ARCHIVES

Torture Victim Reflects on Burge Sentence

by  

The 4 ½ -year sentence handed down to former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge recently for federal crimes of lying and obstructing justice did not sit well with a lot of people, including Mark Clements, who is one of those tortured by detectives under Burge’s command.

This protester was among the many encouraging Mayor Daley to take part in jailing former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, and to go after Detectives under his watch accused of torturing murder suspects in their custody in the 1970 and 1980s, during a rally outside City Hall in May 2010. Photo by Mary C. Johns

“It was outrageous,” Clements declared to Residents’ Journal during a phone interview on Jan. 25, a few days after the sentencing. “It was a smack in the face to the African American community concerning what Mr. Burge did.”

Clements, a longtime advocate to jail Burge, was tortured in June 1981, when he was 16 years old.

Burge, 63, was sentenced Jan. 21 to serve 4 ½ years in a federal prison for lying in a federal civil trial about torture committed against more than 100 African American men and women at Area 2 and 3 Police Headquarters in the 1970s and 1980s. The torture victims were murder suspects in police custody. Burge was fired as police commander in 1993.

Read more »

Tags: , , , , ,
Categories: Homepage

Cong. Danny Davis proposes anti-police torture legislation

by  

Even as he declared in a statement that “The Jon Burge trial has ended with a verdict of guilty to the charge of perjury and obstruction of justice, which to me and countless others is simply not enough,” U.S. Cong. Danny Davis (D-IL) has submitted proposed legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations for the crime of torture.

He describes the legislation as “designed to provide a criminal penalty for torture committed by law enforcement officers and others acting under color of law.”

You can read his full statement on the introduction of his Anti-Torture Bill at: http://davis.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=192&Itemid=56

Davis is a board member of We The People Media.

Tags: , ,
Categories: Homepage News Briefs Uncategorized

Lawsuit Underway after Guilty Verdict in Burge Trial

by  

Former death-roll inmate Mark Clements and his attorneys are filing a civil suit next Tuesday against the city of Chicago in the aftermath of the guilty verdict of former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge.

Mark Clements consoles the mother of incarcerated allege torture victim Marcus Wiggins, during a rally to jail former Chicago Police chief Jon Burge outside City Hall on May 24. Wiggins was allegedly tortured while in police custody at the age of 13. Photo by Mary C. Johns

“We are currently suing [for] an unspecified amount. We will most likely be filing a civil lawsuit in the federal U.S. District Court this Tuesday,” Clements told Residents’ Journal on June 29, the day after a federal jury found Burge guilty of all three counts of obstruction of justice and perjury for lying in a civil lawsuit about the torture of murder and robbery suspects in his custody in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.

Read more »

Tags: , , ,
Categories: Homepage Uncategorized

Burge Victims’ Attorneys Fight Transfers

by  

Civil Rights attorney Locke Bowman recently accused Attorney General Lisa Madigan of trying to “dump” 5 cases connected to former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Bowman, a lawyer with the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center who represents the torture victims as well as advocates opposing the transfers, said the cases were transferred to Madigan’s office by a court order six years ago.

Interviewed in February, Bowman said the cases involve men were convicted with evidence generated by Burge and officers under his command. Burge, who was fired in 1991 and is currently under federal indictment on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, is accused of having directed torture of numerous suspects in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Read more »

Tags: , , ,
Categories: Uncategorized

Cops Fight Their Own Over Burge

by  

Some Chicago police officers in early January 2009 denounced their own union’s efforts to fund former police Commander Jon Burge’s legal defense.

In December 2008, the Grand Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) union board voted to fund the 60-year-old Burge’s defense on federal perjury and obstruction of justice charges for which he was indicted in October 2008.
Read more »

Tags: , , , , ,
Categories: Homepage Uncategorized

The Times They Are A’Changing

by  

The indictment and arrest of former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge on October 21 is yet another indication that a complete transformation of American life is underway. Along with the presidential election, the indictment of Burge, who has long been suspected of torturing and abusing suspects in the 1980s, shows that the way politics have been conducted in this country for the past 30 years is over. Or to put it in other words, a new generation is stepping up, kicking tail and taking names.

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (at podium) speaks about the indictment of former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge on Oct. 21 while Robert Brent (from left), special agent in charge of the FBI’s Chicago office; Mark Templehof, chief of the criminal section of the civil rights division of the Department of Justice; and Jeffery Cramer, assistant US attorney, look on.
Photo by Anjuli Maniam

Saying that Burge “shamed his uniform and his badge,” Fitzgerald explained that he was charging Burge for lying in court in a 2003 civil case:
“For his lies about torture and abuse, we intend to hold him accountable.”
“Police are sworn to uphold the law when others break it,” Fitzgerald added. “Burge broke the law when he was supposed to uphold it.”
Read more »

Tags: , , , , ,
Categories: Uncategorized

House of Screams

by  Assistant Editor

For over two decades, up to 200 African American men were tortured and abused at the hands of former Chicago Police Detective Jon Burge and other law enforcers, according to a recently released criminal report by special federal investigators.

Like something out of a bad, scary movie, one former prisoner after another told their horror stories in the 292-page Burge report. They told investigators how they were tortured and humiliated at the Chicago Police Department’s Area 2 lock up, then located at 91st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, from the 1970s through the 1980s.
After a four-year investigation which cost millions of dollars, the special federal prosecutors handling the case announced the results on a hot day in mid-July. They confirmed reports that actual torture of inmates occurred at the hands of Burge and other police officers at the time. Burge was fired from the police force for misconduct in 1991. But the special prosecutors stated at a press conference when they released the report that no criminal charges could be filed against Burge or any of the other police officers who tortured people because the statute of limitations had expired.
Read more »

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Categories: Uncategorized