Organize the South

Last week 2 representatives from the Racial Justice Campaign (www.stopoperationmethmerchant.org) attended the United Nations meeting of the Human Rights Committee. They went with a delegation which included a lawyer from the People’s Law Office, they have been working on the Burge case for a long time. Burge is a Vietnam Vet that learned to torture while in Southeast Asia. He brought those “skills” to Chicago and used them to force confessions from 100’s of people, including some sent to death row. Check out the RJC website for more information on what the Human Rights Committee says.



Torture by Chicago police reported
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Don Babwin
Associated Press
Chicago - Special prosecutors investigating allegations that police tortured nearly 150 black suspects in the 1970s and '80ssaid Wednesday that they had found evidence of abuse but that any crimes are too old to prosecute.
In three of the cases, the prosecutors said the evidence was strong enough to have warranted indictments and convictions.
"It is our judgment that the evidence in those cases would be sufficient to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," Robert Boyle and Edward Egan wrote.
The four-year investigation focused on allegations that 148black men were tortured in Chicago police interrogation rooms in the 1970s and '80s.
The men claimed that detectives under the command of Lt. Jon Burge beat them, used electric shocks, played mock Russian roulette and started to smother at least one to elicit confessions.
No one has ever been charged, but Burge was fired after a police board found he had abused a suspect in custody. His attorney has said Burge never tortured anyone.
In about half the cases reviewed, Boyle and Egan said they found evidence of abuse.
Their report concluded that then-police Superintendent Richard Brzeczek was guilty of “dereliction of duty" and did not act in good faith in an investigation into claims of torture involving Burge.
They also faulted procedures followed by the Cook County state’s attorney's office and the police department at the time, saying they were "inadequate in some respects" but had since improved.
Mayor Richard M. Daley was the state's attorney during part of the period investigated, but Boyle dismissed any notion that Daley knew about the torture.
Daley delegated responsibilities to other people in his office, and his only mistake was "perhaps relying on the judgment of others," Boyle said.
Daley's office and a police spokeswoman did not immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday.
The statute of limitations for criminal charges from the allegations is three years.