Chicago police torture victims receive $5.5 million in reparations

Mayor Emanuel said Tuesday he does not believe the Justice Department’s investigation into the Chicago Police Department should be broadened to include the city’s law department. And the mayor gave a vote of confidence to his top attorney, saying Stephen Patton would ensure the city’s legal team is operating “at the highest level that the public should expect”.

A prominent Chicago lawyer tied to Mayor Rahm Emmanul abruptly resigned Monday (Jan. 4) after a judge ruled that he hid evidence in the police-involved fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man five years ago. He laughed and did not directly answer the question.

Over the last 44 years, over 100 men have come forward accusing Jon Burge, a former Chicago Police Department detective and commander, and his officers of beatings, “shocking them on their lips and genitals with a cattle prod, staging mock executions, and suffocating them to elicit false confessions”, according to Vice News.

Chicago took a huge step in trying to make amends with survivors of police torture today by sending out 57 checks worth a total of over $5.5 million.

CHICAGO (AP) – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is on the defensive again, dealing with the fallout from a judge’s opinion accusing a top city lawyer of hiding evidence in another case involving a fatal police shooting.

The questioning quickly turned to other hot button issues affecting the city right now, including yesterday’s abrupt resignation of Senior Corporation Counsel Jordan Marsh.

But a lawyer for the Pinex family, Steve Greenberg, said Marsh’s actions reflect on the city law department as a whole.

“That’s not possible when you’re in front of a court and getting a judge’s ruling”, the mayor said while speaking to reporters at an unrelated event on the West Side.

But Emanuel didn’t start off taking that position.

Federal prosecutors last month began an investigation in the Chicago Police Department following public uproar over a series of police shootings.

Changes are coming to the agency that acts as a Chicago Police Department watchdog.

On Tuesday, Emanuel’s immediate response mirrored his initial positions in the McDonald controversy.

“I’m not going to say more than that right now, because there’s a lot of investigation going on, but I’m very disappointed”, Rauner said. “Once the decision was made, the lawyer and the city parted ways”.

The judge granted the Pinex family a new trial and ordered the city to pay for the family’s attorney fees. Initially, it’s alleged that Marsh said he had found out about the recording that day, but then later said he learned about it the week before the trial. At the time, the officers claimed they pulled Pinex over because his auto matched the description of one seen at a recent murder scene. But attorneys for people who have accused the police department of wrongdoing allege that the case shows the city plays a role in covering up for police misconduct.