The newsers are all over covering Michael Brown's family testifying at the U.N. Committee Against Torture about police brutality in the United States which is great. That story needs to get out that the U.S. has a police brutality problem in St. Louis. What you aren't hearing about is that We Charge Genocide is also testifying in front of the committee and that the committee is going to focus on the United States for today and tomorrow on multiple issues. From the U.N. Committee Against Torture's web site:
Among the possible issues to be discussed: extraterritorial application of the Convention; CIA’s secret detention, extraordinary rendition and interrogation programme; Guantanamo Bay detainees held indefinitely without charge or trial; investigation and prosecution of those responsible for torture or ill-treatment of detainees; immigration enforcement abuses; death penalty, alleged administration of untested lethal drugs; police brutality; prolonged solitary confinement; protection of prisoners against violence; sexual violence in US military.That's quite a list. Each one is a diary, but I'm going to focus on police brutality and it's impact on the U.S. If you're white, you don't think much about police brutality until you see it happen to someone you love. That's wrong, but accurate for many people.
You know about Michael Brown and St Louis. You may have seen the recent movie, Fruitvale Station, but did you know about the group from Chicago who went to testify in front of the U.N Committee Against Torture, too? No? I'm not surprised. It's not covered by the Chicago media, so the national news didn't pick up the story. They should, because Chicago has quite a problem with police brutality and We Charge Genocide makes a compelling case about it.
When the mainstream media covers the violent death toll of Chicago, it usually focuses on gun violence and blames the victim(s) both directly and indirectly. The media doesn't look into the stats or anything under the surface of any other problems associated with violent crime in Chicago. The mainstream media certainly doesn't cover institutional violence of the Chicago Police Department (pdf) against the people of color within the Chicago community. We know about the record 500 murders in Chicago a few years ago. What we don't know much about is Chicago PD's record of brutality and the millions they pay out in court settlements for their brutal treatment of the community they serve. The mainstream media doesn't cover how the Chicago PD exacerbates and obstructs investigation into police brutality.
Let me introduce you to the organization behind Chicago's U.N. Delegation. They are known as We Charge Genocide and they gave me permission to use and share their images from their web site.
We Charge Genocide (WCG) took their name from a 1951 petition that detailed the atrocity of 153 racial killings and other human rights abuses mostly perpetrated by the Chicago police. Their position is that over 60 years later, the Chicago PD is not much better.