welcome to on contact today we discuss police abuse and torture with the civil rights attorney flint taylor doesn't really matter who the mayor is i thought the mayor continues to preach if you will this cover up as exposed as it is here in the city of chicago where as we sit here today and men and women still remain in the penitentiary who have been tortured and we continue with our noirs and community activists and survivors and also families to fight these patients. here we are in 2021 i'm the torture started i'm divergent 972 and we still haven't had full. resolution of these cases and the conscience of this city with regard to torture as not been completely cleansed in any regard. went taylor along with his

colleagues at the people's law office has dedicated nearly 5 decades to exposing systematic corruption abuse violence and torture within the secada police department and throughout the city's corrupt political machine in his book the torture machine he chronicles the war police have carried out against poor people of color beginning with the 1969 assassination by the f.b.i. and the chicago police of the charismatic black panther party chairman fred hampton and panther mark clark taylor spent 13 years as a litigator in the hampton case in the process exposing the routine torture the title of his book the torture machine comes from a field telephone reconfigured by chicago police to administer electric shocks to those they were interrogating along with a series of other torture pry. disses including savage beatings and suffocation

with plastic bags he led the campaign against police commander john birch who honed his torture techniques while serving in the army in viet nam and elicited scores of false confessions through torture joining forces with community activists torture survivors and their families other lawyers and local reporters taylor and the people's law office gathered evidence from multiple cases to bring suit against the chicago police department officers and the city of chicago he was one of the leaders in the successful campaign to end the death penalty in illinois and obtained reparations for many of the torture survivors setting human rights precedents that have since been adopted across the united states joining me to discuss his book the torture machine is the legendary civil rights attorney flint taylor so flynt you open with hampton the assassination of fred hampton

and perhaps you can lay that historical ground why was hampton considered such a threat to j. edgar hoover at the time the head of the f.b.i. and why was he why was he a target. a curse thank you for having me i'm your show it's an honor and a pleasure to fred hanson case of course is the one case where it is documented without a shadow of a doubt that the f.b.i. and its cointelpro program was behind the assassination of fred hampton in the murder of mark cluck and in terms of why hampton was targeted a 21 year 0 charismatic leader here in the city of chicago who was on his way to being a national leader in the party we can go back to the cointelpro documents that were

penned by hoover and william c. sallow and is 1st lieutenant in the domestic intelligence division and those documents in the 1967 in 1968 before hampton had become the leader that he became in 1969 and the panthers talked about neutralizing and disrupting african-american or black leaders and their organizations and they named dr king it named malcolm x. named allows your mohammad wrapped around a stokely carmichael and all of those organizations that they had it up what he also highlighted in underlined was that these organizations had to be stopped in forming coalitions forming coalitions between black organizations and organizations such as lawrence the young patriots here in chicago other organizations not only of color but s.d.s.

and radical and revolutionary white organizations and hoover was deathly afraid not only of the messiah the black messiah as it were but also in their organizations and the power in a and the threat of them coming together particularly in an era where not only black power and black lead. aeration was at the forefront but also the fight against imperialism and the war in vietnam the techniques that the f.b.i. used to assassinate hampton. and you exposed much of this kind of lay out how they operate let's begin with the informant o'neill and of course this was something that was part of malcolm x. assassination they withdrew the or they arrested the. his bodyguards outside there were 9 informants inside the ballroom where malcolm was assassinated and the

person who allegedly pulled the shotgun out from under his coat was never charged because he perhaps had f.b.i. links but talk about because but you really exposed the mechanisms by which they went after hampton and finally killed him so police talk about especially the informant that they used and how they drugged him the night before except for a well really informant rich name when your mom william omeo and he was not only informant he was a provocateur true or and he was. got his way up close and personal with the panthers and particularly with this leadership fred hampton bobby rush and he was reporting directly to the racial matters squad and right martin mitchell at the f.b.i. and what we were able to document with the help of the senate church committee on intelligence back in the mid seventy's ones that this informant o'neill had mapped

