Reparations OK’d for Chicago’s police torture victims
Free Press wire reports | 5/7/2015, 11:08 a.m.
CHICAGO
For decades, a police unit in Chicago used torture to induce confessions from black suspects.
This week, the Chicago City Council approved a unique $5.5 million reparation fund to benefit dozens of surviving victims who were shocked, burned and beaten into admitting — often falsely — to crimes by the unit led by Jon Burge, a former police commander.
The council voted Wednesday on a measure that municipal experts believe is the first of its kind in the nation.
If approved as expected, the fund would allow Mr. Burge’s surviving victims, their immediate families and their grandchildren to receive free tuition and job training at the City Colleges of Chicago. The fund also could pay for counseling, health services and other aid. Up to 80 torture victims are believed to still be living.
As police commander, Mr. Burge led a crew of detectives that terrorized the city’s predominantly black South Side from the 1970s until 1993, when he was fired. It took until 2006 before an investigation led to his conviction of lying about the practices he used to gain convictions. He served nearly four years in federal prison before his release in October 2014.
The measure was proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to help wipe out the stain from Mr. Burge’s activities.
