118 Black Men Tortured On His Watch–Less Than 4 Years of Jailtime

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October 9, 2014

By Nick Chiles, Atlanta BlackStar

A Picture of Jon Burge — Jon Burge walked free after only three-and-a-half years in prison, despite having commanded the Chicago P.D. nightshift that tortured at least 118 black men.

Jon Burge is one of the most notorious crooked cops in American history—a man who oversaw the torture of more than 100 Black men over the course of decades while they were in the custody of Chicago police.

Burge strolled out of federal prison on Thursday, three-and-a-half years after beginning his sentence for his 2010 conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about police torture.

That’s right—Burge wasn’t even convicted for committing the torture, but instead for lying about it. […]

One of his earliest victims was Anthony Holmes, who in 1973 was electrically shocked by Burge, who put a plastic bag over his head while torturing him to elicit a signed confession for a murder Holmes said he didn’t commit. Holmes had to serve a full 30-year sentence for the murder—and has been unsuccessful in seeking reparations.

[…]

There are about 115 known victims who were tortured by Burge and his midnight crew from the early ’70s to the early ’90s, according to attorney Joey Mogul, who has been a vocal advocate for torture victims through the People’s Law Office and the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial Project.

Of that number, Mogul said only about 16 have received any sort of legal compensation from the city.

In total, the city of Chicago has had to pay $64 million in court settlements on Burge-related torture cases filed before the statute of limitations ran out.

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