out a floor plan of the apartment where fred hampton and deborah johnson his fiance would be free thing and they passed that on the f.b.i. and his control to the reading police officers and the state's attorney edward hanrahan who planned the ray. and we got demented not only later after fighting years in court that o'neal did this we got this floor plan but then o'neill was rewarded floor setting up the raid that he was given a bonus by hoover and his men in washington or setting up the rape $300.00 as it were 30 pieces of silver and that it was this reward was because of the tremendous value that o'neill had played in setting up the rig and also we are a chain of cointelpro document the counterintelligence document the program that we

alluded to earlier which claimed the rate which of course was executed by local police and this prosecutor here in chicago was hired the cointelpro program you know that document was dated to debut. so that trilogy of documents establish not only that the f.b.i. and cointelpro was behind the raid on the hamptons apartment but showed us the importance. of lockett's your way omonia inset not only setting up this raid but also in attempting over the time that he was in the panthers in setting up camp there was to be arrested setting up panthers in courage ing on criminal activities of the kind of classic provocateur ism that we saw in the sixty's with the klan and the f.b.i. informants and we've seen throughout history with regard to f.b.i.

and local informants so that was one of the major stories that we uncovered during the 13 years of litigation in the brady hampton case although is never finally determined who drugged fred hampton the night before was it. no it wasn't what. we were able to have an independent toxicologists look at the blood of fred hampton after he was murdered and she found that there was a large amount of 2nd bobby cutts all in his system now everyone knew that fred didn't use drugs so question is how did those drugs get in his system the government and the state plot very hard to discredit the evidence that threat was drawn out what our cocks ecologist was very very independent and bullet proof as it were so my question became how deep how was he o'neill of course denied it what he was in the

apartment the night before he had access to fred some people in the survivors in the apartment said that he served drinks and food to fred the night before so circumstantially it could well have been o'neill or it could have been someone else like without malcolm there were many an identified informants in the chicago black panther party. in 1969 we perhaps will never know for sure who drug fred hampton we just know that there's no way that's right hampton would have laid in his bed and been shot through the head after the police came in if in fact he had not been drugged and the toxicology confirms that. and that's a pretty important point that you speak about in your book that the police are already in the apartment and and one of them walks apparently just walks in the

bedroom where hampton is prone on the bed and shoot some through the head correct right there were 2 bullet holes through threats he said there was blood all over the bed and debra johnson who was in bed with him and pregnant with their strong was taken out of that room and at that point fred was still lying there and hadn't moved drury's and then she heard 2 more shots and before that she heard him out researchers say he's barely alive he'll barely make it and then 2 shots and then he's good i'm dead now so that was the evidence that is stammers the murder i want to read from your book this is the reaction you're this is in the process of litigating that case the judge also refused to admit a police radio tape on which unknown officers cheered when it was announced that fred was taken to the morgue and on which one said in unwitting affirmation of our evidence that is the time to catch them when they are in bed we also offered as

evidence the chilling picture of smiling cops carrying fred's body out of the apartment. this really was part of a warm and we don't know much about it so this the litigation that you did is extremely important in giving us a window into us on a small. piece of activity by the f.b.i. but this was being carried out nationally and of course i think you would probably agree the vast part of this activity despite the charge commission is probably to this day remains unknown without the correct well yes there were raids across the country and most of them were locally or originated in the sense that believes that the raids we see it in l.a. are or. days after the murder of freddy amp and mark clark we see it in chicago separates mostly police raids and some f.b.i. raids but if you use that template that was your worst year in chicago the f.b.i.

responding but always raids as well as orchestrating their own raids and their own arrests and their own provocateur or isn't that all kind of jewels a technique disruption you read around on constitutional crime that oh it's our roe use then you see up rider rider plan which was basically you know publicly nixon by john mitchell turner general and by jerry's letter to his. her civil rights quite ironically i am who are all in home who targeted the dancers not only secretly but also our call them out publicly as the greatest threat to this country and talked about how they had to be stopped when we come back we'll continue our conversation about the

police war against people of color with civil rights attorney flint taylor. that's entered medicare recipients the image in one portable oxygen concentrator may now be available at little or no cost to you call 805369522 order yours today the image an oxygen concentrator is or portable and make oxygen from the air around you to light and bettery operated to go everywhere you go and we have a full line of portable oxygen units to fit a wide range of budgets if you're on medicare you may even qualify to get your image in unit had little or no cost to you go back to joining friends for the breakfast special expanding time with the grandkids. poor start attending your religious service is a good calling as you know for a free information and a free mil a geisha consultation on our complete line of affordable portable oxygen products

