Thousands pay tribute to seven-year-old murdered by Detroit police

Sharpton blames black youth for violence
By Jerry White

Several thousand people attended the viewing and funeral service for Aiyana Stanley-Jones, the seven-year-old girl killed by Detroit police during a May 16 raid on her east side Detroit home. The events—held on Friday and Saturday—were attended by hundreds of workers and young people from Detroit and outlying areas who were shocked and angered by the brutal murder of the second grader.

Aiyana was killed by a police SWAT team seeking to arrest a homicide suspect who lived in a separate, upstairs apartment at the home on Lillibridge. Even though they were warned there were several small children in the downstairs apartment, the police threw an incendiary device into the home and opened fire, striking the young girl in the head and neck while she was sleeping on a front room couch. In order to conceal their crime, they claimed the gun went off accidentally after a “scuffle” with the young girl’s grandmother.

In the aftermath of the shooting, Detroit Mayor David Bing defended the police and said it was “unfortunate” people were focusing on the young girl’s death instead of violent crime in the city. Bing’s spokeswoman reiterated this point the day after the funeral, saying, “People are upset with the police, and not upset with the criminals. That’s the problem.”
A section of the audience at Saturday’s funeral

Hundreds attended the funeral to register their outrage at Aiyana’s murder. The Democratic Party officials and politically connected black clergymen who oversaw the event, however, had a different agenda. Their overriding concern was to dissipate popular opposition towards the police and shore up the credibility of city authorities.

While Mayor Bing was conspicuously missing, several Democratic Party officials, including long-time congressman John Conyers and several city council members, were present. Democratic Party state legislators and other political figures also sent messages of sympathy to the grieving parents, Dominika Stanley and Charles Jones.

In their remarks, Reverend Horace Sheffield, attorney Geoffrey Fieger and Reverend Al Sharpton made a few verbal nods to the oppositional sentiment of the audience, but this was only to hammer home their reactionary message that workers and young people should stop blaming the police and politicians. Instead, the death of Aiyana Stanley-Jones was, like Mayor Bing claimed, part of the wave of violence in the city, which young black men were perpetuating.
Al Sharpton

This was most clearly articulated by Reverend Al Sharpton, the head of the National Action Network. While Sharpton has sought to cultivate an image of a “civil rights leader” through his association with high-profile brutality cases in New York and other cities, at the Detroit funeral he explicitly avoided any accusations of police brutality.

He dismissed claims by Republican gubernatorial candidate Michael Cox that he was trying to incite racial divisions by speaking at the funeral, saying, instead that he was disgusted that “we can’t see the police as partners” and that “it was us against them, instead of all of us against crime.” He said he was “angry and outraged,” but that it would be a “disservice to Aiyana just to vent” instead of working with city officials to put an end to so-called “black on black” crime.

“This is a wake-up call not only for those in authority,” he said, “but the community that has allowed this violence and recklessness to go too far.” Sharpton then went on to rail against young black men who were “thugs, not protectors, hoodlums rather than parents.” The real problem, he said, was “some of you black men making babies you won’t raise,” adding, “I can’t believe what I see walking down the streets, young men calling women ugly names, wanting to be gangsters, not bankers.”

Sharpton continued, “I could cuss out the mayor, the police chief and argue with the attorney general, but I’m talking to you. All of us have done something to contribute to this.”

He rejected attempts to attribute high crime rates to the miserable social conditions in Detroit, where the real unemployment rate is 50 percent and much higher for black teenagers. “Times were harder than this,” he insisted, saying, “Even if you aren’t responsible for being down, you are responsible for getting up. When it gets rougher, you get tougher,” Sharpton insisted. Rather than blaming poverty and poor schools for crime and violence, he said, young black men had to “look in the mirror.” “Put that dope down, get the gun out of the house, quit calling women ‘hoes’ and quit destroying our neighborhoods.”
Aiyana’s casket

This insulting morality sermon is typical of the most privileged layers of blacks who have been integrated into the corporate and political establishment, while the vast majority of African-Americans in the inner cities suffer from the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. (In a 2002 financial disclosure released as part of his bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2004, Sharpton reported an income of approximately $400,000 from Pepsico and other business and consultant salaries. Some estimates put his present net worth at over $5 million.)

In his contempt for the working class and defense of the profit system, Sharpton shares the views of President Obama and other black Democrats, such as Detroit Mayor David Bing, a millionaire black businessman. Thoroughly beholden to the most powerful corporate and financial interests, they are increasingly relying on the brute force of the police to deal with the inevitable social explosion that is being produced.

Bing, who is gutting public education and outlining a plan to shut down city services to whole neighborhoods deemed too poor to maintain, symbolizes the shift to the right of the whole black political establishment in Detroit. In 1973, Coleman Young became the city’s first black mayor after running on a platform of opposition to police brutality. Today Bing categorically defends the police murder of a seven-year-old child in order to protect the wealth and privilege of the class he defends.

In contrast to the political officials, many of those in attendance at the funeral spoke sharply against the police, the shutdown of city services and mass unemployment in the city. (See accompanying video).

Robert Byrd, an artist, drove from Imlay City, Michigan, after staying up until 5:30 in the morning on the day of the funeral to complete a pastel portrait of Aiyana Stanley-Jones. He told the WSWS, “My wife and I were watching the news about the police shooting of this young girl. I was absolutely horrified and kept trying to think of what we could do to console this family. My wife then came up with the suggestion that I paint Aiyana’s beautiful little face and give it to the family.
Robert Byrd

“What was done is terrible and this is happening all over regardless of skin color. For a time, I was indifferent to conditions workers in Detroit faced and when I would see people wailing after a murder took place in the city, I didn’t really react to it. Then I received a phone call in 1997 that my own child was killed and nothing was done by the police to carry out a serious investigation. For all I know, they could have been involved in it.

“When I looked at her coffin today, it made me think about my own child. For time immemorial, the rich people running this society just don’t care. Her death did not have to happen. It’s all about the money. You have families starving, kids getting killed and people face big difficulties and it doesn’t really matter to them.” Commenting on the wave of utility shutoffs that have led to several deaths in the city, he said, “Shutting off people’s gas in the winter is a crime, just like the death of this little girl is a crime.”

Alleged Chicago Torturer's Overdue Day in Court

by Amy Goodman

Abu Ghraib has nothing over Chicago. Forty years ago, Jon Burge returned from Vietnam, joined the Chicago Police Department and allegedly began torturing people. He rose in the ranks to become a commander in Chicago's South Side, called Area 2. Electric shocks to the genitals, mock executions, suffocation with bags over the head, beatings and painful stress positions are among the torture techniques that Burge and police officers under his command are accused of using to extract confessions in Chicago, mostly from African-American men. More than 110 men are known to have been victims of Burge and his associates. Victims often went to prison, some to death row. Facing mounting evidence and increasing community outcry, Burge was fired from the Chicago Police Department in 1993. He now lives in Florida, collecting his pension.

This week, in a federal criminal trial beginning in Chicago, Burge faces charges, not for torture, but for lying about torture under oath in an earlier civil suit brought by one of his victims (since the statute of limitations on torture, remarkably, has expired). He faces up to 45 years in prison. Burge's co-conspirators remain uncharged. Also untouched in the trial is the role played by the current mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, who as state's attorney for Cook County from 1980 to 1989, and as mayor since then, has consistently fought investigations or prosecutions of the alleged torturers.

Darrell Cannon is one of the men alleging torture against Burge and his associates. He says police tortured him in 1983 and forced him to confess to a murder he didn't commit. He spent more than 20 years in prison, but after a hearing on his tortured confession, prosecutors dismissed his case in 2004. It took him three more years to gain release from prison.

At 6 a.m. on Nov. 2, 1983, Chicago cops under Burge's command arrested Cannon and drove him to an isolated industrial area on the Chicago waterfront. He related his ordeal to me:

"They did a mock hanging, where I'm cuffed behind my back and one of the detectives would get on the bumper of the detective car, the other two detectives would lift me up to him, and he would grab my handcuffs from behind. They would let me go. That will cause my arms to go up backwards, almost wrenching the inside of my shoulders.... Then they switched to a second torture treatment, where they got their shotgun.... One of them said, "Go ahead, blow that ni***r's head off." And that's when [Detective] Peter Dignan forced the shotgun in my mouth.... They did a mock execution three times."

