Silent march hits police torture

Even as Congress was debating whether and how much to torture Islamic prisoners of war, people here were learning that from at least 1972 to 1990, torture was routinely used against Black U.S. citizens who were prisoners of the Chicago police.

WW photo: Lou Paulsen

Police used electric shocks, suffocation, beatings and death threats to extract confessions from prisoners, many of whom were later proven innocent.

The chief torturer, Area 2 Commander Lt. Jon Burge, now lives on his city pension in Florida, having still not been prosecuted. Prosecutors who condoned the torture include the present Cook County state’s attorney, Dick Devine, and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.

At least 200 Black people were tortured to extract confessions, which were used to send many to prison and even to death row. While some were later pardoned, many are still in prison.

On Sept. 15, over 200 members and supporters of Black People Against Police Torture (BPAPT) carried out a silent march for justice on Chicago’s downtown streets. They marched past Daley Center and the County Building, then stopped at City Hall for two minutes to face Daley’s office in an act of silent confrontation before returning to the starting point.

Passers-by studied the marchers’ red foam-board signs with black lettering that declared, “No justice, no peace,” “Prosecute Burge, Devine and Daley,” “Stop ‘em killing our people,” “Resist!” and “By any means necessary.”

“When you walk through this round, this obstacle course, and come back here, don’t be tired because the work is just beginning,” said Standish Willis, an attorney and BPAPT spokesperson, to the marchers assembling in Federal Plaza.

Willis promised that judges involved in the torture conspiracy who are up for retention in the November election “will feel the wrath of the Black community” and “will no longer be judges.” Circuit judges in Illinois face a retention vote every six years in which they must get 60 percent of the vote to stay on the bench.

Some of the judges up for retention prevented defendants from introducing evidence that they were tortured; others were prosecutors at the time and used in evidence confessions produced by torture.

In addition, said Willis, “We will be sending a bill to the State Legislature to provide for reparations for torture victims. Included in that bill there’s a procedure where those that are still locked up in prison as the result of being tortured by Jon Burge or his henchmen will be able to get out of prison. So we’ll be mobilizing, we’ll be taking buses down to Springfield, we’ll be doing everything necessary to get that bill passed. Next time we convene we will have all the 27 brothers who are in prison with us, that’s how determined we are to get justice for torture victims.”

The BPAPT meets every Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Center for Inner City Studies, 700 E. Oakwood (3900 S). For information, contact the law office of Stan Willis at 312-554-0005.