Police Torture and Mayor Daley

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald finally has done what Richard M. Daley should have done 26 years ago: He has indicted retired Chicago Police Detective Jon Burge for leading a band of brutal white cops who tortured hundreds of African-American suspects in criminal cases.

It was 1982, when Daley was the state's attorney of Cook County, that he was first reliably informed -- by Chicago Police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek -- what Burge and company were doing.

What went on -- plastic bags over heads, shackling to hot radiators, gun barrels in mouths, electrical shocks to ears, nostrils and genitals, cigarette burns to arms, legs and chests -- is now well known, having been cited repeatedly in court opinions. (Even Daley, belatedly, branded the torture "a shameful episode in our history.")

Rather than acting, as was his duty at the time, Daley and his top assistant, Richard Devine, who is the current state's attorney, joined a conspiracy of silence that has cost city taxpayers upwards of $50 million in legal costs and civil settlements.

And, even now, a score of men convicted on nothing more than confessions extracted by Burge and his men continue to languish in prison, having been denied relief by the Illinois courts.

Comments

[bbridges1962]

Does the black population view Obama as a 'redeemer' that will bring a day of reckoning to all black people who feel as if they were done wrong or have a vendetta against life? Is this next 4 years going to be a civil issue? My wife works in one of the large retail companies. I was over there visiting here for lunch one day and we overheard some people on the next aisle from us. They seemed to believe that the people responsible (or people that are descendents of those people) for their ancestors who were mistreated would get the punishment that wasn't awarded at the time of slavery. Is this 4 years going to be one big war between the citizens of the US? How in the world will we be on alert for other countries who are out for our blood if we are going to be fighting among ourselves?

[RichardIII]

Daley should have turned to Brzeczek and said: "What are you telling me for? Go do your job."

Any number of people are culpable here, and I hope some have the courage to speak up on behalf of those wrongfully imprisoned, or at least have the humanity to feel some measure of guilt.

[nowalnuts]

Finally! I just realized that I've been so consumed with the presidential election that I haven't complained about Daley in at least five days. That man burns me up!!

[rjmiller]

I assume the outcome of the trial will lead to appeals by pretty much everyone Burge ever met.

[47th]

It is time to put Daley under oath and ask him the tough questions that our local media has never had the guts to do. Man, I hope the International Olympic Commitee is following this story!

[DuPageDem]

Sure, just like the IOC was concerned about treatment of prisoners in China.