The [Monday] Papers

"Chicago police 'physically and psychologically abused' three wrongfully imprisoned black men at Homan Square, according to a new lawsuit, which details an officer holding a knife to one man's throat as two others underwent strip searches and all were short-shackled without access to food, water, bathrooms, families or legal counsel," Zach Stafford reports for the Guardian.

"The federal civil rights lawsuit, filed on Monday against six officers and the city of Chicago, alleges the use of 'unconstitutionally coercive and torturous tactics' and connects the practices at Homan Square to a pattern of racially motivated policing."

The Chicago media denies the charges.

*

"A Chicago police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the department has referred other outlets responding to the Guardian's reporting on Homan Square to a 'fact sheet' which claims: 'The allegation that physical violence is a part of interviews with suspects is unequivocally false, it is offensive, and it is not supported by any facts whatsoever.'

"Patrick, recalling a naked cavity probe while his mother and girlfriend frantically looked for him, told the Guardian a different story: 'I never want to go through it again,' said the 25-year-old, who was acquitted along with the two other men in January after they spent 15 months in jail."

The CPD's fact sheet declined to comment.

*

"Homan Square . . . is not a police district station nor a jail, and does not generate public booking records during interrogation and detention, according to a recent deposition."

*

"The new case [two other lawsuits have already been filed] began hours after the Guardian published an analysis of 7,185 arrest records it compelled the city to reveal in court, finding 5,906 were of black people taken to Homan Square over nearly 11 years - 82% of all arrests, compared with 33% of the city's population - and only 68 were allowed lawyer visits."

From that analysis:

"Guardian lawsuit exposes fullest scale yet of detentions at off-the-books interrogation warehouse, while attorneys describe find-your-client chase across Chicago as 'something from a Bond movie' . . .

"The narcotics, vice and anti-gang units operating out of Homan Square, on Chicago's west side, take arrestees to the nondescript warehouse from all over the city: police data obtained by the Guardian and mapped against the city grid show that 53% of disclosed arrestees come from more than 2.5 miles away from the warehouse. No contemporaneous public record of someone's presence at Homan Square is known to exist.

"Nor are any booking records generated at Homan Square, as confirmed by a sworn deposition of a police researcher in late September, further preventing relatives or attorneys from finding someone taken there.

"The reality is, no one knows where that person is at Homan Square," said Craig Futterman, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who studies policing. "They're disappeared at that point."

The Chicago media refused to comment.

*

"Twenty-two people have told the Guardian that Chicago police kept them at Homan Square for hours and even days."

The Guardian has now done about two dozen articles about Homan, which is about two dozen more than any outlet in Chicago, unless you count CPD stenography.

*

Over/Under on the number of mainstream Chicago journalists who have read even half of the Guardian's work: 2.

*

"Chicago attorneys say they are not routinely turned away from police precinct houses, as they are at Homan Square. The warehouse is also unique in not generating public records of someone's detention there, permitting police to effectively hide detainees from their attorneys.

"Try finding a phone number for Homan to see if anyone's there. You can't, ever," said Gaeger. "If you're laboring under the assumption that your client's at Homan, there really isn't much you can do as a lawyer. You're shut out. It's guarded like a military installation."

"The difficulty lawyers have in finding phone numbers for Homan Square mirrors the difficulties that arrestees at the warehouse have in making phone calls to the outside world. Futterman called the lack of phone access at Homan Square a critical problem.

"They're not given access to phones, and the CPD's admitted this, until they get to lockup - but there's no lockup at Homan Square," he said. "How do you contact a lawyer? It's not telepathy.

"Often," Futterman continued, "prisoners aren't entered into the central booking system until they're being processed - which doesn't occur at Homan Square. They're supposed to begin that processing right away, under CPD procedures, and at Homan Square the reality is, that isn't happening or is happening sporadically and inconsistently, which leads to the whole find-your-client game."

But then, whack-a-mole is the CPD's whole point.

-

Previously in Homan Square:

* The Beachwood Radio Hour #46: Explaining Homan Square.

* The [Homan Square] Papers.

* John Conroy On Homan Square And The Problem With Chicago Media.

* The Beachwood Radio Hour #47: What Chicagoans Aren't Being Told.

* Welcome To The Homandrome, Tom Durkin!

* The Beachwood Radio Hour #48: Carol Marin's Blinders And The Homan Blackout.

* Homan Squared.

* Amnesty International Calls For Federal Investigation Of Homan Square.

* The Beachwood Radio Hour #49: Developing Homan Square.

* Chicago Newsroom: Homan Square.

* Black Hole Homan.

* The Beachwood Radio Hour #60: Behind The 'Disappeared' Of Homan Square & The Guardian's Homan Square Story Was Huge On The Internet - But Not In Chicago Media.

* The Beachwood Radio Hour #63: My Journey Through America's Dumbest Newsrooms - Including WBEZ's Homan Malpractice & Homan Square In Real-Time.

* Bonus tweet:

Homan Square: 20 Multisourced stories ignored by #Chicago media. Patrick Kane: anonymous sources & know-nothing experts speculating galore.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) September 9, 2015

-

The Cub Factor: Where's Your Plan Now?!
Daniel Murphy vs. Christopher Coghlan, c'mon!

F The Goat
This club's been like a ship on the ocean; the Titanic with a fanbase full of hope and devotion.

Former Chicago TV Reporter Has Mets Mania!
Jennifer McLogan reporting from America's last shopping mall.

I Am A Retail Warrior
Throw The Birthday Dog A Bone!

SportsMonday: The Bears' 10-Second Saga
Coffman says it's not a legitimate beef.

The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Featuring: Soddy Daisy, Clearance, Mr. and Mrs., Wolf PAC, Spike and the Sweet Spots, The Trolls, Kylesa, Mutemath, Dan Wilson, Replicant, The Frozen Autumn, Yip Deceiver, Owl City, Gardener, Garbage, Poi Dog Pondering, Ronnie Baker Brooks, and Rachel Yamagata.

-

BeachBook

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

-

TweetWood
A sampling.

A timeline of Joe Biden's announcement timelines. http://t.co/BfXNXaDkuK pic.twitter.com/IukhLqS4Za

— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) October 19, 2015

*

Every time a legacy journalist tweets out an image of its print edition, the organization they work for takes one step closer to death.

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) October 19, 2015

RLT: It's mostly the sports folk tweeting out punny "covers," resisting digital ala the resistance of the stubborn oldschoolers in Moneyball

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) October 19, 2015

*

This photo must be a fake - there's no "Toyota" on the marquee. https://t.co/ADcMMErnG1

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) October 19, 2015

-

The Beachwood Tip Line: Pimps and ho's.

© 2006 - 2022, The Beachwood Media Company