could be anyone on medicare or with eligible insurance plans to qualify to get intelligent one the ed little or no cost call 84536952 that's 805536952. my pap and tony a host of america's lawyer with white collar criminals policy high profits and sneer at the pain of those they rip off and ruined so that's where i come in question for. welcome back to on contact we continue our conversation about the police war against people of color with civil rights attorney flint taylor so you go on from the hampton case i mean there's much that you uncover. including of course the systematic use of torture

and you then go after the police department the chicago police department but this let's not limit it i mean you know police departments in major cities are also carrying out these kinds of techniques we'll talk a little bit about birds but what i find fascinating is that transference of knowledge especially in the case of birds people who served in the military in vietnam had been a president or complicit in the torture techniques that were using especially this field telephone this disappears on the cover of your book brought these techniques back into the inner cities and use them against american citizens so perhaps you can speak about torture as a technique we're talking about you know across the country without doubt thout. thousands if not tens of thousands of people again mostly poor people of color were railroaded into prisons on false confessions you have heroically exposed some of

those false confessions and have been able to free people but but tell us how you know what's happening behind the scenes. you know what are the techniques that that they use and and how how it how to become institutionalized. diverge cat torture was somewhat unique in the extreme that it that that it took in terms of electric shock being people in suffocating people dries up marino as it were and mock executions the kind of techniques that were internationally used and not only in vietnam that where virtually this you know in south africa under apartheid in central america in those regimes but it was not thought to be used here in this country but birds brought it back and used it again and again and again over a 20 year period against african-american suspects in chicago on the south side

but the broader question that you ask is east techniques or similar techniques to get false confessions or to get confessions some of which may be true some of which may be false somewhere who knows but torture of course cannot be countenanced no matter what it's used for iran torture as defined by the united nations is much broader than just using an electric shock or suffocating someone is of course using coercive tactics whether it be a psychological or whether it be physical to a chain confessions or to to to to punish and of course that's what we see every day in the police stations across this country to get confessions and send men and women particularly men and women of color on. to the penitentiary and that of course has been a major aspect of mass incarceration over the years i met was a mass and important aspect of what happened and what continues to happen not

necessarily with electric shock and suffocation here in the city of chicago but detectives are still a coercing confessions convert coercing false confessions and people are still being sent to the penitentiary on the basis of these confessions. chronicle in the book many cases of people who. are innocent professed their innocence but finally are so broken that they agree to sign just to stop the torture. yes definitely. we started out with one remarkable case the andrew wilson case. african-american man who was charged and ultimately convicted of killing 2 white lilies offices and he was brutally and repeatedly tortured with all its techniques that i previously mentioned. and we went to trial and represented him on an on

a civil rights case claiming that he was going to buy burgeon his nap. during that case and i'm not mislead source who we've got deep that told us that hey you know nasht not just looking at one extreme case this is a pattern and practice of racist white supremacist torture that everyone in the police department. and the state's attorney of cook county who was at that time richard daley who went on to be the long time mayor here they all knew about it they all count how to minutes that they are used most confessions i have to send people to the penitentiary and to death rock and so over the years re uncovered and some of those cases are chronic who from their testimony in my book over 125 cases of african-american men who were tortured under burgess 20 year regime and during that period of time you went from a detective fresh from vietnam and the tactics that they used some to camp that he

were gone. from detective the sergeant there with tenants of command. and as commander was when we were taking him on it but real court and the evidence that we were able to uncover led to it reinvestigation let him be exonerated and how intimately decades later let him be exempt to the penitentiary or a lying torch. and yet during that whole period when you were publicly exposing systematic torture then state senator barack obama did not utter a word and as you point out in your book endorsed daley who had ben the attorney general overseeing this empire for the mayor's office you noticed that yes in the book it was at the time i didn't think quite so much about it because barack obama was just barack obama he was

