Description
Book SynopsisIn 2015, Chicago became the first city in the United States to create a reparations fund for victims of police torture, after investigations revealed that former Chicago police commander Jon Burge tortured numerous suspects in the 1970s, ''80s, and ''90s. But claims of police torture have even deeper roots in Chicago. In the late 19th century, suspects maintained that Chicago police officers put them in sweatboxes or held them incommunicado until they confessed to crimes they had not committed. In the first decades of the 20th century, suspects and witnesses stated that they admitted guilt only because Chicago officers beat them, threatened them, and subjected them to sweatbox methods. Those claims continued into the 1960s.
In Robert Nixon and Police Torture in Chicago, 18711971, Elizabeth Dale uncovers the lost history of police torture in Chicago between the Chicago Fire and 1971, tracing the types of torture claims made in cases across that period. To show why the cr
Trade Review
Elizabeth Dale has performed a service in writing this book. It is a welcome reminder of the bad old days of policing-days that one would hope are behind us now, provided we remain vigilant.
* H-Net Reviews *
In this short and accessible book, historian Elizabeth Dale places contemporary discussions of race and police violence into larger historical context.
* Journal of Illinois History *
