Office of the Independent Blogger

The Chicago Reader is a free, weekly newspaper that I pick up every Thursday as I exit the train on Western on my way home, and it runs some of the best articles I read all week. Journalistically, and editorially, it’s a solid paper and no, I haven’t gotten work advertising for them for the summer — I was just so floored by this piece that I had to mention the Reader. It’s a reporter’s chronicle of a Chicago Police Torture Scandal from decades back until today, and it goes all the way to Mayor Richard Daley. It disturbs me to read about, as torture in American society is simply acceptable, and the abuse of domestic prisoners is a hideous practice for which all the involved should face enormous consequences. That, however, wasn’t the case, as those who knew about it — including the then-State’s Attorney Daley — did nothing to stop it, and others buried it through cover-up. Making matters a tad more disgusting, those accused of torturing suspects within the Police Department have been pensioned by the state and are living off this, and, while a Special Prosecutor has been digging into the entire ordeal, the statute of limitations with regard to state laws have long passed.

So, ultimately, those who would turn our justice system into a third world prison system face no consequence unless someone can do something about it. Fortunately, there is someone who can do something about it, and his name is Patrick Fitzgerald.

Victims’ lawyers don’t expect the special prosecutor’s report to contain indictments. They speculate that Egan will say that the statute of limitations precludes state charges, and that the prosecutors’ job was made extremely difficult when so many witnesses—police officers, former prosecutors, and perhaps even sitting judges and active prosecutors—took the Fifth rather than testify before the grand jury. But Egan’s report may provide the pry bar needed to get new trials. It may also lead to federal prosecutions for civil rights violations, violations of the RICO statute, and possibly perjury. The key audience for the report, after an investment of four years and millions of dollars, may be the U.S. attorney, the person who can make a case for prosecutions on the federal level.

If Fitzgerald can prosecute, he should, absolutely. I have total faith in Patrick Fitzgerald, and it makes me proud to have a US Attorney in my state to be proud of.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2006 at 10:31 am and is filed under Outside Retort (Current Affairs).