a state senator he was going some decent things in terms of reformulate the death penalty but he never spoke out against the death penalty and my daughter heard him speak when she was in 6th grade and she came back and was wondering why he wouldn't come right out against the death penalty because the kids in the 6th grade at that point were definitely against the death penalty or many of her classmates and she were but yes when you look back on it. we had a few politicians who were progressive and courageous enough to stand with us as we fought through the many many chapters of exposing the police torture and trying to bring some modicum of justice unfortunately i'm barack obama wasn't one of those people well he took the seat he defeated one of them and then well she ran to get the only guy he tried to defeat from bobby rush the only time yeah i'm

ever lost was against former answer. your sense of i'm going to steer bobby rush who of course was a cult leader with fred hampton and escape his own assassination because he didn't happen to be in the apartment on the night of december 4th and brot took him on and bobby's town the day he beat him in his heart believe it was i forget what kind of race it was might have been a state senator ready so. or whatever but i think he learned his lesson about how to pick a spot step by him on his own let's talk of the last few minutes about the culture of the police which you know very well. all of these charges are coming out and police are holding fundraisers for verge the torture is now publicly verifiable there's this code of silence within the police. talked to us about the institution itself and its. its kind of orientation to the

outside world where our chris as you know you can trace the history of policing to to the south and the slaver trolls and you can trace it you through the anti labor . products that were police. in the early ninety's hundreds and that counts or has continued and that culture as. african-americans became more front and center in it in the attacks became the focus of the lease and the police cars are met culture towards the code of silence however each other's backs no matter how racist or or violent conduct of the police is is a trademark i'll bet culture in that culture is something the starts at the top of the powers that be are and of course you can analyze it in terms of the protection

of property under capitalism you can analyze it in terms of what the police us folks are osa do and gay are in fact in the communities of power and we're communities and invading floors and oppressive walls not of course that serves a britax but of course that always is the laws of the power structure and white supremacy. that is showing damage in society so when we talk about police we need to take more a look at some of the more harm the memes are changes that people in the streets are talking about origins or grammar and well one of the things at the end of the book that i found fascinating is you talk about the amount of money that cities and athens taxpayers put out to defend police officials who carry out torture

you know lethal attacks you said according to public records which i have obtained and updated since 2005 the scandal it cost the city and county and taxpayers $140000000.00 by the end of 2018 the federal tab for investigating persian is confederates and for prosecuting birds was an additional unknown amount burchett collected $900000.00 in pension money chicago police officers implicated in the torture scandal had collected an additional $31000000.00 in pension pushing the still mounting total past $170000000.00. well i guess i need to update my book because that that meter keeps running and i guess that now we're getting close to 200000000 and what's interesting is not only did daley has the mayor not only did rahm emanuel as the mayor continue in one form or another just stunned the defense of these cases in court now we have lori lachlan who ran on

a progressive. approach and there was a torture torture case that she put to trial rather than just settle in the last year or to cost the city another $10000000.00 so doesn't really matter who the mayor is i think that mayor continues to fuel this cover up as exposed as it is here in the city of chicago as we sit here today and men and women still remain in the penitentiary who have been tortured and we continue on with other lawyers and community activists and survivors and also families if fight these cases. you know we aren't 2021 and the torture started i'm divergent 972 and we still haven't had full resolution of these cases and the conscience of this city with regard to torture as

not been completely cleansed in any regard right thank you that was civil rights attorney and author flynt taylor on his new book the torture machine. hi folks joe name of here and if you're on medicare this is important you're now entitle to eliminate co-pays and get dental care the answers i glasses prescription coverage and home unlimited transportation and home delivered meals all at no with

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you what's really going on tune in to our team america where we always question. hello there i'm an election and you're watching in question broadcasting from larking america's national news headquarters in washington d.c. here tonight top stories 1st up a calamity of contradictions g. 7 powers meeting take countered china and russia while at the same time hoping to build stronger ties with both countries are paying. always in bed venezuelan president nicolas maduro releasing a half a dozen american prisoners in the country could this act of mercy be a step towards renewed relations with washington we've got details next and finally researchers in china isolate special types of bacteria they can break down the toughest plastics could this be a breakthrough.