February 18, 2022 • 42 mins
In part 2 of our jaunt staring into the abyss of the crimes of the Chicago Police Department we get the story of 2 internal CPD cartels and the CPD's blacksite Homan Square, which is still open to this day.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Oh my goodness, it's could happen here. All right, Well
that's the introduction. I'm Robert Evans and my work's done
for today. Chris, Yeah, it's me, it's Christopher. We are
We are back with two more stories of rape, torture,
and murder from the Chicago Police Department un show we have. Yeah,
(00:27):
well you know, okay, this one, this, this one will
be more fun than last time because okay, so basically
since since I started showing up on this show, I
have made a case. I have been dropping references at
the fact that the Chicago Police Department is literally a cartel,
and today I am finally telling the story of how
this is a little unfair to But yeah, also also
I didn't mention this before we go win. There's also
(00:49):
a bonus cartel because while I was doing research on
one of the cartels, I realized that I couldn't actually
talk about it without talking about the other cartel. So
there's two. There are two completely unrelated CPD carte else
that are will show up in this story. Uh yeah,
it's great. So all right, this is the story of
Ronald Watts. Now, Ronald Watts joined the CPD in n
(01:12):
after serving in the army, making him yet another example
of the fabled troop cop combination that produces the worst
people on earth. Um, what Watts was assigned to patrol
Chicago's old public housing like projects now wants is from
housing himself. Um, there's okay. So some of the people
(01:33):
who knew him before he went into the police claimed that,
like he was just always like a drug ular and
that he went into the police too, like drug deal more.
I don't know if that's true, because I mean, he's
also in the army for a while, so I I
don't know, it's sort of unclear. But you know, he's
for the projects. He knows the ter reign well, and
(01:54):
that's why he was an extremely effective agent of terror
in a place where officers would regularly drive by blasting
the N word and other ray slurs out of their
cop car speakers. Uh yeah, here, here, here's the intercept
describing what like Chicago cops are just doing at the projects.
They were officers who found it amusing to toy with
those under their power, arranging the foot race of heroin.
Addics determined who would go to jail, for example, or
(02:16):
forcing a woman they had searched on the street to
walk home naked from the waist down. It's yeah, people
who find joint exerting their power over other people and
they think it's funny. Yeah, why they become cops. Yep. Well,
and you know, and the other reason to become a
cop is is the the second thing that they do constantly,
which is they just walk into the lobbies of these
(02:36):
buildings just start taking everyone's money. And like they literally
call the lobbies of the public housing buildings like quote
their ATM machine. So they're just doing this constantly. There's
also cops and this is not every cop that they're
specific cops you do this who would show up on
the first and the fifteenth of the month, wait for
everyone to catch their paychecks and then rob them. And
(02:57):
you know, the thing I think is important about this
is that, Okay, so like WATS and like the specific
cartels do this, but this isn't just WATS. This is like,
this is everyone who's working at these projects is just
walking up like to like the poorest people in Chicago
and just robbing them constantly. Um yeah, like this is
this is you know, this this is just how regular
policing works. And the elite units are even worse. So
(03:19):
Cartel number one or I guess, I guess you're talking
about Choo since we've introduced wats. But so, there used
to be an elite unit in the Chicago Police Force
called the Special Operations Section or s OS. And these guys,
these guys are different because they you know, they're they're
they're not attached to like an area or certificate. You know,
they're they're just completely their own thing. They're just like
they're the Special Response Team. And s OS would just
(03:41):
go into projects and just ransacked the entire building, like
they would go room by room like taking people's stuff
and just looting it and then just like walking out.
And you know, it's not even like there's not just
that they're taking cash, like they're taking TVs. And I
mean the thing that the thing the thing you if
when you when you re interview some people who lived
through this, like they're not just taking like stuff that's
(04:02):
like you know, let's use that are expensive there, they'll
take people's like lamps, like they're just walk out with
anything like literally anything they can sell um. And you
know again like these are these are the people living
in these projects are like huge like a lot and
a lot of these protures literally like segregation era, right,
and so they're they're almost entirely black, and they're just
taking like they're just getting robbed, but constantly by both
(04:25):
regular cops and special Operations section. And there's not even like,
you know, like cops nowadays have like they have like
civil ascid forfature where there's this like pseudo legal framework
and no, no no, this's like they're not even this is
the nights, They're not even doing that. They're just literally
walking in and robbing these people at gunpoint. Um. S
OS like they eventually get shut down sales in seven
(04:45):
after so there's a series of scandles about them. They
they steal like hundreds of thousands of dollars and people,
they do shape downs with drug dealers, they start kidnapping people. Um.
At one point in s OS, dude like tried to
hire his cowork here to do a hit on someone
who was like going to report them to the Feds.
