[Peace-discuss] FW: Black Site Chicago: It's Not Open for Tours - Labor Beat on YouTube

Tue Mar 10 10:19:17 EDT 2015

Black Site Chicago:

It's Not Open for Tours

On YouTube at:

 <http://youtu.be/zVNwP4nBeTM> http://youtu.be/zVNwP4nBeTM

Also archived at:

laborbeat.org <http://laborbeat.org/> 

In a protest action at Chicago's Homan Square black site, about 150 people
gathered on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015 at the corner of Homan and Fillmore in
Chicago. Mainstream out-of-town publications, such as the Guardian in
England, recently stirred things up with articles about a police facility in
Chicago disturbingly similar to CIA 'black' operations in foreign countries.

Chicago-are journalist Kim Scipes (President of the Chicago local of the
National Writers Union/UAW) talked about what a black site is: "A black site
simply is a place that's not acknowledge to even exist...There's no
oversight...it's like comparable to CIA operations in the Middle
East...Somebody could be detained by the Chicago Police Department, nobody
knows, it doesn't go into the central booking system, so lawyers can't find
clients, clients can't get their lawyers, there's no constitutional rights.
It's a total abrogation of the Constitution." 

Up to now, the Chicago Police Department and the City of Chicago are
ignoring requests for an impartial investigation of the Homan Ave. site's
operations, or for public inspections.

Andy Thayer (Gay Liberation Network) said that the existence of the site was
not only a moral outrage and violation of the Constitution, but a budget
issue: "The City paid out $50 million plus last year alone due to police
misconduct. The City in 2013 settled a class action lawsuit for $16.5
million to stop them from abusing people in the overnight lockups at the
regular CPD stations. Things like sleep deprivation, things like handcuffing
people to the walls of interrogation rooms for hours on end, denial of
access to restrooms. So to find out that they're operating an off-the-books
site here [Homan Ave.] and thus potentially setting up the city for millions
of dollars more in wrongful police misconduct lawsuits is just absurd. We're
a city that's swimming in red ink."

Homan Square has also created a political problem in the final weeks to the
April 7 runoff mayoral election between Rahm Emanuel and Chuy Garcia. Both
candidates have, as of the date of the publication of this video, steered
clear of saying anything about the black site.

"I think it's outrageous," Thayer noted, "that [Mayor] Emanuel promised
1,000 more cops and unfortunately Chuy Garcia [the Mayor's opponent]
repeated that ridiculous demand in the current race. And yet, to my
knowledge neither of them have spoken out substantively about investigating
Homan Square."

"We specifically invited Chuy", added attorney Billy Joe Mills (Firmequity),
"and he said 'no'. This is an international story and he can't be bothered
to travel to the west side of his own city he wants to become mayor of to
give his comments." 

The only run-off candidate for the 2015 election who showed up at the Feb.
28 protest, or who has expressed any support, was businesswoman Vetress
Boyce, running in the 24th Ward, where the Homan facility is located. 

Also appearing in this video are: Edward Ward (a leader of recent Loop
protests against national racist police killings); and David Rodriguez
(Chicago Anonymous). Length - 14:34

Cop watches from door on third floor of Homan Ave. black site. Photo: Labor
Beat

Attorney Billy Joe Mills (R) asks to schedule a public inspection of
facilities, while

an officer (L) tells him "It's not open for tours." Photo: Labor Beat

Crowd of activists and journalists assemble at the Homan black site on Feb.
28, 2015.

Photo: Labor Beat

Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat
is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the
producer Labor Beat. For info:  <mailto:mail at laborbeat.org>
mail at laborbeat.org,  <http://www.laborbeat.org/> www.laborbeat.org.
312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor
Beat".

Labor Beat's facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/LABOR-BEAT/167503422257

To order this dvd from Labor Beat (Committee for Labor Access):

<https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=987201
3> BUY DVD - CLICK HERE

(Put title of DVD, "Black Site Chicago" in Description box. Put $15 in Unit
Price box. $20 for Canada, and $25 for other countries outside the U.S. NTSC
format only.)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150310/1036271a/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 0clip_image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 22117 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150310/1036271a/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Cop_door_Homan_s.jpg
Type: image/jpg
Size: 210313 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150310/1036271a/attachment-0005.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Billy Joe Mills w cops_s.jpg
Type: image/jpg
Size: 120808 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150310/1036271a/attachment-0006.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: cameras crowd Homan_s.jpg
Type: image/jpg
Size: 156849 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20150310/1036271a/attachment-0007.jpg>