Originally published March 17, 2015
March 2nd – Daley Plaza
Rally called for passage of Chicago’s Reparations Ordinance and an investigation of the Homan Square police lock-up scandal. Watch Flint Taylor, the dean of the city’s anti-police brutality attorneys, describe the similarities he sees between the Jon Burge police torture scandal and the allegations about Homan Square:
“We need to connect this all together. We need to connect the murder of Fred Hampton on the West Side of Chicago, we need to connect the torture of Darryl Canon and the others who were tortured by Jon Burge, we need to connect Homan Square. Now the media wants to tell you in this little city, that it ain’t nothing. Some of the politicians don’t want to talk about it. But we’re talking about it, we’re going to make the connections…
“We’re talking about human rights violations, we’re talking about torture, and don’t let them forget it. Don’t let Rahm forget it, and don’t let Chuy Garcia forget it either….
“It’s racism. It’s racist human rights violations. On a scale that we don’t know, because they ain’t telling. Well, let’s find out. It’s the tip of the iceberg we’re seeing in those articles [about Homan Square], I do believe.
“When we first uncovered Burge’s torture, we didn’t have 120 cases. We had one case. Then we had two cases. Then all of a sudden we had 20 cases. Then we had 60 cases. Then we had 120 cases. So there’s a cover-up going on. I can taste it. I can smell it. We need to uncover it.”