Cannon refused to confess. He went on: "They then put me in the backseat of a detective car.... They pulled my pants and my shorts down ... took an electric cattle prod, turned it on and proceeded to shock me on my testicles."
Cannon finally made a false and coerced statement, implicating himself as an accomplice to murder, to make the torture stop.

His attorney, Flint Taylor, is with the People's Law Office, which has been representing scores of Burge's alleged torture victims. Taylor pointed out the controversial role of Mayor Daley. "Darrell Cannon here, my client, was tortured in 1983. If Daley had moved in 1982 with the evidence he had to remove Burge from the police force and prosecute him for torture, we would not have Darrell Cannon spending 20, 25 years behind bars and not having him tortured by electric shock. So, the real crime here started many years ago with the cover-up, a cover-up that was engineered by the mayor himself."

In January 2003, before leaving office, Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a Republican, commuted the death sentences of all 156 people on Illinois' death row, after the innocence of 13 other death row inmates had been proved. Ryan pardoned four on death row who were known to be victims of Burge's torture.

Where did it all begin? One thing is clear: In 1968-69, Burge was an MP at the U.S. Army's Dong Tam camp in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, where captured suspected Viet Cong soldiers were allegedly interrogated with electric, hand-cranked field telephones supplying shocks. Torture techniques similar to this were rampant under Burge's command in Chicago.

Given ongoing reports of torture in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have to wonder how many Jon Burges are being bred in President Barack Obama's two wars.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.
© 2010 Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now! [1]," a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 800 stations in North America. She was awarded the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, dubbed the “Alternative Nobel” prize, and received the award in the Swedish Parliament in December.

GEO group to pay restitution to strip-searched inmates

The $2.9 million settlement awards up to $400 each to about 10,000 inmates at six GEO Group facilities

By Mari A. Schaefer
The Philadelphia Inquirer

THORNTON, Pa. — A company that formerly operated the Delaware County Prison has settled a federal class-action lawsuit involving strip-searches of incoming inmates charged with minor crimes.

The $2.9 million settlement awards up to $400 each to about 10,000 inmates at six GEO Group facilities.

Prisoners at the Delaware County facility, now operated by Community Education Centers of West Caldwell, N.J., who were strip-searched between Jan. 30, 2006, and Jan. 30, 2008, may be eligible for settlement awards.

The lawsuit named five other GEO Group prisons, in Texas, New Mexico, and Illinois.

"As a direct result of this litigation, GEO has changed its strip-search policies in those prisons which it still operates," an attorney for the plaintiffs, Joseph G. Sauder of Haverford, said in an e-mail.

A call seeking comment from the Florida-based GEO Group, which operated the prison until December 2008, was not returned.

John A. Reilly, superintendent of the prison, when asked about the current strip-search policy, said, "I have no idea. See you." He then hung up.

"In our view, there is simply no justification for this kind of invasive body search for those individuals coming to the institution who pose no security risk to the institution," said David Rudovsky, a Philadelphia lawyer who also represented a plaintiff in the case.

Those eligible to apply for settlement include prisoners who were not accused of drug, weapons, or violent crimes; those involving probation or parole violations; and those who did not behave in a manner that would give guards cause to conduct strip searches.

According to court documents, one of the main plaintiffs, Penny Allison of Media, was arrested in November 2005 for driving under the influence and was placed in a first-time offenders program. Allison failed to appear for a hearing and a bench warrant was issued. She was stopped by Springfield police for an expired registration in July 2006, arrested, and then transferred to the prison.

While being searched, a female corrections officer looked at Allison's bra and remarked, "Nice bra," according to court documents. The bra was not returned upon her release eight days later, the documents said.

Allison was arrested in December 2007 and pleaded guilty to a second DUI, records said. She was sentenced to 15 weekends and strip-searched upon entering the prison.

"During these strip searches, the corrections officer brings all of the weekend females into a classroom-size room and strip-searches them one by one in front of all the other females," court documents said of the Delaware County facility.

Ex-lawyer jailed 14 months, but not charged with a crime

By Abbie Boudreau, Emily Probst and Dana Rosenblatt

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Once a dapper Beverly Hills attorney known for his bow tie, Richard Fine has been held in solitary confinement at Los Angeles County Men's Central Jail for 14 months, even though he's never been charged with a crime.

Fine, a 70-year- old taxpayer's advocate who once worked for the Department of Justice, is being held for contempt of court.

Superior Court Judge David Yaffe found Fine in contempt after he refused to turn over financial documents and answer questions when ordered to pay an opposing party's attorney's fees, according to court documents.

Fine says his contempt order masks the real reason why he's in jail. He claims he's a political prisoner.

"I ended up here because I did the one thing no other lawyer in California is willing to do. I took on the corruption of the courts," Fine said in a jailhouse interview with CNN.

For the last decade, Fine has filed appeal after appeal against Los Angeles County's Superior Court judges. He says the judges each accept what he calls yearly "bribes" from the county worth $57,000. That's on top of a $178,789 annual salary, paid by the state. The county calls the extra payments "supplemental benefits" -- a way to attract and retain quality judges in a high-cost city.

While the practice of paying supplemental benefits is common in California, most high-cost cities elsewhere don't hand out these kinds of benefits. Judges in Miami, Chicago and Boston receive no extra county dollars.

Judges in Los Angeles County not only have the highest state salaries in the nation, they also get tens of thousands of dollars in county benefits. These payments, Fine says, mean judges are unlikely to rule against the county when it is involved in a lawsuit.

In the last two fiscal years, Los Angeles County won all but one of the nine trials that went before a judge, according to Steven Estabrook, the county's litigation cost manager.

"The reason I'm here is the retaliation of the judges," Fine says. "They figured they're going to throw me in jail and that way they feel that they can stop me."

Fine's decade-long crusade against the judges eventually led to his disbarment last year. Joe Carlucci was the lead prosecutor for the California State Bar. Carlucci says whenever Fine lost a case, he would appeal and argue the judges were corrupt.

"What he ultimately did was to delay proceedings, to level false accusations against judges," Carlucci says. "All of those lawsuits were found to have been frivolous and meritless."

Judge Yaffe and county officials refused to comment on Fine's case while it's still pending.

"Fine holds the key to his jail cell," Kevin McCormick, one of the court's attorneys, pointed out in a court filing. In other words, Fine will go free once he hands over the documents the court seeks and answers the judge's questions.

The technical term is "coercive confinement" -- jail-time until a person follows a judge's order.

"He's probably done more time than most burglars, robbers and dope dealers," says Sterling Norris of the public-interest group Judicial Watch.

Norris says Fine's confinement has gone on too long.

Norris won a case in 2008 that found county payments to judges unconstitutional. The California Legislature swiftly passed a bill that enabled counties to continue paying the extra benefits.

"I think it's a lack of judicial integrity to say enough is enough," Norris says. "We've got a man, 70-year-old attorney, in jail for over a year on coercive confinement and that is way beyond the pale. No matter what else he may have done, that is improper."

Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, calls the length of Fine's contempt confinement an "anomaly."

Fine's jail cell could be used for a more violent offender, Whitmore added. In fact, Los Angeles County's jails have in recent months released hundreds of inmates before their terms were up due to budget constraints.

Fine took his pencil-and-paper fight from solitary confinement to the U.S Supreme Court, which ruled Monday it would not hear the case. The court offered no explanation.

Meanwhile, Fine's family stands behind him -- even in the face of home foreclosure.

"My husband has always been the straightest arrow, hardworking, very successful attorney, and for this to happen to him is unbelievable," says Maryellen Fine, his wife of 27 years.

"I'll look back with tears with all the time I might have missed with the family," Fine says tearfully just before he is handcuffed and walked back to his cell.

"We don't know what is going to be next," says Fine's daughter, Victoria. "Every day is just one more day where I think maybe I'm going to get a phone call that says dad's coming home."

