying in a federal civil rights lawsuit that he and others committed torture. | |
| In January 2011 he was sentenced to serve four and a half years; his early release sends him to a halfway house in Tampa, Florida. This summer the Illinois supreme court ruled that Burge can keep his annual $54,000 pension. | |
| Chicago has already spent more than $100m both in defending Burge and his associates, and for outside settlements with victims, but many say that the city and state continues to block efforts to do more. About 100 people linked to confessions given under Burge remain in prison, but in 2012 the state defunded a commission tasked to review their cases, and Illinois governor Pat Quinn has not pardoned any of the 16 people who have been exonerated. | Chicago has already spent more than $100m both in defending Burge and his associates, and for outside settlements with victims, but many say that the city and state continues to block efforts to do more. About 100 people linked to confessions given under Burge remain in prison, but in 2012 the state defunded a commission tasked to review their cases, and Illinois governor Pat Quinn has not pardoned any of the 16 people who have been exonerated. |
| Efforts to solicit testimony under oath from other figures in the saga, particularly former Chicago mayor Richard M Daley who was the Cook County state attorney during the Burge rule, have failed. Daley is criticized for never investigating or prosecuting Burge in the 1980s, which ultimately allowed the torture to continue. Had he stepped in, they say, Burge would have been subject to more severe charges related directly to the abuse. | Efforts to solicit testimony under oath from other figures in the saga, particularly former Chicago mayor Richard M Daley who was the Cook County state attorney during the Burge rule, have failed. Daley is criticized for never investigating or prosecuting Burge in the 1980s, which ultimately allowed the torture to continue. Had he stepped in, they say, Burge would have been subject to more severe charges related directly to the abuse. |
| “It’s jut one more example of the incredible dome of silence that has fallen over the Burge cases and continues to sit there,” says Leonard Cavise, a law professor at DePaul University in Chicago and a member of the state Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission. | |
| “During all those years when these guys show up to sign these statements, with their faces beaten to bloody pulps, and not one state’s attorney ever came forward and said ‘Look, what is going on here?’ Not a single one. I think that’s because, in those days, Daley and his successors just put that lid of silence on the prosecutors just as much as they did on the police officers.” | |
| Currently there is no legal channel for victims to collect settlements as many signed away their rights to sue years earlier, and the legal deadline for most has long passed. | Currently there is no legal channel for victims to collect settlements as many signed away their rights to sue years earlier, and the legal deadline for most has long passed. |
| Twenty-six aldermen in the current city council support the ordinance that will serve as a formal apology to victims, plus set aside $20m to help fund efforts to help them get back on their feet. The ordinance will also require Chicago Public Schools to include the case in their history curriculum and fund public memorials. Compensation will also create a center on the city’s South Side that will offer medical and psychological care, as well as vocational help. | Twenty-six aldermen in the current city council support the ordinance that will serve as a formal apology to victims, plus set aside $20m to help fund efforts to help them get back on their feet. The ordinance will also require Chicago Public Schools to include the case in their history curriculum and fund public memorials. Compensation will also create a center on the city’s South Side that will offer medical and psychological care, as well as vocational help. |
| The ordinance is currently sitting in a finance committee and has not been called up for a vote. Mogul says Emanuel needs to “do the right thing or be held accountable in the electoral process.” He faces reelection in February. | The ordinance is currently sitting in a finance committee and has not been called up for a vote. Mogul says Emanuel needs to “do the right thing or be held accountable in the electoral process.” He faces reelection in February. |
| Last year Emanuel paid $27m to settle lawsuits involving two victims. He said the settlement money is meant to end a legacy that is “a stain on the city’s reputation” and represents “a dark chapter in the history of the city of Chicago.” | Last year Emanuel paid $27m to settle lawsuits involving two victims. He said the settlement money is meant to end a legacy that is “a stain on the city’s reputation” and represents “a dark chapter in the history of the city of Chicago.” |
| However the Burge saga remains salient for many blacks in Chicago’s most marginalized neighborhoods. | However the Burge saga remains salient for many blacks in Chicago’s most marginalized neighborhoods. |
| “The Burge legacy still exists. Vast numbers of people in African-American communities here in Chicago know Burge by name, remember the torture that he and white detectives engaged in,” says Mogul. “They created a mistrust in the community in not wanting to work with law enforcement officials because they feared the police will do more harm than good.” | “The Burge legacy still exists. Vast numbers of people in African-American communities here in Chicago know Burge by name, remember the torture that he and white detectives engaged in,” says Mogul. “They created a mistrust in the community in not wanting to work with law enforcement officials because they feared the police will do more harm than good.” |