The recent revelation of a secret interrogation facility in the United States, having been described as an ‘off-the-books interrogation compound,’ is used by Chicago police to secretly detain those they suspect of criminal and/or terrorist activity.
Homan Square is said to be a building more resembling a warehouse than that of a police precinct. It houses interrogation cells, military vehicles and an ‘interview room,’ according to one protester, Brian Church, who was housed and questioned in Homan Square in 2012.
Brian Church was housed in Homan Square, Chicago, following an arrest during a protest at a NATO summit. Eleven others were arrested with him and detained at the facility. His detention involved being cuffed to a bench for 17 hours, refusal of an attorney and questioning. He was initially charged with terrorism-related offenses (which he served 2 years for), but later the charges were dropped to lesser misdemeanor offenses. Church is currently on parole after he and his co-defendants were found not guilty in 2014. [1]
Concern is voiced by those who are familiar with the facility. Civil rights attorney, Flint Taylor, described Homan Square as a place notorious for police work violating the constitution. According to Taylor, Homan Square, “dates back more than 40 years.” He continues by saying its use rests in the, “violating [of] a suspect or witness’ rights to a lawyer and not to be physically or otherwise coerced into giving a statement.”
The concern not only rests in the existence of the facility but the insidious nature surrounding how those who are taken into this building under custody ‘disappear.’
A criminal defense attorney, Anthony Hill, stated that, “they just disappear.” But according to criminologist, Tracey Siska, “the real danger in allowing practices like Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib is the fact that they always creep into other aspects.” She continues, “They creep into domestic law enforcement, either with weaponry like with the militarization of police, or interrogation practices. That’s how we ended up with a black site in Chicago.”
It’s a parallel that Parker draws on when discussing the immigration facilities in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people are routinely held in detention facilities under similar circumstances, with an impossible search by family members to find their missing relatives. Basic rights are forfeited as those processed by Customs and Border Protection are routinely not entered into a system, sometimes for up to 3 days. With no recourse for action in either the immigration facilities or the Homan Square sites, human rights on every level of government remain threatened on the most basic levels. [2]
[1] Ackerman, S. (2015, February 24). The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden ‘black site’ Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site
[2] Parker, A. (2015, March 4). Lost in Detention. Retrieved from https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/03/04/lost-in-detention
Knoledge is not power. And the people u r trying to stop are just fronts for those with technology one can only dream of to control the minds of others. Hackers u may be but this technology doesnt use silicon or the internet… it aims straight for ur mind/body.. soul.. etheral self… subconscious. X