There are many wrongfully convicted and their
children who would be voting if they could. Please
do your neighbor a favor and punch 270 on Tuesday.

Deaf to the Screams
By John Conroy
The Chicago Reader

Richard Devine defended Jon Burge on torture
charges when he was in private practice at Phelan,
Pope & John in 1985. The City of Chicago paid
$800,000 for this law firms services to defend the
police who were brought up on charges of torture."


"In the decade of 1993-2003 there were 28,576
complaints were filed with OPS. The Reader asked
Dick Devine to name a Chicago Police Officer
prosecuted. John Gorman, Communications Director,
named none in a written response.
According to Lori Lightfoot, Chief Administrator
of OPS, 400 cases have been sent to the Cook
County State's Attorney's Office since January 1,
1999. Only 'one' prosecution has resulted, but it
was for 'off duty' behavior of an officer.

Nineteen men claimed to have been tortured when
Dick Devine was First Assistant Cook County
State's Attorney Dick Devine defended Jon Burge
for 24.5 billing hours, when charges were brought
against him for torture.

From the 1970s and into the 1990s, people have
been forced into confessions by Chicago Police
Officers through physical torture. Most of these
crimes caused by Chicago Police Officers occurred
at Area Two when Jon Burge was commander. Once Jon
Burge was transferred to Area Three, along with 60
of his sergeants and detectives, torture
complaints followed as well. Richard Devine was
First Assistant State's Attorney at the time.
During the years of 1993 through 2002, 28576
complaints were filed with the Office of
Professional Standards (OPS). The Reader asked
Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine to
name a Chicago Police Officer that had been
prosecuted. John Gorman, Communications Director
for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office,
named none in a written response to the Reader.


Black offenders face stiffest drug sentences
By Alden K. Loury
The Chicago Reporter

"Both Clyde Moses and Paul Jones have used drugs
for more than 20 years….Both men have been
arrested for possession of heroin. Both have been
convicted. One is black, the other is white. But
only one of them served prison time. Moses, a
41-year-old African American man from Chicago's
West Side, was sent to prison after being caught
with drugs while on probation. Jones, a
35-year-old white man from a northwest suburb who
asked that his real name not be used, received
probation after four convictions-the last two
while on probation….What happened to Moses and
Jones appears to have happened to thousands of
other people in Cook County. Statistics show
whites often get less severe penalties than blacks
and Latinos for the same drug crimes, according to
an analysis of six years of court records by The
Chicago Reporter….The data prompted the Cook
County State's Attorney Office to conduct its own
review of drug sentencing data [in 2002]….Blacks
and Latinos with multiple drug convictions or
prison records received harsher penalties than
whites with similar criminal histories….Whites
with three or more drug convictions were sentenced
to probation more often than prison, while blacks
and Latinos went to prison more often….Whites are
three times as likely as blacks to receive a
special probation that allows a charge to be
expunged if the probation was successfully
completed…. 'The Reporter study has revealed
statistics that bear further scrutiny,' Cook
County State's Attorney Richard A. Devine said in
a written statement….In the mid-1990s, Jones was
convicted three times for heroin possession, less
than a gram each time. He has never spent a day in
prison. 'I guess I got pretty lucky. I got
probation on probation on probation.'"

Man Sues Chicago Police Over Homosexual Beating
By Emily Hiser
Medill News Service

"Advocates for a Chicago man, who was allegedly
beaten by off-duty Chicago police officers last
November because he was presumed to be gay, urged
Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine
Thursday to file criminal charges against the
officers…. 'For too long, [Richard] Devine has
taken a pass at pursuing hate crimes,' said
Chicago Anti-Bashing Network co-founder Andy
Thayer during a press conference outside the Daley
Center. John Gorman, a spokesman for Devine, said
the office does not comment on what is or is not
under investigation. 'When there is sufficient
evidence, we will bring charges,' Gorman said….
'As long as State's Attorney [Richard] Devine
continues to take a pass on criminally charging
officers for brutality, the message to the ranks
will be that anti-gay hate and brutality is okay,'
[Bob] Schwartz said, [a Chicago Anti-Bashing
Network member]."


Misdemeanor Charges Against Jeremiah Mearday
Dropped
No Charges To Be Filed Against Chicago Police
Officers
Cook County State's Attorney Office

Misdemeanor Charges Against Jeremiah Mearday
Dropped "After an extensive investigation,
misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest against
Jeremiah Mearday have been dropped, Cook County
State's Attorney Richard A. Devine said today.
Devine also announced that no charges will be
filed against two Chicago police officers in the
September 26, 1997, incident…. 'After a review and
an analysis of all the evidence and
facts-statements, physical evidence and
transcripts-we have determined that there is
insufficient evidence to continue the prosecution
of the September 26th case against Mr. Mearday,'
Devine said. 'The officers have claimed their 5th
Amendment rights and would not be available to
testify as witnesses.'"



