Always a well researched and well written story. I can never understand why the Reader is often referred to as something less than what a newspaper is supposed to be.
This particular story deserves far more national exposure than it is getting or has gotten in the past.
I found this article quite insightful. Addressing the first comment, I disagree wholly, for two specific reasons.
First: History matters. An imperialist war, rife with war crimes, has its impact on the home country, and Burge is one expression of it.
Second: Burge's experience as an MP has a devastating evidential bearing on the present case examining his alleged perjury (Burge pleads not guilty) on the claim he had no hand or knowledge of torture under his watch that bears striking similarity to the forms of torture MPs laid down on Vietcong prisoners.
But I repeat myself; history matters. Thank you for the article. The research is of value to the widest audience.
Jon Burge found GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!!!!!
All praise goes to Mr. John Conroy and the Chicago Reader for your bulldog tenacity to keep digging for the truth even though the Machine and the Brotherhood sought to thwart you at every turn. He may have managed to walk free for all these years and got away with allegedly committing the most atrocious acts of inhumanity against innocent human beings, nevertheless, the jackal is FINALLY being brought to some form of justice, imperfect though it is.
Mr. Conroy, I have read your articles over the years and want to thank you personally for your relentless pursuit of the truth. Without your ongoing efforts and tenacity, this day probably would never have come.
Way to go, you guys. Although he'll probably get away with a slap on the wrist, the fact that Burge is facing spending the rest of his miserable life behind bars is poetic.
Now is the time for all citizens to see if the so-called decent police officers of the city of Chicago really mean what they say when they say they are just as sick and tired of the rotten cops as the rest of us are. We'll see if they really mean what they say or if they're just giving lip service to appease the outraged public over the nazi tactics of Jon Burge and his co-horts in the Chicago Gestapo. I hereby offer the following challenge to the
13,000 members of the Chicago police department:
On Friday, November 5, 2010, Jon W. Burge is going to be sentenced by a federal judge at the Dirksen federal building at 219 S. Dearborn street in Chicago. I ask that at least
one of you police officers go down to that federal building and ask the judge if you can
make a statement to the court before sentencing is pronounced, the maximum sentence
being 45 years in prison for the perjury and obstruction of justice charges in connection
with the allegations of torture. This is what you should say and nothing less:
"On behalf of every decent, hard-working law enforcement officer in the United States of
America, I ask that this court sentence Jon W. Burge to the maximum penalty of 45 years
in the federal penitentiary so that the word may reverberate throughout all law enforcement circles and that the whole world may hear that if law enfocement officers
continue to beat and torture suspects in their custody that they may know that the same thing that happened to Jon W. Burge could happen to them."
Let's see if any of the fine men and women in blue are willing to accept my challenge.
Get your dress blues cleaned and pressed, polish up your combat boots, shine your gun,and bring your billy club too, so that everyone may know that you are indeed a fine
member of the Chicago police department, and then request that the federal judge send
Jon W. Burge to the federal penitentiary for the rest of his natural life.
My colleagues were wanting a form a few days ago and were made aware of a great service that hosts a lot of sample forms . If you need to fill out it too , here's www.pdffiller.com
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Nice story, but it really doesn't matter where John Burge learned about torture. It only
matters if he committed it, and the evidence is overwhelming that he did. Just the innocent men who he put on death row who were eventually pardoned, is a clear indication of his guilt. Mayor Daley had been advised of these allegations of torture while he was Cook County State's attorney and chose to ignore them. It's just lucky for Daley
that the statute of limitations on torture has run out because if Burge could be charged with torture instead of just perjury and obstruction of justice, there's no doubt Daley would be called as a witness for the prosecution and might eventually end up a defendant himself.