In 1994, a year before I moved to Chicago, four black teenage boys were accused of a vicious rape and murder. These young men became known as the Englewood Four. This past week, a judge vacated their convictions citing the fact that their “confessions” to the crime had been coerced.

For seventeen years, the men had fought to clear their names. Now they await a decision by the State’s Attorney as to whether they will be re-tried for the crime. This decision to vacate the Englewood Four’s convictions comes on the heels of the release of three other black men who were wrongfully convicted as part of the Dixmoor Five. Once again, in the Dixmoor case, the men had been convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman when they were all juveniles. They allegedly confessed to the crime.

If you are noticing a pattern here, you should. Research suggests that young people are more susceptible to police coercion and therefore more likely to give false confessions when they feel pressured and scared. In their book “True Stories of False Confessions,” Rob Warden and Steven Drizin of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Law School offer several reasons for false confessions:

1. Brainwashing: interrogators convince the suspect that he or she must have committed the crime during a memory blackout.
2. Child abuse: interrogators persuade a child to confess by exploiting his or her vulnerability and tendency to trust authority.
3. Desperation: a suspect confesses in order to end the exhausting interrogation, believing that he or she can straighten things out later.
4. Inquisition: interrogators convince the suspect that confessing is the only way to avoid a harsh punishment like the death penalty.
5. Mental fragility: interrogators persuade a mentally ill person to confess by exploiting his or her vulnerability and tendency to trust authority.
6. Inference: interrogators take a suspect’s statement as a confession when it was not meant to be.
7. Fabrication: interrogators simply make up a confession if they can’t obtain one.
8. Opportunism: an informant tries to provide information about the crime in exchange for a reward but ends up being persuaded to confess.
9. Pretense: cases when mentally ill people confess to a crime either because they truly believe they committed it or to gain fame.
10. Police force: interrogators use physical abuse to force a confession.

For more information about why innocent people “confess” to crimes that they haven’t committed, the Chicago Tribune published a good article on the subject.

The Center on Wrongful Convictions suggests that one way to prevent false confessions would be electronically record all police interrogations. This seems like a no-brainer to me. Yet there has been sustained and furious resistance to this in cases other than homicide. If the police have nothing to hide, they should welcome the scrutiny. If they have nothing to hide…

In Chicago, the city of the Burge Police Torture Cases, we are not under the illusion that we should trust law enforcement. In our case, we must VERIFY before we can trust. The 100 African-American men and women who were systematically tortured by police between 1972 and 1991 demand this of us.

P.S. I want to make a pitch for a great project that I am involved with. If you are an artist, educator, organizer, or concerned citizen, I invite you to submit a proposal to the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials project. The deadline for submissions is December 10th. You do not have to be a resident of Chicago to submit your ideas.

P.P.S. I think that it is appropriate to post this spoken word piece by Bassey Ikpi about Amadou Diallo.

One of the great joys of my life is being a Godmother. It’s so much fun to be able to enjoy the benefits of having children without having to assume most of the headaches… I have the utmost respect for good parents. For real.

Anyway my Goddaughter who is a pre-teen loves to read this blog. She finds most of my ranting entertaining. Yesterday she e-mailed me a link to Britney Spears’ new video for her song “Criminal.” She only wrote one sentence in her e-mail, “What do you think about this song and video Auntie?”

I have to admit that I had not seen this video before nor had I heard the song. Here are some sample lyrics:

He is a villain of the devil’s law
He is a killer just for fun, fun, fun, fun
That man’s a snitch and unpredictable,
He’s got no conscience
He got none, none, none, none

All I know, should let go, but no
’cause he’s a bad boy with a tainted heart
And even I know this ain’t smart
[Chorus]

But mama im in love with a criminal
And this type of love
Isn’t rational, it’s physical
Mama please don’t cry
I will be alright
All reasons inside
I just cant deny
Love the guy

I have written previously about the fact that hip hop culture's stand by your man in prison cultural expectation can be detrimental for some young women. I see this Britney Spears song and video as following more in the tradition of the Bonnie and Clyde romanticized view of crime. In fact, the current king and queen of hip hop Jay-Z and Beyonce, offered their modern interpretation of Bonnie and Clyde in their 2003 video for a song of the same name:

The concept of young women being attracted to “bad boys” is an old trope. When this is confined to the realm of fantasy, it is innocuous. Unfortunately for too many marginalized young women of color, a relationship with a young man who by necessity engages in a life of crime for survival is all too real a choice. This is of course not the audience that Britney Spears is addressing herself to. I’ve written about the fact that young Black girls are the fastest growing population of incarcerated youth in the US. This is in large part due to the War on Drugs which has been primarily responsible for the exponential growth of women in prison. These young women are often initiated into the drug trade by their boyfriends. In these cases, being in love with a “criminal” takes on a tragic dimension.

So Nina, my love, I think that as you listen to Britney Spears’ song and watch this video, please keep in mind that for many young women the consequences of being “in love with a criminal” can cause great psychological, emotional, and economic harm. Life is not a movie.

I really enjoy Steven Colbert. I like the way that Colbert connects the police reaction to the Occupy Berkeley students, Rodney King, and Bull Conner in the clip below. It is truly inspired. I really think that this is an opportune moment to do some popular education across the U.S. about policing and state violence. For those who are interested, the Chicago PIC Teaching Collective has compiled a Historical Timeline of Policing that is very relevant.

The Chicago PIC Teaching Collective is proud to share several new resources that we have developed.

First, we are extremely proud to share the CURRICULUM for our PIC 101 workshop with interested parties.

