The worst bit about this book, is that it can't make up its mind whether to be a research-form paper or a spoken-word performance.

The good bits—nota bene: plural—make up for that.

This is a book that delves into systemic torture performed by police; the author focuses on Chicago, USA, which is simply symptomatic of systematic torture not only performed in the USA but all over the world where unchecked fascist rule is enabled. The book also goes into other areas where not only police are involved, but also places like Guantánamo Bay.

Here are the facts: between 1972 and 1991, approximately 125 African American suspects were tortured by police officers in Chicago. The means of torture were numerous, but they all were conducted at Chicago’s Area 2 police precinct, which is located in the Pullman neighborhood but patrols much of the South Side. Beyond these verified instances, in 2003 journalists documented other episodes of torture before and after these dates, and elsewhere in the city, placing the total number of survivors of police torture in Chicago at roughly two hundred.

With some rare exceptions, all the torture survivors were men, and Black men in particular.

Racism runs through the choices that police make, all the time. It's getting better, but let's not kid ourselves: the plague is still there.

Police misconduct payouts related to incidents of excessive force have increased substantially since 2004. From 2004 to 2016, Chicago has paid out $662 million in police misconduct settlements, according to city records.

Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that these figures will decrease. Hundreds of Chicago Police Department misconduct lawsuit settlements were filed between 2011 and 2016, and they have cost Chicago taxpayers roughly $280 million. When I was writing this letter in July 2018, the city had paid more than $45 million in misconduct settlements thus far, in this year alone.

One of Ralph's best traits as an author is his ability to string together parts to make out a narrative in one single paragraph, like here:

On July 5, 2018, Chicago youth of color staged a die-in at city hall to protest Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to spend $95 million to build a cop academy. The young protestors set up cardboard tombstones with the names of people who had been killed by the police written on them with black ink. They also wrote the names of schools and facilities that had shuttered because of a lack of public funding.

Ralph goes into length to explain how Jon Burge became infamous for not only applying systematic torture but allowing others to go on using it.

The witness testimonies are startling and required reading:

Porch said that the police had handcuffed his arms behind his back and that one of the officers stood on his testicles. He said they hit him with a gun on his head. Then one of the officers tried to hang him by his handcuffs to a hook on the door.

My main issues with this book are Ralph's open letters to different Chicago officials. Although they are most definitely needed and warranted, I feel they don't really fit this book. In any case, I wish they'd been formatted so that they could have been part of this book as part of research; instead, they delve into the world of spoken word, even poetry, which I felt doesn't do the book too much good. It's not like hearing Fred Hampton orate, which would have been great.

Overall, this book serves a vital and fervent purpose. Everybody needs to know that police torture (and abuse) is rampant and must be stopped. The question is how. ( )

!!! FREE FOR A WEEK !!!

The author posted on Twitter that his book is free for the next week, and what a fine time to add this one to your library. Go to Chicago University Press to get it.

Black Lives Matter