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Oct 22: ‘We Charge Genocide’ Presents Report on Chicago Police Violence and Hosts Silent Protest on National Day of Action Against Police Brutality


Chicago organizers release report they will present to the UN, exposing ongoing, pervasive Chicago Police violations of the Convention Against Torture, as well as call for a protest at the 11th District Police Station, formerly run by disgraced Commander Glenn Evans.

CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—October 20, 2014. On October 22, a national day of action against police brutality, local organizers with We Charge Genocide (WCG) will present a report to the public detailing Chicago Police violence in marginalized communities and against youth of color. The report shows that CPD actions violate the United Nations (UN) Conventions Against Torture. The presentation will take place at 9 a.m. at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 800 S Halsted St, Chicago. 

The full report, We Charge Genocide: Police Violence Against Chicago’s Youth of Color, will be available for download on 10/22 at wechargegenocide.org.

9 a.m. Presentation Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/393181967499789/

Later that day, at 5:30 pm, WCG organizers who will travel to the UN to present the report will be available for interviews before a 6:00 pm silent protest at the 11th District Police Station, at 3151 W Harrison. The 11th District is a hotbed of police brutality. Recently, the Commander of the station, Glenn Evans, was accused of putting his gun into a suspect’s mouth. Brutality lawsuits against Evans alone have cost taxpayers nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

6 p.m. Protest Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1487848628144241/

In November WCG, will send eight organizers to present a report on Chicago Police violence to the United Nations Committee Against Torture at their 53rd Session in Geneva, Switzerland, during which the U.S. will be under review. With widespread community support, the group raised over $17,500 in less than a month via online fundraiser and a series of fundraising dinners. Because of the generosity of people in Chicago and around the country, WCG has added two additional organizers to the Geneva delegation.

We Charge Genocide: Police Violence Against Chicago’s Youth of Color contains data and personal narratives collected by WGC at events, using their online submission form, the #ChiCopWatch hashtag, as well as publicly available resources. The report also includes an infographic, Chicago Police Violence By The Numbers. Key finding include:

From 2009 to 2013, although Black people comprised only 32.3% of Chicago’s overall population, 75% of police shooting victims were Black. Additionally, in the first six months of 2014, 23 of 27 people shot by the CPD were Black.

Between 2009 and 2011, 92% of Taser uses involved a Black or Latino target, including 49 youth under the age of 16 (with some as young as 8 years old).

Black youth accounted for 77% of the arrests of youth in 2011 and 79% in 2012. Latino youth accounted for most of the other arrests, i.e., 18% of these arrests in 2011 and 17% in 2012.

A brutality complaint is 94% less likely to be sustained in Chicago than in the nation as a whole: Only 0.48% of brutality complaints against the CPD are sustained (as opposed to 8% nationally).

Between 2002 and 2004, Chicago residents filed 10,149 complaints of excessive force, illegal searches, racial abuse, and false arrests against the CPD. Only 124 of these 10,149 complaints were sustained (1.2%), and a mere 19 cases (0.18%) resulted in any meaningful penalty (a suspension of a week or more).

We Charge Genocide is volunteer-run by Chicago residents concerned that the epidemic of police violence continues uninterrupted in Chicago and who seek to equip individuals across the city with tools to more proactively hold police accountable. The name We Charge Genocide comes from a petition filed to the United Nations in 1951, which documented 153 racial killings and other human rights abuses, mostly by the police. 

Related Material:

9/23: We Charge Genocide Raises Over $10,000 in a Week to Present Report on Chicago Police Violence to United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva

9/15: We Charge Genocide To Present Report on Chicago Police to the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva

Source: wechargegenocide.org.


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