Justice delayed but not forgotten in Jon Burge case in Chicago?

So, in Chicago, the question whether justice delayed is justice denied surfaces. And consider the costs of this thing, especially in light of our current budget shortfalls...

The Dean's December, by Saul Bellow is a novel that toggles between Chicago and Romania. The Chicago story involves a murder with racial overtones. Published in 1982, the story is a fictionalization of the Andrew Wilson and other Chicago Police torture cases. A horrible murder, but rendered more terrible because the suspects, who were pretty despicable, were tortured by Chicago police, under the command of Jon Burge. Burge was finally arrested today, according to the SunTimes.

Under Cmdr. Burge, torture, using hoods and cattle prods, was practiced regularly. The States Attorney at this time, in the 80s, was none other than Richard Daley, now the mayor of Chicago. Thus the city paid out millions of dollars in investigation fees, but the culprit, Cmdr. Burge, was kept out of harm's way until he is so old it hardly matters, because it seems pretty clear that as States Attorney, Daley must have known about what was going on under Burge, or admit he was an incompetent States Attorney. 

Last year, the city spent nearly $20 million settling four cases lodged by men who were freed from Death Row after saying they were tortured into giving false confessions by or under Burge. The former commander was subpoenaed to give depositions in those lawsuits.
In 2006, a $7 million report by special Cook County prosecutors found that Burge, a former Vietnam veteran, and his underlings tortured criminal suspects for two decades while police brass allegedly looked the other way.
The authors of the report concluded no charges could be filed because time had run out under the statute of limitations.  from the Oct. 21, 2008 SunTimes

Timeline from SunTimes:
History of torture allegations against former Chicago police commander Jon Burge:
1982: Murder suspect Andrew Wilson claims Burge tortured him. Wilson is convicted of killing two police officers.
1980s-90s: A pattern of torture complaints develop against Burge.
1993: Fired from Police Department on Wilson’s claims. Officers working under Burge keep their jobs.
January 2003: Former Gov. George Ryan frees four men from Illinois Death Row after they claimed they were tortured by or under Burge.
2003-2004: Freed inmates file lawsuits against Burge and other police detectives claiming torture. In the course of investigation for the lawsuits, dozens of witnesses give depositions against Burge. Among them: the use of cattle prods and electric shocks administered to suspect by a black box.
September 2004: Burge testifies in civil depositions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right. He is served with a subpoena from a grand jury investigating police torture.
2006: A $7 million study concludes systematic torture occurred under Burge’s regime but concluded no charges could be filed because of statute of limitations.
December 2007: City pays out nearly $20 million to settle the lawsuits brought by the four freed Death Row inmates.
October 2008: Chicago FBI agents arrest Burge at his Florida home.

Other coverage:
Chicago Public Radio

AP source: Fmr. Chicago cop in torture case nabbed
Chicago Tribune, United States - 1 hour ago
AP source: Fmr. Chicago cop in torture case nabbed By MIKE ROBINSON | AP Legal Affairs Writer CHICAGO - A person familiar with the case says the former ...

Ex-Chicago cop Burge arrested in torture cases Chicago Sun-Times, United States - 2 hours ago BY NATASHA KORECKI Staff Reporter TAMPA, Fla. -- Former Police Cmdr. Jon Burge — who has cast a long shadow over the Chicago Police Department because of ...

Former Chicago cop accused of lying about torture Chicago Daily Herald, IL - 29 minutes ago AP The FBI arrested a former high-ranking Chicago police official Tuesday on charges of lying when he said he and homicide detectives under his command ...

Former Chicago police official arrested, charged with lying about ... WTHI, IN - 39 minutes ago AP - October 21, 2008 10:24 AM ET CHICAGO (AP) - A former high-ranking Chicago police official is accused of lying when he said he and homicide detectives ...

Report: Jon Burge arrested on civil rights charges ABC7Chicago.com,  USA - 1 hour ago TAMPA (WLS) -- Former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge has reportedly been arrested on civil rights charges. The Sun-Times is reporting that the FBI ...

WIRED NextFest08 Slideshow

From my visit to NextFest, come these views of the show. On Sept. 26, Chris Anderson of the Long-tail gave an introduction and talked about the economics of free.

More on twittering than I have time to write

I like what Paul Bradshaw writes in general, and this compendium of the ways journalists can use twitter is one example

To others it's a social networking tool for contacts and leads, a project management tool or a research tool for developing stories.
In other words it is what you make it - and the only way to figure it out is to start using it.

So, his list includes: Twitter to gather news. That works. Once you are on Twitter, you begin to follow people (and they begin to follow you.) You "hear" or actually read the twitters of those whom you follow. I got keyed into an earthquake in China (not the most recent and destructive one) via twitter. I followed the Bhutto assassination via a Pakistani dentist who twitters. I've suggested that someone covering the Rezsko trial in Chicago will break the news on the verdict using twitter. Now ever-tech Paul has located a couple of apps that you can use to figure out who is connected to and thus talking to who. Here is a list of those searching for connections tools: gridjit,see below, which creates a grid showing your twitter conversations called a "twitter view." A couple of others are: quotably, twitterlocal which surprised me as I found that Chicago is in the top 10 cities for twitters. Who knew? Then there are twitter clients, because you don't want to manage your twitter feeds in a browser window. The clients, such as twhirl and snitter are like badges that sit on the desktop and keep track of tweets from twitter, often signalling new txt messages with a sound. You can set up groups to twitter around a topic using hash tags or an app like crowdstatus.com. I hadn't known that you could track your name on twitter by simply sending the word "track" followed by your username to twitter. And he goes on from there. I like twitter and find it useful, but perhaps it isn't the answer to every journalistic question.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton
Originally uploaded by biverson.

Sen. Clinton talking to YearlyKos break-out group. I'm at the session live blogging, but I can't pay attention to Hillary and live blog too well. Right now, she is calling for the reinstatement of habeas corpus and she said to close Guantanemo (for you, Norm.)