Ex-Chicago Cop Convicted of Lying About Torturing More Than 100 Black Men

Ex-Chicago Cop Convicted of Lying About Torture

A jury convicted former Chicago cop Jon Burge of lying in connection with the torture of dozens of black men over the course of two decades. And, federal prosecutors say, the investigation is ongoing.

Burge was accused of lying about his part in overseeing a ring of torture that coerced confessions from dozens of black men in Chicago. Burge was running an Abu Ghraib before there was an Abu Ghraib.

According to some of the victims, Burge used vicious, inhumane torture techniques to get them to cop to various crimes. One man said he was the victim of a mock lynching and had a gun placed in his mouth. When that didn't work, his testicles were electrocuted with a cattle prod. After all of that, the man admitted to a murder he says he didn't commit and served more than a decade behind bars.

Burge is facing 45 years in prison and deserves every one he will be sentenced to.

The scary part of this is that Burge ran the torture ring with the cooperation and involvement of other officers. It is equally as important that they be brought to justice. One man who testified in Burge's trial said the disgraced former officer did not participate in his torture but looked in while it was happening.

Unfortunately, the statute against prosecuting the individuals in this case for torture has expired. Burge was found guilty of perjury for lying under oath about his role in the torture. That, too, needs to change.

There should be no statute of limitations on prosecuting someone who treats others as cruelly as Burge did.

Rep. Danny K. Davis of Illinois is pushing for a federal law that would remove the statute of limitations on crimes such as torture. That legislation should sail through Congress and land swiftly on President Barack Obama's desk for signing.

Under our system of law, suspects are innocent until proven guilty. Police and prosecutors have special powers that allow them to investigate crimes. It was just plain lazy on the part of Burge and his officers to beat confessions out of people instead of doing the legwork needed to find out if suspects were guilty or innocent. The taxpayers were also victimized here, because Burge and his crew did not earn their paychecks. If I was a Chicago resident, I'd want my money back.

For two decades, Chicago police seemed to turn a blind eye to the torture being conducted right under their noses.

"This case is not about Jon Burge. It's about a system, a culture, a sickness in human nature that allows things like this to happen," Francine Sanders, one of the authors of a report that exposed Burge's systematic abuse, told the New York Times.

In the process of beating and torturing victims, I'm sure the individuals who actually committed heinous crimes like murder were left free to roam the streets while innocent men were locked behind bars.

All of the officers involved in this torture ring should be brought to justice using whatever means prosecutors have at their disposal. Although black men were mainly the victims of Burge's abuse, this situation could happen to anyone who finds themselves accused of a crime.

"To tap him out was easy; he's been marketed as the torture person," said David Bates, who served 11 years in prison after he says Burge and his officers coerced him to confess to murder. "But it goes so far beyond Jon Burge."