Jon Burge in Prison (Photo courtesy of A Peoples Law Office)

I want Jon Burge’s pension.

Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge was entrusted to protect but instead he and his Chicago Police Officers tortured over 100 Black men.

Commander Burge and his crew of Chicago Police used torture to force confessions to crimes that 100 over Black men did not commit. To this day some of these men are still in jail. Some were imprisoned for 20-30 years before finally getting their freedom.

Jon Burge because of the statute of limitations was not found guilty of committing torture.  He got 4 and a half years for perjury and was out in less than that.

Burge is a felon.

He’s a thug who cost the city of Chicago over $120 Million dollars. His court cases, abuses, acts of torture, and legal fees cost our city $120 Million.

Burge is a criminal.

A criminal that is still getting his $4,000 a month pension from the city.

So I want Jon Burge’s pension.

I want his pension to go to the Chicago Torture Justice Center. A center created to help victims of police brutality and torture. Victims past and present. The Torture Justice Center works with the Burge torture survivors and helps connect them to schools and organizations so they can share their stories of survival.

I want Jon Burge’s pension to go to the torture survivors. These survivors had the foresight to have what happened to them be taught in Chicago Public Schools as part of the Reparations Won curriculum taught to all 8th and 10th graders.

I want Jon Burges pension to go to the activists and students. Activists who fought to help the torture survivors get justice for torture then. Activists and students who are now fighting against the proposed construction of a new $95 Million cop academy on the west side of our city. Activists and students who realize the police don’t need new concrete for a $95 Million building to make changes to police training.

The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has already cost the city nearly 1/2 of a Billion dollars for its continued acts of police brutality. Why should CPD be rewarded for harming citizens with a new building? Prove you have cleaned up your act CPD, then maybe after schools are fully funded, neighborhoods are revitalized, then CPD can ask for more funding.

I want Jon Burge’s pension and that $95 Million earmarked for the police academy to fund jobs in communities on the South and West sides.

To fund schools.

To fund clinics.

To invest in quality of life not the criminalization of it.

I want Jon Burge’s pension to be put into a new ad. campaign. Let’s call this campaign “Education Not Incarceration” or “Invest in Our Neighborhoods Not Our Prisons” or “Jobs and Opportunity will Help Everyone Not More Police”.

This ad. campaign can help educate the public on the possibilities we have in Chicago to really improve our city and options our city has with its budget. (Remember the Chicago Police Department gets 40% of our entire city’s budget per year.)

Prisons and police do not make our neighborhoods safe.

Jobs, fully funded schools, neighborhoods with services, resources, and opportunities do.

So let’s create a fund. Let’s call it the Chicago Neighborhood Investment fund. And let’s make the first check deposited in this fund be Jon Burge’s pension. Or let’s do even better. Let’s make Rahm reallocate his $95 Million check earmarked for the cop academy to deposit in this account instead.

Invest in Our Children.

Don’t Close Schools.

Fund Communities

Not more police.

Education Not Incarceration.

*Credit for this idea comes from Black Lives Matter Chicago and their campaign to stop former Chicago Police Officer Dante Servin from receiving a pension after his murder of Rekia Boyd.

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