Torture Reparations in Chicago: A Response to Persistent Human Rights Abuses
Sometimes human rights does come home — this time, in Chicago. Employing international as well as domestic mechanisms over a period of years, Chicago activists have come one step closer to resolving claims of police torture. For the decades between 1972 to 1991, the Chicago police, under police Commander Jon Burge, regularly used torture to induce false confessions that put innocent African American men in prison. Patterns of disparate targeting and surveillance of African American youth have continued to today. Last fall, We Charge Genocide, a group of Chicago anti-torture activists, filed a Shadow Report with the UN Committee Against Torture to bring international attention to the issue. In response, the Committee’s final report demanded that the U.S. and local government take specific action:
“The Committee is particularly concerned at the reported current police violence in Chicago, especially against African-American and Latino young people who are allegedly being consistently profiled, harassed and subjected to excessive force by Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers. It also expresses its deep concern at the frequent and recurrent police shootings or fatal pursuits of unarmed black individuals. In this regard, the Committee notes the alleged difficulties to hold police officers and their employers accountable for abuses. While noting the information provided by the delegation that over the past five years 20 investigations were opened into allegations of systematic police department violations, and over 330 police officers were criminally prosecuted, the Committee regrets the lack of statistical data available on allegations of police brutality and the lack of information on the result of the investigations undertaken in respect of those allegations. With regard to the acts of torture committed by CPD Commander Jon Burge and others under his command between 1972 and 1991, the Committee notes the information provided by the State party that a federal rights investigation did not develop sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that prosecutable constitutional violations occurred, However, it remains concerned that, despite the fact that Jon Burge was convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice, no Chicago police officer has been convicted for these acts of torture for reasons including the statute of limitations expiring. While noting that several victims were ultimately exonerated of the underlying crimes, the vast majority of those tortured –most of them African Americans–, have received no compensation for the extensive injuries suffered (arts. 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16).
The State party should:
(a) Ensure that all instances of police brutality and excessive use of force by law enforcement officers are investigated promptly, effectively and impartially by an independent mechanism with no institutional or hierarchical connection between the investigators and the alleged perpetrators;
(b) Prosecute persons suspected of torture or ill-treatment and, if found guilty, ensure that they are punished in accordance with the gravity of their acts;
(c) Provide effective remedies and rehabilitation to the victims;
(d) Provide redress for CPD torture survivors by supporting the passage of the Ordinance entitled Reparations for the Chicago Police Torture Survivors.”
The proposed partial settlement of these claims reported in today’s news acknowledges that these acts constituted torture, and goes part way toward responding to the concerns articulated by the UN Committee.
A hat tip to Eric Tars for alerting us to this developing U.S. human rights story.