Wide ranging interview with Mark Clements, Chicago police torture survivor, one of the first juvenileâs sentenced to natural life without parole in the state of Illinois and incarcerated for 28 years before his conviction was overturned in 2009.
While some people would think it extreme to refer to the Chicago Police Department as "Murder Incorporated" a survey of its tolerance for dishonest cops and racist injustice that normalized for decades police killings, false charges and perjured testimony, winked at by Chicago officials, supports the characterization.
The Stop Police Crimes campaign and ongoing demonstrations following George Floyd's murder have witnessed a sea change in outrage driven protest at the too long ignored white supremacist structural injustice at the core of the business model which the police are used to protect.
Chicago Torture Justice Center https://chicagotorturejustice.org/
"Mark Clements is a Chicago police torture survivor. At age 16 in 1981 he was taken to area 3 violent crime unit where he was tortured to confess to a crime. Mark was one of Illinois first juvenileâs sentence to natural life without parole in the state of Illinois. He remained incarcerated for 28 years before his conviction was overturned in 2009.
In 2009 he was hired as administrator and organizer with the Campaign to End the Death Penalty in which he held other positions working from Chicago and Austin, Texas. He also helped to organize and establish the existence of the Illinois Fair Sentence of Youth through Northwestern University of School of Law, while sitting on the board of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Mark is with the Chicago Torture Justice Center as a learning fellow working in many complex areas of trauma and while attending court hearings and in support of others that were taken to police stations across the city of Chicago and tortured by members of the Chicago Police Department. While honored and privileged to be of assistance to other torture survivors, itâs a responsibility that requires many hours, learning, lots of reading, and much communication with men and women that are incarcerated."