Report on Prison Privatization Plagued with Conflicts of Interest, Faulty Data, Political Connections

Private Corrections Institute

Sacramento, CA – The Private Corrections Institute, a non-profit citizen watchdog group that opposes prison privatization, issued the following statement today sharply criticizing a joint report by the Reason Foundation, a Los Angeles-based libertarian think-tank that promotes the privatization of government services, and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA). The HJTA advocates for the rights of California taxpayers and is also supportive of the “Tea Party” movement.

The Reason-HJTA report was released on the heels of Governor Schwarzenegger’s comments in favor of prison privatization in his State of the State address last January. California already contracts with for-profit private prison companies to house up to 10,468 inmates in out-of-state facilities, and according to the governor’s recent May Revise the state is likely to increase its reliance on private prison contracts.

The Reason Foundation has long been a proponent of prison privatization and has received funding from private prison companies – although that apparent conflict of interest is not mentioned in the Reason-HJTA report. Further, the report provides political cover for gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, who has expressed support for prison privatization. The HJTA has endorsed Whitman and produced commercials supporting her candidacy. Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison company, has donated $5,000 to Whitman’s campaign.

California represents an enormous market for private prison companies, which have been spending political capital for the state’s business. In 2009, CCA donated $15,000 to the CA Republican Party, $7,500 to the CA Democratic Party, and $100,000 to Gov. Schwarzenegger's Budget Reform Now coalition. In 2008, CCA gave $45,000 to the CA Republican Party and $20,000 to the CA Democratic party. The nation's second-largest private prison firm, GEO Group, gave $25,000 to the CA Republican Party in 2008.*

The Reason-HJTA report advocates sending 25,000 California inmates to out-of-state for-profit prisons, claiming that would save the state up to $1.8 billion over a five-year period. The report purports to offer a solution to California’s prison overcrowding crisis, which has led a panel of federal judges to order a major reduction in the state’s prison population following almost a decade of litigation.

The Reason-HJTA study alleges that California spends $162 per prisoner per diem – the highest in the nation – based on data from the American Correctional Association (ACA). The report fails to mention that the ACA – a private, self-regulated organization composed of former and current corrections officials – receives revenue from private prison companies, which also sponsor the ACA’s biannual conferences.

The $162 per diem rate cited in the report, which was obtained by simply dividing the state’s corrections budget by its prison population, grossly misrepresents the actual cost of incarceration. For example, the inflated per diem rate in the Reason-HJTA report inaccurately includes parole supervision and administrative costs, which are part of the prison system’s budget; medical and mental health care expenses, which are under the control of the federally-appointed receiver; and central office administrative overhead. The report’s exaggerated per diem rate also apparently includes prison design and construction expenses, which are not factored into private prison cost analyses.

The report fails to consider that privately-run prisons do not house maximum-security California prisoners, death row prisoners, female prisoners, juveniles or prisoners with serious mental health or medical conditions, all of whom are more expensive to incar-cerate. In the latter regard, medical costs for California inmates held in private prisons are capped at $2,500 per prisoner; the state must pay medical expenses above that amount, plus all treatment costs for inmates who are HIV-positive.

According to Ken Kopczynski, executive director of the Private Corrections Institute, “Contrasting the inaccurate per diem rate in the [Reason-HJTA] report with the cost of housing inmates in out-of-state private prisons cannot even be considered an apples- to-oranges comparison. It’s more like an apples-to-fish comparison.”

In a 2007 letter to state Senator Gloria Romero, the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) reported that “the state now budgets on average about $56 per inmate per day for each additional prison inmate – often referred to as overcrowding costs per inmate. By comparison, the contracted rate for ... new out of state prison beds is higher, about $63 per inmate per day.” The LAO also noted that the per diem rate for prisoners in out-of-state private prisons did not include transportation costs, the cost of oversight by state officials, or medical expenses above the $2,500 cap.

The Reason-HJTA report acknowledges that California’s “recent contracts to house state inmates in out-of-state [CCA] facilities spell out costs that vary from $63-72 per bed per day ....” Thus it is evidently more expensive to house inmates in private prisons, based on the LAO’s average in-state per diem rate of $56, despite the Reason-HJTA report’s claims that prison privatization can result in cost savings of up to 28%.

Such alleged savings cited in the report are based in part on research by discredited former University of Florida professor Charles Thomas. Thomas operated a University project that studied the private prison industry and produced research promoting the benefits of privatization. It was subsequently discovered that Thomas owned stock in the private prison companies he was studying, sat on the board of Prison Realty Trust, a spin-off of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and had been paid $3 million by Prison Realty / CCA. Thomas retired from his University position after these conflicts became known and was fined $20,000 by the Florida Commission on Ethics. The report fails to mention this tainted history underlying Thomas’ research.

Further, the Reason-HJTA report incestuously cites Reason’s own in-house research in support of its position that private prisons are less costly than those operated by the government, and does not address other studies that have found deficiencies in prison privatization in terms of both cost savings and quality of service. The report also relies

on a Vanderbilt University study funded by both CCA and the Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations – an industry group that exists to advance the interests of companies that profit from corrections-related services. The funding source of the Vanderbilt study is not stated in the report.

Additionally, the Reason-HJTA report cites research from Avondale Partners, Inc., an investment banking firm that has issued a favorable market rating for CCA. Avondale hosted a private prison conference in New York City on May 19, 2010 that included a presentation by CCA CEO Damon Hininger. Other presenters included the Reason Foundation, the CEO of the GEO Group, and California private prison lobbyist Mark Nobili. These connections between Avondale and the private prison industry are not mentioned in the report.



“The joint Reason-HJTA report is based on sources that are so plagued with conflicts of interest that the results would be laughable if they weren’t masquerading as credible research,” stated Private Corrections Institute president Alex Friedmann. “This is far beyond the fox guarding the henhouse. This is the fox outsourcing security for the hen house to a pack of wolves.” Friedmann, a former prisoner, served time in a CCA prison in the 1990s; he was released in 1999 and is now an authority on private prisons.

The report also fails to mention the significant problems that other states have had with prison privatization, including major riots, sex abuse scandals, escapes, improper billing by private prison companies, and employment law violations. The Reason-HJTA report glosses over other deleterious aspects of prison privatization, such as higher employee turnover rates, increased levels of prisoner-on-prisoner and prisoner-on-staff violence, lack of transparency and public accountability, and higher recidivism rates for inmates released from privately-operated prisons.

For example, the report claims that rates of violence are lower at private prisons than at state facilities, but fails to disclose that the research supporting that statement, from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, only addresses a narrow category of “sexual violence” – not overall institutional violence. Leonard C. Gilroy, director of government reform for the Reason Foundation and co-author of the Reason-HJTA report, acknowledged that deficiency on May 21 and stated the report would be updated accordingly.

Rather than addressing the shortcomings of private prisons, the Reason Foundation and HJTA recommend that California engage in wholesale privatization – including con-tracting out existing state prisons built with taxpayer funds; outsourcing food services, transportation, medical and mental health care, and education and treatment programs; and privatizing probation and parole services. While this would be a windfall for private prison firms, including those that have given money to the Reason Foundation, whether it would benefit taxpayers financially or in terms of public safety is less certain.

Although the Reason-HJTA report raises serious issues, such as high recidivism rates among California prisoners and the state’s prison overcrowding crisis, according to the Private Corrections Institute that does not justify the wholesale transfer of inmates to for-profit prison companies as proposed by the Reason Foundation and HJTA.



__________________________



The Private Corrections Institute (PCI), www.privateci.org, is a non-profit citizen watch-dog group that educates the public about the significant dangers and pitfalls associated with the privatization of correctional services. PCI maintains an online collection of news reports and other resources related to the private prison industry, and holds the position that for-profit prisons have no place in a free and democratic society.





For further information, please contact:

Ken Kopczynski, Executive Director Alex Friedmann, President

Private Corrections Institute Private Corrections Institute

1114 Brandt Drive 5331 Mt. View Road #130

Tallahassee, FL 32308 Antioch, TN 37013

(850) 980-0887 (802) 257-1342 / (615) 495-6568

kenk@privateci.org stein919@gmail.com

Police torturer on trial

Interview: Mark Clements

The man responsible for the torture of Mark Clements and some 200 other African American and Latino men in Chicago will go on trial on Monday in a downtown courtroom.

