NEWS > 15 August 2006

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Yahoo! News (press release) -
15 August 2006

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Community & Religious Leaders

Groups demand state officials change statute of limitations & Feds to investigate former Police Lieutenant, Jon Burge

CHICAGO, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 200 community and religious leaders demonstrated today in front of City Hall to raise concerns about police brutality and demanded that former Chicago Police Lieutenant, Jon Burge, be brought to justice.

In a report released last month that was authorized by the Criminal Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County, prosecutors documented incidents of police brutality committed against African-Americans by Burge and others in the Chicago Police Department in the 1970s and 1980s.

Organizers of the protest say that Mayor Daley can make a major impact on this issue in two specific ways: 1) by advocating for changes in the state's statute of limitations, which currently prevents the prosecution of Burge and others alleged to have brutalized and tortured a wide range of suspects - most of them African-American, and 2) by urging a federal investigation of police brutality in the 1970s and 1980s.

Tuesday's demonstration was held by ACORN, the nation's largest community organization of low and moderate-income families, and the TARGET Area Development Corporation, a grassroots organization based in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on the city's south side that focuses on public safety, education, housing and commercial opportunities for residents.

Patricia Watkins, Executive Director of TARGET, says it is important that the mayor issued a public apology and accepted his share of responsibility for the torture of suspects. Daley was the state's attorney during part of the period investigated in the report.

She emphasized that the Mayor now must take more concrete actions to address the problem of police brutality. "We appreciate the Mayor's apology, but what we want from him is to put all of his efforts into bringing Burge to justice," says Watkins.

"We want the state's statute of limitations law changed so that when injustices are committed, like those documented in the recent report on police torture in Chicago, perpetrators are brought to justice," she adds. "It is in the mayor's power to promote the removal of this statute -- and that he is in a great position to do that."

Long history of brutality

The story surrounding the Burge case has long captured the attention of the city -- and even the nation -- as few stories about police conduct ever have. "We have to continue to focus on what has happened here," Watkins says. "People have been systematically tortured in this city, and those who are doing the torturing have been protected."

According to the recent report, police in Chicago abused more than 70 suspects whose cases were reviewed. The $6.1 million investigation that led to the report involved more than 33,000 documents and more than 200 grand jury subpoenas. The report also reflects interviews with more than 700 people.

In the report, suspects claimed that police beat them, administered electric shocks with a cattle-prod device, tried to suffocate them, and beat them with fists. One officer who served with Burge during that era provided a sworn statement that detectives "used an electrical box and cattle prods on people to get confessions from them."

One Chicago attorney who has worked on police brutality issues for years confirmed in a newspaper interview the depth of police torture that has haunted the city over the years.

"For many years it has been an open secret that at the police headquarters where Burge worked, a large number of African-American citizens were detained and subjected to horrific forms of abuse," said Locke Bowman, legal director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Chicago and lawyer for a victim who says Burge's detectives abused him, in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times.

Jon Burge, however, has never been charged, and neither have other members of the department involved in incidents described in the report. Burge was fired in 1991 by the police department after a police board found a murder suspect was abused while in custody. The city continues to pay for Burge's pension and legal fees related to the case.

Strong response

The Burge case has evoked a strong response from a wide range of community leaders and groups in the Chicago area.

"As community members and taxpayers in Chicago, we deserve the right to have Jon Burge be held accountable," says Rev. Robin Hood, Lead Organizer for ACORN. "Burge does not deserve an all-expenses paid retirement funded by the taxpayers of Chicago."

Ed Shurna, Executive Director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless says that, "Every barrier should be pursued to ensure this case is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It is an outrage that Burge is comfortably drawing his full city pension in Florida while the City of Chicago pays his legal bills. We have to send a strong unequivocal message that torture can never, and will never, be tolerated."

Advocates for civil liberties are also speaking out on the issue. "A state actor responsible for committing crimes of harsh and unusual cruel punishment in the violation of the 8th amendment should not be protected by the lapse of the statute of limitations in the state of Illinois," says Attorney Maaria Mozaffar Chair of the Civil Liberties Coalition of Illinois.

Rev. Calvin Morris, Executive Director of the Chicago-based Community Renewal Society (CRS), a progressive, faith-based organization that works to eliminate race and class barriers, points to the profound impact of police brutality -- and this particular case -- on communities and families.

Morris says the Burge case continues to resonate in many communities. In African-American communities, he says, "mistreatment by police is a continuing problem."

"Another thing that has happened is that lives have been shortened - people have been in jail for years, sometimes decades, because they were convicted of crimes they didn't commit after confessions were tortured out of them," adds Rev. Morris.

Meanwhile, on the other side, he says, "many people who have been responsible for police brutality have continued to thrive."

The Community Renewal Society played an instrumental role in the formation of the Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago, which called for a special prosecutor's report on this issue for years and worked for a City Council ordinance that aimed to reform police practice (the ordinance never passed).

"We can't just let this happen"

Rev. Morris, Rev. Watkins and many others say the issue is as urgent as ever. "This case - and report - may have implications on future political efforts, whether that means the upcoming mayoral contest or another campaign. The issue of police brutality is not going to go away," says Rev. Morris. "We need to do everything we can to make sure it is not swept under the rug for another 25 years."

"Blatantly violating a person's human rights to get a confession hopelessly compromises our justice system. The majority of our law enforcement officials are people of integrity who work to uphold the law. Unfortunately, a few bad apples chose to take the law in their own hands," said State Senator Mattie Hunter (D-3rd District). During the veto session, Sen. Hunter plans to introduce legislation that will strengthen laws against coercing confession through torture and revokes the statutes of limitation for this type of crime.

Demonstration participants included ACORN, TARGET Area Development Corp., Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, The Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Ambassadors for Christ Church, and The Civil Liberties Coalition.

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Article sourced from

Yahoo! News (press release) -15 August 2006

Community & Religious Leaders

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Yahoo! News (press release) -
15 August 2006