African-Americans have long lived with unanswered questions about their roots, missing branches in their family trees and stubborn silences from elders reluctant to delve into a painful past that extends back to slavery. This month, scores of readers wrote to us, saying they had finally found clues in an unexpected place: an article published in The New York Times.
In the city of Chicago, Jon Burge and his
team of detectives tortured over 110 Black men and
women at Chicago police headquarters from 1972 to 1991.
Instead of investigating these crimes, the City of
Chicago opted for covering it up, spending:
9,968,191 taxpayer
dollars defending Jon Burge against claims of police torture,
9,880,073 taxpayer
dollars spent on the legal cases related to the Burge torture scandal, and
468,000 Taxpayer
dollars spent for Burge’s pension since he was terminated from the department
for his acts of torture and abuse.
And millions more settling and defending civil and criminal cases linked to these events.
110
victims of torture, on the other hand, have had their lives profoundly
changed. Some served time or lost their lives without cause, including
12 torture
survivors were sentenced to death,
5 torture
survivors were sentenced to death but were later exonerated, and
11 torture
survivors were exonerated.
One of these survivors, Darrell Cannon was tortured on November 2,
1983 by White detectives working under the supervision of former Chicago Police
Commander Jon Burge. He confessed, under torture, to being an accomplice to a
murder. The confession led to his wrongful conviction for murder and
twenty-four years of incarceration. He is now traveling the country reminding
people, that torture is not a theory, an abstract idea, an imagined threat... It
is real. We are grateful that he has the courage to talk about this cruel
crime, of which he was a victim. He is here at the University of Iowa today to share his experience with
us.
Posts
