July 2021 Newsletter

NEWSLETTER JULY 2021

Remembering Michael Saunders

Exonerated after serving 17 years on a wrongful conviction, Michael Saunders was tragically killed in Chicago on June 21, 2021.

From Mark Clements, CTJC Organizer: We lost a dear brother to gun violence!

One of the Englewood Four, Michael Saunders, who served 17 years in prison for a crime he never committed, was shot on Father's Day in Calumet City, Illinois.

In 1995, Saunders was arrested with 3 other men and charged with the murder of Nina Glover in 1994. He and his co/defendants describe being taken to the police station and tortured. He was just 15 years old when he was tortured and framed by members of CPD. Michael will be missed by his family, friends, and the community.

Let's keep him and his family lifted up in our prayers.

From a remembrance by Alicia Maule, The Innocence Project: [Michael] Saunders, who was wrongly convicted at age 15, is remembered for his kindness, love, and humor.

“It’s utterly shocking that this would be the end because everything in his life showed me he was doing so well,” said Peter Neufeld, Innocence Project co-founder and attorney for Mr. Saunders.

Mr. Saunders and three other teenagers were arrested for the brutal rape and murder of Nina Glover on Chicago’s South Side in 1994. Ms. Glover was one of at least three dozen South Side women sexually assaulted and murdered in the 1990s. Mr. Saunders, Vincent Thames, Terrill Swift, and Harold Richardson — who would later be known at the Englewood Four — falsely confessed to the crime over the course of a two-day police interrogation. Their confessions were later found to be coerced by Chicago police.

“Michael was one of the kindest, funniest souls I’ve ever encountered,” said Gina Papera-Ewing, a former Innocence Project paralegal and friend of Mr. Saunders. “He could not escape the injustice of being Black in America. I am heartbroken.”

Mr. Saunders was wrongly convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison despite a lack of physical evidence that connected him and his co-defendants, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Swift, to the crime. The only significant evidence presented at trial against each defendant was his own confession. ... Jarrett Adams, an attorney and exoneree from Chicago and close friend of Mr. Saunders added that “he wanted to repair the broken community in which his wrongful conviction came out of. He was someone who had been through so much but still found the energy to help people get through challenges.”

P.O. BOX 647 EVANSTON, IL 60204 CHICAGOTORTUREJUSTICE.ORG

Reparations for Police Torture

Highlights from Against the Current (ATC) journal's interview with CTJC co-director Aislinn Pulley.

Full interview: againstthecurrent.org/atc213/reparations-for-police-torture/ Linda Loew, ATC: With the sixth anniversary of Chicago’s historic and unprecedented Reparations Ordinance, what is your evaluation of how the reparations have been implemented? What is the struggle that remains in light of the continued police violence we see across the country?

Aislinn Pulley, CTJC: The Center has been created, and we exist, which is great. We’re the first and currently only center in the country dedicated to domestic torture. Federal regulations limit the 14 other torture centers in the country to accept only international torture survivors. We have been able to bypass that federal restriction because of the movement and because of the Reparations Ordinance. That’s significant and important.

The city, however, continues year after year to threaten us by saying that they have fulfilled their reparations duty and therefore we’re not owed any continued funding. Of course, the ordinance doesn’t say that the Center will be funded only for three or four years. It says you will create and fund.

Our position is that the Center needs to continue to be funded until either no more police killing exists and the generations afterward have healed from the trauma, or other such radical transformations have happened in society so that these services are no longer necessary.

Photo: Sarah-Ji Dianne Feeley, ATC: How many people were tortured over this period?

AP: Jon Burge became employed by Chicago Police Department in 1970 after his army tours in Vietnam and Korea.

During the Vietnam war he had been engaged in “advanced interrogation techniques” or torture. As soon as he got on the force, he began applying those techniques to the people in Chicago. His torture ring lasted until he was suspended in 1991. There’s a conservative count that the city has accepted of 120 survivors and has apologized for. That number is primarily Black men, but some were children when they were tortured.

That’s just between those years and just for those who acquired attorneys, had their testimony recorded and where the evidence has been found credible by Torture Inquiry & Relief Commission (TIRC) set up in 2009 by the Illinois General Assembly as well as other entities. That’s a very conservative estimate because it presupposes a whole bunch of things. We can assume that the true number is in the thousands. I believe there are people who didn’t survive, and we don’t even know their names. And the cutoff date is 1991, when Burge was fired.

Torture didn’t begin with Burge or end with him. Burge was a commander and trained thousands of other officers who carried on the torture after he was fired. Some of those who were tortured after 1991 are beginning to come out of prison. Survivors of Kenneth Boudreau, James O’Brien, Jack Halloran, Michael Kill and others who trained under Burge led torturing his way after him. The true number is in the thousands, really. If we look at the specific methods of torture that Burge used, then the number is huge.

