... BUT CHANGES TUNE ON REPARATIONS FOR BURGE VICTIMS
One week after ruling it out, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday cracked the door open to compensating 94 victims allegedly tortured by a crew of police officers led by Area 2 Commander Jon Burge who couldn’t sue because the statute of limitations has run out.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys are demanding a $ 20 million “reparations” fund. Emanuel said he’s not certain that’s the appropriate figure, nor has he pinpointed where he would find the money in a city budget that already includes $ 54.5 million in targeted tax hikes and loophole closings that amount to the same.
But for the first time, the mayor acknowledged that something more needs to be done to erase one of the ugliest and most undermining chapters in the history of the Chicago Police Department.
“Because the law says the statute of limitations are over doesn’t mean our obligations are over,” the mayor said during a meeting with the Chicago Sun- Times editorial board.
“I don’t know — nor does anybody else— where you’re gonna find the money for $ 20 million and whether that’s the right number.”
Emanuel noted that he has already gone a long way toward erasing what he called “this stain” on the city’s history.
He’s done that by settling the Burge cases he inherited, trying to cut off Burge’s city pension, even though that didn’t work, and by issuing the public apology that torture victims have long demanded, but former Mayor Richard M. Daley refused to give.
Plaintiffs attorney Flint Taylor was pleasantly surprised.
“That’s encouraging. But he should understand that the $ 20 million is a very modest amount of money. We think that’s basically a non- negotiable number,” Taylor said Wednesday.
For decades, Burge was accused of overseeing a “midnight crew” who systematically tortured African- American suspects. The 66- year- old former Area 2 commander was finally brought to justice in 2011 when he was convicted of perjury for lying in civil lawsuits connected to that torture.
Burge was sentenced to 4 ½ years for lying under oath about police torture but got time off for good behavior. He’s expected to spend his final 3 ½ months at a halfway house near his home in the Tampa area.