Jon Burge is former police commander who oversaw a squad of detectives who were notorious for using torture techniques to coerce false confessions out of suspects. One of their victims was a 16-year-old Clements. The incriminating statement that was tortured out of him was the main evidence used at the trial where he was convicted. Clements was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years.

Clements became an activist while behind bars. Finally, in the summer of 2009, with protest and pressure building for new trials for Burge torture victims who are still behind bars, Clements was finally freed--after serving 28 years for a crime he didn't commit. Today, he is a member of the Jail Jon Burge coalition, a board member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and an activist with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

Clements talked to Jon Bougie and Lyn Kotecki about his experiences and about the rally planned for the first day of Burge's trial.

JON BURGE is the former Chicago Police commander who ran a torture ring that abused approximately 200 suspects in the 1970s and '80s. He is scheduled to go on trial in Chicago on May 24. Can you tell us a bit about your experience with Burge's torturers in 1981?

AT 16 years of age, I was taken into police custody by Virgil Jones and Aaron Gibson. I was arrested earlier for an alleged disorderly conduct charge, which resulted in police transporting me down to Area 3 Violent Crimes. I had no idea why I was being taken to Area 3 Violent Crimes.

They told me a fire had occurred, and that four people died as a result of the fire. They said someone informed them that I set these fires in the neighborhood.

I told them repeatedly that I didn't set this fire, I didn't know who set this fire, and I wanted to call my parents. I was 16 years of age. The detectives told me "no." There was no youth officer contacted who was with me throughout this interrogation. Because I was denied access to a phone, my parents had not been contacted.

I asked to use the bathroom. Inside the bathroom, I saw a Caucasian police officer (who turned out to be Detective John McCann) drinking liquor and looking out of a window. I was intimidated and scared, so I used the bathroom real fast.

What you can do

A demonstration is planned for the first day of Jon Burge's trial. If you're in or around Chicago, come to the Daley Plaza, 55 W. Randolph, at 8:30 a.m. Find out more about the protest and the campaign against Burge at the Jail Jon Burge Web site.

For more background on the long struggle to win justice for Burge torture victims, visit the Web site of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the Campaign's newsletter, the New Abolitionist.

After using the bathroom, police took me into a different interrogation room. They put me in a closet-sized interrogation room. I was handcuffed to a ring. Inside of this room, because it was so small, the only thing that could fit in it was a desk--a small table, with two chairs and three chairs up against the wall.

Detective McCann came into the room and told me he was sent to help me. He shut the door, sat behind the desk, and asked, "Did you commit this crime?" I said no.

The detective said he thought I was lying. He moved his chair from behind his desk, and set it directly in front of the chair that I was sitting in. He placed it right up against me. He started hitting me in my arms and my legs and using racial slurs, like calling me "little nigger boy." He started hitting me in the chest. I was only 120 pounds. It knocked the air out of me. He was hitting me in the back, along my legs.

He basically fed me the facts and circumstances of what he wanted me to say to a man who was an assistant Cook County state's attorney. His name was Kevin Moore, and he told me that he represented the people.

Featured at Socialism

Hear Mark Clements at Socialism 2010 in Chicago, speaking on "Tortured Confessions: Fighting Police Torture." Check out the Socialism 2010 Web site for more details. See you at Socialism!

I told him the police didn't allow me to call my parents, I had not seen a youth officer, and the police beat me. Just hearing that, he packed his stuff up and left.

Detective McCann returned to the room, slammed the door and locked it. McCann said I was trying to get him in trouble with his boss. He started hitting me in the arms, smacked me a couple of times, hit me in the chest several times, and I remember bending my head down, and he was beating me in the back. He was beating me in my legs with his fists and open hands. He was beating me in the back and trying to get me to rise up.

He grabbed my genitals and began to squeeze. He kept squeezing harder and harder and harder. He told me, "You're going to cooperate, little nigger boy." That's what he was calling me. I started crying, and I told him I would cooperate.

He re-fed me the facts and circumstances of the crime. This time, he got all of the detectives, and they all sat in the room. He had me tell them exactly what I would tell the state's attorney. Kevin Moore returned, and he acted like nothing had happened.

WHAT ROLE did race play in the Burge torture ring?

IT WAS very racist. In all of these cases, these men were called racist names while they were beaten. And some of Jon Burge's Black colleagues say he commonly used racist terms.

WOULD YOU say that torture and abuse by police officers is limited to Chicago, or is it spread wider than that?

Well, it is spread wider. California had a problem with police torture back in the '60s and '70s. Torture is no stranger to New York. There was a young man who was sodomized by a plunger, Abner Louima. There is the young man who was shot forty-some times reaching for his wallet, Amadou Diallo. There have been cases of unthinkable tortures in New York and California as well as Chicago.

YOUR CASE and many of the other Burge torture cases happened over 20 years ago. Some of those incidents you just mentioned were much more recent. Do you have thoughts on what goes on today, and how similar or different it is compared to what was happening then?

THE SYSTEM has really not changed. Even with recorded confessions, there are errors and flaws with that. There have been individuals who have had their confessions tossed out because it was determined that police strategized ways to turn off the recording device and inflict beatings or brutality on the suspect to force them to give confessions against their will.

I don't give Barack Obama credit for saying he wants change. Now, he is the president of the United States of America, but he hasn't done one thing to correct the torture that has happened to Iraqi citizens. He claimed when he was running that he would make change.

We need to question what was behind Burge. Who gave Burge the power to do what he was doing? Burge went to war and learned the techniques of torture in Vietnam. But who was giving Jon Burge the power to do what he was doing--because he was untouchable for a great time.

Mayor Daley knew of these tortures. There are 20 Chicago police torture victims who remain incarcerated. Our system is destroying us--from the prisons to the police.

YOU'RE VERY involved in the Jail Jon Burge (JJB) Coalition, which is calling for a rally on May 24, the day of Jon Burge's trial. Can you tell us about the current activity around the call to Jail Jon Burge?

WE HAVE gotten great responses from many colleges. I want to see May 24 turn out to be another May Day, like the immigrant rights march. Chicago needs to see this for criminal justice reform in my opinion.

I keep hearing about criminal justice reforms. Where are the reforms? There are no criminal justice reforms. Some people had a problem when I went to Springfield and spoke at the lobby day. When I spoke, I asked them, what would they do if their child was accused of a crime and sentenced to natural life?

Many people look at that as criticizing government officials. Society has it wrong when you're the ones serving the politicians. The politician is supposed to be serving you.

People are worried about retaliatory behavior by the city of Chicago. But I'm not worried. They already took 28 years. I never really got over prison.

WHY IS it important that Burge face consequences for what he did? Why is it important for people to come out on May 24 and call for jailing Jon Burge?

"JAIL JON Burge" was a slogan that was used by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty for many years. And it is a rightful slogan.

Most of these individuals can't deal with the heat that they dish out. Chances are that Jon Burge will see, at most, about 18 months in federal prison. If he gets any more, I will probably faint in the courtroom. That's how the criminal justice system operates.

But perhaps if he gets a prison sentence, he'll talk. Most of these 20 [people who were tortured and are still behind bars] are going to require more than the special prosecutor's report to get them new hearings, because that report focused primarily on about four cases. It's going to require detectives singing on other detectives and getting other detectives indicted to break down that machine that they have, because they have a strong machine.

WHAT SIGNAL do you think Burge's trial will send to police who might be engaging in torture or to judges who look the other way on abuse?

BURGE HAS been headline news, but every year, we hear about detectives and street cops engaging in unthinkable acts. Look at what the officer did to that bartender [Chicago cop Anthony Abbate, whose beating of bartender Karolina Obrycka in 2007 was captured on tape].

These things will not stop until the ring of Burge is brought down. That will cause others in the police department to stop and think. Right now, they are thinking it's just Burge and some retired officers. But there are new officers out there today, and they have their own operations as to what evils they're doing.

What I do believe is that Jon Burge Day can force politicians, judges, and prosecutors to come along with charges against additional officers. Taking Jon Burge down doesn't solve the problem.