LL: Even scaled down, the Reparations Ordinance is still unprecedented. Has it laid the basis for developing reparations as an active reality — not just around torture, but also around centuries of discrimination? I know our neighboring city, Evanston, voted for a reparations program based on its history of segregation and discrimination.

AP: Yes, which is amazing. I was involved myself in the grassroots organizing component of the reparations struggle when we did a targeted push to get it out of committee, where it had been stuck for three years. When the Laquan McDonald assassination video was finally released, Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced a political crisis. We targeted him and used that weakness to force him to get the ordinance out of committee.

Throughout that organizing work, I didn’t believe we were going to win. I was used to working on campaigns where you fight, you fight, you fight because it’s the longterm struggle. But here we won. It’s still amazing that it happened because it’s so transformative and it doesn’t exist anywhere else. It needs to exist everywhere, and needs to be expanded here in Chicago. I sit with both realities all the time. I’m still in amazement because it’s so trailblazing and should be emulated and expanded.

P.O. BOX 647 EVANSTON, IL 60204 CHICAGOTORTUREJUSTICE.ORG

Case management update: new participants welcome!

Thanks to the leadership of our new Case Manager Naji Ublies, we're so happy to say our case management services are open to new participants! There are a few ways to get connected with support: please call (708) 816-4424, email naji@chicagotorturejustice.org, or mail our PO Box below.

Honoring Black August 2021: We want to hear from you!

Black August, which began in California prisons during the 1970s, is a time to commemorate the lives and struggle of Black political prisoners and freedom fighters, to amplify histories of resistance and, as the Movement for Black Lives notes, to "recharge the revolution" through community connection and political education.

As we look ahead to honoring our community, our history, and our ongoing work throughout Black August next month, we want to hear reflections from you—our CTJC family. We invite you to respond to the questions that follow.

Logo: Movement for Black Lives, m4bl.org Black August reflections from our CTJC community, and especially our community members who are incarcerated: Who inspires you and why?

Whose work, whose words move you to action or make you stop and think?

What are you reading, or what have you read, that has stayed with you?

Below are words from writer, revolutionary, and Black freedom fighter George Jackson, whose assassination inspired the creation of Black August: “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act.

Do what must be done; discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”

–George Jackson

What are your reflections on this wisdom from George Jackson?

Does it support your own vision and ideas? Does it complicate or conflict with them?

What action do his words inspire in you? What do you hope they inspire in others?

These questions are meant to be a starting point, and we welcome any reflections you are inspired to share in the form of writing, poetry, drawing, and art. If you'd like to share your thoughts, please mail them to the PO box below.

For more info on Black August: >> m4bl.org/black-august/ >> kpfa.org/episode/upfront-july-31-2020/ >> streetsheet.org/resistance-the-meaning-of-black-august/ >> criticalresistance.org/resources/current-analysis/celebrate-black-august/ P.O. BOX 647 EVANSTON, IL 60204 CHICAGOTORTUREJUSTICE.ORG

Centering and Grounding Practices

With all of the heaviness in this month's newsletter and in the world, we wanted to share a few exercises to try if you're feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or in need of a calm moment. They may be new to you, or maybe these are reminders or exercises you've already tried. As always, we encourage you to take what's useful and leave the rest.

Breathing Exercises

Breath Box

Breathing exercises have all sorts of physical benefits. Breathing deeply, for example, sends a message to your brain that you’re OK—helping

Inhale for count of 5

your mind and body relax.

One

breathing

exercise

to

try

is

the

4-7-8

technique. Breathe in for a count of 4, hold your

Hold for count of 5

breath for a count of 7, and breathe out for a count of 8.

Hold for count of 5

Exhale for count of 5

Another, similar, exercise to try is the Breath Box, pictured in the diagram to the right.

Muscle Relaxation Muscle relaxation exercises can be a helpful way to manage anxiety. One progressive muscle

relaxation

exercise

suggests

choosing

a

muscle

group

(like

your

thighs

or

shoulders), intentionally tightening the muscles for a few seconds, and then letting them go. Continue with different muscle groups until you’ve worked through your whole body.

Spiritual Practices I hear the love of those Prayer,

contemplation,

reading

scripture

and/or

poetry, chanting, affirmations, and gratitude practices are all ways to help us attend to our spirit.

To the right is a short, meditative piece by Steve Garnaas-Holmes. If you don't already have something to read in mind, try reading it to yourself and feeling for what comes up. Write about your reaction—or write or draw your response—if you'd like.

P.O. BOX 647 EVANSTON, IL 60204 CHICAGOTORTUREJUSTICE.ORG

who have loved me echo in me.

All the notes of my song sing over theirs, the only kind of beauty.

The song does not die.

May I live with love and mercy for it will echo long after.