Prosecute Police Misconduct, Protestors Demand
Edited by Curtis Black
Community Media Workshop Newstips

Prosecute Police Misconduct, Protestors Demand
"State's Attorney Richard Devine's failure to
prosecute police officers charged with misconduct
is the focus of a demonstration Saturday in Rogers
Park by a broad array of anti-police brutality and
anti-death penalty groups. Among their grievances
is Devine's refusal to reopen cases of 12 men on
Death Row and 60 others serving long sentences
based on confessions allegedly coerced by police
torture under Commander Jon Burge, who was fired
in 1993."

The Current Debate on Illinois' Youth Drug Laws
Justice for Illinois Youth!

A partial reform bill, HB 2087, supported by
State's Attorney Richard Devine fails to return
all youth charged with drug offenses to juvenile
court….99% of the youth sent to adult criminal
court under Illinois' youth drug laws are youth of
color….Of the 259 youth automatically transferred
to adult court from Cook County last year under
current law, only 1 was White….It was Illinois
that started a worldwide youth justice movement
and founded a separate justice system to
rehabilitate youth!...Youth tried as adults are
often denied crucial employment and educational
opportunities, such as denial of federal student
financial aid."

Gay Victory Against Brutal Sheriffs
By Bill Massey
Workers World

"After more than two-and-a-half years of struggle,
the Cook County Board approved a $65,000
settlement for Terry Phalen on June 5. Deputy
sheriffs at the Cook County Jail had savagely
assaulted the Chicago gay man on Oct. 27, 1999.
Phalen had suffered hairline fractures in both
wrists and two ribs and bruises over most of his
body….The assault on Phalen was part of a pattern
of systematic physical attacks by guards at the
intake jail. For one or two hours after he was
attacked, Phalen lay crumpled on the floor.
Phalen, who is white, witnessed two assaults on
African-American inmates by the guards. 'There was
another, younger Black guy in his twenties who
they knocked to the floor and beat so much that
there was a big pool of blood. They kicked him
when he was down. Then there was an older Black
man, he had to be 50 or 55. They broke his glasses
when they hit him in the face, and kicked him in
the back when he went to retrieve his glasses,'
Phalen said. With his victorious civil suit, filed
by Hoft and Joey Mogul of the People's Law Office,
Phalen will finally get help rebuilding his life
after the brutal beating. But he got far less than
the full justice he deserves. The bigoted deputies
never faced criminal prosecution from Cook County
State's Attorney [Richard] Devine….The guards
remain employed by the Sheriff's Department, where
they are free to carry out their violent attacks
on gay people and people of color, and are even
encouraged to do so by the system's inaction.
State's Attorney Devine has yet to prosecute a
single Chicago cop for brutality against a
civilian. But he routinely prosecutes the victims
of police torture, 10 of whom sit on Illinois
death row while 60 others are serving long prison
sentences. Public protest forced the firing of
Police Commander [Jon] Burge in 1993 for his
20-year reign of torturing prisoners. That was how
he obtained 'confessions.' Yet Devine has refused
to prosecute Burge and fights tooth and nail
against reopening the cases of Burge's victims.


Chicago Police Killing of Two Black Students Stirs
Outrage
By Emile Schepers
People's Weekly World Newspaper Online

"Two more killings of African Americans by Chicago
police officers have increased the already intense
pressure here for a complete shakeup of this
city's scandal-plagued force. In the latest
incidents two young African-American college
students-one man and one woman-were shot down
after traffic stops. On June 4, police made a
traffic stop of a car in which LaTanya Haggerty,
a26-year-old computer analyst, was the front-seat
passenger. According to police, when they
approached the car, they saw that Haggerty had
'dropped something' and a policewoman opened fire,
killing Haggerty. What she dropped turned out not
to be a pistol, but, depending on whose account
you believe, either a cell phone or both a cell
phone and a padlock. [Haggerty's] relatives say
she only had a cell phone in her hand. Then on
June 6, Robert Russ, 22, a Northwestern University
honor student and popular football player, was
shot and killed after another traffic stoop,
barely a week before his scheduled
graduation….Police claim that Russ tied to grab a
policeman's gun by the barrel when police broke
his car windows after he refused to get out after
a traffic stop, causing the gun to discharge and
kill him….Police superintended Terry Hillard,
ironically cornered by the press at an 'anti-gun
violence' rally, immediately called the Haggerty
killing justified. After the Russ shooting, police
quickly issued the same 'justified'
statement….[An] African-American attorney,
Standish Willis of the Chicago Conference of Black
Lawyers, demanded…Cook County [State's] Attorney
Richard Devine…and Hillard be held accountable for
their failure to do anything about police
brutality in Chicago, in spite of the fact that
these 'outrages violate state and federal laws.'"

There are many wrongfully convicted and their
children who would be voting if they could. Please
do your neighbor a favor and punch 270 on Tuesday.