It appeared in The Guardian in February, but I first saw it today after it was passed along in email -- an article about a 'black site' used by the Chicago Police Department to hold suspects without charge or recourse for a number of hours.
It may be that I hadn't had enough coffee, but as dismaying as the article's details were, I found it sort of blurry around the edges. But for all that, it does seem to point to yet another bit of crumbling in the American fabric. "Disappearing" the largely dispossessed suspects feels like some tinpot dictatorship above which America might rather wish to stand ... like Central or South America or China, perhaps.
The police-state nightmare, often wispy in its outraged tendrils, seems to gain a more concrete footing. Firepower, secrecy, presumptions of guilt, legalities overlooked ... this is America? It tastes like the aftermath of throwing up to me.
Legally you can be held for 24 hours before or without being charged. But you aren't supposed to be deprived of rights during that time, access to an attorney, reasonable care, etc. It's not clear if it's a facility designated for police use. That it's only used by "special" units is a worry. I don't see how it could be kept secret if the entire force were aware of it. But being the nation that trains death squads for other nations, it would be naive to think we didn't utilize such tactics here.
ReplyDelete