By Kaya Rial and Kobi Guillory

Chicago, IL – 50 people rallied in Washington Square Park on Saturday, June 21, near the two Gold Coast properties of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. They demand that the governor grant executive clemency to the hundreds of proven survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction who are still incarcerated in Illinois.

The action was organized by the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST), one of the central campaigns of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR).

Activist Jasmine Smith, co-chair of the CFIST Committee of CAARPR, kicked off the rally by informing the residents of Gold Coast about the governor’s abandonment of torture survivors in the Illinois prison system and highlighting parallels between plantations and “correctional” centers.

“We get calls day after day after day of the way that the prisons are being ran,” Smith said. “they have no functioning good water, that they have no functioning air conditioning, they have nothing by the means of keeping the person healthy and safe in those prisons.”

Smith, whose loved ones Rico Clark and Lester Owens were wrongfully convicted in 2006 and 2007, continued “They are being treated worse than animals, and we say shame on you, Governor, and shame on you, Lieutenant Governor, because y’all can step in at any time and take a strong stance when it comes to the prison and the ways that these prisons are being ran in Illinois, and you’re not.”

Survivors and family members shared testimonies of the crimes committed by police against themselves and their loved ones and their steadfast battles against the criminal legal system, as some passersby paused their daily walks to listen. Douglas Livingston, who has been incarcerated since his wrongful conviction in 2012, thanked attendees over the phone for fighting for his freedom from the outside. Livingston is one of over a dozen Black men, including Rico Clark and Lester Owens, who were wrongfully convicted by the corrupt practices of detective Brian P Forberg.

Marie Ketchum, whose brother, Sai Pinesta, has been incarcerated for over 20 years after being wrongfully convicted of murder, was one of several family members and survivors who spoke about the importance of organization in the fight to free survivors.

“Today, I’m here not just as a sister but as a voice for justice for my brother, Sai Pinesta, and countless others still trapped behind these walls,” Ketchum said. “We must speak, organize and fight. We must demand that elected officials, from prosecutors to governors like JB Pritzker, no longer turn a blind eye to the lives destroyed under their watch. Hold those in power accountable because they won’t correct themselves unless we force them to.”

Merawi Gerima, the other co-chair of the CFIST committee, was in Washington DC during the protest but linked the oppression of his own loved ones with those of immigrants in the U.S. and oppressed people around the world in a written statement.

“The best payback is our movement,” Gerima said. “Only we can stop both mass incarceration and mass deportation. Both are carried out by billionaires and their politicians, red and blue, against our people. Just like it’s the same people carrying out the genocide of Palestinians and now bombing Iran.”

Many of the protesters attended one of the weekly marches organized by the Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP) directly after the CFIST rally. Rania Salem, member and activist of the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), which is a member of CJP, spoke on the importance of international solidarity.

“The criminalization, police killings, and mass incarceration of Black people here in the belly of the beast is almost the same as how Palestinians in Palestine are criminalized, murdered by the IOF, and are imprisoned in Israeli jails,” Salem Said.

Protesters chanted “Free them all!” and “Free them now!” Jasmine Smith closed the rally by encouraging attendees to get involved by supporting survivors at court dates, planning future actions, and calling their alderpersons about the referendum for community power over policing (CPOP).

“We have many actions coming up,” Smith said in closing. “It’s gonna be a busy, freedom fighting ass summer.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #Torture #CFIST #CAARPR #NAARPR #CPOP