[Ppnews] Chicago - Alleged torture by cops needs thorough probe

[Political Prisoner News]

Alleged torture by cops needs thorough probe

http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/1002062,CST-EDT-edit12b.article#

June 12, 2008


It's easy to brush off the torture allegations involving former 
Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge and the cops he oversaw.

After all, the whole thing happened decades long ago.

And the statute of limitations for state charges has expired.

And the rogue cops are retired, their names already sullied.

And weren't a lot of those torture victims criminals anyway?

It's so easy to sweep it all aside -- so easy and so wrong.

The horrible stain on Chicago law enforcement has not faded, though 
many powerful people in this city wish it would, thanks to a few 
tenacious critics.

This week, Chicago Sun-Times reporters Carol Marin and Frank Main 
broke the news that prosecutors are calling as many as 10 retired 
cops before a federal grand jury investigating whether Burge and 
others obstructed justice when they indicated in sworn statements 
that the Chicago Police did not engage in torture. That would be a 
federal crime for which Burge and his henchmen could still be charged.

We have full confidence in U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's office 
running the investigation. Fitzgerald and his crack team seem, at 
times, to be the only ones around here who can figure out how to 
prosecute certain bad guys, whether it's crooked cops or political 
players trading city jobs for campaign work.

But for all Fitzgerald's efforts, his investigation might be going 
nowhere were it not for the principled people who shoved an unpopular 
issue uphill for many years.

People such as journalist John Conroy, who wrote detailed and damning 
stories about police torture for the Chicago Reader, long before it 
became a hot issue.

People such as Ald. Ed Smith, who has been strident in his criticism 
in the City Council.

People such as the attorneys at the People's Law Office, who have 
been tough advocates for the men whose liberties were violated in the 
shadows of police interrogation rooms.

Issues of morality aside, recall that this scandal has cost taxpayers 
tens of millions of dollars in legal fees and settlements.

Citizens can have confidence in their legal system only when they 
know that wrongdoers will be punished without favor, whether the 
wrongdoer is a gang-banger or the cop beating a confession out of him.




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