Views > July 15, 2008

Chicago’s Olympic Dreams Undeserved
By Salim Muwakkil

Despite widespread awareness of torture provoked by excesses in the war on terror, little is said about the history of
homegrown torture

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recently chose the Windy City as one of four international finalists in the
race to host the coveted 2016 summer games.

But a group of local activists argues that a history of racist police torture has made Chicago inappropriate as an
Olympic site and is mobilizing to convince the IOC to reject the city’s bid.

“How can a city that has been condemned by the United Nations for allowing its police to engage in systematic
torture of black men be worthy of hosting the Olympic games?” asks Patricia Hill, a primary organizer of Black People
Against Police Torture, the group at the forefront of opposition to the Chicago Olympics.

Hill, who is also executive director of the city’s African American Police League, says that several allied groups have
joined in opposition to Chicago’s Olympic bid — including the local chapter of Amnesty International USA.

For nearly 20 years, a former Chicago police commander named Jon Burge and detectives under his command
routinely tortured more than 100 black males, claiming they were criminal suspects. Several independent
investigations and court decisions confirmed these systematic crimes, which occurred from 1972 to 1991.

The latest evidence was a 292-page report issued two years ago by court-appointed special prosecutor Edward Egan
that concluded Burge and his men used many torture techniques, including electro-shocking genitals, suffocating
people with plastic bags and burning skin on a hot radiator. But the statute of limitations prevented prosecution.
Thus, none of the cops involved has yet to pay any legal cost.

Groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International condemned these crimes, which violate domestic laws,
the victims’ constitutional rights, as well as international treaties banning torture. In May 2006, the U.N. Committee
Against Torture sharply rebuked the United States for failing to hold the offending police officers accountable.

Despite widespread awareness of torture provoked by American excesses in the so-called war on terror, relatively little
has been said about this heinous history of homegrown torture. Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan raised the profile of
the case in 2003 when he granted pardons to four death row inmates after concluding their confessions were tortured
from them. However, about 26 prisoners are still incarcerated because of confessions forced by Burge’s corps of
torturers. Protesters are also demanding new evidentiary hearings and perhaps reparations for the victims.

Are Americans less concerned about police torture because it involved mostly black men, whose perceived image as
criminals allows us to tolerate their abuse? For many, even the most egregious police abuse of black men is viewed as
a necessary evil.

Black People Against Police Torture hopes to demonstrate that the cost for brutalizing black men has increased. “Daley
took something away from us, when he refused to act on charges of police torture in 1982 when he was state’s
attorney,” Hill notes. “And now we want to take something away from him.”

Hill’s group decided to oppose the city’s Olympic bid after the 2006 report concluded that nothing could be done to
prosecute the perpetrators of police torture. “After spending four years, conducting more than 700 interviews and
spending at least $6 million, the report came up with nothing,” says Lawrence Kennon, a Chicago attorney who has
been involved in the case since its inception and is a member of Hill’s group. “It was an insult to the people of
Chicago.”

The tactic has apparently triggered additional action. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, in June, a federal grand
jury subpoenaed retired detectives who worked with Burge. The office of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is reportedly
conducting the probe and focusing on the sworn statements Burge and other detectives made during depositions in
2003. Those statements are not restricted by the statute of limitations and if they can be proven false, Burge and his
henchmen could face prosecution under obstruction of justice charges. But Hill says the anti-Olympics protests will
continue even if the feds prosecute Burge and his men.

“Daley and his cronies have yet to learn the lesson that you cannot brutalize black men with impunity,” she says.
“Look at the current rash of police shootings and brutality in our communities. If we have to deny Daley the object of
his desire to teach that lesson, so be it.”

Salim Muwakkil is a senior editor of In These Times, where he has worked since 1983, and an op-ed columnist for the
Chicago Tribune. He is currently a Crime and Communities Media Fellow of the Open Society Institute, examining the
impact of ex-inmates and gang leaders in leadership positions in the black community.

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _
"I can promise that as attorney general, I will never cover up the truth and stand in the way of justice."
--Lisa Madigan campaign news release, September 23, 2002

RALLY at Lisa Madigan's Office
NEW TRIALS FOR ALL POLICE TORTURE VICTIMS! JAIL JON BURGE!
Friday July 18, noon
Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph St.

Two years ago, Special Prosecutors Edward Egan and Robert Boyle released a report documenting the use of electro-
shock, suffocation with plastic typewriter bags, Russian roulette and severe beatings in Area 2 and Area 3 police
stations by Commander Jon Burge and his henchmen to obtain "confessions" from African-American men on the south
side of Chicago. But Egan and Boyle failed to bring brutal cops to justice, deciding that the statute of limitations on
their actions had passed. Now, federal prosecutors have subpoenaed a number of Burge's detectives before a grand
jury, raising the possibility of federal perjury charges.

Meanwhile, dozens of Burge's victims languish in prisons throughout Illinois. All deserve new trials. Lisa Madigan, who
was appointed to oversee these cases in 2002, has the power to initiate evidentiary hearings, but she has done
nothing in six years on the job. Mark the two-year anniversary of the release of the Burge report by demanding justice
for police torture victims. Toothless reports are not enough. ALL torture victims deserve new trials, while the
perpetrators of torture deserve prosecution and jail time.

Sponsors include Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Citizens for Earned Release, Illinois Institute for Community Law
and Affairs, International Socialist Organization, Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago, Men and Women in Prison
Ministries, National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression, October 22 Coalition against Police Brutality,
Stateville Speaks, Tamms Year 10, United in Peace; and 8th Day Center for Justice.

For more information, call 773-955-4841 or email cedp@nodeathpenalty .org