Archive for April, 2010

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Jail Jon Burge Now!
The infamous torturing Chicago Police Commander finally has his day in court!

*Trial date may change. Visit jailjonburge.org for more info.

Jail Cops Who Torture! Retrials for Their Victims! Cut Their Pensions!

Jon Burge, a former police commander who is guilty of beating, burning, suffocating and electrocuting suspects under his custody — including children.

Over 20 years of terror, Police Cdr. Jon Burge and his “Midnight Crew” tortured 200+ Latino and African American men and their children to obtain confessions. 20 of these victims are still incarcerated, hoping to be re-tried. Burge has been evading justice since ’93 and the City of Chicago has spent over $10 MILLION in taxpayer dollars paying for his defense even after the Police Department Review Board ruled that he was guilty of using torture!

If you would like to endorse this call for JUSTICE, please contact the Jail Jon Burge Committee by calling 312-772-2COP or or emailing contact@jailjonburge.org.

Torture probe expands to cops under his command

BY CAROL MARIN AND DON MOSELEY | SUN-TIMES/NBC CHICAGO

Former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge faces trial next month on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice linked to police brutality.(AP)

A new federal grand jury has been impaneled to expand the investigation of allegations of police torture under former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge, the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 News have learned.

The grand jury is investigating what was commonly referred to as the “Midnight Crew,” officers who worked for Burge, according to a source.

This comes as federal prosecutors ready their case against Burge. The aging detective commander is set to go on trial May 6, charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.

None of the officers under Burge’s command has ever been charged in connection with the torture allegations. The new grand jury may decide whether that time has finally come.

Burge and his detectives have always maintained they mistreated no one.

But according to attorney Flint Taylor, Burge was the ringleader of a band of seven or eight officers that operated out of Area 2 in the 1970s and ’80s.

They were called the “Midnight Crew” because of the hours they worked.

“Under the cover of darkness and the fact that there were relatively few of them, they could do what other detectives felt they couldn’t get away with, and that is torture people,” Taylor said. “And you just have case after case under them of baggings, of electric shock, of mock executions in the ’80s which was the heyday of the Midnight Crew.” (more…)