2008 indictment of ex-police Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge
From 1972 to 1991 Chicago Police, under Commander Jon Burge, tortured an unknown number of citizens—
almost entirely African American. In 2014, Jon Burge was released from federal prison—where he had spent
less than four years on a perjury conviction connected to the
torture he perpetrated.
Burge has cost the city and Cook County nearly $100 million in legal fees and settlements. The city last year alone approved a $12.3 million settlement to a pair of Burge’s victims who are among the 120 known black victims of Burge’s ring. So far, according to various reports, the city has paid about $67 million in settlements to 18 victims and more than $20 million in lawyers to defend Burge, former mayor Richard Daley and the city.
While Emanuel has described Burge as a “stain on the city’s reputation,” the 66-year-old ex-cop is still receiving a $4,000-a-month pension from the city. The state attorney general recently challenged the city’s pension board after it refused to take away Burge’s pension. But the Illinois Supreme Court this summer ruled that the attorney general’s office didn’t have the legal authority to strip Burge of his pension.
Today, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and city alderman are proposing a reparations package for the victims of
Burge and his Henchmen. The package would include $5.5 million to be put into a fund for the victims and the city would officially apologize to the victims.
The package will also include the creation of a permanent memorial to the victims and an addition to the curriculum in eighth- and 10th-grade Chicago Public Schools history classes, to teach students about the issue. The city will offer services to victims and their families such as free tuition and psychological counseling.
Jon Burge and the "detectives" who worked under him are monsters. The methods of torture included electric shock, suffocation, shotguns in mouths. The results have been unequivocally destructive.
“For those of us who have been fighting and struggling to set a landmark, this is a landmark,” torture victim Darrell Cannon said. “This is the moment. What we do here will not be undone. People across the country will talk about Chicago.”
Cannon was freed after 24 years in prison when a review board determined that evidence used to convict him was tainted. He said police pretended to load a shotgun, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger to terrify him into confessing to a murder that he didn't commit.
Now take that history in and wonder to yourself, is it all just in the
African American community's minds?