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| Chicago policing taskforce calls black distrust of department 'justified' | Chicago policing taskforce calls black distrust of department 'justified' |
| (5 months later) | |
| A draft report from a taskforce on policing handpicked by the embattled Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel, says that black distrust of the Chicago police is “justified”, it has emerged, as Chicagoans outraged by the police shooting of a 16-year-old took their anger to the warehouse exposed by the Guardian as an incommunicado detentions and interrogations center. | A draft report from a taskforce on policing handpicked by the embattled Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel, says that black distrust of the Chicago police is “justified”, it has emerged, as Chicagoans outraged by the police shooting of a 16-year-old took their anger to the warehouse exposed by the Guardian as an incommunicado detentions and interrogations center. |
| Meanwhile a local politician expressed optimism that a separate US Justice Department investigation into policing in the city would be expanded to include Homan Square, the police warehouse complex that police-reform advocates have likened to a CIA black site. | Meanwhile a local politician expressed optimism that a separate US Justice Department investigation into policing in the city would be expanded to include Homan Square, the police warehouse complex that police-reform advocates have likened to a CIA black site. |
| The draft report from the Chicago policing taskforce, scheduled to be published as early as this week and leaked to the Chicago Tribune, does not mention Homan Square. Yet it calls on police to abandon practices both in use at the facility and which keep it in operation for interrogations and detentions. | The draft report from the Chicago policing taskforce, scheduled to be published as early as this week and leaked to the Chicago Tribune, does not mention Homan Square. Yet it calls on police to abandon practices both in use at the facility and which keep it in operation for interrogations and detentions. |
| Its recommendations include the “adoption of a Citywide protocol allowing arrestees to make phone calls to an attorney and/or family member(s) within one hour of arrest”. Sworn depositions of CPD officers by Guardian attorneys confirm that there are no pay phones inside Homan Square. | Its recommendations include the “adoption of a Citywide protocol allowing arrestees to make phone calls to an attorney and/or family member(s) within one hour of arrest”. Sworn depositions of CPD officers by Guardian attorneys confirm that there are no pay phones inside Homan Square. |
| It called on the police to “be more transparent” about arrest data; to implement a “citywide ‘know your rights’ training for youth”; to abolish the “code of silence” protecting police from accountability; and to disband the “badly broken” review body that police have said in public statements investigates police-brutality allegations at Homan Square and beyond. | It called on the police to “be more transparent” about arrest data; to implement a “citywide ‘know your rights’ training for youth”; to abolish the “code of silence” protecting police from accountability; and to disband the “badly broken” review body that police have said in public statements investigates police-brutality allegations at Homan Square and beyond. |
| “CPD’s own data gives validity to the widely held belief the police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color,” the draft report said. | “CPD’s own data gives validity to the widely held belief the police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color,” the draft report said. |
| During a week intended by city officials to turn a page on high-profile police controversies, through both the taskforce report’s official release and confirmation hearings for a new top police officer, police fatally shot Pierre Loury, a black 16-year-old, as he attempted to scale a neighbor’s fence with officers in pursuit. | During a week intended by city officials to turn a page on high-profile police controversies, through both the taskforce report’s official release and confirmation hearings for a new top police officer, police fatally shot Pierre Loury, a black 16-year-old, as he attempted to scale a neighbor’s fence with officers in pursuit. |
| The shooting occurred blocks away from Homan Square. A vigil for Loury, drawing hundreds, saw angered community members taking the mic to yell: “Let’s go to the black site!” | The shooting occurred blocks away from Homan Square. A vigil for Loury, drawing hundreds, saw angered community members taking the mic to yell: “Let’s go to the black site!” |
| A march slowly made its way down the alley where Loury was shot, and around the corner to Homan Square. | A march slowly made its way down the alley where Loury was shot, and around the corner to Homan Square. |
| The group of community members and activists blocked traffic for approximately 10 minutes. Standing in a circle, fists raised towards the sky, they chanted in unison for the end of police violence in Chicago. | The group of community members and activists blocked traffic for approximately 10 minutes. Standing in a circle, fists raised towards the sky, they chanted in unison for the end of police violence in Chicago. |