When you're dealing with broad issues such as police tortures or the health care issues or prison abuses, we all have to come together to correct that. If we want to build the organizations that we need to do this, we need to get young people involved.

What I will say about May 24 is that I want to rock Chicago. I believe that it can be done. I don't believe that things are so impossible that we can't come together, old and young, and whatever.

Change isn't saying "I want change," but then backing down. From the mayor of the city of Chicago, to former Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine, to every abusive police officer who victimizes suspects, I believe that before I leave this Earth, you will be indicted--because I will work day and night to be sure that you are held responsible for your behavior.

Detroit girl's death triggers scrutiny of A&E cop reality show 'The First 48'

By Lisa de Moraes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The genre of reality TV went on trial this week when a camera crew in
Detroit for the popular A&E cop show "The First 48" witnessed a house raid
that resulted in the shooting death of a 7-year-old girl. The family's
lawyer says he's seen footage that contradicts the police account of what
happened, and family members and attorneys in Detroit have suggested that
the cops may have been playing to the camera crew during the fatal raid.

The May 16 incident occurred exactly one month after the Jefferson Parish,
La., sheriff's department shut down production on another A&E cop reality
series, "Steven Seagal: Lawman," after a lawsuit was filed against the
action movie actor, now making himself over as a Jefferson Parish sheriff's
reserve deputy. A 23-year-old woman has sued Seagal for $1 million in a
California civil lawsuit, claiming he hired her as an executive assistant,
flew her to Louisiana while he was making the reality series, allegedly kept
her at a house in Lafitte, La., with two other women, and allegedly had sex
with each.

Both shows are produced by ITV, a company that also makes "House of Dreams"
for A&E cable network, which is jointly owned by Disney, NBC Universal and
Hearst.

A spokesman for A&E declined to discuss the presence of "The First 48" at
the deadly incident in Detroit. Likewise, a spokesman for ITV declined to
discuss the incident or the camera crew's role.

"The First 48" camera crews are given "unprecedented access to crime scenes,
forensic processing and interrogations" as the show follows detectives in
real time during the critical first 48 hours of homicide investigations in
some of the country's largest and busiest police departments. Averaging
about 2 million viewers, the reality series is one of the most-watched
nonfiction investigative shows on cable, and one of the bigger successes on
an A&E lineup that also includes "Dog the Bounty Hunter," "Manhunters,"
"Hoarders" and "Intervention."

For this Detroit case, the show's producers have turned over footage to
police, according to a source with knowledge of the situation who asked not
to be identified because the source is not authorized to speak publicly. In
the show's long run, it's not the first time the producers have been asked
to share their images, the source said.

Geoffrey Fieger, the attorney for the family of the 7-year-old, Aiyana
Jones, told reporters Monday that he had seen about four minutes of video
from the raid, but he would not confirm whether the footage was shot by "The
First 48" crew or someone else. He insisted that the video contradicts the
police report of what happened.

Police say officers threw a nonlethal flash grenade through the first-floor
window of the two-family home. Then, when an officer ran into the girl's
grandmother, his gun discharged, accidentally killing the child.

But Fieger says the video shows an officer lobbing the grenade and then
shooting into the house from the porch.

"The First 48" crew had been following Detroit homicide detectives for
months; the episode would typically be telecast six months to a year after
taping had wrapped. Before an episode can air, anyone seen on camera has to
sign a release allowing their image to appear on the show; otherwise they
are blurred out of the shot. Even so, it's unclear whether this particular
episode will ever make it to A&E's lineup, given the brouhaha that has
erupted over the raid.

According to the Associated Press, the camera crew had been following
homicide cops, who were joined by an "elite Special Response Team" that
raided the duplex. The combined police units were looking for the suspect in
the shooting death of a 17-year-old high school student outside a party
store not far from Aiyana's home. Police did arrest the target of the raid,
a 34-year-old man, inside the duplex.

The camera crew did not enter the home during the raid, according to a
source with knowledge of the situation who did not want to be identified
because the source is not authorized to discuss the situation. But the very
presence of the reality-show crew at Aiyana's death has led to debate as to
whether the police acted differently because they knew they were going to
get their 15 minutes of fame on TV.

Detroit Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee has told news organizations that
the department was confident the film crew's presence had no effect on how
the raid was conducted.

But the family has retained Fieger, the nationally known, Detroit-based
attorney who also represented assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian. The
Detroit Free Press, in its coverage of the raid, reported that lawyers who
have sued the Detroit Police Department over police procedures questioned
the use of the flash grenades in light of the presence of the reality-TV
crew.

"I am absolutely convinced that, when police officers go on search-warrant
raids with a film crew tagging along, officers think more about making good
television rather than executing a search warrant with concern about the
safety of officers and citizens," said Farmington Hills lawyer Thomas Loeb,
who, the paper said, specializes in police misconduct lawsuits, many of them
involving the Detroit Police Department.

Covering the raid and girl's death, the AP interviewed two sources
identified as local "prominent criminal defense attorneys," who said they
did not know of any instances in the past when Detroit police had used flash
grenades in raids when children might be present.

"That's a new one," Detroit lawyer Corbett Edge O'Meara told the AP. "That
does seem to be a pretty extreme measure."

"I've never heard that before in my entire career," lawyer Marvin Barnett
told the AP.

Second Deputy Chief John Roach on Tuesday told the Detroit News that the
department is not paid to participate in the reality-TV series.

Police have not identified the officer whose gun fired the shot that killed
Aiyana, except to say he is a 14-year veteran with six to seven years on the
Special Response Team, and that he has been placed on paid administrative
leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Detroit police kill seven-year-old child

By Jerry White

Detroit police shot and killed a seven-year-old girl during an early morning raid of a home on the city’s east side Sunday morning. The child, Aiyana Stanley Jones, was struck in the head and neck area while sleeping on a couch at the home on Lillibridge Street.

In a Sunday morning press conference Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee said police were executing a “no-knock” search warrant for a homicide suspect in the two-apartment home. He said the police—members of the heavily armed Special Response Team—threw a flash grenade through an unopened window around 12:45 a.m. before charging in with guns drawn.

Godbee claimed the policeman’s gun discharged after he “had some level of physical contact” with the girl’s 47-year-old grandmother, Mertilla Jones. The police were not categorizing the shooting as accidental yet, Godbee said, "although we don't believe the gun was discharged intentionally."

Charles Jones, father of the slain girl, said he rushed from a back bedroom to see his mother being pushed through the door and another police officer carrying his bleeding daughter from the house. “They came into my house with a flash grenade and a bullet," Jones told the Detroit News. "They say my mother (Mertilla Jones) resisted them, that she tried to take an officer's gun. My mother had never been in handcuffs in her life. They killed my baby and I want someone to tell the truth."

The young father added, “I want this story to be heard. This was a wrongful death."

Mertilla Jones, who was arrested at the scene and released Sunday, told the Detroit News, "They blew my granddaughter's brains out. They killed her right before my eyes. I seen the light go out of her eyes.” She denied police claims she had a physical confrontation with the cops, telling WXYZ-TV, “I never touched none of them. No one gave them any struggle. My grandbaby is gone. The Detroit police killed my granddaughter.”

Before the police broke in, a relative told police there were children inside and pointed to toys in the front yard. “‘There’s kids in the house,’ I said five times, ‘there are kids in the house,’” a relative told the TV station.

Jones and his relatives said the suspect was not even in the same apartment as Aiyana. Police raided the upstairs unit simultaneously and reportedly arrested a 34-year-old male.

"Based on our intelligence, we got a search warrant for the location,” Godbee said. "Because of the violent nature of the crime, we thought we were entering a potentially dangerous situation." Godbee said a full investigation would be conducted and expressed fear of public reaction, saying the police “might be the target of anger."

A spontaneous memorial was set up in front the eastside home, with friends, relatives and ordinary citizens leaving flowers and children’s balloons and toys to pay honor to the dead child and her family. A candlelight vigil was held Sunday night.

Class tensions in the city are reaching a breaking point. After decades of plant closings and mass layoffs, the Motor City has a real unemployment rate at the Depression-level of 50 percent. Hundreds of thousands of people face a daily struggle for survival, confronting utility shutoffs, evictions and foreclosures, while the city’s Democratic-run administration—led by millionaire businessman Mayor David Bing—is planning to shut off public services to entire working class neighborhoods deemed too poor to maintain.

