Chicago Monitor

The week before the Labor Day weekend during the height of the national outcry over events in Ferguson, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) held a press conference about their letter to Attorney General Eric Holder calling for an investigation of 65 documented cases of police brutality in Chicago. How many local media sources covered this story? Zero.

With the nation’s spotlight turned on racism entrenched in the policing of majority black cities like Ferguson, Missouri, CAARPR shined that same spotlight on cases of Chicago police brutality and all the main media outlets ignored it. Speaking at a press conference in Detroit on September 2 at the court hearing for Chicago Palestinian community leader Rasmea Odeh, Frank Chapman of CAARPR reminded the crowd of the Chicago press conference and the connection to Odeh’s case. “On August 27, we sent a complaint to Attorney General Eric Holder for an investigation into 65 victims of police brutality in Chicago, like the case of Rasmea Odeh, many of these were victims of torture.”