All posts filed under: Illinois

Invisible Institute: Chicago Police Torture Archive

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CHICAGO POLICE TORTURE ARCHIVE On Monday, February 15th at 6:30pm, join the Invisible Institute, Chicago Torture Justice Center, Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, and the Pozen Center for Human Rights to honor the history and struggle of survivors and their families, and commemorate the launch of the Chicago Police Torture Archive. VISIT THE ARCHIVE JOIN THE LAUNCH EVENT “The Chicago Police Torture Archive is a human rights documentation of former Commander Jon Burge’s violence against more than 100 Black men, from the 1970s-1990s. The journalistic centerpiece of this site are the profiles of police torture survivors, most of whom were represented by the People’s Law Office of Chicago. “The People’s Law Office (PLO), which had worked alongside activists and in the courts to hold the City to account, donated its files to the Pozen Center for Human Rights at the University of Chicago in 2017. Pozen, in turn, asked the Invisible Institute to digitize, curate, and publish the legal archive. Our goal is to make these digitized records accessible to the public and to complement the …

Access to Justice: Art Works Projects at the Chicago Public Library

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“Less than one percent of those arrested and held in police custody in Chicago in 2013 had a lawyer present, according to Chicago Police Data (source: CNN, May 5, 2016). What challenges face the Chicago community in providing equal justice to all, and how are advocates addressing issues of equal treatment and rule of law globally?” Panelists: Sheila Bedi, Clinical Associate Professor of Law, Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, Northwestern University School of Law Flint Taylor, civil rights attorney, People’s Law Office Amanda Rivkin, photographer, Howard Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, International Women’s Media Foundation Moderator: Leslie Thomas, outgoing Executive Director, Art Works Projects Broadcast: CAN-TV (local Chicago public access)

Burge Victims Speak (in progress)

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“Torture can be an open secret in a democratic society. Apparently, successive Chicago police superintendents suppressed internal investigations that revealed torture, successive state’s attorneys knew of the torture but refused to investigate, and the state’s Felony Review Unit knowingly elicited and used tortured confessions. Approximately one-third of the current Cook County criminal court judges are former assistant state’s attorneys or Area 2 detectives who were involved in the torture cases. Courts and the public will also look the other way.” – Darius Rejali, Torture and Democracy

IWMF Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists Grant for “Burge Victims Speak”

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Thrilled to announce for the first time in my life, I am being given a grant by the International Women’s Media Fund (IWMF) Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists to stay home and work. I’ll be spending the next year at least in Chicago interviewing and photographing survivors of municipal police torture under former Commander Jon Burge, who imported techniques such as electrotorture which he learned as a military police officer in Vietnam onto the streets of Chicago for nearly 20 years to force confessions from 1972 until he was suspended from the force in 1991 and fired in 1993. He later served four years for perjury but still receives a full city pension. Very special thanks to everyone who has lent time, expertise, knowledge, and patience to this project so far, there are many of you to thank and a few of you who would rather I didn’t but know you have helped tremendously and I am filled with gratitude.

The New York Times: Measures Announced to Curb Deadly Force by the Chicago Police

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Mayor of Chicago Announces Measures to Curb Use of Deadly Force by the Police by Mitch Smith December 30, 2015 CHICAGO — Under intense pressure to change the behavior of the police force, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday announced a series of steps intended to rein in the use of deadly force, promising to buy hundreds of Tasers and to train officers to be less confrontational. […]

Corbis News Pictures of the Year 2015

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An image of mine from Chicago’s Black Friday protests on Michigan Avenue, Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile” and longest shopping street, following the release of a dashcam video of police shooting Laquan McDonald is included in the best news pictures of the year selected by my agency, Corbis Images. You can view the entire gallery on their website.