Did the Chicago police department have a practice of torturing confessions out of Black men during the 1970s and 1980s?
In essence, that is the accusation currently facing the city and it appears that before this week is over city aldermen will approve a $20 million settlement with four Black men who spent years in prison after allegedly being forced to confess to crimes they did not commit.
The four are among scores of Black men who have reported being beaten, tortured and even suffocated by police officials during the 1970s and 1980s.
A special prosecutor has agreed with many of the allegations. The four men scheduled to receive the settlements had been sitting on death row until former Governor George Ryan pardoned them in 2003.
"We have to acknowledge first that terrible wrongs were committed, then begin to make amends to those who were wronged," Alderman Toni Preckwinkle said, referring to the settlement. "Those wronged could've included dozens of men - virtually all of them Black and some still lingering in prison."
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