Torture in the shadow of democracy

For years, the City of Chicago – like so many cities across America – has struggled under the weight of a shameful history of unaddressed police violence. For decades, the actions of officers who abused their power has cast a shadow over the Chicago Police Department and fostered distrust among the people its officers were sworn to serve. The system that allowed this to exist has to be corrected or its flaws will continue to poison our future.

Over the span of two decades – from 1972 to 1991 – more than 100 suspects were subjected to unspeakable cruelty under the direction of former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Detainees were tied to chairs and subjected to electric shocks. According to testimony, officers thrust guns into the mouths of their suspects, making them believe that they were loaded. They then pulled the trigger, terrorizing the handcuffed suspect at the other end of the barrel.

{mosads}Nearly everyone who suffered at Burge’s hands was an African American man. And all the while, Burge and the all-white detectives under his command hurled racist slurs at the men they were abusing.  

This brutal treatment can only be called torture. And it is irrevocable proof that torture is not confined to far-away prisons, under despotic regimes. Torture happened here, in the shadows of democracy. In Chicago – in my backyard.

Scores of torture survivors were sentenced on the basis of confessions obtained from them by torture and eleven torture survivors were sent to death row. In too many cases, these men were innocent of the crimes they were brutalized into confessing for. In every single case, resorting to torture negated the question of guilt or innocence.  The moment a member of the Chicago Police Department crossed that line, it poisoned the very core of the legal process that lead to the convictions of torture survivors.

I have dedicated my life to the people of Chicago. Throughout my 26 years with the Chicago police, my time as a community organizer in Woodlawn following my retirement from the force, and my eight years as an alderman on the City Council, I have endeavored to put the citizens of this great city first and to uphold the ideals of justice and equality for all.

As a proud Chicago police professional and veteran, these events sicken me – just as they should any good officer who swears to serve and protect. Good cops don’t have to resort to such shocking measures to do their job. But we are not paralyzed by the past.

Last year, an ordinance was introduced that would provide reparations to those who suffered at the hands of Jon Burge and his men. The ordinance provides financial compensation to survivors and their families. It also provides for counseling, job training, a formal apology from the city and the establishment of a center to treat Burge survivors. This will be the first center in the nation dedicated to rehabilitating and counseling domestic torture survivors. Critically, it also includes provisions for a public memorial, and the creation of Chicago Public School curriculum, highlighting this chapter in our history. By commemorating the past, we can begin to guarantee that there is not another Jon Burge in the future.

I was proud to stand with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in supporting this ordinance. And I am even prouder to say that on May 6, the ordinance was passed by the Chicago city council.

But the struggle cannot and will not stop here. The decades of grassroots action that led to this moment illuminate a haunting deficit of justice in the system that supported and protected torturers. Jon Burge was never convicted of overseeing – and at times, personally administering – torture of detainees. Because of a statute of limitations, neither he nor any of the detectives under his command have faced any consequences for torture. Burge served less than four years in prison for lying about his deeds under oath, and this year he walked free of house arrest.

We must take concrete steps to change laws that protect perpetrators from these crimes, especially when they are committed by law enforcement inside the United States. What if one of those men sentenced to death row had died at the hands of the government? What if someone is killed while incarcerated who has been falsely convicted?  We must ensure the law and police training addresses these circumstances, and we must pursue offenders as countries pursue those who have committed war crimes.  

As allegations of police brutality and killings plague not only Chicago, but our entire country, the reparations package for Burge torture survivors should be a call to action for the entire nation.

Cochran is an alderman on Chicago’s city council and a former Chicago police officer.