Privilege Has Its Memberships, Ctd.

Chicago Edition.

At an early age it was decided that Michael Daley would become a lawyer, like his famous father, Richard J. Daley.

He went to St. Ignatius High School, the finest Catholic school in the city, and Loyola School of Law.

Because he received student deferments, then later joined a weekend reserve unit, his law studies were not interrupted by the military.

And a couple of years ago, Michael Daley entered private practice.

Although he was not an especially brilliant student, Michael has had a wonderfully successful law career. The firm of Daley, Reilly and Daley (his brother, Richard M.) has all the clients it can handle.

It is not surprising that the firm should be prospering. The name 'Reilly' is magic in Chicago.

"Slats Grobnik and Some Friends" -- Mike Royko, October 28, 1971

I thought a little Royko might make a nice, contextualizing lead-in for this Chicago Tribune story written 40 years after Mike's column.

Emanuel says city obligated to pay for Daley defense in Burge case

By Kristen Mack
Clout Street
August 10, 2011

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today said the city has an obligation to pay for former Mayor Richard Daley’s legal defense if he is sued for alleged police brutality conspiracies that happened under former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge.

The city will not, however, run up unnecessary legal bills to defend Daley or Burge, Emanuel said.

“We’re not going to be reckless and let the meter run legally,” Emanuel said.

The new mayor added that he believes Burge, who was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for lying about the torture and abuse of criminal suspects, should lose his pension.

A July ruling by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer applies to just one of several lawsuits filed in the Burge brutality cases. It means attorneys for plaintiff Michael Tillman can depose Daley, according to Flint Taylor, an attorney for Tillman.

Taylor has scheduled a Sept. 8 deposition, but the city has filed a motion asking Pallmeyer to reconsider her ruling.

Daley, the Cook County state's attorney for much of the 1980s, has been named in three other brutality lawsuits stemming from the torture and abuse that Burge and other detectives are believed to have perpetrated years ago on dozens of African-American men in Chicago — some of whom gave coerced confessions. But as they did in the Tillman case, the city moved to remove Daley from the lawsuits.
...

I can't think of a single, upright Chicago citizen who would not opine in the collegial privacy of a local public house that of course Hizzoner knew something incredibly depraved was up back when Burge was delivering hot, fresh, made-to-order confessions and Daley was marking time as Illinois' chief prosecutor en route to the job of sitting at his daddy's desk on the 5th floor of City Hall.

Also not for nothing, but maybe a metaphor that spreads its arms wide enough to us both the words "reckless" and "meter" when describing the dough the City may have to spend to pay its way out of one of Da Mare's little fiascoes was not the best-thought-out sentence construction ever to waft from the office of Da New Mare.

This is why you have 1,000 Public Information Officers scampering all over Mordor, Rahm.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Jury convicts state-sponsored terrorist thug on all counts.

From the Sun Times:

Jurors convict Burge of perjury, obstruction

June 28, 2010

BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Staff Reporter

Former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge — the face of police torture allegations in Chicago for decades — was found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice by a federal jury this afternoon.

When the guilty-on-all-counts verdict was announced, Burge did not visibly react. The courtroom had been warned against outbursts.

But people standing outside the courtroom cheered — including attorney Flint Taylor, who has been pursuing justice against Burge for years.

“We’re totally elated at the verdict,” he said. “It’s 30 years too late. We still have plenty to do to get people out of jail. He should have been convicted of torture not perjury — but this is a good day.”
...

For those of you who have not been following this story at the indispensable "Beachwood Reporter", well, first, shame on you.

Second, what you need to know is that Jon Burge was a powerful Chicago detective and commander who, over the course of his career, tortured confessions out of over 200 suspects. In addition to other factors, the volume and credibility of reports of Burge's sadism and corruption led then-Governor George Ryan to institute a moratorium in the death penalty.

At the time, a certain State's Attorney with a Famous Name  is alleged to have turned a blind eye to information he possessed regarding the illegal behavior of Burge and his flunkies.

From Wikipedia:

The investigation revealed that in three of the cases prosecutors could have proved beyond a reasonable doubt in court that torture by the police involving five former officers including Burge had occurred.  Half of the claims were deemed credible, but because of the statute of limitations no indictments were handed out. Mayor Daley and all law enforcement officials who had been deposed were excluded from the report.

Yes, the State's Attorney who showed such remarkably poor civic and legal judgment grew up to be the Honorable Richard M. Daley, Mayor-for-life of the City of Chicago.  Who says there are no second...or third...or fourth acts in American life?    Provided, of course,

you are in The Club.

As for, Burge, he is a thug and a monster: a throwback to a previous era when cops in Chicago could beat, maim and murder almost at-will. An age which some of our more atavistic fellow citizens still look back on fondly as the good old days.

Burge will never serve a day in stir for torture, but like Al Capone -- who was never even charged with any of the hundreds of murders he ordered and dozens he personally committed -- he will now rot behind bars for lesser crimes.

It is something.