Chicago Officer Accused of Torturing Black Men Is Released From Prison
Ga. Sheriff’s Deputy Fired After Allegedly Handcuffing Child to Pole and Beating Him
Lipscomb cop fired after handcuffing, Macing fellow officer in front of shocked mayor
Chicago
Officer Accused of Torturing Black Men Is Released From Prison
Jon Burge was transferred to a
Florida halfway house Thursday.
By: Lynette Holloway
A former Chicago police
commander who was accused of burning and beating more than 100 black men into
making false confessions has been released from federal prison after spending
less than four years behind bars, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Jon Burge was transferred to a
Florida halfway house Thursday, the report says. Burge and the detectives he
supervised terrorized the city’s mainly black South Side throughout the 1970s,
1980s and early 1990s, according to the report. He reportedly forced scores
into making false confessions.
But after the expiration of the
statute of limitations for his alleged crimes, Burge was convicted of perjury
in 2010 on a charge of lying about police torture, the report says. He was
sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison on the perjury conviction.
On Thursday Anthony Holmes, one
of Burge’s victims, stood at Chicago’s City Hall and recounted the pain he
endured under Burge’s crew. He told reporters of being arrested in 1973 and
taken to a police station where detectives hooked him up to an electrical box
and put a bag over his head, the Tribune reports. Holmes said that officers
shocked him repeatedly until he confessed to a murder he did not commit. The
nearly 70-year-old Holmes recalled Burge calling him the n-word and warning him
against biting through the bag over his head, the Tribune reports.
Ga.
Sheriff’s Deputy Fired After Allegedly Handcuffing Child to Pole and Beating
Him
Alton Walter has since been
fired from his position, and investigators have obtained arrest warrants on
charges of false imprisonment and cruelty to children.
By: Breanna Edwards
A sheriff’s deputy from
Richmond County, Ga., is facing felony charges of false imprisonment and
cruelty to children in the first degree after he allegedly handcuffed a 12-year-old
to a basketball post and beat him, WRDW reports.
Deputy Alton Walker, who has
since been fired, reportedly went to a friend’s house to discipline an “unruly”
12-year-old boy, the news station notes. While there, Walker, who was off-duty
and not in uniform at the time, allegedly hit the child multiple times in the
face with his hands and also punched him in the stomach. In addition, Walker
allegedly threatened to use a Taser on the young boy.
The mother of the child said
that she wasn’t home at the time of the incident and had merely wanted Walker
to talk to her child, not beat him.
According to WRDW, a witness on
the scene heard the child crying and looked over a fence to see Walker punching
the boy with his fist and, in fact, tasing him. The witness also claimed that
Walker used his baton on the boy.
After the incident,
investigators got arrest warrants for the now-former deputy. He was terminated
from the sheriff’s office immediately. The investigation into the incident is
ongoing, according to the news station.
Lipscomb
cop fired after handcuffing, Macing fellow officer in front of shocked mayor
By Carol Robinson |
crobinson@al.com
A Lipscomb police officer has
been fired after city officials say he handcuffed and used pepper spray on a
fellow Lipscomb police officer.
Officer Warren Powe, who has previously been fired from the
Lipscomb force and reinstated, was let go this week. Lipscomb police
Chief Warren Carey said Powe was fired for conduct unbecoming a police officer
and use of excessive force.
The firing stemmed from a
bizarre incident that happened in the early morning hours of Jan. 26, all while
a shocked Lipscomb Mayor Lance McDade looked on. The ordeal began about 6:30
a.m. that Monday when Officer William Henry Bynum was involved in an accident
in his police cruiser.
Mayor Lance McDade previously
told AL.com that a motorist pulled out in front of the officer and caused the
one-vehicle wreck. Because a city vehicle was involved, McDade went to the
scene. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office also responded to work the wreck,
the mayor said.
Officer Powe then showed up at
the accident scene and began to take pictures, though McDade said he didn't
know why Powe was there. McDade said Bynum told him he thought it was the law
that he be drug tested following his wreck, so the mayor told the officer to
get into his car and he would drive him to UAB West for the test. McDade said
there is no city policy requiring a drug test and he later learned there is no
law requiring one either. "It was better to be safe than sorry,'' the
mayor said in an earlier interview.
As the mayor and Bynum were en
route to the hospital, Powe, with lights and sirens on, pulled them over on
Avenue G at 14th Street. McDade said he got out of his vehicle and asked Powe
if there was a problem. "Powe said you can't take him from the scene,''
the mayor said. "I told him Jefferson County had already cleared the
scene, and I am his boss."
At that point, Bynum heard the
two arguing and got out of the mayor's vehicle as well. Powe then asked Bynum,
his fellow officer, if he was wearing his duty belt and was told he was not.
"He kept asking him if he had any weapons,'' the mayor said. "There
was no need for him to ask that either."
Bynum, authorities said, had
his hands in his pockets because it was cold. It was then that Powe went after
Bynum. "Powe lunged at Bynum and told him he was under arrest and Maced
him,'' the mayor said. "He got on his back and handcuffed him. It was
crazy."
"He ignored me as his
supervisor and put him in his vehicle,'' McDade said. Once back at the police
department, they washed out Bynum's eyes and then called paramedics to take him
to the hospital. Sheriff's deputies were called to the hospital to take a
report from Bynum, but sheriff's officials referred all questions about the incident
to Lipscomb police.
No criminal charges have been
filed in the case. Bynum is on paid leave while the police chief says they are
still conducting internal investigations.
Efforts to reach Powe for
comment were unsuccessful, but Carey said Powe is appealing his firing to the
Lipscomb Personnel Board. Lipscomb is not part of the Jefferson County merit
system.
Powe pulled over the mayor last
year on a traffic violation. McDade was found guilty of attempting to elude
him. Powe, also a former Lipscomb police chief, had previously filed a lawsuit
against McDade and other city officials after he was he was fired in 2013. A
personnel board later reinstated Powe and the lawsuit was dismissed when a
settlement was reached.
Lipscomb officials have been
somewhat tightlipped about the situation. The mayor has said he doesn't know of
any previous problems between Bynum and Powe, two of only 10 officers on the
force. "It's caused a good ripple there,'' he said previously. "We've
got a situation going on and we're trying to keep morale up. It's a challenge
The Chicago police riot 1968 at the Democratic convention