Some Chicago police officers were outraged when Supt. LeRoy Martin decided in November to fire a top commander over allegations of brutality.
Others thought it was outrageous that Martin took so long.
As the date for Cmdr. Jon Burge`s dismissal hearing approaches this month, reviving a decade-old case, Chicago police officers are divided along ideological and racial lines. The case has become an emotional watershed, pitting officer against officer.
”The polarization has been mostly between blacks and whites, like in the city,” said Patrol Officer Patricia Hill, head of the African American Police League. ”Some officers stand behind Burge, and feel that because he`s a police officer he`s automatically innocent. And a lot of others feel exactly the opposite.”
Burge and two detectives, all of whom are white, are charged with torturing Andrew Wilson, a black man who was convicted of gunning down two Chicago officers in 1982. The allegations against Burge had gone unproven through two federal civil rights trials and an internal police probe. But a more recent police investigation concluded that the officers tortured Wilson during interrogation at a South Side police station.
In the last three weeks, off-duty officers have gathered nearly 10,000 signatures on petitions calling for the reinstatement of Burge and the two detectives. The petition drive is led by Michael Fahey, 33, the brother of William Fahey, one of the officers slain by Wilson.
”People are shocked that anyone would take the word of a murderer over these three veteran officers,” said Detective Daniel McWeeny, who helped circulate the petition.
But the African American Police League and Black Officers United for Justice and Equality joined forces against Burge in federal court Thursday, when Burge sued unsuccessfully to block the Police Board hearings.
”The charges against these officers involve the most reprehensible behavior imaginable,” said Officer Jerry Crawley, a 24-year department veteran who heads Black Officers United, a black police group. ”As a police officer and African-American male, I felt I had to speak out.”
Wilson has alleged in court pleadings that Burge, former Brighton Park commander, and Detective John Yucaitis shocked him with a ”black box”
electrical device, suffocated him with a garbage bag and handcuffed him to a scalding radiator. All the while, Wilson charged, Detective Patrick O`Hara stood by.
The three officers deny the charges. Preliminary motions in their dismissal case are scheduled to be heard by the Police Board on Jan. 28, but could spill over into next month, attorneys for both sides say.
”This is an issue that has rallied people to action,” said Roslyn Lieb of the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, a group that joined a coalition of 23 organizations, including the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, the American Friends Service Committee and Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ, in Thursday`s court pleadings against Burge.
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On Feb. 14, 1982, William Fahey, a veteran gang crimes officer, and his partner were gunned down on a South Side street. Wilson and his brother, Jackie, were convicted in the killings and are serving life terms in prison.
Last month, while watching a television news bulletin about the case, Fahey`s brother Michael decided to take action. He wrote the petition and sent it to police officers with a letter.
”Help prevent this injustice from occurring,” the letter said.
”Present this petition to your neighbors and civilian friends.”
The first person to sign Fahey`s petition was the surgeon who signed his brother`s death certificate.
”I`m totally outraged and my family is totally outraged and everyone who signed these petitions feels the same way,” said Fahey, a city Water Department truck driver.
”We can`t understand how the mayor and the superintendent can talk about rising crime in Chicago and then take three of their top crimefighters off the streets.”
The killing of his brother, Fahey said, ”affected my whole family. Christmas hasn`t been the same. Holidays suck.”
He said that every day his mother pins a copy of the prayer to St. Jude, the patron saint of police and lost causes, to her blouse or coat. She always places it over her heart, a badge of her grief.
”The pain is in her eyes,” Fahey said.
For Chicago police officers, their own badges symbolize a more complicated grief.
”This case,” said Officer Hill, ”is a reflection on all of us.”