title
PROPOSED RESOLUTION
IN SUPPORT OF FAIRNESS AND INTEGRITY OF THE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS FOR THOSE WITH ALLEGATIONS THAT THEY WERE TORTURED BY THE DISCIPLES OF THE NOTORIOUS FORMER COMMANDER JON BURGE
WHEREAS, Cook County is a home rule unit of local government pursuant to Article VII Section 6(a) of the 1970 Illinois Constitution, and as such may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs; and
WHEREAS, former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and the detectives under his command systematically engaged in acts of torture, physical abuse, and coercion of Black and Latinx people at Area 2 and 3 Police Headquarters from 1972 through 1991; and
WHEREAS, these acts of torture included electrically shocking individuals on their genitals, lips and ears with an electric shock box or cattle prod; suffocating individuals with plastic bags; subjecting individuals to mock execution; physical beatings with telephone books, rubber hoses, miniature baseball bats; punching and kicking people about their bodies, pulling their hair, and other forms of physical and psychological abuse and coercion; and
WHEREAS, these acts of torture, physical abuse and coercion were deployed to extract confessions from individuals which were subsequently admitted against them in their criminal prosecutions resulting in their wrongful convictions; and
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago has recognized this pattern and practice of torture when passing the historic reparations legislation for Burge torture survivors in 2015. This legislation followed admissions made by the City of Chicago in 1992 when severing Burge from the Chicago Police Department, wherein the City acknowledged that Burge and the detectives under his command engaged in "an astounding pattern or plan" to torture certain suspects. Burge was also convicted in federal court for perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about the acts of tortured he and his detectives committed in 2010; and
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