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For Immediate Release
October, 22 2014, 09:00am EDT
Contact:
Page May, 802-324-7751, wechargegenocide@gmail.com
Monica Trinidad, 312-771-6269, mtrini2@gmail.com
'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 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
On October 22, a national day of action against police brutality, local organizers with We Charge Genocide (WCG) will release a report to the public detailing Chicago Police violence in marginalized communities and against youth of color.
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 findings 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)
The web companion to the report includes:
- Mapping of police shootings by district
- Data visualization of the racial component of police violence in Chicago
- Data on City expenditures on officers with a large volume of misconduct complaints
- Narrative portraits by local writers of police shooting victims, and one survivor
- Original testimony of young Chicagoans speaking to their experiences with police violence
- Excerpts from the UN report
9 AM Presentation Facebook Event:https://www.facebook.com/events/393181967499789/
The report shows that CPD actions violate the United Nations (UN) Conventions Against Torture. The presentation will take place at 9 am at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 800 S Halsted St, Chicago.
6 PM Protest Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1487848628144241/
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.
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