UN calls for action for alleged victims of police torture in Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) — A local group fighting for justice for alleged victims of torture by Chicago police has received help from the United Nations.

The warning came from the U.N. special rapporteur on racial discrimination, who said local efforts to combat torture by Chicago police have been “piecemeal and far too slow in their implementation.”

Denise Spencer is a member of the group Mothers of the Kidnapped – which in turn is part of a larger group called MAMAS Collective. She said the torture her son Michael Carter, then 19, suffered at the hands of Chicago police was not just an allegation: she witnessed it.

“The problem is, I was there,” Spencer said. “I came across them beating him. I walked into the police station and I can hear from the first floor.”

Spencer said her son was wrongly imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit since 1999. Over the past 25 years, she has found strength in other mothers in the same distressing situation.

“When they lock up our children, we are locked up with them. We are tortured with them. We have been abused with them,” Spencer said, “because we walk with them.”

MAMAS Collective brings families like Spencer's together through activism. “MAMAS” stands for “Mamas Advocating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity.”

“Not only our group, but, you know, decades of activism and organizing – primarily Black-led or rooted in Chicago's Black communities – have led the fight to free survivors of police torture in Chicago” , said Nadine Naber, co-director of MAMAS Collective and professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Naber said the MAMAS Collective – in collaboration with other groups – contacted the United Nations four years ago about 22 local cases because other means of re-examining these cases at the local level were far behind schedule.

“And that led to this massive result,” Naber said.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has reviewed the cases and last week formally called for action from local leaders.

The UN experts said in part: “Chicago has a long history of law enforcement officials allegedly using torture to extract confessions to serious crimes. These heinous alleged human rights violations appear to a large extent to be rooted in systemic racism and have disproportionately affected populations in Africa. and of Latin American origin.

“These are working-class Black and Latina mothers of survivors of police torture who have been doing this research for decades,” Naber said.

Naber and Spencer sadly said the situation requires global attention – for the sake of torture victims, but also their grieving families.

“Sometimes you just have to hear and listen, you know? Just listen to what I'm experiencing,” Spencer said. “Thank God that the United Nations is listening to us.”

The United Nations said it contacted federal, state and local officials. They didn't specify which agencies, but they have 60 days to respond.

There was no response Monday evening from the Chicago Police Department or Illinois officials who received the U.N. report. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office released this statement:

“CCSAO has not received this report. However, the Foxx Administration is acutely aware of the inequities plaguing Cook County. Since taking office, State's Attorney Foxx has made groundbreaking strides in the fight against systemic racism found in our criminal justice system, including overturning 250 wrongful convictions related to police misconduct and overturning more than 15,000 cannabis-related convictions following its legalization.

“More recently, she proposed a policy that would end prosecutions in gun cases stemming from non-safety traffic stops that unfairly target black and brown drivers and result in the recovery of a firearm in only one in 1,000 checks.”

Megan Hickey

Megan Hickey is a member of the 2 Investigator team, which focuses on timely investigative reporting.