On June 28, former police lieutenant John
Burge was found guilty of federal perjury charges for lying about his role in
the forced confessions obtained by torturing suspects over nearly three
decades. Though currently out on bond, Burge could face up to 45 years in
prison.
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John Burge |
For many years, dozens of innocent
African American men have come forward to speak out against the vicious
practices of Burge and the Chicago police. The Chicago police electrocuted,
suffocated and brutalized detainees to force confessions for crimes ranging
from petty theft to murder.
Although
Burge was fired from his position in 1993 over allegations of beating a Black man,
the lieutenant was not brought up on any criminal charges. Even more
outrageous, Burge was allowed to move to Florida on a pension while his victims
were kept behind bars. These facts ignited the rage of Chicago’s African
American community.
In
2006, under popular pressure, an overwhelming number of credible accounts of
torture surfaced in a special prosecutor’s report. Unfortunately, the statute
of limitations had expired for many of the crimes committed by the Chicago
police. Any form of justice would remain out of reach until 2008. It was then
that Burge faced indictment for his inhumanity; the first criminal charge that
has been brought against any of the police officers involved in the torturing
of African Americans.
Throughout
the trial, Burge denied ever torturing or witnessing any officer torturing a
suspect into confessing to a crime. The prosecution brought forward five African
American men who testified that during the 1970s and 80s, under the command of
Lieutenant John Burge, Chicago police officers, “held plastic bags over their
heads, shocked them with electric current and put loaded guns in their mouths …
to elicit confessions.” (AP News, June 28) These accounts matched those of many
others who did not make it out of Chicago’s Area 2 without telling the Chicago
police exactly what they wanted to hear.
The ruling is a victory and personal
vindication for the victims and their families. It should serve to escalate and
broaden the struggle against, racism, police brutality and a brutally
oppressive system.
The court case does not absolve the city
of Chicago of the rampant police repression, violence and killings that occur
in the inner city on a daily basis. The length of time that it took to get
justice and the criminally watered down charges of lying are a reminder that
cops in general exist to maintain the status quo through repression.
In other words, Burge is not a lone bad
apple. He is part of an organization that serves the rich and does their
bidding by training, arming and promoting racists and anti-worker bigots. Burge,
after all, was the commander of an entire precinct. He was not just some rogue
cop.
All in
all, over 100 African Americans have claimed that they had been tortured at
Chicago police stations on the West and South sides of Chicago. The entire
racist police machine in the United States cannot be brought down without
working-class unity. Stop police brutality!
