Thousands of People Detained At Secret Facility In Chicago

[freejingerbeth]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015 ... are_btn_fb

I had never heard of Homan Square, until now. Apparently, it is an undercover police base. People, a disproportionate number of whom are African American, are being held without a lawyer, food, or water, for hours. Many are then charged with really stupid crimes. Some of these people live in fear of retribution, if they report what goes on. At least one person left Chicago, as a result. I can't believe this is happening, in our own country.

[RandomTrivia]

Homan Square, or a fictionalized copy of it, was a big plot in an episode of The Good Wife last season.

[FundieFarmer]

Holy Moses. I hadn't heard of it either, though I do love the Good Wife. Diving down that rabbit hole now. Thanks for sharing, freejingerbeth.

[bea]

As a Chicagoan, I'm familiar with Homan Square. I think a lot of the "seekrit black ops HQ" stuff is people looking to cash in on the current suspicion in the US towards the police. Homan is where they process/have processed a great many prisoners or arrestees, since many stations have closed their lockups in favor of using central sites like Homan. I'm not saying there isn't anything fishy or questionable going on there, only that the Homan Square location is not, and has never been, any kind of a secret. It's a police lockup. Homan is listed as a lockup on the CPD website, along with directions on how to get there. How this translates into "secret site no one knows about," I can't really figure out.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

As a Chicagoan, I'm familiar with Homan Square. I think a lot of the "seekrit black ops HQ" stuff is people looking to cash in on the current suspicion in the US towards the police. Homan is where they process/have processed a great many prisoners or arrestees, since many stations have closed their lockups in favor of using central sites like Homan. I'm not saying there isn't anything fishy or questionable going on there, only that the Homan Square location is not, and has never been, any kind of a secret. It's a police lockup. Homan is listed as a lockup on the CPD website, along with directions on how to get there. How this translates into "secret site no one knows about," I can't really figure out.

I can't speak to allegations of the treatment or processing legalities, but I agree with Bea that it's not a secret. It's absolutely a known station and evidence holding locale. When people are released they are given the address to pick up their possessions from there.

Regarding the racial demographics of those held there, they correlate pretty closely to that area.

Homan Square is in North Lawndale which is 91% black / 1% white. It's surrounded by East Garfield Park (91% black / 3% white), West Garfield Park (96% black / >1% white), South Lawndale (13% black / 3% white), and the lower west side (Pilsen area) (3% black / 12% white).

ETA from the article:

More than 82% of the Homan Square arrests thus far disclosed – or 2,974 arrests – are of black people, while 8.5% are of white people. Chicago, according to the 2010 US census, is 33% black and 32% white.

Out of context the numbers look skewed, but when you take into account the fact that Chicago is still one of (the?) most segregated cities in the US looking at the city as a whole doesn't tell us anything. No one picked up in Streeterville or Deering is going to be taken to Homan Square as other facilities are closer.