Whatever the outcome of the Jon Burge perjury and obstruction of justice trial, the legal battles that have swirled around the former police commander for more than 20 years, and which have cost the city millions of dollars, will drag on.

“Not only legal battles, but political battles,” said civil rights lawyer Flint Taylor, who represents several men who accused Mr. Burge and others of torturing them while at Area 2 violent crimes unit on the Far South Side in the 1970s and ’80s. “This is just one phase in the long struggle against police torture.” (more…)

Students celebrate after the graduation.
Jose More/Chicago News Cooperative

He was born to a drug-addicted mother, struggled in school, and as a child he was bounced among the homes of several relatives. Yet doors began to open for Shantell Hopkins four years ago after he entered a new charter public high school in Chicago. Now he is preparing for his freshman year at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., on a full-tuition scholarship from the school. (more…)

Francine Sanders investigated charges against former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Sanders stand in front of the old Area 2 police station where Burge worked. The old police station is now a Community Service Center.
Jose More/Chicago News Cooperative

Whenever Francine J. Sanders taught a film class at Oakton Community College in Skokie, Barbara Schwartz made sure to sign up. But like most of her classmates, Mrs. Schwartz had no idea that her charming teacher, who rhapsodized on a recent summer morning about the zany merits of the 1938 classic “Bringing Up Baby,” had a past littered with smoky West Side pool halls, dank public housing stairwells and resentful men who carry guns.
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Entrance to the Illinois Department of Human Services Villa Park. Office administrator Phyllis Baxter said "They walk through that door and say, 'I need help.'"

Not far from million-dollar homes in DuPage County, a line of people spills through the doors of a public aid office in Villa Park, now the busiest branch of the Illinois Department of Human Services.

As many as 900 county residents come to the office every day looking for food stamps, emergency financial assistance and vouchers for medical care, said Phyllis Baxter, the site’s administrator.
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