No matter how many times it comes up, torture should never be allowed, in any circumstances. Especially by employees of the state, including police officers. No matter the alleged crimes of the inmates, the police should be held to higher standards.
Chicago Tribune | Ex-jail sergeant details beatings
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A former Cook County Jail sergeant who told a private investigator that he ran a “crew” of guards who systematically beat prisoners is set to be asked about those allegations under oath on Tuesday. The sergeant, Liutauras Paul Dargis, was pursuing a possible lawsuit against the Cook County Sheriff's Department when he told an investigator that he and other guards beat inmates, then filed false reports to cover it up.A recording of the interview was obtained by the Tribune. In the recording, Dargis matter-of-factly discussed for more than an hour how he used beatings to control a section of the jail and to extract information from inmates. He described breaking bones and leaving one prisoner so badly beaten he had “every color of the rainbow all over his body.
Former guards Roger Fairley and Richard Gackowski filed their federal civil rights lawsuit in 2003. It alleges that a pattern of harassment and threats forced Fairley and Gackowski to resign because they refused to cover up a beating at the jail.The motion seeking to depose Dargis alleges that he was responsible for “scores of officers” who beat “countless inmates” and then “deliberately prepared fabricated reports” to cover them up.
Dargis sounds almost proud of his cruelties:
In the interview, Dargis characterized the beatings as “work” and said most of it was carried out on the basketball court or in the game room.“We used to bring a brown paper bag [and] put it over the camera right away, so it's blocked,” Dargis said.
On some occasions, the computer system that controlled the cameras would be “rebooted” by a sympathetic officer, giving the guards several minutes to administer a beating, he said.
Some inmates were beaten because they refused to divulge information or be informants, Dargis said. “They'd come in there and I'd talk to them; ask them what I want to know.
”And if they wouldn't tell me, then I'd proceed to physically use pain control . . . techniques . . . pressure-sensitive areas, most of the time, to get the information,“ Dargis said. ”If I didn't get the information, I'd let my dogs hunt. In other words, beat the [expletive] out of the guy.
“And there was nothing ever said,” Dargis said. “I'd just move a finger. And they'd go.”
In one instance, Dargis said he badly beat an inmate who refused to talk. “I tore up his . . . ear . . . his nose. I broke his jaw. I broke four ribs,” he said. “I lost my temper.”
...Dargis said that some of the officers who backed him up when he worked over an inmate occasionally complained. “I usually did all the work myself,” Dargis said. “And they . . . on occasion got upset with me. Like, `Sarge, you never let us have any fun.'” His crew, Dargis said, ranged from five to eight other officers and he estimated that over the years as many as 70 different officers participated.“If the size of the individual was 6 foot 8, 280 pounds ... then you would have to really, you know, you'd have to hurt him,” Dargis said. “[Y]ou couldn't just do a sweep on him and expect him to go down ...”
And sometimes an inmate said, “Hey, Dargis, you're doing this, but you have five officers to back you up,” Dargis said. “So I'd tell them, `Step out.' And I'd start off. I'd tell an officer, `If I go down, kill him.'”
Despicable.
