
Homan Square, Chicago police's off-the-books interrogation warehouse - aroch
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/19/homan-square-chicago-police-disappeared-thousands?CMP=twt_gu
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malcolmgreaves
This says it all:

    
    
      “Not much shakes me in this business – baby murder, sex assault, I’ve done it all,” said David Gaeger, an attorney whose client was taken to Homan Square in 2011 after being arrested for marijuana. “That place was and is scary. It’s a scary place. There’s nothing about it that resembles a police station. It comes from a Bond movie or something.”
    

Chicago PD: Constitution? What constitution?

    
    
      According to an analysis of data disclosed to the Guardian in late September, police allowed lawyers access to Homan Square for only 0.94% of the 7,185 arrests logged over nearly 11 years.

~~~
huac
Shockingly, the lawyer visit rate at Homan is still 3 times the 'average'
rate: "The 2014 citywide total at declared police stations...was 0.3%."

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drzaiusapelord
The use of the word "disappeared" is completely inappropriate. This is where
people were held for a few hours, not shoved off to a Stalin-esque gulag or
summarily executed.

I also don't understand the race baiting conclusion at the end. What
percentage of Chicagoans perform crime? Blacks are the poorest group by far
and the largest ethnic group in the city, recently pushing out non-Latino
whites from number one. If there's a conspiracy to let Whites perform crime
without arrest, I'd like some proof other than "wink, wink, nod, nod" race
baiting "stats." I pass as White and live in Chicago and the cops have never
given me or my friends or family a free pass on anything.

Also Homan Square isn't a "secret black site." The CPD openly acknowledges it.
Hell, its where one of the evidence lockers are and they tell people to come
on by and pick up their stuff when its no longer needed. What kind of black-
site is listed on google maps? It also houses a SWAT group and a ballistics
lab. You can pull up into the parking lot anytime you like and walk right in.
The CPD just doesn't advertise it explicitly with signs:

"the base of operations for officers working undercover assignments. These men
and women dress in plain clothes and work to disrupt gang activity and clear
drug markets out of neighborhoods. Advertising their base of operations could
put their lives at risk, which is why Homan Square features little signage."

[http://abc7chicago.com/news/cpd-releases-fact-sheet-on-
homan...](http://abc7chicago.com/news/cpd-releases-fact-sheet-on-homan-square-
facility/539346/)

From what I can tell there's been one death there and the CPD claims it was
from a heroin overdose. If the CPD was constantly "disappearing" people there
would be a lot more evidence than one guy who died who was a known addict.
What's the use of setting up a torture and murder center when after decades of
use you just get one kill? Its pretty clear the tinfoil and anti-cop crowd
control the narrative here.

I'm sure its an unpleasant experience for arrested gang members, but any worse
than being in another other facility or city seems questionable. In Illinois
you can be held without charges for 48-72 hours, depending on what case law
you're looking at. Nor do I see any law about notifying anyone during this
period. The credible Homan stories fit this legal framework.

~~~
a3n
> This is where people were held for a few hours ...

... to a few days. And the purpose of holding them _without making it known
where they were_ (which is repugnant) was so that they could sweat the
arrestee without the annoyance of a lawyer present and the arrestee
understanding his rights.

Depending on who you believe, of course.

~~~
Phlarp
It doesn't take some shady secret black site to find cops who will knowingly
keep an arrestee in the dark about his/her rights for the purposes of
obtaining information. This is completely standard practice at _every_
precinct in America.

~~~
mcv
That's awful.

If this is so common, why is nothing being done about it? Is there really no
accountability at all? Nobody checking to see if cops are playing by the
rules?

I liked to believe that despite all the awful news about police behaviour, it
was still only a few bad apples. But if it's standard practice at every
precinct, are there actually any good cops left?

~~~
a3n
> Nobody checking to see if cops are playing by the rules?

Other cops.

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hackuser
It would be great if someone on HN is in law enforcment and could explain that
perspective. I think it is hard for outsiders, seeing something like this, to
understand how people in law enforcment view their relationship with the law.

To be clear: Personally I'm not interested in speculation by people with no
expertise; we have had more than enough of that.

------
minimax
Here are some articles from the local Chicago press from the last time this
came up:

[http://www.wbez.org/news/chicago-polices-so-called-black-
sit...](http://www.wbez.org/news/chicago-polices-so-called-black-site-
mischaracterized-111629)

[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-
homan-s...](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-homan-square-
chicago-police-met-20150227-story.html)

Not trying to defend CPD here, but the guardian seems to be alone in trying to
dramatize this into a story about the Homan Square facility being sort of
black ops detention facility.

~~~
Zigurd
Big city newspapers are highly dependent on access to police department
official information.

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dullcrisp
> He is among 19 people identified among the 7,185 arrests who turned
> themselves into police at the warehouse

Who do you contact if you find a typo?

