From a comment by Kevin Sandefur to yesterday's post about cops torturing suspects in Chicago:
When local law enforcement itself is under investigation, it frequently becomes necessary for the feds to step in to prevent a cover-up. And I'm guessing that torture probably counts as a civil rights violation, which can be a federal offense.
I haven't followed the details of this as closely as others, so somebody help me out here: when they say the statute of limitations has run out, does that include any federal civil rights violations?
Our commenters are so smart:
A day after the release of a historic report on police torture, attorneys for four men who say their confessions were coerced served federal subpoenas on the special prosecutors Thursday, seeking records of Mayor Richard Daley's testimony.
Attorney Flint Taylor, who represents pardoned Death Row inmate Leroy Orange and convicted murderer Darrell Cannon, said he is pursuing the information as a first step toward naming Daley as a co-defendant in ongoing federal lawsuits against the city, prosecutors and police officers.
Daley was Cook County state's attorney during much of the period in which police torture took place, special prosecutor Edward Egan found. Egan's team interviewed Daley, and the report devoted three of its 290 pages to what Daley knew and did not know about the allegations.
Since this is now clearly both an Illinois and a Federal matter, I'm awaiting Sen. Dick Durbin's scathing attacks on Chicago's pro-torture administration, and Mayor Daley, the pro-torture former State's Attorney and current Mayor, and political booster of Sen. Durbin.
Durbin was one of the few members of Congress that came our against the pro-torture Federal Administration which is his job as a Federal representative. Now you are asking him to do what our State Representatives should be doing. Gordy, you need to get your job descriptions straight. Everyone knows that you do not like Durbin, a point you have made many times. here is a better question for your post, if you are really interested in comments on this torture by politicans.
Ask why there have been so few State Senators and Representatives of any political party crying outrage at this exposure of torture by Chicago police.
Did you not read the article?
In particular, this sentence: "...he is pursuing the information as a first step toward naming Daley as a co-defendant in ongoing federal lawsuits against the city, prosecutors and police officers."
I've emphasized the word "federal" for you.
The real problem here is your intention to use this as a political issue. Are you against the death penalty now since it seems clear that anyone on death row could be there for suspect reasons? How 'bout your opinion of the police in general? If called to jury duty, will you be more skeptical of police testimony? More likely to side with a defendant when it is his word against the cops?
Or is this all a petty political ploy to criticize Durbin because, uh, he's Durbin?
I've always been against the death penalty.
But, yes, this is a political ploy to criticize Durbin, just as Durbin's criticism of Abu Ghraib was a political ploy.
"Durbin was one of the few members of Congress that came our against the pro-torture Federal Administration which is his job as a Federal representative. Now you are asking him to do what our State Representatives should be doing. Gordy, you need to get your job descriptions straight."
But wait! The standard in local, state and federal politics, around CU at least, is that they are all interchangable!
If the Urbana City Council wants to officially voice their opinion against the Iraq war as representatives of Urbana, that's ok? Funny, I thought it was the purpose of Sens Durbin and Obama and Rep Johnson to represent local opinions in federal matters...
"The real problem here is your intention to use this as a political issue."
- The real problem is Democrats ignoring this because it was perpetuated by those who are now powerful Chicago Democrats. There was plenty of justified criticism when some of our military personnel had engaged in torture halfway around the world against foreign nationals. In this case there is silence from the same people when it was discovered to have happened in a major American city against our own citizens. Their silence IS political. Duh.
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Much more recent reports of abuse from Cook County also went by with nary a peep.
[...] Illini Pundit had a good point the other day. Why isn’t the news media asking our “jack-in-the-box” U.S. Senator about the Burge torture report. Since this is now clearly both an Illinois and a Federal matter, I'm awaiting Sen. Dick Durbin's scathing attacks on Chicago's pro-torture administration, and Mayor Daley, the pro-torture former State's Attorney and current Mayor, and political booster of Sen. Durbin. [...]