The newsers are all over covering Michael Brown's family testifying at the U.N. Committee Against Torture about police brutality in the United States which is great. That story needs to get out that the U.S. has a police brutality problem in St. Louis. What you aren't hearing about is that We Charge Genocide is also testifying in front of the committee and that the committee is going to focus on the United States for today and tomorrow on multiple issues. From the U.N. Committee Against Torture's web site:
Among the possible issues to be discussed: extraterritorial application of the Convention; CIA’s secret detention, extraordinary rendition and interrogation programme; Guantanamo Bay detainees held indefinitely without charge or trial; investigation and prosecution of those responsible for torture or ill-treatment of detainees; immigration enforcement abuses; death penalty, alleged administration of untested lethal drugs; police brutality; prolonged solitary confinement; protection of prisoners against violence; sexual violence in US military.
That's quite a list. Each one is a diary, but I'm going to focus on police brutality and it's impact on the U.S. If you're white, you don't think much about police brutality until you see it happen to someone you love. That's wrong, but accurate for many people.
You know about Michael Brown and St Louis. You may have seen the recent movie, Fruitvale Station, but did you know about the group from Chicago who went to testify in front of the U.N Committee Against Torture, too? No? I'm not surprised. It's not covered by the Chicago media, so the national news didn't pick up the story. They should, because Chicago has quite a problem with police brutality and We Charge Genocide makes a compelling case about it.
When the mainstream media covers the violent death toll of Chicago, it usually focuses on gun violence and blames the victim(s) both directly and indirectly. The media doesn't look into the stats or anything under the surface of any other problems associated with violent crime in Chicago. The mainstream media certainly doesn't cover institutional violence of the Chicago Police Department (pdf) against the people of color within the Chicago community. We know about the record 500 murders in Chicago a few years ago. What we don't know much about is Chicago PD's record of brutality and the millions they pay out in court settlements for their brutal treatment of the community they serve. The mainstream media doesn't cover how the Chicago PD exacerbates and obstructs investigation into police brutality.
Let me introduce you to the organization behind Chicago's U.N. Delegation. They are known as We Charge Genocide and they gave me permission to use and share their images from their web site.
We Charge Genocide (WCG) took their name from a 1951 petition that detailed the atrocity of 153 racial killings and other human rights abuses mostly perpetrated by the Chicago police. Their position is that over 60 years later, the Chicago PD is not much better.
We Charge Genocide makes a strong argument that the Chicago Police Department lethally targets the black and Latino community. Page 2 of their 15 page report to the U.N. Committee shows:
WCG
crowd sourced for the money to send 8 people to testify to the U.N. Committee Against Torture. The WCG U.N. Delegation is documenting their experiences via
Twitter and
Facebook. Let me introduce you to the delegation.
Here's a report from Ethan at the end of their second day in Geneva.
Please give this group some recognition for their efforts to make their community a better place. They deserve it.
The U.N. will issue their report on these committee meetings on November 28th and it will include all the subject matter. Although I'm interested in the entire report, I will pay particular notice of what they have to say about police brutality in America.
The WCG Delegations' response to the U.S. representatives' claims:
WCG Walks Out on US Gov’t Representatives at the UN
Last night, the We Charge Genocide team walked out on the 23 U.S. government representatives during their time to respond to the concerns we raised. Asha presented our 2-minute statement, which included a critique that there is no real mechanism for pointing to the police as a source of violence or for accountability. For two hours, we supported survivors and advocates speaking on their issues and telling their stories.
The session finished with a response from the representatives of the state. We were insulted by their suggestion that 330 police in the past 5 years being prosecuted could even begin to rectify the violence Black and Brown communities experience at the hands of the police and the state, considering that there were 300+ taserings by the police in Chicago alone in one year.
Like we asserted in our statement, we were not accepting any apologies or any excuses. And so, the WCG crew walked out the moment we heard this ridiculous claim of “progress”. We left the state reps squirming in their seats and were happy to arrive to their review in the morning to hear the UN Committee Against Torture grill them on all the issues we raised.
To summarize, the U.S. government is in the hot seat at the UN this week and we are being heard. Much thanks from the 8 delegates to everyone sending us love and solidarity from afar.
The U.N. Committee had some
sharp questions for the U.S. response team. Here's what they said about police brutality:
[Jens Modvig, a Danish expert serving on the Committee] brought up Ferguson, Missouri, and whether any steps were being taken to review the distribution of military equipment to the local police forces. He also said, “We understand that police review boards are elected by city governments, and those are not properly independent.” What is being done to prevent “excessive use of force” by police?
The Committee called out the Chicago Police Department and highlighted former commander Jon Burge, who was involved in torturing criminal suspects from 1972 to 1991. Modvig asked for an update on cases involving other Chicago police officers and what was being done to provide redress for victims.
I look forward to the entire report due out at the end of the month.