CTJM member and PLO attorney Shubra Ohri and We Charge Genocide members journeyed to Geneva, Switzerland and appeared before the CAT where they raised the issue of torture reparations, which are guaranteed under Article 14 of the U.N. A few weeks later, the CAT specifically recommended that the US support the passage of the reparations ordinance. What if Mayor Emanuel, on behalf of the city and its police department, and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, on behalf of the county and the state’s attorneys’ office, stood in front of the old Area 2 “House of Screams” at 91st and Cottage Grove and issued a joint apology to all of Chicago’s citizens, together with a pledge to create a reparations fund to compensate those still-suffering survivors of Chicago police torture who were cheated out of lawsuits by the cover-up of the scandal? Patton – who, before becoming corporation counsel had negotiated a multi-billion dollar settlement on behalf of several leading tobacco companies – cautioned that the meeting would not take the form of negotiations, and that the city was not inclined to provide any compensation to the survivors. That fall, in September 2013, the city settled two more torture cases brought on behalf of exonerated torture survivors for a total of $12.3 million.
On October 16, 2013, big tits they introduced CTJM’s Ordinance into the Council. But in October 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney confirmed the United States had used the controversial technique to interrogate senior Al Qaeda suspects, and he said the White House did not consider waterboarding a form of torture. Unlike the predominately white academic audiences in the North Eastern United States where I typically present my work, nearly all of the attendees not only knew of this legend but had grown up hearing stories about the wailing woman who killed her own children. Many of the attendees wore black tee shirts designed by Mayer and distributed by CTJM which had the City of Chicago flag – with a fifth star, black in color added to represent the torture survivors – emblazoned on the front. As the year wore on, other activist groups, including Project NIA and We Charge Genocide, joined the coalition that led the campaign to get the reparations ordinance passed, adding new and creative leadership, including Mariame Kaba and Page May, energetic youth and a strong infusion of young people of color. Amnesty decided to turn its attention to police torture in the US and agreed to sign on in support of the reparations ordinance.
Armed with the ordinance, CTJM member Alice Kim, who had been a leader in the fight against the death penalty and police torture, met with Alderman Joe Moreno, who had a history of fighting for death row torture survivors, and solicited his political support and leadership on the reparations ordinance. In the fall of 2014, CTJM worked with the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights to submit a shadow brief calling on the United Nations Committee Against Torture to specifically recommend that it call on the US Government to support the Reparations Ordinance. Especially since the Charlie Hebdo attacks, we’ve witnessed a renewed sense of uncertainty and ambiguity about human rights in policy debates. The use of torture at Guantanamo Bay – euphemistically referred to as “enhanced interrogation” by the Bush administration – was approved by defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for use as early as 2002. Those techniques included “hooding, stress positions, isolation, stripping, deprivation of light, removal of religious items, forced grooming, and use of dogs”, according to a 2005 Human Rights Watch report.
Report of the Committee Against Torture: Thirty-fifth Session (14-25 November 2005); Thirty-sixth Session (1 – May 19, 2006). United Nations Pubns. Many supporters of the torture program argue that it was ethically permissible because it produced military intelligence that may have saved lives. “As we get ready for what we have to do from a financial standpoint, there must be some way to address those whose statute of limitations has run out. But that doesn’t mean there’s only one way to do it.” The mayor was asked whether that answer should be construed as a “yes, no or maybe.” With trademark sarcasm, he replied, “I don’t know. And I do believe that this is a way of saying all of us are sorry about what happened … At one point, Emanuel appeared to crack the door open to the idea, telling reporters that there are “a number of things” that the reparations ordinance demanded that he was prepared to “look at and work through. Other actions in support of reparations included a light show in front of the mayor’s house that spelled out “Reparations Now,” teach-ins, a “sing-in” at city hall, Sunday church presentations throughout the city, and demonstrations on CTA trains and outside of mayoral debates.