On Thursday the 13th, Larisa Alexandrovna published a disturbing story in Raw Story. The story outlines the discrepancies between an "official report" from the US Government and and the "shadow report" of US Non Governmental Agencies on torture in the United States. The report on domestic human rights abuses isi a quadrennial process of reporting to the UN Human Rights Committee. Differences between the official government report and that of the NGO’s show clear under reporting and minimization by the government.
This is a disquieting article but an important one.
Report: Treatment of US suspects at home mirrors that of terror suspects in military custody
Larisa Alexandrovna, 07.13.06http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Report__0713.htmlOne of the key sections of this report deals specifically with prisoner abuse and torture within the United States and of United States citizens by authority figures. While disturbing in and of themselves, the cases presented by the shadow report as examples of ICCPR and CAT violations also show troubling similarities between detainee abuse allegations in US military prisons around the world and US domestic prisons.
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According to New York City civil rights attorney Andrea Ritchie, who has worked with Incite! Woman of Color Against Violence and authored the prisoner abuse section of the NGO shadow report, the Burge torture claims are prime examples of the extent of the alleged human rights violations and police brutality.
Police Commander Jon Burge and homicide detectives of Areas 2 and 3 Police Headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, were charged with torturing nearly 200 African American men between 1972-1991. Admissions by detectives, eye-witness accounts and other evidence have indicated that Burge and his men
“systematically tortured individuals during interrogations, also proves that officers throughout the chain of command were aware of the torture and condoned its practice,” Ritchie quoted in a summary of the case she provided to RAW STORY. Evidence provided in the Burge cases paint a picture not unlike what has emerged from the Abu Ghraib scandal, or allegations relating to abuse by US authorities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and other US detention facilities in the Middle-East.
The techniques detailed in the Chicago torture cases included “electrically shocking men’s genitals, ears and lips with a cattle prod or an electric shock box, suffocating individuals with plastic bags, mock executions, and beatings with telephone books and rubber hoses,” according to court documents.