Chicago Police Violations Extend Back Many Years - Advocacy Group

The advocacy group Gay Liberation Network spokesperson Andy Thayer said that the Chicago Police Department has been blatantly ignoring citizens’ rights for a long time, and police practices worse than at the Homan Square “black site” have taken place earlier.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has been blatantly ignoring citizens’ rights for a long time, and police practices worse than at the Homan Square “black site” have taken place earlier, the advocacy group Gay Liberation Network spokesperson Andy Thayer told Sputnik.

“The same things at Homan [Square] have been happening before and got so worse that the city had to settle in Dunn v. City of Chicago,” Thayer said on Thursday. “This resulted in a $16.5 million settlement, but it never ended, and Homan is proof it continued.”

Thayer, who is involved in organizing a protest over CPD’s interrogation site on Saturday, explained that the brutal tactics were employed mainly by CPD’s gang and drug units, infamous for robbing and planting drugs on accused persons.

“The Office of Professional Standards was set up to discipline these officers, but was eventually shut down because it became a public relations nightmare,” he added.

The office was eventually replaced by the Independent Police Review Authority, but again, no officer was really prosecuted or disciplined for their actions, Thayer explained.

“They [officers] would get a few days of suspension, vacation days, and would be right back on the force. Homan has many of those officers still today with the special ops unit headquartered there alongside the other units [drug and gang units],” he concluded.

The Gay Liberation Network is working with other Chicago advocacy groups like Chicago Anonymous and Stop Mass Incarceration Network Chicago to hold a protest over the Homan Square black site this Saturday.

The three advocacy groups are demanding that the CPD and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel investigate the site, ensure that arrest be handled correctly with public records made, organize a public hearing for CPD officers and place posters at police stations alerting the accused of their rights, according to the lawyer and protest organizer Billy Mills.

In response, the CPD sent Sputnik a recently-released Homan Square fact sheet that listed information about the location as well as quotes from positive stories written about it.

“This will be the extent of our Department’s response,” the CPD told Sputnik on Thursday.

Previously, the CPD said in a statement they were abiding by all rules, regulations, and laws pertaining to lawful interrogations of citizens.