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Homan Square: federal officials pressed to investigate 'crimes against humanity'
Source: The Guardian
Homan Square: federal officials pressed to investigate 'crimes against humanity'
Zach Stafford in Chicago
Thursday 22 October 2015 18.25 BST
Politicians, civil liberties groups and Black Lives Matter activists have renewed demands for an “immediate investigation” by the Obama administration into Homan Square, citing a “cop-out” from the Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel – and a new report by the Guardian – amid calls to shut down a Chicago police detention facility they insist is unconstitutional at its core.
Less than one day after the Guardian revealed that 7,185 arrestees had been detained at Homan Square over nearly 11 years with only 68 documented lawyer visits, the Illinois politician who represents the district housing Homan Square wrote to the US attorney general, insisting that that “further extensive investigative reporting by the Guardian” had forced him to request an expedited federal inquiry by the Justice Department.
“This reported pattern suggests that the Homan Square facility exists primarily for the purpose of housing off-the-books detentions and interrogations without the knowledge of or access to counsel,” Cook County commissioner Richard Boykin wrote to Loretta Lynch on Tuesday. “If accounts of the activity taking place at Homan Square are correct, then the very existence of the facility is unconstitutional, and the civil rights violations that take place there, are numerous and ongoing.”
A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois echoed that demand, saying the Guardian’s reporting merited “a full investigation … whether in court or by the Department of Justice”.
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Zach Stafford in Chicago
Thursday 22 October 2015 18.25 BST
Politicians, civil liberties groups and Black Lives Matter activists have renewed demands for an “immediate investigation” by the Obama administration into Homan Square, citing a “cop-out” from the Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel – and a new report by the Guardian – amid calls to shut down a Chicago police detention facility they insist is unconstitutional at its core.
Less than one day after the Guardian revealed that 7,185 arrestees had been detained at Homan Square over nearly 11 years with only 68 documented lawyer visits, the Illinois politician who represents the district housing Homan Square wrote to the US attorney general, insisting that that “further extensive investigative reporting by the Guardian” had forced him to request an expedited federal inquiry by the Justice Department.
“This reported pattern suggests that the Homan Square facility exists primarily for the purpose of housing off-the-books detentions and interrogations without the knowledge of or access to counsel,” Cook County commissioner Richard Boykin wrote to Loretta Lynch on Tuesday. “If accounts of the activity taking place at Homan Square are correct, then the very existence of the facility is unconstitutional, and the civil rights violations that take place there, are numerous and ongoing.”
A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois echoed that demand, saying the Guardian’s reporting merited “a full investigation … whether in court or by the Department of Justice”.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/22/homan-square-obama-investigate-black-lives-matter