PHOTOS/FRANK JOHNSON
Below are excerpts from a speech by Aislinn Pulley, Co-executive Director of the Chicago Justice Torture Center, given at the recent conference in Chicago to re-found the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.
“Chicago won a historic reparations ordinance in 2015, the first of its kind, that provides financial redress for survivors of police torture, [and] mandated the creation of a curriculum to be taught in all Chicago public schools about that history. . . Rahm Emmanuel denied the funding to establish the public memorial. Lori Lightfoot to date has not responded to the demand to create and fund [it]. . . What the reparations ordinance also called for was the creation of a center located on the South side to treat the psychological effects of torture … The Chicago Torture Justice Center … is the first, and only center in the U.S. dedicated to survivors of domestic torture …
“We have 120 names from John Burge [people tortured by Burge]. He trained tons of detectives. They were known as the midnight crew. That was only one of the crews. They are still on the force. One was a part of the Laquan McDonald assassination. So that lineage and … torture remains alive and well. So when they talk about the ‘era of Burge,’ don’t let them use that language because the torture continues … and we have tons and tons of survivors who don’t yet know they also are connected to Burge and his henchmen. What we do have here this weekend are survivors who are going to be sharing their stories … some remain incarcerated … there are women torture survivors [too].
“We also know that we are not yet done fighting … Homan Square disappeared over 7,000 people between 2004 and 2012. … So that 120 names is not the real number . . . we have to end torture completely in this city and across this country. And we have to free all the prisoners … open all the cages and defund all the police departments.
“So while we are … standing in the victory of the struggles and the fights that that brought us here … we have a long way to go … we ain’t done . . . we gonna win because when we fight, we win.”
