spoke digital films

Jon Burge, the ringleader of the Chicago Police Department’s history of Abu-Ghraib sytle torture from the 1970’s to the 1990’s, has been arrested and charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.  (I have embedded the trailer to Shielded Brutality below, which is the documentary I’ve been producing documenting this history.)

From chicagobreakingnews.com:
Retired Chicago police Cmdr. Jon [...]

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Before January gets too far along, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on the year past, especially as it relates to the making of my film, Shielded Brutality. In short, last year was hugely successful, and ended on the great note of two and half years of hard work coming together successfully. But before I get to that, let me quickly recap what was accomplished. Here are some of the people I was fortunate enough to film interviews with over the past year discussing the Burge history and criminal justice reform in general.

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View the Quicktime trailer for the documentary film “Shielded Brutality”, which documents a 30-year scandal of police torture and political cover-up in Chicago

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In addition to the disturbing anecdotes of abuse and torture recounted by multiple witnesses, Commissioners continually pressed testifying attorneys and legal scholars for help in figuring out how to punish the perpetrating officers despite the failed investigation by the Special Prosecutors.

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Today, the Cook County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to pass three of four resolutions relating to Chicago’s history of police torture (the Jon Burge Scandal); the fourth has been sent to committee. All of the resolutions were sponsored by Commissioner Earlean Collins. The three resolutions that passed are as follows:

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Dr. Morris’s commentary was deeply thoughtful, insightful, and passionate as he discussed his thoughts regarding Chicago’s history of police torture and issues of social justice in general. I am very grateful to him for taking the time to participate. Below are a couple of stills from the interview:

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The most powerful testimony came from the victims and family members of victims. Much of the hearing was intensely emotional, heart-wrenching, and profoundly compelling. Thirty years of anger, frustration, and outrage boiled forth as witness after witness expressed dismay at the fact that justice has yet to be served in this sordid history.

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Shielded Brutality examines the history of human rights abuses by members of the Chicago Police Department from the early 1970’s through the 1990’s. During this time, scores of African-American men were systematically tortured by brutal and racist means in order to coerce criminal confessions. The accounts are disturbingly similar to the images and accounts from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

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