A Chicago cop who tortured suspects for years, finally caught and convicted.

[Stuart G]

Last edited Sun Oct 14, 2018, 12:23 AM - Edit history (5)

This is NOT A NEW STORY ..it happened years ago, (8 years ago) but is of interest because of current stories of police corruption. that is my opinion. The mere fact that the conviction occurred years after Burge was fired is something very rare in today's world.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Very strange story about a well known officer who tortured suspects for years, and was eventually convicted for doing so. (conviction on June 28, 2010) He was a commander in the Chicago Police Department, ..Commander Jon Burge...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge

Jon Graham Burge (December 20, 1947 – September 19, 2018) was an American police detective and commander in the Chicago Police Department who was accused of torturing more than 200 criminal suspects between 1972 and 1991 in order to force confessions....

In 2002, a four-year review revealed numerous indictable crimes and other improprieties, but no indictment was made against Burge or his officers, as the statute of limitations for the crimes had expired. In 2003, Governor George Ryan pardoned four of Burge's victims who were on death row and whose convictions were based on coerced confessions

(rest of story at link above) Yes, this is an incredible story. Way beyond what is believable. If you have never heard of this, be warned, this is real, all of this happened, and Burge was caught and eventually convicted for other charges, and he did serve time in prison. (that last sentence, highlighted, is perhaps the most unbelievable part of this entire story. Why? to try and convict an officer almost 20 years after he was fired, for crimes that were committed long before he was fired, was by itself hard to believe, especially a commander who had very powerful political connections.)

[Beakybird]

1. He was never convicted of his crimes

He was just convicted of perjury- as I understand it.

Didn't he even get his police pension?

[Stuart G]

2. Yes, he was convicted of perjury, but the fact that he was convicted was incredible.

He eventually served 4 years in jail, which if you know Chicago politics and Burge's connections, was in itself a miracle.

[mucifer]

3. You should change the title of post. He got off easy. My take away is that there is a statute

of limitations for torture in Illinois as a huge loophole for people like burge. Pure evil. Yes, he did have a lot of press against him. There is no death penalty in Illinois largely because of him.

I got the opposite take away from you.

To me justice was not served.

That said jason van dyke at least got convicted for his crimes.

[Stuart G]

4. Nope, you would have to know Chicago politics to understand how unlikely his conviction was.

The fact that there was a trial in itself was amazing. Without knowledge of the history of Chicago corruption, a person is clueless as to how unlikely any kind of conviction would be. Especially almost 15 years after Burge was fired from the force. Justice was indeed served in this case. And it was served in a way that no one familiar with the long history of Chicago corruption could have imagined.