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Chicago City Council Approves $5.5 Million Reparations Fund For Cop Torture Victims
By Hal Dardick and John Byrne, Chicago Tribune (TNS)
CHICAGO — The Chicago City Council on Wednesday unanimously voted to approve a historic $5.5 million reparations fund for torture victims of the notorious Chicago police Commander Jon Burge and his so-called midnight crew of rogue detectives.
“This is another step, but an essential step, in righting a wrong — removing a stain,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said of the reparations fund that he backed and advocates say is the first of its kind in the nation. “Chicago has finally confronted its past and come to terms with it and recognizing something wrong was done.”
The vote came after an emotional debate in which some of Burge’s victims looked on from the gallery in council chambers.
Alderman Howard Brookins, 21st, chairman of the council’s African-American caucus, noted that approval was a long time in coming. “We have shown today that that type of abhorrent behavior will not be tolerated in our city,” Brookins said.
“Does it totally make up for what happened?” asked Alderman Joe Moore, 49th. “Absolutely not. But it’s a powerful statement.”
While Emanuel hopes the fund closes “the Burge book on the city’s history,” it’s likely that dozens more people will come forward to claim they were tortured at the hands of Burge and his associates.
The ordinance under consideration also includes a formal apology and states that the city “wishes” to provide other benefits to more than 50 torture victims and their families that “may include” free City Colleges tuition, various types of counseling, job training, and placement and senior services.
The deal would create a permanent memorial recognizing the victims as well as ensure that eighth- and 10th-grade students attending Chicago Public Schools would be taught about the Burge case and its legacy, cementing the scandal’s role in city history.
Between early 1972 and late 1991, Burge and his men allegedly tortured confessions out of scores of mostly African-American South Side men using electric shocks, beatings, smotherings, and simulated Russian roulette.
Photo: Jaison Oliver via Twitter
WATCH: Perry Apologizes For Comparing Gays To Alcoholics: ‘I Stepped Right In It’
Texas governor Rick Perry apologized as only he can on Thursday, acknowledging that he “stepped right in it” when he compared gay people to alcoholics during an appearance at the Commonwealth Club of California last week.
“I got asked about issues, and instead of saying ‘you know what, we need to be a really respectful and tolerant country to everybody, and get back to talking about, whether you’re gay or straight, you need to be…having a job, and those are the focuses that I want to be involved with,'” he said during an event hosted by TheChristian Science Monitor. “I readily admit I stepped right in it.”
Perry ignited controversy last Wednesday when he was asked if “homosexuals can be cured by prayer or counseling,” a position that the Texas Republican Party endorsed in its most recent platform.
“I don’t know,” Perry responded. “I’m not a psychiatrist, I’m not a doctor.”
After being pressed by the moderator on whether being gay is a disorder, Perry made his ill-fated comparison. “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that,” he said.
Perry then made matters worse with a clunky appearance on CNBC, in which he drew the ire of host Joe Kernan by repeating the “I’m not a doctor” line.
“I have a really high bar for what I would take offense to, but that would exceed the bar for me on being an offensive comment,” Kernan told the potential 2016 presidential candidate. “I don’t think gay marriage leads to cirrhosis of the liver or domestic violence or DWIs. I don’t see how that’s similar.”
Photo: The Texas Tribune via Flickr
Video via NBC News
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