City of Chicago offers payouts for police brutality and torture
By George Marlowe
28 April 2015
The City of Chicago recently announced two proposals to try to contain mass outrage against decades of police torture and brutality.
City officials with the backing of Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently announced that an absurdly small $5.5 million reparations fund will be set up for victims of the torture that occurred for more than two decades under former police commander Jon Burge. Burge’s actions had the full sanction of the Democratic Party establishment in control of Chicago and the Cook County area.
Additionally, a permanent memorial to the victims will be built, the city will issue a formal apology, and eighth and tenth grade students in Chicago Public Schools will be taught about the Burge case.
From 1972 to 1991, Burge and his team of detectives used torture to coerce victims and suspects into confessions for violent crimes on the South Side of the city. Cook County prosecutors and criminal court judges repeatedly ignored reports of torture. Burge, who still receives a police pension, was convicted of perjury in a federal court for lying under oath about the torture and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. He was released last October and currently resides in Tampa, Florida.
