Guardian: Chicago police run a CIA-style 'black site'

Crain's Chicago Business ^ | 2-24-2015 | THOMAS A. CORFMAN

[Citizen Zed]

The Chicago Police Department operates an unofficial detention center on the West Side that some defendants' lawyers describe as the equivalent of a CIA black site, according to a report by the Guardian newspaper.

Suspects are interrogated at the facility, a warehouse in the Homan Square complex, instead of being formally booked and detained at a police station, the London newspaper reported today in two stories totaling more than 3,600 words.

The practices at the facility include beatings by police, shackling suspects for long periods of time and denying attorneys' access to their clients, the Guardian says. The report follows a Guardian investigation published Feb. 18 into a retired Chicago detective accused of torturing suspects at the U.S. government's detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

In a statement to Crain's, a spokesman said in part: "CPD abides by all laws, rules and guidelines pertaining to any interviews of suspects or witnesses, at Homan Square or any other CPD facility....There are always records of anyone who is arrested by CPD, and this is not any different at Homan Square.

The potentially explosive report is likely to revive memories of a sorry chapter in Chicago history when African-American men often were tortured to obtain confessions, frequently under the direction of disgraced ex-Commander Jon Burge.

The Guardian could not determine how often suspects are taken to the facility, which also serves as an evidence warehouse and offices of special police units, such as anti-gang and anti-drug details. The newspaper did identify a handful of people taken to Homan Square, including Brian Church, a protester known as one of the “Nato Three,” who was held and questioned at Homan Square in 2012.

“It brings to mind the interrogation facilities they use in the Middle East,” Church was quoted as saying.

[null and void]

First reported in The Guardian, this is PRECISELY why obama has 332 secret pages of internet regulations awaiting a congressional rubber stamp.

The biggest killer of mankind

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[Nifster]

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