When we think of a conspiracy, we picture a small group of people meeting in a dark corner and plotting their evil intentions in whispers. This can happen, but the more dangerous conspiracies are larger groups who don't whisper -- might not even meet. They arrive at an agreement about what they will do. They regard their actions as innocent -- "everybody is doing it."
The Burge torture afffair in Chicago's past exemplifies this contrast. The first group, a bunch of Chicago cops who tortured confessions out of suspects, is close to the first picture.
But they couldn't have operated long without the collaboration of a larger group. These were assistant state's attorneys who took confessions from tortured men, judges who heard the allegations o f torture again and again and yawned, other cops who knew what was going on but didn't tell. There were even reporters and editors who downplayed the story.
More after the break.
For most of the period in which the torture was occuring and the scandal was unfolding, the boss of the prosecutors was Richard M. Daley -- then State's Attorney for Cook County and now mayor of Chicago.
He did nothing to keep his assistant state's attorneys from turning a blind eye to the torture that they were morally, even legally, obliged to report. He did not discipline them when others caught them. He did not prosecute anyone for the crimes -- the state's attorney has absolute discretion on prosecutions in Illinois (he needs grand jury consent to proceed, but no consent to ignore).
As mayor, he did not discipline any of the participants other than the commander, Jon Burge, who led the ring. (Burge was dismissed by the Police Board; nobody else paid for those crimes.) He even gave extra consideration to one of the torturers, Peter Dignan. Dignan got a "merit promotion" to lieutenant -- (without going through the standard tests) well after Daley was mayor. That's something which the mayor usually does more than sign off on.
The mayor has avoided almost all questions on the scandal from 1987 until now. Now the attorneys for some of the victims are seeking to depose him. Well, John Conroy, the reporter whose persistence on the story led to what response the establishment gave, has 20 questiona he wants to ask Mayor Daley.
He is likelier to get an answer from the Easter bunny, so he asked them publicly.
I don't want to excuse Burge and his underling torturers; what they did was criminal. It should have been punished. OTOH, I think it less reprehensible than the guys in fancy suits -- and judicial robes -- who decided not to interfere.