A report on an apartment house fire in the poverty-stricken Detroit enclave of Highland Park on Sunday noted that many of those inhabiting the building were homeless “squatters,” including whole families. One resident said the local utility company DTE Energy had come out to disconnect the electrical service to the building, but “people threatened to shoot them if they did.”

Under these conditions, the Bing administration is using the police to crack down on the population. In recent weeks, opponents of police brutality have complained that the Detroit Police Department’s gang squad—known as the Mobile Strike Force—has been “terrorizing” neighborhoods, with complaints against the police rising more than 200 percent.

The Detroit police may have been particularly primed to use indiscriminate and overwhelming force on Sunday, due to a raid last month that left one cop dead and four others wounded.

The squad involved in the death of Aiyana Jones, the Special Response Team, was formed in 1987. It has been described by former members as a “highly trained anti-terrorist unity” and the “Marine Corps” of the Detroit police department.

Illinois: Chicago Reaches Deal in Lawsuit Claiming Police Abuse

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: May 12, 2010

The Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved a $16.5 million settlement to a federal class-action civil rights lawsuit that accused the Chicago Police Department of abuse. Council members voted 46 to 1 to approve the settlement, under which more than 500,000 people could be eligible for reimbursement. The lawsuit was filed in 2004 and claimed an “institutionalized system of police torture.” It alleged arrests without warrants and people shackled to walls or benches. It said people were deprived of food and water, given few chances to go to a bathroom and had no bedding. The city will pay $15 million, and an insurer will pay for the remainder of the settlement, said Mara Georges, a lawyer for the City of Chicago, adding that plaintiffs originally sought $100 million. Court documents show that the Chicago civil rights law firm Loevy & Loevy could receive up to $5 million of the settlement fund in legal fees. Cash awards under the settlement are to be $90 to $3,000.

Minorities Frisked More but Arrested at Same Rate

By AL BAKER

Blacks and Latinos were nine times as likely as whites to be stopped by the police in New York City in 2009, but no more likely to actually be arrested.

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The more than 575,000 stops of people in the city — a record number of what are known in police parlance as “stop and frisks” — yielded 762 guns.

Of the reasons listed by the police for conducting the stops, one of those least commonly cited was the claim that the person fit the description of a suspect. The most common reason listed by the police was a category known as “furtive movements.”

Under Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, the New York Police Department’s use of such street stops has more than quintupled, fueling both an intense debate about the effectiveness and propriety of the tactic and litigation aimed at forcing the department to reveal more information about the encounters.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which got the data on stop and frisks after it first sued the city over the issue after the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, said its analysis of the 2009 data showed again what it argues is the racially driven use of the tactic against minorities and its relatively modest crime-fighting achievements.

The center, a nonprofit civil and human rights organization financed by donors and foundations, as well as other critics of the tactic, like to note that a gun buyback program conducted by the police at several Bronx churches one day in January yielded 1,186 guns.

Police officials, for their part, vigorously praise the stop-and-frisk policy as a cornerstone of their crime-suppression efforts. The stops led to 34,000 arrests, and the seizing of more than 6,000 weapons other than guns, according to the center’s analysis. The police officials argue that the widespread use of the tactic has forced criminals to keep their guns at home, and allowed the department to bank thousands of names in a database for detectives to mine in fighting future crimes.

Besides better reporting, the surge in the number of stops, they said, is also a byproduct of flooding high-crime areas with more officers, a strategy for a force with a shrinking headcount.

“These are not unconstitutional,” Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said of the stops. “We are saving lives, and we are preventing crime.”

According to the analysis of the 2009 raw data by the Center for Constitutional Rights, nearly 490,000 blacks and Latinos were stopped by the police on the streets last year, versus 53,000 whites.

But once stopped, the rates of arrest were virtually the same. Whites were arrested in slightly more than 6 percent of the stops, blacks in slightly fewer than 6 percent. Roughly 1.7 percent of whites who were stopped were found to have a weapon, while 1.1 percent of blacks were found with one.

Given that, some experts who have studied stop-and-frisk data over the last several years say that what prompts an officer’s suspicion for a stop, and the discretion used, are important.

In examining the stated reasons for the stops, as checked off by police officers on department forms, the center found that about 15 percent of the stops last year cited “fits a relevant description.” Officers can check off more than one reason, but in nearly half the stops, the category called “furtive movements” was cited. Nearly 30 percent of stops cited a category called “casing a victim or location”; nearly 19 percent cited a catchall category of “other.”

“These stats suggest that racial disparities in who gets stopped has more to do with officer bias and discretion than with crime rates, which is what the Police Department argues,” said Darius Charney, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Mr. Browne, the department spokesman, said stop-and-frisk data was “examined in great detail,” in 2007 by the Rand Corporation, “which found no racial profiling.” He said the stops mirrored crime — that while a large percentage of the stops involved blacks, an even larger percentage of violent crimes involved suspects described as black by their victims.

The work by the Center for Constitutional Rights is the latest in a series of examinations of the police tactic defined by a Supreme Court decision from decades ago, Terry v. Ohio, which permitted officers to briefly detain someone based on “reasonable suspicion,” a threshold lower than the probable cause necessary for a formal arrest.

The issue exploded in New York after Mr. Diallo’s killing, when those who protested the shooting contended there was a pattern of racial profiling in stop and frisks. A study in 1999 by Eliot Spitzer, then the state’s attorney general, found that blacks and Hispanics were stopped disproportionately in relation to their involvement in crime and their share of the city’s population.

In 2001, the city enacted a law requiring the police to provide quarterly reports about the raw data to the City Council and settled a lawsuit, also brought by the constitutional rights group, requiring that plaintiffs be given more valuable raw data.

Reporting by the police has become more regular recently. On April 30, Mr. Browne said that in 2010 there were 149,299 stops through March 31, about 13 percent fewer than in the first quarter of 2009. So far, he said, the stops yielded 186 guns.

As the numbers come out, analysts and academics pore over them to gauge effectiveness.

In March, researchers from the Center on Race, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice said that more data and “increased public discussion of this controversial policing practice” were essential.

“If the public does not have access to the data, in a format that allows the experts to identify important trends, then it harms the public discourse,” said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which successfully sued to get the raw data. “And that is precisely the situation that we are in.”

Particularly vexing to Jeffrey A. Fagan, a professor of law at Columbia University who studied the issue for Mr. Spitzer, is that few can say what happens once the “11 or 12 percent” of street stops that lead to an arrest or summons get to court.

“Are these cases that stand up?” he said. “Do they result in convictions?”

Professor Fagan said it was impossible to tell what dent in crime the tactic had made. Christopher T. Dunn of the civil liberties group said there was no proof it had. Crime has gone down steadily since 1991, but “stop and frisk exploded in 2004,” he said.

But Heather Mac Donald, a research fellow at the Manhattan Institute who has spoken to police officials about the tactic, said there was no question it had an impact on crime. She said that great disparities exist in who commits crime in New York, and that the police fight crime where it is most high, in mostly minority neighborhoods.

“Where are they supposed to go?” she asked.

She echoed Mr. Browne, who said the police are confident the tactic is stopping crime before it occurs.

Mr. Browne took issue with the constitutional rights group’s conclusions about the numbers of arrests or gun seizures the street stops yield. He said, “762 guns can do a lot of damage.” He said taking guns from people in the street was different from accepting their surrender from “moms and grandmothers.”

And he laid out the logic of the stops: More police are sent to higher crime areas, where criminals and victims live; more suspicious activity is associated with that crime; so there are more opportunities for officers to observe suspicious behavior as a result.

John A. Eterno, a former city police captain who worked to computerize the department’s stop-and-frisk data before he retired in 2004, said the tactic could be effective in pushing down crime. But Dr. Eterno, who is now an associate dean of criminal justice at Molloy College, said retired commanders had spoken of the pressures to reflect their use of stop and frisk in CompStat, the department’s computerized crime tracking system.

