No, I didn't write a letter about former Ald. Ed Burke to the judge in advance of his June 24 sentencing for corruption. He doesn't need me. Hundreds spoke up, asking for leniency. (Does anyone write in and say, "Throw the book at him, your honor!" I imagine so. Though people know these letters become public record.)
Frankly, this seems a situation where, to coin a phrase, less is more. Two hundred letters. Quite a lot really. I'm not sure whether that is mitigation of undue influence, or dramatization of it. No City Council meeting was complete without Burke firehosing official declarations and honors in all directions. Of course, some would leap to return the favor. Manus manum lavat, as the Romans said. One hand washes the other.
Though I imagine I could write a good one. First, I'd ask U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall to set aside Burke's personality. Being arrogant isn't a crime. Just as wearing $2,000 chalk pinstripe suits that make you look like an extra in "Guys and Dolls" isn't a crime. Maybe it should be.
I can see the temptation to send Burke to prison on general principles. While Burke seems more shell-shocked than smug in recent photos, he is a known quantity to anyone on the Chicago scene: Burke strode about in a haze of haughtiness you could cut with a knife. The insider's insider. When Richard J. Daley died in 1976, it was Burke who commandeered the late mayor's office on the fifth floor and huddled with a few others to decide who should be the next mayor of Chicago.
He was found guilty of 13 counts of racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion. In his defense, I would observe that Burke tried to stay on the right side of the law. The Better Government Association said Burke recused himself from 464 council votes over his last eight years in office, four times as much as the other 49 alderoids put together.
So he tried not to commit crimes, or not be caught committing crimes anyway, which is almost as good. Burke dwelled in a hazy realm of near criminality, of lawyers dancing a hair's breadth over the line. That's really what we should focus on — it's the legal stuff that is truly unacceptable, not the occasional Ed Burke or Michael Madigan who gets careless in their old age and puts the squeeze on into a federal wiretap. Burke was like a guy who goes to Costco regularly to load up on free coconut shrimp and then, aghast one day to find himself there when free coconut shrimp isn't being doled out, simply shoplifts a couple boxes. Habit has made him blind to the key distinction; in his mind, it's all his shrimp.
Prison sentences are supposed to be a deterrent — the idea that horse thieves are hanged, not because stealing horses is such a bad crime, but in order for horses not to be stolen. That's weak. You know what would be a strong deterrent? Give city council members raises, then forbid them to work other jobs. The highest paid alderperson pulls down $142,000 a year; not bad for you or me, but peanuts for a slick lawyer. We expect them to work side hustles, then flutter our hands in shock when they trip over the fine line between you're-my-client-and-this-is-your-zoning-request-to-be-judged-purely-on-its-merits and hire-my-firm-or-I-won't-support-your-variance.
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That corrupt bastard Burke cost all of us in Cook County millions due to his work to lower the assessments of buildings downtown owned by the rich & connected.
ReplyDeleteThe absolute worst being his getting the taxes for the fat orange traitor's building that replaced the Sun-Times building on Wabash.
Then he had the nerve to shake down the second largest franchisee of Burger King over a simple driveway permit?
His house, on a small street on the Southwest Side was always the first to be plowed in his ward, even though there's nothing important on it, other than his house with the fake wrought iron fence around it & the house has rail & L tracks behind it.
The man is a hopeless crook, that's all he knows how do do.
Even 10 years in the slammer isn't enough & at his age he'll go to Club Fed anyway, not a real prison with cells & bars for doors.
Your response nailed it, on many levels.
DeleteYeah, I do miss Evanston, and the beaches of East Roger Spark, but there's so much I do not miss about Chicago anymore. Cleveland's crooks and charlatans don't even come close to the ones who have always fleeced the mopes in my hometown.
DeleteCleveland, as a city, has one-seventh the population, in one-third of the physical space. In so many ways, smaller is better. From breathing space to traffic to parking to sporting event tickets...and especially in regard to political chicanery.
Do I miss the Daleys and the Vrdolyaks and the Burkes? Hell, no. We do have a few scammers, but they're a bunch of amateurs. Smaller pie, with far fewer thieves to divvy it up. So what if Burke is eighty? BFD. The man did the crime, now let him do the time. Give him a year, or even two, and if he dies, so f'king what? Good riddance. Same goes for Orange Jesus, only more so. Give him life.
Hmmm... I had a hunch that Clark St. was not going to support leniency in this instance. ; ) Nor would I, for that matter.
DeleteBurke reminds me of the Biggest Loser in that both of them have gotten away with stuff during their entire careers. Legal (as NS deftly points out) and likely illegal. If guys like them are not going to be held to account when they're finally "caught" for something, what's the point of even having a "justice" sytsem? Oh, I know, to punish the folks who *aren't* rich and well-known.
Determining his sentence based on what Vrdolyak got is not the standard that seems judicious to me, I gotta say. Though one difference between Burke and the orange guy is that there are some good deeds in his favor, as Neil also points out. Can one think of a single thing that the former president is known for that wasn't essentially self-serving?
Originally, that utter incompetent federal judge Milton Shadur gave Vrdolyak no time in prison, so the prosecutors went to the appellate court to force a new judge to give him jail & that's when Fast Eddie finally got those 10 months.
DeleteIf you ever have a chance to go to the Far South East Side, I urge you to go to 115th & Avenue J & see the monstrosity of a house Fast Eddie has built on multiple lots between Avenues J&K. It towers over the rest of the houses in the area, like he's the feudal lord of the manor, ruling over his subjects! It looks like it belongs on Sheridan Road in Winnetka or Glencoe, not Hegewisch!
You're too lenient on Burke, NS.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you.
ReplyDeleteHow about a BIG fine?
ReplyDelete"Manus manum lavat"
ReplyDeleteI prefer Royko's idea for the city motto:
Ubi est meus? (Where's mine?)
Who knows what other deals was Burke in on? The sale of the parking meter income? The Skyway boondoggle? The CTA shelter ad reverse Louisiana Purchase? The courts may have him on some accounting/legalese shenanigans but maybe he should get sentenced under the old school CPD philosophy: he's guilt of something so lock him up.
ReplyDeleteAnd let's not give aldermen a raise or side jobs. Let them live on what they earn, not what sticks to their scale-tipping thumbs. Maybe then they won't be so quick to sell the rest of us down the river, or to the French or Chinese or Canadians.
Horse thieves were hanged. They might have been hung as well, but that's something different.
ReplyDelete