
Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden 'black site' - ixtli
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site?CMP=share_btn_fb
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randomname2
Among the alleged police practices at Homan Square, according to those
familiar with the facility who spoke out to the Guardian after its
investigation into Chicago police abuse:

\- Keeping arrestees out of official booking databases.

\- Beating by police, resulting in head wounds.

\- Shackling for prolonged periods.

\- Denying attorneys access to the “secure” facility.

\- Holding people without legal counsel for between 12 and 24 hours, including
people as young as 15.

\- At least one man was found unresponsive in a Homan Square “interview room”
and later pronounced dead.

~~~
macho_pikachu
We should torture in Quaker meeting halls: A modest proposal

We don't keep records. We speak when moved by a greater power. No one knows
who "owns" our spaces. Very few attorneys in presence. Holding people for
12-24 hours is common. I think someone died during meeting last week and no
one noticed.

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randomname2
Summary:

Located in a nondescript warehouse on Chicago’s west side is where, according
to the Guardian, one can find the domestic equivalent of a CIA "black site" \-
an illegal, off-the-books interrogation compound used by Chicago special
police units, one which renders "Americans unable to be found by family or
attorneys while locked inside"; a place whose former occupants say is where
you end up when you are "disappeared"; a place which confirms that when it
comes to the eternal "who is better - us or them" debate, there really is no
difference: "It brings to mind the interrogation facilities they use in the
Middle East. The CIA calls them black sites. It’s a domestic black site. When
you go in, no one knows what’s happened to you.” It's a Guantánamo and Abu
Ghraib rolled into one. In short: it is a place where the US constitution and
basic human rights have absolutely no access.

According to an exclusive piece by the Guardian that is sure to send not only
shivers down the spine of those who are still paying attention, but ripples
across the "land of the free", not least because if there is one dark site on
US soil, there are countless more - places where every single constitutional
right of US citizens is trampled on - the secretive warehouse known as Homan
Square is the latest example of Chicago police practices that echo the much-
criticized detention abuses of the US war on terrorism. However, there is one
huge difference: while those abuses impacted people overseas, Homan Square –
said to house military-style vehicles, interrogation cells and even a cage –
trains its focus on Americans, most often poor, black and brown.

Every former communist block country had them: hidden, dark places where the
secret police could have their way with you, and even kill you if it so
desired, and nobody would have any clue or recourse of action; something for
which the "evil empire" was mocked by the "free western world."

And while the ubiquitous "terrorism" excuse for any and every extra-
constitutional action could apply here as well, the reality is that Homan
Square is hardly concerned exclusively with terrorism. Several special units
operate outside of it, including the anti-gang and anti-drug forces. If police
“want money, guns, drugs”, or information on the flow of any of them onto
Chicago’s streets, “they bring them there and use it as a place of
interrogation off the books.”

~~~
guard-of-terra
In fact communist states had it arguably better in the latter XX century -
they didn't have war on dissidents with weapons and all, so it was usually
enough to scare a dissenter using words - e.g. hint on losing a job or
scholarship.

~~~
macho_pikachu
Jeśli mój przyjaciel we wrocławiu powiedział coś złego o Ameryce jego firma
będzie upewnić się, że policja go uwolnić. Ponieważ jego firma jest
amerykańska firma.

~~~
guard-of-terra
How would he land in police in the first place? I understand most of the words
but not the precise meaning :)

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bdamm
If this is so well known by the lawyers, how is it that nobody is taking the
police to court? Are the lawyers afraid of the police?

~~~
adventured
Chicago is among the more notoriously extra-legal government zones in the US.
I'd call it a municipality, but that doesn't do justice to the machine that is
Chicago. It's essentially run by a powerful, unaccountable government-
criminal-corporate organization structure, and has been for a century or more.

~~~
kevinnk
Look, Chicago has corruption problems, but calling it an "extra-legal
government zone" is so hopelessly hyperbolic that it hurts any sort of real
argument. The police have had literally thousands of lawsuits paying out
hundreds of millions of dollars over just the last 5 years. Police officers, a
police chief, mayors and even governors have been arrested and jailed over
everything from bribery to brutality. If lawyers aren't suing on what looks
like a slam-dunk case of civil rights violations, why have they sued (and won)
so many other times?

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shit_parade
I wonder what the apologists will say, there certainly is no lack of
imagination when it comes to defending torture and murder when done by the
government.

~~~
adventured
They'll say what they always say: I have nothing to hide, I've done nothing
wrong, why should I worry personally, I'm sure they're just targeting
criminals.

They'll cower like they almost always cower, shrinking from a confrontation
they're deathly afraid of: the one in which they're ultimately responsible for
ensuring their own liberty, with the requirement being they have to stand-up
to a vast and powerful authority. I'm not speaking of modern Americans, but of
all people at nearly all points of history, whether Soviet Russia or modern
Chicago.

