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http://www.workers.org/2006/us/chicago-0817/ February 26, 2011

Chicago police tortured Black prisoners

A report and a coverup By Eric StruchChicago

Published Aug 14, 2006 8:45 PM

As in so many other cities, police brutality is institutional in Chicagoa simple fact of lifeseldom acknowledged in the capitalist media.

Many people were expecting a crack in the wall of official silence when, on July 19, a292-page report on the notorious Beast of Area 2, Commander Jon Burge of theChicago Police Department, was issued by special investigators Edward Egan andRobert Boyle.

Costing $7 million over four years, the investigation was intended to close the book on

a 33-year period of violent impunity by Burge and his cronies. Instead, the report hasraised tempers in the African-American community to the boiling point.

It implicates everyonefrom the current mayor and states attorney to every singleCPD superintendent over the past 23 yearsin a massive conspiracy to cover up theinstitutional nature of police torture and cop terrorism.

But the report is also an attack on the credibility of several torture survivors, includingcurrent political prisoner Aaron Patterson, Minister of Defense of the Prisoners ofConscience Committee (POCC). And it is an attack on former Gov. George Ryan, aRepublican who commuted the sentences of everyone on Illinois death row in 2003. Asretribution from pro-death penalty, pro-cop Cook County Democrats, Ryan was laterconvicted in an alleged corruption scandal.

Mayor Richard M. Daley and the CPD have attempted to avoid prosecution for thisongoing conspiracy to cover up acts of terrorism against the African-Americancommunity by dragging out the investigative process long enough to invoke statute oflimitation laws.

The bulk of the report deals with the CPDs Commander Burge and his Area 2 terrorsquad, in which officers John Byrne, Peter Dignan and Michael Hoke were his closest

collaborators.

Torture started in Vietnam

Burge himself grew up on Chicagos South Side and was stationed in Vietnam from1968 to 1969. Evidence suggests he learned his torture techniques there. Members ofhis company state that Burge used electricity from hand-cranked field phones totorture suspected Vietnamese liberation fightersthe same sort of equipment andtechniques he would use later at Area 2.

Burge became a cop on his return to the U.S. in 1970 and was promoted to detective in1972, at the age of 24. The first complaint of torture at Area 2 dates from 1973. Afterserving at two other locations, he returned to Area 2 in 1981 as commanding officer ofthe Violent Crimes Unit.

According to the report, Burge tortured Andrew Wilson in 1982 to extract a confession
http://www.workers.org/2006/us/chicago-0817/http://www.workers.org/2006/us/chicago-0817/


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in the shooting deaths of two cops. A medical report authored by Dr. John Raba,medical director of Cermack Hospital, said stitches and burns on Wilsons body wereevidence of torture. Rabas report also cited evidence of Burges signature, electricaltorture, in the form of alligator-clip wounds. Raba sent the report to then PoliceSuperintendent Richard Brzeczek, requesting an investigation of Wilsons allegations oftorture by Burge. The report was forwarded by Brzeczek to then States AttorneyRichard M. Daley, asking how to proceed. Daley, now the mayor, sat on the report anddid nothing.

More than 50 African-American men reported being tortured by Burge or his croniesduring Daleys reign as states attorney, from 1981 to 1989. Daley never investigated asingle one of these allegations.

Wilson was convicted of murder on the basis of his coerced testimony. In 1987, afterthe Illinois Supreme Court granted him a new trial, he was convicted again. In 1989,after Wilsons lawyers filed a federal civil suit against Burge and the City of Chicago, thePeoples Law Office (PLO) received anonymous letters telling of 105 cases of African-American men who had been tortured at Area 2.

The methods included electrical shock, suffocation with plastic bags and typewritercovers, and burns inflicted through being cuffed to radiators. The letters also describedthe use of Vietnam-style hand-cranked shockers, cattle prods, and a violet ray machinealso known as a shock wand.

Where they are now

Fired by the Police Board in 1993, Burge still collects a $3,403.71 per month citypension while living in comfortable retirement in Florida, despite refusing to cooperate ininvestigations and repeatedly refusing to answer questions on the grounds of self-

incrimination. He still maintains his innocence, despite the report.

Burge continues to enjoy the full backing of the so-called police union, the FraternalOrder of Police. In fact, the FOP planned to honor him with a float in the 1993 SouthSide Irish Parade until outrage in the African-American community stopped them.Burges lawyer, Richard Sikes Jr., said his client was quite happy overall with the report,saying, Hes pleased with what we thought all alongthat the torture claims wereunfounded.

ohn Byrne, by his own admission, was Burges right-hand man. Byrne later became a

lawyer, but was disbarred for stealing from clients, including other cops. Now a privateinvestigator, he collects a Chicago Police Department pension. Byrne also took the FifthAmendment under questioning about his role in the conspiracy.

Peter Dignan was mentioned in 17 of the PLOs 105 cases, often working alongsideBurge and Byrne, participating in beatings of suspects with flashlights and phonebooks, mock executions, suffocation and electrical torture. Even after being cited in aCPD torture probe in 1990, Dignan was promoted to lieutenant in 1998. Retired with apension, he now works for the Cook County Sheriffs Depart ment. Dignan also tookthe Fifth under questioning.

Michael Hokes involvement with Burge dates back to the very first cases in 1973. Hokewas an Internal Affairs commander when a database tracking cops accused of brutalitywas mysteriously erased. This most likely pleased the right people. Hoke was thenpromoted to assistant deputy superintendent. Now retired, he was granted immunityby special prosecutor Egan and took the Fifth under questioning.


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Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. of the POCC, whose father was a Black Panther Partyleader killed by Chicago police, said, The actual criminals have been rewarded, theyhave been elevated.

Next: The political cover-up.

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chicago police tortured afrikan prisoners

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