Anyone who has studied social movements in Chicago has read about vicious police brutality committed there. The most notable example – for myself – was the slaughter of Black Panther Party leader Chairman Fred Hampton and his young bodyguard, but that is just one instance in a long and brutal history. Bringing a police officer to justice anywhere in America is almost totally unheard of and we know that even when “justice” is served, its a slap on the wrist compared to what you and I might get for a similar crime. Typical of the nature of these type of situations we have this story, where a police officer is being accused of a crime far after he has retired and got to enjoy the bulk of his life. And what, after all these years is he being charged with? Is it the torture he committed? Nope, sorry people, the bourgeois statute of limitations is expired (I’m sure the prosecutors feel real bad about that). The only scrap they can throw us now is perjury and obstruction of justice charges. We still support this though and its nice that the news called this illicit activity by its rightful name: TORTURE.
Ex-Chicago policeman charged in torture case
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE49K6I020081021?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10112
CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. authorities on Tuesday charged a policeman accused of torturing suspects with perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying in a civil suit brought by one of the tortured men.
Former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge, 60, whose activities were once called to the attention of the United Nations, was arrested at his home near Tampa, Florida. He could face up to 45 years in prison if convicted of the three criminal counts.
Burge was acquitted of brutality in a Chicago trial 20 years ago, but was subsequently fired by the police department in 1993. He still receives a $30,000 annual police pension.
Special prosecutors appointed in 2002 documented more than 100 cases of brutality involving Burge and other police officers who worked on Chicago’s South Side. While prosecutors claimed several officers elicited confessions from mostly black suspects through torture, they said the statute of limitations had run out and no one was charged.
The suspects were beaten by mostly white detectives with telephone books, suffocated with plastic typewriter covers, burned with cigarettes, threatened with mock executions, and suffered electric shocks to their genitals.
“There is no place for torture and abuse in a police station. There is no place for perjury and false statements in federal lawsuits,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said. “No person is above the law, and nobody — even a suspected murderer — is beneath its protection. The alleged criminal conduct by defendant Burge goes to the core principles of our criminal justice system.”
In a federal indictment, Burge was accused of lying about his knowledge of the torture in a 2003 deposition for a civil suit brought by Madison Hobley.
The torture allegations led former Illinois Gov. George Ryan to pardon four men, including Hobley, who confessed to murder after being tortured. Ryan also cleared the state’s death row because of a pattern of faulty prosecutions.
While he was a Illinois state legislator, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama helped pass a state law requiring videotaping of police interrogations.
Victims’ attorneys presented information about the brutality case to a United Nations commission on human rights in 2005, which called on the U.S. government to investigate.
October 25th, 2008 at 9:12 PM
Thanks for this difficult but insightful pointer at racial profiling and the racial hatred upon which our prison systems are founded.
I encourage you to explore the ongoing file of exonerated criminals of ALL races who have been cleared of their “crimes” after being CONVICTED by our juries.