Chicago City Council to Vote on Burge Police Torture Package on Wednesday

The city of Chicago will vote on May 6, 2015, on the Burge Police Violations Package that would provide victims of Chicago police torture financial relief and career assistance, Gay Liberation Network spokesperson Andy Thayer told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON, April 29 (Sputnik) — On April 14, 2015, the city of Chicago announced it would offer a reparations package to victims of torture under former Police Commander Jon Burge’s tenure during the 1960s and 1970s. The package would include a formal apology, a $5.5 million fund, as well as job training and tuition for the victims of torture and their families.

“The package will be taken up by the Chicago City Council at their May 6 meeting,” Thayer said on Wednesday. “We [Gay Liberation Network] plan on packing the city council, and when the Mayor [Rahm Emanuel] says it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.”

Thayer said the package is likely to pass.

A protestor stands outside a police facility called Homan Square, demanding an investigation into a media report denied by police that the site functions as an off-the-books interrogation compound, in Chicago, Illinois, March 5, 2015

© REUTERS / Jim Young

“I’m happy to say we in the Gay Liberation Network have supported the reparations ordinance,” Thayer said. “We have actively supported the reparations ordinance.”

Thayer noted it took hard work over the past 30 years to move the issue forward to where it is today.

“The consciousness about police brutality and this conduct is light years away from where it used to be when people believed police brutality didn’t exist,” he said.

Thayer concluded that dealing with the abuses at the Chicago police’s interrogation “black site” facility at Homan Square will not take as long as dealing with the Burge human rights violations.