African-Americans Will Lead Demonstration Against Torture Sept. 15th @ 11:00 a.m.

African-Americans Will Lead Demonstration Against Torture Sept. 15th @ 11:00
a.m.

Dear Colleagues,

African-Americans under the leadership of the National Conference of Black
Lawyers have been meeting every Thursday for the last several weeks in order
to formulate a response to the torture, with impunity, of over 100 Black men
and women.

As you may be already aware, the torture of African-American people by the
Chicago police is well established. During the period from 1972 to 1991,
primarily at a south side police station known as Area 2 Headquarters, a
group of police officers under the leadership of former Chicago Police
Commander Jon Burge systematically committed brutal acts of torture against
citizens of African descent who were in police custody. The torture included
the administration of electric shocks to the victims' ears and/or exposed
genitalia using a cattle prod or a hand-cranked generator; conducting mock
executions with unloaded firearms; suffocating victims with plastic
typewriter covers; and burning victims by holding them against hot
radiators, among other techniques. Such treatment fits the definition of
"torture" as delineated in Article 1 of the Convention Against Torture.

To date, over 100 Black men and women have been identified as having been
victimized by the police torture described above. [1] Typically, confessions
to serious crimes were extracted from the victims for use at a criminal
trial prosecuted by the Cook County State's Attorney's office. These
involuntary confessions were the basis, partly or wholly, for criminal
convictions.

Of the Area 2 victims, it is estimated that several dozen remain in prison
today. Some of the victims were sentenced to death and spent many years on
Illinois' Death Row, until their sentences and those of all other Illinois
Death Row inmates were commuted in 2003 by former Illinois Governor George
Ryan. Governor Ryan also pardoned four of the Burge torture victims on the
grounds of actual innocence: Aaron Patterson, Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange,
and Stanley Howard.

A number of judgments acknowledging torture have been rendered in civil
cases brought by victims, as well as by appellate courts reviewing some of
the victims' criminal convictions. Furthermore, Chicago Police investigators
have admitted the systematic nature of the practice in a 1990 report by the
Office of Professional Standards (OPS) which cited 50 cases of the torture
and abuse at Area 2. In a document known as the Goldstone Report, the OPS
concluded that abuse was "systematic", "methodical", and "included
psychological techniques and planned torture." Further, the United Nations
has found that the United States violated the human rights of the men and
women tortured at Area 2. Nevertheless, the perpetrators of the torture
continue to enjoy impunity with regard to their crimes. To date, none have
ever been charged with a crime.

Since private parties or victims to crimes do not have the right to
institute criminal proceedings under our legal system, the victims and their
families must rely on the prosecutor exercising their discretion to bring
criminal charges against the officers. Despite numerous requests by victims,
civil society organizations, and the media, none of the police officers or
higher level officials responsible for established incidents of torture has
ever been charged with a crime. The responsible local authority for the
initiation of criminal charges in these cases is the Cook County State's
Attorney. Richard M. Daley, the Cook County State's Attorney at the time
Area 2 abuses were first brought to public attention, is now Mayor of the
City of Chicago. Neither State's Attorney Daley nor his successor Richard
Devine, ever instituted a criminal prosecution against any of the officials
responsible for torture in Area 2. Nor has the United State's Attorney for
the Northern District of Illinois (an office of the federal government with

authority over federal crimes) ever charged any of those responsible.

Since the Special Prosecutor's report documents the torture, but fails to
anything about it, the question then becomes what are we, the
African-American community, going to do about it? We must do something and
that is why the National Conference of Black Lawyers, along with many other
individuals and organizations, have come together under the banner of "Black
People Against Police Torture" to demand that something be done. The purpose
of this letter is to invite you and your group to join us on September 15,
2006 @ 11:00 a.m. at the Federal Plaza on Jackson and Dearborn, and
participate in a Silent Mass Demonstration in protest of police torture.

The Mass demonstration is not the only action that we are undertaking. Of
the judges seeking retention in this November's election, eight were
actively involved in the torture conspiracy or acquiesced to the torture of
Black people. We shall mobilize to deny their retention. Further, we have
drafted a bill providing for a comprehensive Reparations law for torture
victims. This bill will provide a process that will facilitate the release
of the remaining 27 torture victims from Illinois prisons.

It is time we step up and let our voices (votes) be heard. It is not too
late, criminal charges can still be brought if we demand them! Come, join us
on September 15th. Be proud to be Black. We must channel our outrage into
action.

_____

[1] Victims have been located by attorneys, civil society organizations, and
by the Special Prosecutor appointed by the Circuit Court of Cook County who
in July 2006 reported a total of 135 documented cases of torture and abuse
by police under the command of Jon Burge.

[

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