In creating the workshop pieces, Collective members utilized previous knowledge and knowledge gained at the PIC Communiversity, from research, and from other Collective members. In November and December 2010, portions of the curriculum were presented to the entire Collective to test for feasibility, accuracy, and fit with the overall vision of the Collective. From there, parts of the workshop were further developed, adjusted, and refined to work in conjunction with all other parts. Over the next several months, all parts of the workshop were compiled into a curriculum, appendices were added, and introductions and conclusions were developed to create a complete workshop.

In April, June, and October 2011, Collective members piloted the workshop with people outside the Collective. The attendees of these pilot workshops varied in terms of previous knowledge of or experience with the PIC; workshop participants included former prisoners and family members of prisoners, prison reform and abolition activists, and people working within the PIC, as well as people who knew very little about the PIC but were eager to learn more. Based on feedback from these sessions, the curriculum was adjusted with sections deleted and replaced with something else, options were included to help facilitate according to the participants’ interests and experience, and the final touches were added.

The PIC Teaching Collective is proud to present this curriculum, knowing that it was developed by dedicated volunteers who are interested in teaching others about the Prison Industrial Complex. We are pleased with our finished product and invite you to use it to inspire others to action against the PIC. We welcome your feedback, and would love to hear how you are using the curriculum.

In addition, we encourage you to visit the RESOURCES section of our website to find new additions including a prison solidarity activity, a Historical Timeline of Policing in the U.S. and a workshop template for discussing gender in the PIC using visual art. We sincerely hope that these resources will prove useful to your work. We offer them in the spirit of movement-building and in the hope of contributing to dismantling the prison industrial complex.

Source: U Raise Em, We Cage Em

by Nancy A. Heitzeg
“I ain’t about to go get arrested with some muhfuhkuhs who just figured out yesterday that this shit ain’t right.” quoted by Greg Tate in The Village Voice

Much has been written of late as to the “white maleness” of the “Occupy” Movement. The demographics of the participants, which varies from city to city, but which is consistently seen as predominately young white and male, not fully reflective of the “99%”. The language of “occupy” itself – this is the rhetoric of colonialism, conquest, imperialism, militarism, and well, “white” males. The class-based framing and the lack of intersectional analysis – it is difficult to undo “the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” by over-looking the centrality of white supremacy and patriarchy. The amorphous lack of specific demands, save that of attention – trust me, if my multi-race, multi-gendered, multi-sexuality crew and I are camping out in protest, in a public space at that, we know exactly what we are gonna ask for.

While the Occupy Movement may evolve and expand in new directions, form new coalitions, as of now, it is a movement dominated by “white” male privilege. And no where is this more telling than in the response to State violence against protesters, and in the absence of a critique of the political economy of the prison industrial complex.

In the aftermath of police actions in NYC, Oakland and elsewhere, some justifiable outrage and even more hyperbole abounded. Scott Olsen, the injured Iraq War veteran who galvanized Occupy Oakland critiques of police action, was described in various blog posts as “the Crispus Attucks of the movement”. Never mind that he is white. Or alive. A recent NYPD action that moved protesters off a public side – walk and resulted in 20 arrests was described by an observer as “the most egregious violation of Constitutional rights I have ever seen.”

Really??

Rodney King?? Oscar Grant?? Amadou Diallo?? Sean Bell?? Abner Louima?? Troy Davis??

How many millions more??

And where you been??
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Read more »

I think that this is the first time that I have used this blog to appeal for concrete support for youth in conflict with the law in Chicago. I have decided to use this space today to ask those who might be inclined to help to support two initiatives.

Regular readers know that my organization has revived a project called Girl Talk this year in partnership with a terrific leadership team of young women of color. Girl talk will organize two “self-care” days for incarcerated girls on December 17th and 18th. We are seeking volunteers and as importantly we are accepting donations of supplies and money to make both days a success. You can find details about the self-care days here.

Next, my friend Matt runs a terrific program called Urban Life Skills in Little Village. This is basically a volunteer-run program that support court-involved and gang-involved youth and provides them with a real opportunity to change their lives. Dedicated mentors are assigned to the youth and ULS provides holistic services.

A couple of weeks ago, ULS had all of its video games stolen from their center. They took over $1000 worth of stuff including 2 xbox 360s, 8 controllers, and over 10 games. If you have any Xbox 360 equipment that you aren’t using, would be willing to sell for cheap, or if you’d like to give a donation to ULS to be able to purchase new equipment let me know in the comments section.

I can attest to the amazing work that ULS does with young people. Financial donations can be made online or if you have want to mail a check:

Checks should be made out to New Life Centers and mailed to ULS Program – Attention: Matt DeMateo, 3057 S. Drake, Chicago IL 60623. Xbox games can also be directly mailed to the same address.

As the holidays approach, please consider supporting either of these initiatives. Thanks for your consideration.

Prison Culture will be on a short hiatus while I complete several outstanding projects. The end of the year is always hard. I look forward to getting back to posting regularly in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks to my friend Jane for sending this along to me. This video makes the connection between lynching, racism, and the current practice of state-sanctioned killing.

I am currently working on a project with my friend Cait about policing in Chicago Public Schools. I look forward to sharing the product of our work in the next few weeks.

My views about having police in our schools are well-documented. I think that the increased militarization of our schools leads to profoundly negative outcomes for youth.

I came across an article today that should make it clear that the police are not confused about their role in our schools:

A Northern California school police officers union has angered a town after it sold T-shirts with a picture of a child behind bars and the slogan: “U raise ’em, we cage ’em.”

I appreciate the police officers’ honesty about their mission. The question is what will we (as citizens) do in response…