“My take is that this has become more like a ‘throw a wide net and see what you can find’ kind of thing,” he said. “I don’t’ see it as targeted enforcement, especially when you see numbers that we are talking about.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights also studied post-stop outcomes.

There, it found that officers frisked more people in 2009 than a year earlier, but the rate of frisks for blacks and Latinos was much higher than it was for whites. It found that the police used force in 24 percent of stops — drawing a weapon, say, or throwing people to the ground. The police used force in 19 percent of the stops involving whites but in 27 percent of stops against Latinos and in 25 percent of those involving blacks.

The disparities in the use of force, compared with the numbers of arrests and summonses and of weapons and contraband seized, is something that “the police have not really explained to the public,” Mr. Charney of the Center for Constitutional Rights said.

Custer County settles with sexually abused former inmates for $10 million

By Ron Jackson

Custer County commissioners reached a $10 million settlement Monday in a 2007 federal lawsuit over sexual abuse of 14 female inmates by former sheriff Mike Burgess and some deputies.

Former Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess is shown in this Jan. 17, 2009, file photo as he arrives at the Major County Courthouse in Fairview. BY PAUL HELLSTERN, OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVE

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Custer County taxpayers will ultimately pay for the $10 million settlement through property taxes. Payments will be spread over three years, likely beginning with new tax bills in November.

Residents with a property value of $50,000 will pay an additional $90 a year. Those with a property value of $100,000 will pay an additional $180 a year.

SOURCE: CUSTER COUNTY TREASURER KAREN CLANTON

Taxpayers will ultimately pay the bill, which will be applied to property taxes. Payments will be spread out over the next three years, County Treasurer Karen Clanton said.

"Mike Burgess?” said Darrel Dupree, chairman of the commissioners. "I hope I never see him again. Ten million dollars is a lot of money, and it’s a shame the people of Custer County will have to pay.”

Burgess, 57, is serving 79 years in prison. He was convicted in January 2009 of 13 felony charges related to female inmates and drug court participants, including kidnapping, forcible oral sodomy, sexual battery and rape.

"I don’t feel sorry for the people of Custer County,” said Sue McDonough, mother of victim Brenda Brown. "Those people voted him into office, and they knew what was going on at that jail. The deputies knew, the commissioners knew, everyone knew, and still they re-elected him.

"Maybe now they’ll think twice next time before voting someone into office.”

Brenda Brown, 44, was one of the victims who testified during the criminal trial, which was moved to Major County because of intense media coverage. Brown told jurors how Burgess threatened to send her to prison for violating the rules of her drug court if she didn’t perform sexual acts on him.

Brown detailed how Burgess pulled his truck off U.S. Highway 183 near a roadside barn Jan. 3, 2007, and forced her to perform oral sex. Jurors later found Burgess guilty of four charges — totaling 23 years in prison — related to that episode.

"I’m on top of the world right now,” said Brown, who noted her share of the settlement is nearly $2 million. "I think I’m gonna buy some rental properties, and make some investments, maybe buy some gold and silver.

"I’m also planning to open a transitional home in Branson (Mo.) for people in recovery.”

Victims Joy Mason, Melissa Espinosa and Brown will divide the bulk of the settlement, said Greg Williams, an attorney with the Garrett Law Office in Tulsa. Williams declined to discuss specific figures, but Brown said she and Mason will receive nearly $2 million apiece, while Espinosa will receive nearly $1 million.

Similar lawsuit in Delaware County

The Garrett Law Office will receive half of the $10 million settlement, Brown said. The firm is engaged in a similar civil lawsuit in Delaware County where 24 former female inmates are plaintiffs.

In Custer County, deputies were accused of violating the civil rights of female inmates by forcing them to expose their breasts for basic items such as toothbrushes and soap. No deputies ever faced criminal charges.

"I’m just glad we were finally able to cut through all the conspiracy and corruption and get those women what they deserve,” Williams said. "This has drug on long enough.”

Attorneys filed the lawsuit in October 2007. Burgess resigned in April 2008 after 35 felony counts were filed by special prosecutor Mike Boring of Woodward.

Since then, Brown said, her life has been "a nightmare.”

"I use to have nightmares about Mike Burgess,” Brown said. "After he raped me, I was afraid to go anywhere by myself. So I didn’t. You know, nobody ever stood up to him before. But now he’s where he should be — in prison.

"If anything good came out of this, it was that it scared me straight. I’ve cleaned up my life, and now I’m very happy.”

First Amendment protects post on cop-rating website

By Paul Wright

A Florida federal judge has struck down the law that resulted in the arrest of an individual who published the contact information of a police officer in a website critique.

Robert Brayshaw brought the lawsuit after he was arrested in 2008 for posting a series of comments about a Tallahassee police officer on RateMyCop.com, a website that allows users to rate and comment on police officers. One of Brayshaw's comments included the home address, telephone number, and e-mail address of Tallahassee police officer Annette Garrett -- information that was all publicly available in other places.

Brayshaw was charged with violating a Florida statute that prohibited publishing the home address or telephone number of police officers with "the intent to intimidate, hinder, or interrupt any law enforcement officer in the legal performance of his or her duties." Although the charges were later dismissed, Brayshaw brought a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law.

Judge Richard Smoak ruled that Brayshaw's comment was protected speech and that the law was unconstitutional.

Smoak noted that although the First Amendment does not protect certain categories of speech, such as true threats or speech indicating a violent intent, Brayshaw's speech did not fall into any of these categories.

"Simply publishing an officer's phone number, address, and e-mail address is not in itself a threat or serious expression of an intent to commit an unlawful act of violence," said the judge.

Jury selection begins in Jon Burge torture trial

Ex-Chicago police detective charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, after allegedly lying about torture of suspects

By Matthew Walberg, Tribune reporter

One of the city's most persistent and troubling scandals reaches federal court Thursday when jury selection begins in the trial of Jon Burge, the former Chicago police detective accused of overseeing the torture of suspects.

For nearly two decades, Burge and his detectives allegedly sent dozens of men to prison on the basis of coerced confessions, deepening bitterness between police and minorities and helping inspire former Gov. George Ryan to reject capital punishment and empty the state's death row.

But Burge, now 62, living on a police pension and reportedly in poor health, will not be tried for any act of torture. While federal prosecutors say they will prove that he and his detectives abused suspects, the statute of limitations expired long ago. Instead, Burge stands accused of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying in 2003 when he denied under oath he knew of or participated in abuse of suspects.

The fact that Burge is facing any kind of criminal charge is seen by some as a long-overdue opportunity for vindication.

"Jon Burge standing trial means a lot to the African-American community, and it means a lot to me, that finally some justice will come out of this ordeal of torture," said Mark Clements, 45, an alleged victim of Burge's officers who was released from prison in August after 28 years behind bars.

But Ronald Kitchen, 51, another alleged victim who was freed in July after 21 years in prison, isn't satisfied.

"Who wouldn't want to see him put in the same cage he put us in?" Kitchen said. "But unless he gets up on the stand and admits what he did, there's no justice in it for me."

Burge is expected to attend Thursday's session in Judge Joan Lefkow's courtroom, where potential jurors will be given a questionnaire. On May 24, they will return for the completion of jury selection.

Burge's attorney, Richard Beuke, declined to allow his client to be interviewed by the Tribune but said the former detective will "vehemently deny all these allegations."

"He is looking forward to an opportunity to finally face these people in court with a jury that will hopefully understand the law and the evidence and do their best to give him a fair trial in light of all the negative publicity that plaintiff's lawyers and politicians have feasted upon at his expense," Beuke said. "We want to make sure that this trial is tried in the courtroom."

The allegations against Burge have been raised in many courtrooms already — in suspects' criminal trials and in their later civil trials seeking compensation for alleged torture. The city has paid out millions in legal fees and settlements.

Burge, however, had avoided any criminal charges until he was arrested at his Florida home in October 2008 on perjury and obstruction charges related to a 2003 lawsuit by Madison Hobley.

Hobley was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for a 1987 arson that killed his wife, son and five other people. Amid allegations that officers under Burge's command tortured Hobley, planted evidence and lied at his trial, Gov. Ryan pardoned him and Hobley filed a federal lawsuit. Burge, in a written response to questions in the case, denied that he knew of or participated in any abuse or torture — statements that federal prosecutors say were lies and are the basis for the new charges.

