Milwaukee, WI – On July 13, dozens of community members and organizers mobilized to the intersection of 35th and Vliet Streets on Milwaukee’s North Side. This corner was the site of a deadly crash in September 2025 in which a reckless police pursuit killed three residents, the youngest victim being just 15 years old. Almost a year later, a spirited fight for community-led policy has only grown and hopes to win big as it soon goes to vote by city alderpeople.

The evening started with chants and remarks from Brian Verdin, a leader of the original Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR). Setting the tone, he named the nine lives stolen by police pursuits, including Pler Moo and her sons Taw and Karlah Ko, killed at that intersection ten months ago.

Veteran MAARPR member Tiffany Stark said, “I want to have a safe police pursuit policy that has restrictions, where we're not chasing people for minor things, only for violent crime.” Stark recently lost a loved one due to causes related to these police pursuits and has been a key player in pushing for policy changes around this: Standard Operating Procedures 575 and 660.

Shortly after, members of Milwaukee Turners and Black Leaders Organizing Communities made brief comments, all stating the necessity for changes around this policy and accountability from the Milwaukee Police Department. Kayla Patterson, co-chair of MAARPR, then closed out the evening with some more chants.

The city of Milwaukee Common Council will be discussing further changes to SOP 575 and 660 on July 30. MAARPR and other community organizations will continue to apply pressure to the alderpeople to vote in favor of the recommended changes pushed by the community.

#MilwaukeeWI #WI #InJusticeSystem #NAARPR #MAARPR #PoliceCrimes

Chicago, IL- 50 survivors of wrongful convictions and police torture, family members and community packed into a small South Side church for a town hall meeting on police torture and wrongful conviction on the evening of March 21.

The town hall was organized by the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture (CFIST), a campaign of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) and featured a panel of survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction and their family members.

Chicago has a unique history of police torture dating back to the 1970s, when disgraced police commander Jon Burge and his “midnight crew” of racist detectives began a decades-long pattern of torture, targeting mostly Black men on Chicago’s South Side. Today, corrupt detectives in CPD and their allies in the Cook County states attorney’s office continue to tear families apart and draw them into conflict with the system.

“I’m in this fight because I was victimized,” said Robert Johnson, who was released from prison last month after serving nearly 29 years for a 1996 murder he had nothing to do with.

“I’m a survivor,” Johnson said in his remarks on the panel. “I think about these brothers that are still locked up every day. It’s hell in there.”

Jasmine Smith, a co-chair of both CFIST and CAARPR, set the tone for the event by asking the panel, “What needs to change in order to stop this pattern of police torture and abuse?”

Clayborn Smith, a wrongful conviction survivor and litigator, said change will not come from the current political parties. “Neither Democrat nor Republican actually want to do anything about [police torture and wrongful convictions],” Smith said. “They never talk about all the wrongfully convicted people locked up while the real criminal is on the streets.”

Adolfo Davis, who was sentenced to life without parole at age 14 and spent 27 years in prison, agreed with Smith about the need for mass action beyond mainstream political parties. “We know who politicians are,” Davis said. “We need us to change anything.”

Davis continued, calling out the racist tactics used by the ruling class to divide oppressed peoples. “They made us believe immigrants are our enemy,” he said. “It was all a plan to control us. Stop being tricked.”

“Change starts from you, the people, “ said Mark Clements, who spent 28 years in prison after being tortured into giving a false confession by Burge and his “midnight crew.” Today, he is an organizer with the Chicago Torture Justice Center and sits on the board of The Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (TIRC).

Clements called out the economic basis for mass incarceration and racist policing, and called for mass action to fight back. “From the days of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, we saw that when you affect their economics, they are open to change,” he said. “This system operates around money.”

Annette Gomez, wife of Elias Gomez, not only uplifted her husband’s case of 30 years of wrongful conviction, but she also reminded the room that this struggle is larger than just one case. “We have to continue to fight not just for my husband, but for your brother, and your cousin, and your nephew,” she said. “It doesn’t stop here.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #CAARPR #CFIST #TIRC