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Sunday, September 17th, 2017

Police brutality now is part of the Chicago Public Schools’ curriculum

Author:     Frederick H. Lowe
Source:     The Louisiana Weekly
Publication Date:     11th September 2017
 Link: Police brutality now is part of the Chicago Public Schools’ curriculum
Stephan:   I never thought, and I suspect you would say the same, that public schools would have to teach 8th and 10th graders, particularly young children of color, to always keep in mind the racism and brutality of  the American institutions of law enforcement. And yet that's where we are. Aren't you proud?

Chicago Public School
Credit: The Defender

The Chicago Public Schools will begin teaching students about police brutality as part of a $5.5 million reparations package agreed to by city officials and various civil rights groups in 2015.

The classes will discuss cases handled by disgraced former Chicago Police commander Jon Burge who was accused torturing 125 Black men into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit between 1972 and 1991, according to Chicago Torture Justice Memorials and the People’s Law Office, two of the groups involved in forcing a settlement.

The lesson plan is called the “Burge Reparations Curriculum.”

Burge served 4½ years in prison for lying about torture but not for torturing Black men. The police department fired him in 1993.

Burge and his so-called “midnight crew” administered electric shock, held mock executions, caused near suffocation, and carried out beatings to make Black men confess to crimes they didn’t commit.

The Chicago Public Schools, the city of Chicago, African-American activists and the Chicago Police Department worked together before deciding on a curriculum.

“After working for months with African-American community leaders, civil rights advocates, […]

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