The Chicago City Council approved settlements totaling as much as $19.8 million for Hobley and three other men who said they were tortured by Burge and his detectives.

The allegations against Burge and the detectives — including beatings, electric shock, Russian roulette and near-suffocation — have been costly to Chicago's international reputation as well as its treasury.

In 2006, an investigation by a special Cook County prosecutor concluded that Burge and his officers obtained dozens of confessions through torture, but found that prosecutors had no recourse because of the statute of limitations. A coalition of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, lambasted the special prosecutor's findings, saying the investigation glossed over the alleged abuse and protected the police and prosecutors who did nothing about it.

Mayor Richard Daley was state's attorney when allegations against Burge began to surface, and has for years fended off accusations by defense lawyers and activists that he knew of the abuse but did nothing.

The city finally moved to fire Burge in 1993 over the alleged torture of convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson. Soon after, the Fraternal Order of Police — the union that represents Chicago police officers — was denied permission to enter a float in the South Side Irish Parade titled "Travesties of Justice" to honor Burge and several other officers accused of mistreating blacks.

Some say the image of Chicago police officers has been another casualty of the Burge scandal.

"When you undermine the essential credibility of a police officer, you create a very damaging and very negative impact," said Mark Rotert, a former state and federal prosecutor now in private practice.

"It's important for the police and for everybody in the criminal justice system to sort of operate on the belief that there are lines that a sworn police officer will not cross. If there's credible reason to suppose that one or more policemen routinely crossed those lines, every cop is hurt by that.

"We need to be a society that solves its crimes without resorting to torture," Rotert said.

mwalberg@tribune.com

Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune

Activist spied on? Man wins settlement

By Mike Carter

Seattle Times staff reporter

A 22-year-old anti-war activist from The Evergreen State College will get $169,000 as part of a settlement with the State Patrol and two other law-enforcement agencies over allegations that their officers engaged in political spying and harassment.

Philip Chinn was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving by state patrol troopers in May 2007, while traveling to an anti-war protest at the Port of Grays Harbor in Aberdeen.

According to court documents, Chinn was pulled over after police had broadcast an "attempt to locate" his car, which was described as containing "three known anarchists."

The criminal charge was dismissed after tests showed Chinn had no alcohol or drugs in his system. Chinn sued last year, alleging false arrest and violations of his right to free speech.

The State Patrol has agreed to pay Chinn $109,000, and the city of Aberdeen and Grays Harbor County each will pay $30,000 toward the settlement. The three agencies have also agreed to pay his lawyer's fees, which the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimates at more than $375,000.

The ACLU took up Chinn's cause because it believes the case and other allegations suggest that spying on dissidents by local enforcement, at the behest of the military, "appears to be far more pervasive than we had thought," said ACLU spokesman Doug Honig.

A spokesman for Joint Base Lewis-McChord says the military did not provide any intelligence to law enforcement in the Chinn case.

In the spring of 2007, Chinn was a student at Evergreen and was involved in protesting the use of civilian ports for military purposes, according to one of his attorneys, Lawrence Hildes. Materiel intended for Iraq was being moved through the ports at Aberdeen, Olympia and elsewhere, and there had been a number of public protests.

Documents filed by Chinn's attorneys state that "state and local law-enforcement agencies, military entities and others" responded to the protests by developing "incident-action plans" aimed at disrupting them. The service branches involved allegedly include the Army, the Navy and the Coast Guard, according to court pleadings.

"Based on assumptions regarding individuals associated with anarchist philosophies, the Action Plan was designed to deter and prevent individuals believed to be 'anarchists' or associated with anarchists from participating in the anti-war demonstrations," according to the documents.

The lawsuit alleges that Chinn was under surveillance when he left his house in Olympia headed for a protest in Aberdeen on May 6, 2007.

Aberdeen Police Assistant Chief Dave Timmons acknowledged that his detectives had been watching Chinn and others as the city geared up to respond to the planned protest. Similar protests in Tacoma and Olympia earlier had turned violent, with arrests and vandalism, and Timmons said "we wanted to be aware of what their plans were."

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"We wanted to know what they were bringing to Grays Harbor," he said.

Timmons said the Aberdeen police had been alerted to Chinn and others through "various intelligence sources," including other law-enforcement agencies and the military.

"We worked with both," he said.

Joseph Piek, the civilian chief of external communications with Joint Base Lewis-McChord, said that while the base has "a long-standing, close, cooperative relationship with local law-enforcement agencies, and we exchange information regularly," its law-enforcement officials "did not provide any information related to Mr. Chinn to any law-enforcement entity."

It was the Aberdeen detectives who asked for the "attempt to locate" for Chinn's car, the assistant chief said.

That broadcast directed officers to look for Chinn's green Ford Taurus, which was described as carrying the trio of anarchists. A trooper spotted the car, recognized it, and pulled it over. According to court documents, the trooper stated in his written report that Chinn was "braking erratically" and driving below the speed limit.

While troopers smelled no alcohol or marijuana, according to the documents, Chinn was subjected to field-sobriety tests, which he passed, according to the documents. He was arrested after one trooper concluded he was high based on "raised taste buds and a white coating on the back of his tongue," according to the pleadings.

A blood test vindicated Chinn; however, Hildes, his attorney, says the county prosecutor still refused to dismiss the charge until the defense learned of the existence of the "attempt-to-locate" dispatch tape.

Bob Calkins, a spokesman for the State Patrol, said the agency believes the trooper acted appropriately and said he was not disciplined.

"But I think we realize that, given the facts, a jury might have seen it the other way," Calkins said.

Honig and attorneys working with the ACLU say the Chinn case is disturbing, but is only one of a number of stories surfacing about allegations of law-enforcement and military surveillance of political activists.

Another lawsuit filed in January by Hildes — and which Honig says is being closely monitored by the ACLU — involves members of an anti-war group in Olympia. They allege that a civilian employee of the Force Protection Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord infiltrated their group. His identity was revealed through a public-disclosure request.

The employee has since been outed as a "professional informant" on a website. That individual and his civilian boss are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Piek, the base spokesman, said the Army has opened an investigation into those allegations and that he could not discuss them further. He declined to discuss the employee, saying that the man's work was "sensitive." A telephone message left at the man's home was not returned Tuesday.

Hildes alleges in the January lawsuit that the military has attempted to skirt the Reconstruction-era Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits federal troops from performing law-enforcement functions.

"What we're concerned has happened is that, somehow, the act of dissent itself has become criminalized," Hildes said. "How it got from monitoring a threat to disrupting people not otherwise engaged in wrongdoing, I can't explain."

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706

Convicted former DPS trooper dies in custody

Man had complained of shortness of breath, officials say
By Mary Ann Cavazos, Jaime Powell

ROBSTOWN, Texas — A former Department of Public Safety trooper sentenced last week to prison for stealing from Hispanic motorists, died at a Robstown private detention facility Thursday, state officials and the prison confirmed.

Michael Anthony Higgins, 42, complained of shortness of breath Wednesday night and died at 7:32 a.m. Thursday, according to Texas Commission on Jail Standards executive director Adan Muñoz.

Higgins was convicted in January of depriving several Hispanic motorists of their civil rights by stealing their money.

U.S. District Judge John D. Rainey sentenced him last week to four years in prison. He also had ordered Higgins to pay $850 restitution -- the amount he was convicted of having stolen -- and serve a year of supervised release after his prison time.

Higgins was accused of stopping motorists who appeared to be Hispanic and then stealing their money, usually in amounts of several hundred dollars.

The motorists complained, which prompted an undercover operation that led to his arrest last year. A federal grand jury indicted Higgins in April 2009 on four incidents from March, April and May of 2008.

His attorney Charles W. Cromwell said he hadn't been aware that Higgins had any health issues.

Cromwell added that as far as he knew Higgins hadn't planned to appeal.

"He was just going to settle in and do his time," he said.

An autopsy is pending, according to state and prison officials.

The state jail commission has asked for a death in custody notification form and several other documents, including an inmate screening form that was completed at intake and cell check logs, in relation to the incident, Muñoz said.