The Chicago PD Torturers
I have taught this in a class, entitled: race, place and space. It will shock you.
“In 1983, three Chicago police officers arrested Mr. Cannon in connection with a murder case, drove him to a desolate area and tortured a confession out of him. Mr. Cannon explains in court documents that he refused to confess after the officers forced the barrel of a shotgun into his mouth and repeatedly pulled the trigger. He finally gave in, after they shocked his genitals with a cattle prod.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/opinion/chicagos-grim-era-of-police-torture.html
“[Burge] put some handcuffs on my ankles, then he took one wire and put it on my ankles, he took the other wire and put it behind my back, on the handcuffs behind my back. Then after that, when he—then he went and got a plastic bag, put it over my head … so I bit through it. So he went and got another bag and put it on my head and he twisted it. When he twisted it, it cut my air off and I started shaking. … So then he hit me with the voltage. When he hit me with the voltage, that’s when I started gritting, crying, hollering … It feel [sic] like a thousand needles going through my body. And then after that, it just feel [sic] like, you know—it feel [sic] like something just burning me from the inside, and, um, I shook, I gritted, I hollered, then I passed out.” https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/chicago-police-torture-jon-burge/383839/
If you have been to North Chicago every thing looks dazzlingly cheerful. But the South Side is different story. Jon Burge, the commander had been fired after he was connected to torture cases. He was protected because of the statutes of limitations. He and the gang excelled in torture of the inmates; such as the cattle prodding, burning, mock hangings, suffocated suspects with plastic bags and used electrical shocks to victims’ genitals, etc. Even at the tender age of 13.
Chicago’s investigation of torture is focused on police commander Jon Burge, who was assigned to Chicago’s South side in 1972. Between then and 1981, Burge and his men used torture to elicit confessions from more than 110 African-American men. He learned his craft as a military police in Vietnam. Jon Burge, who with his so-called “midnight crew” of rogue detectives inflicted the torture.
He was ultimately convicted by federal prosecutors in 2010 of perjury for lying about police torture that he oversaw. That conviction resulted in a mere four and a half years in prison for Burge. Utterly odious. When Rahm Emanuel was campaigning for the compensation, he said 11 million. After successfully campaigning it suddenly dropped to about 5.5 million. Snake.
Former Chicago police commander Jon Burge is the subject of a new course for Chicago public schools.