[Ppnews] Federal Government heeds call of UN Committee Against Torture

[Political Prisoner News]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FORMER CHICAGO POLICE COMMANDER JON BURGE 
ARRESTED ON CHARGES RELATING TO TORTURE
OF OVER 100 AFRICAN AMERICANS

Federal Government heeds call of U.N. Committee 
Against Torture to investigate and prosecute Chicago Police Torture cases

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 (CHICAGO) -- Victims, 
attorneys and activists who have been calling for 
justice in the now infamous Chicago Police 
Torture cases for decades claimed victory today 
when former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge 
was finally indicted by the U.S. Attorney 
General's Office and arrested on charges relating 
to the torture of over 100 African American men over a 20 year period.

Until today, despite mountains of evidence, 
countless internal and external investigations, 
and repeated judicial findings that Burge and 
officers under his command "systematically" and 
"methodically" tortured African Americans at 
Chicago police headquarters, not a single officer 
or official involved has been prosecuted for 
their crimes and violations of their victims' 
Constitutional and human rights.  The torture, 
committed to elicit false confessions, included 
electric shocks to genitals, anal rape with a 
cattle prod, suffocation with plastic bags, and 
physical beatings, along with sleep deprivation 
and denial of food, water and bathroom 
facilities. The victims were not only subjected 
to grueling physical pain but were also tormented 
with racist epithets and slurs throughout their 
interrogations: they were called "nigger," 
threatened with the electric shock box described 
by the detectives as the "nigger box," and 
threatened with hanging Alike they had other 
niggers," an obvious reference to lynching. Often 
the officers involved would taunt the victims by 
stating "who are people going to believe, a 
'nigger' like you or a cop like me."

Frustrated by the lack of prosecutions and 
absence of systemic remedies for the victims of 
Burge's torture, activists and attorneys took the 
cases to the world stage.  In May of 2006, 
following hearings concerning the U.S. 
government's compliance with the Convention 
Against Torture, the U.N. Committee that monitors 
the Convention called on the U.S. government to 
"promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigate 
all allegations" of abuse by law enforcement 
officials and specifically noted "the limited 
investigation and lack of prosecution in respect 
of the allegations of torture perpetrated in 
areas 2 and 3 of the Chicago Police Department" 
as evidence of the U.S. government's failure to 
uphold the human rights guaranteed by the 
Convention.  Also in 2006, the U.N. Special 
Rapporteur on Torture questioned the U.S. 
government's handling of the cases and the 
continued imprisonment of 24 victims based on 
confessions elicited through torture.

"We are heartened that the federal government has 
heeded the call of the U.N. to step in and 
prosecute where local and state officials have 
failed to do so," said Joey Mogul, an attorney at 
the People's Law Office who presented the Burge 
cases to the U.N. Committee Against Torture. 
“We are gratified that Jon Burge will finally 
be brought to justice for his heinous violations 
of human rights.  However, justice will not be 
entirely done until the officers under Burge's 
command who participated in the torture and its 
cover-up are prosecuted and convicted, new 
hearings are called the for guys still behind 
bars based on confessions elicited through 
torture in violation of Article 15 of the UN 
Convention Against Torture, and financial 
reparations are paid to Burge's victims as 
required by Article 14 of the Convention."

For more information: Joey Mogul, People's Law 
Office, (773) 294-7606; Andrea Ritchie, (646) 831-1243



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