The Chicago Torture Justice Memorials has plans to challenge police terror and they are resilient.
After a decade of advocating for their cause, the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial has solidified a design for a memorial that honors victims of injustice.
Activists within the organization are calling on Chicago’s first Black and openly gay mayor, Lori Lightfoot, to fund the project.
The main goal of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial reparation ordinance was to establish a concrete method of redress for victims of police torture and their families.
The Chicago Torture Justice movement has been working on other programs such as financial compensation, teaching about police violence in public schools and the creation of a mental health center in the Chicago’s South Side but the organization demands the memorial as a requirement for the reparations ordinance.
"A public memorial…is a reminder that the present is traceable to a past when people tortured by law enforcement in this country fought to make their experiences known and part of official history—and won." #reparationsnow
#chicagotorturehttps://t.co/YOYvwEva3g— JusticeMemorials (@ChicagoTorture) June 14, 2019
According to The Chicago Tribune, a mayoral spokesperson said in a statement that Lightfoot will review the proposal.
More than 100 men are believed to have been tortured between 1972 and 1991 by former police commander Jon Burge and officers under his command, as reported by WBBM NewsRadio.
The organization continues to advocate for victims of injustice and shows no signs of stopping:
“We continue to see the ravages of racially motivated police violence affecting mostly young Black people today…This work continues and CTJM stands in solidarity with our partners and other groups seeking to eradicate this violence,” ChicagoTorture.org reads. “We call on you to support this on-going work.”
