Chicago City Council approves reparations for police torture victims

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

CHICAGO — The City Council approved an unprecedented reparations package on Wednesday that will pay $5.5 million and provide other benefits to torture victims of notorious former police commander Jon Burge.

The vote caps a decades-long push for restitution to some of the more than 100 victims — mostly African American men — who have alleged horrific abuse by police officers under Burge's command.

From 1972 through 1991, the suspects were subjected to mock executions and electric shock and beaten with telephone books as their interrogators flung racial epithets at them. A Chicago Police Department review board ruled in 1993 that Burge's officers had used torture. He was fired.

Burge and his officers have denied wrongdoing.

The statute of limitations ran out on his alleged crimes, but Burge was convicted in 2010 of perjury in civil proceedings for lying about torture he oversaw. He was sentenced to 4½ years in prison and completed his sentence this year. Burge continues to receive a police pension.

"This stain cannot be removed from our city's history, but it can be used as a lesson of what not to do," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.

Alderman Howard Brookins said Burge's actions were an "atrocity" and called the reparations "a meaningful settlement."

"I want to say to the rest of the world and Chicago, we get it," Brookins said. "That type of behavior will not be tolerated in our city, and we can work together bringing the community and the people together for the betterment of our city."

A victim who has a credible claim will receive up to $100,000.

In addition, the Chicago City Council will formally apologize, create a permanent memorial recognizing the victims and teach public school students about the Burge case in their eighth- and 10th-grade history classes.

City college tuition and job training will be provided free to Burge victims, their immediate family members and their grandchildren. The city will fund psychological, family, substance abuse and other counseling services tovictims and their immediate family members.

Chicago had already spent about $100 million on settlements and legal fees related to lawsuits over Burge's actions.

Burge's victims have 60 days from Wednesday's passage of the ordinance to make their claim for reparations, said Joey Mogul, of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials and the People's Law Office. Disputes on a victim's claim will be decided by a third-party arbiter agreed upon by the city and the victim's representatives.

Amnesty International USA, which was among several human rights groups that pressed Chicago to pay restitution to Burge's victims, said the council's decision will have repercussions beyond the Windy City.

"Chicago has taken a historic step to show the country, and the world, that there should be no expiration date on reparations for crimes as heinous as torture," said Steven Hawkins, Amnesty International USA's executive director. "The United States is a country desperately in need of a more accountable police force. Passing this ordinance will not only give long-overdue reparations to survivors, it will help set a precedent of U.S. authorities taking concrete measures to hold torturers accountable."