| “We want you all to know what this black site is all about,” one man who helped lead the group on the vigil march yelled to the group, largely made up of young people in the area who knew Loury, some of whom went to school with him. | “We want you all to know what this black site is all about,” one man who helped lead the group on the vigil march yelled to the group, largely made up of young people in the area who knew Loury, some of whom went to school with him. |
| Richard Boykin of the Cook County board of commissioners, reacting to new revelations from the Guardian about Homan Square, on Tuesday expressed a renewed belief that police interrogations at Homan Square will soon receive scrutiny in Chicago and beyond. | Richard Boykin of the Cook County board of commissioners, reacting to new revelations from the Guardian about Homan Square, on Tuesday expressed a renewed belief that police interrogations at Homan Square will soon receive scrutiny in Chicago and beyond. |
| Boykin told the Guardian he was “hopeful” that the US Justice Department would expand its investigation into the “patterns and practices” of Chicago policing – which stems from the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and apparent cover-up – “based on the facts that you all have been reporting”. | Boykin told the Guardian he was “hopeful” that the US Justice Department would expand its investigation into the “patterns and practices” of Chicago policing – which stems from the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and apparent cover-up – “based on the facts that you all have been reporting”. |
| In January, the Cook County board of commissioners approved a recommendation urging the DoJ to investigate Homan Square. Boykin has long pursued such an investigation: in March 2015, he and US congressman Danny Davis hand-delivered a letter seeking inquiry into Homan Square to the then attorney general Eric Holder. | In January, the Cook County board of commissioners approved a recommendation urging the DoJ to investigate Homan Square. Boykin has long pursued such an investigation: in March 2015, he and US congressman Danny Davis hand-delivered a letter seeking inquiry into Homan Square to the then attorney general Eric Holder. |
| “They understand full well that the prestige of the United States is under siege here,” Boykin said of the DoJ. | “They understand full well that the prestige of the United States is under siege here,” Boykin said of the DoJ. |
| Police documents provided to a Guardian transparency lawsuit have documented that police took more than 7,300 people to Homan Square, at least 6,000 of them black, between 2004 and mid-2015, with fewer than 1% receiving access to an attorney there. | Police documents provided to a Guardian transparency lawsuit have documented that police took more than 7,300 people to Homan Square, at least 6,000 of them black, between 2004 and mid-2015, with fewer than 1% receiving access to an attorney there. |
| The Guardian this week published stories based on the documents showing police using physical force on men detained at the facility, despite a 2015 police denial; a second man dying inside Homan Square under questionable circumstances; and internal police record-keeping systems that obscure people’s presence inside the warehouse. | The Guardian this week published stories based on the documents showing police using physical force on men detained at the facility, despite a 2015 police denial; a second man dying inside Homan Square under questionable circumstances; and internal police record-keeping systems that obscure people’s presence inside the warehouse. |
| Dean C Angelo Sr, president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, told the Guardian he was “very concerned about the type of language being used” by the taskforce in the leaked summary. | Dean C Angelo Sr, president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police, told the Guardian he was “very concerned about the type of language being used” by the taskforce in the leaked summary. |
| “On the surface of what has been shared by the media thus far, it appears that the Task Force erred in their reporting,” he wrote in an email. “We look forward to reading the entire report to see where else they made mistakes.” | “On the surface of what has been shared by the media thus far, it appears that the Task Force erred in their reporting,” he wrote in an email. “We look forward to reading the entire report to see where else they made mistakes.” |
| Mariame Kaba, a leading activist and organizer, said the report did not go far enough. | Mariame Kaba, a leading activist and organizer, said the report did not go far enough. |
| Kaba is one of the co-founders of We Charge Genocide, a group that sent Chicago youths to Switzerland in 2014 to present a report to the UN Committee Against Torture on police violence against black Americans. | Kaba is one of the co-founders of We Charge Genocide, a group that sent Chicago youths to Switzerland in 2014 to present a report to the UN Committee Against Torture on police violence against black Americans. |
| “There’s nothing in the recommendations that is unexpected or surprising or that will actually, you know, fundamentally root out police violence,” she said. | “There’s nothing in the recommendations that is unexpected or surprising or that will actually, you know, fundamentally root out police violence,” she said. |