Homan Square Detainees Testify To Abuse At County Hearing
By aaroncynic in News on Dec 16, 2015 11:16PM
A demonstrator holds a sign about the Homan Square facility at a march calling for the resignation of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Photo by Aaron Cynic/Chicagoist
On Tuesday, the county held a hearing on an issue currently on the fringe of the controversy of the Chicago Police Department's handling of Laquan McDonald's death and the upcoming Department of Justice probe: Homan Square.
In a nearly empty Human Relations Committee hearing at the Cook County Board, several detainees, legal experts and activists gave Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin testimony on the facility, located in a warehouse on Chicago's West Side. Nearly two dozen people have come forward to say they were detained, abused, and denied access to their lawyers there.
Accusations of alleged abuses going on inside the facility first began to surface after The Guardian published an investigation in February.
According to a report released in October, more than 7,000 people have been detained at the site, with less than one percent obtaining access to a lawyer.
“I repeated my request for a phone call so I could call a lawyer,” said Marc Freeman in his testimony, according to Fox32. “I also repeated my request to use the bathroom. He once again got up and walked towards the door and with a smile he said, you can ask for a lawyer all you want, you're not getting one till tomorrow, you're going to jail.”
In his testimony, Kory Wright detailed some of the abuses he allegedly faced:
“They interrogated me, asking me things that I had no idea about, for murder and you know, if I know where any guns are and things of that nature. And I sat in that room, and they turned the temperature up and I was zip-tied to a bench.”
Flint Taylor, a founding partner of the People’s Law Office, whose work helped push through legislation in the City Council awarding reparations to the victims of Jon Burge, likened what happens inside Homan Square to torture.
“Some of the activities in Homan Square fit into the definition of torture, internationally, under the UN’s definition, and Homan Square needs to be looked at under that light,” said Taylor, according to The Guardian.
Commissioner Boykin called the hearing shortly after Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was fired in the wake of the release of the Laquan McDonald video. He hoped that the DOJ investigation would also include the facility. While the County has no authority over the site, it can still pass non-binding resolutions about the facility, which it hopes can be persuasive.
“It’s fallen to us to shine a light on dark places,” said Boykin. “Homan Square is such a place...The Justice Department’s investigation must take into account those systemic issues in the Chicago police department that go back decades. Homan Square is one of those systemic issues.”
The Chicago Police Department was invited to send representatives to testify, but did not. In a statement released to CNN that stressed in bold letters that the facility is not a “secret,” the department reiterated what it’s said every time new allegations surface:
"Most individuals interviewed at Homan Square are lower-level arrests from the narcotics unit. There are always records of anyone who is arrested by CPD, and this is no different at Homan Square. The allegation that physical violence is a part of interviews with suspects is unequivocally false, it is offensive, and it is not supported by any facts whatsoever."
Tracy Siska with the Chicago Justice Project, who also testified, told Progress Illinois she hoped more local media would investigate the facility:
"I think that by itself would be revolutionary. I'm sick of hearing journalists telling me off the record that it couldn't have possibly happened in Chicago and that myself and everyone else are liars ... It would really (be) nice if the media picks it up and runs with it. We'll see."