And yeah, but s OS isn't the main story today
(05:07):
because Watts is writing is running an even larger version
of this operation. Um, and you know, well I's always
researching this. I had the realization that like So I've
talked to people in Chicago about like the CpG Cartel's right,
And I had the realization that there are conversations that
I have people where we've been, we've both been talking
about different ones, and we both we both thought we
were talking about this. Like I've had people talking backwards like, oh,
(05:29):
they were talking about I was like, no, no no, I
met the Watts one. It's it's it's great. It's love
love our institutionalized just robbery system. Yeah. So the other
thing I want to mention because so the intercepted like
(05:49):
really good, like four like huge four part series on
on the Watts, uh like cartel. But I think it's
worth mentioning that, like even you know, there's to quote
unquote good cops who like go after wats And for
years and they've let you bring him down. But like
even those cops are doing things that are objectively horrifying.
Like most of the actual cop work in this story
(06:11):
is done by is literally just the good cops. Like
they know a homeless guy they called Chewbaka who they
paid to be an informant in like blankets, sleeping bags
and food and like it's like it should be fair
Chebaca like genuinely like likes the two of them. But
Cheubaca is the guy who does all of the work here,
(06:32):
like what Wastz gets like like he's the guy who's
like wearing the wire. He's the guy who knows everything
the cops. The cops don't know anything, and Chibaka has
known that everything that was going on from the beginning.
They just don't ask him for years. But like in
Chebaca like goes to prison at one point because Wats Okay,
so what Watson wats is just like a drug dealer, right,
(06:55):
um so wants and uh so, so Chebaca would like
you know, he he was like he was like a
sort of low level like runner. Right, you'd get a bag,
you'd like move it sometimes. And one time in watch
all these new informations, So one time, like Watts was
like trying to get information on where a drug stash
was so we could rob it and then like well
down so he could do a police raid on it
(07:17):
and then take the drugs and sell them. And Chebaca
just like didn't know. So what's just like through be
in prison for two years and it's just like you
know this this this time will happens constantly that there
are so many people who are just you know, like
people try to survive in the city. And then oh, hey,
you don't have the exact specific information that this cop
(07:38):
wants on this drug thing, so we're just gonna send
you to prison for two years. And Chebacca, who like
risks his life wearing a wire and brings down one
of the biggest cartels in the CPD, as best I
can tell, is still living on the street because the
society is just broken in ways that like are difficult
to comprehend and incredibly bleak. Yeah m hmm. Yeah. So okay,
(08:00):
back to Watch this operation. Watts has this thing called
the Watts Tax, and the watch tex is if you
run drugs, you pay the tax to Watts and this
this tax gives you production from the police. If if if
you don't pay the Watch tax, the cops show up,
they put you in prison, they take all your cash,
they raise your drugs, and then Watch resolves your drugs
that are profit I mean that is like objectively, that
is a decent grift, like in terms of it's pretty
good in logistical plans, like yeah, okay, I can I
(08:24):
can see how how this would actually be very profitable. Yeah,
it's genius and like and and and the other thing
about these taxes, like these taxes are enormous amounts of money,
like if if so if if. If you're running a
drug that's like, okay, so you have a drug that
you move and the drugs I've ran drugs for thirty years,
I know. Yeah, so the tax for the for that
(08:46):
single drug can be as high as fifty dollars a week.
So he is he is making a lot of money,
so much money, just an incomprehensible amount of money off
of this. I would have to become coughs. I have
an idea for a pivot doing in the cartel pivot.
(09:06):
This is how we give this is how we get
funded by this in a lower cartel. And we've always
been a cartel, but that's well, when we moved from
podcasting into drugs, we can partner with our friends at
the scene a lower cartel. Yeah, would be great. Eventually,
(09:28):
there's a guy named Big Shorty who's another like sort
of player in the scene. And so yeah, all the
people in this name of the Stall of great names. Yeah,
it's great. So Big Shorty is like, I'm not paying
like fifty k a week per drug to do this anymore,
I'm gonna go to the FEDS and so so be short,
like he threatens to go to the FESS and he
goes to the d A and then like a couple
(09:50):
of days later, she's gunned down the street by yeah
you never yeah no, like yeah, well if you do,
you have to make sure they like disappear you because uh,
you never threaten it, like that's the yah, yeah, yeah
you don't. Yea. These worlds you mentioned, like cops and
going to in any combination, and everyone around you just like,
(10:10):
all right, well this person's got to be dead. That's
just how that's gotta go. Yeah, it's it's not it's
not the best move I've ever seen. It's yeah, so
you know. And and this is when, this is when
the cops, the two cops are gonna bring watch down,
like actually started to take notice because literally for years,
I mean, they're they're all sorry about this, like people
they'd be locking people up and people would say things
(10:33):
like why are you going after me for two bags?
And Watts is running the dope and just no one
believes them. Like the cops are being told constantly for
years like that. The cops who aren't in on the
on the inn I being told literally for years that
that this whole thing is you know that that Oh yeah, well,
why why are you bothering me? Watches running this operation?
They don't believe them, and they don't they don't believe
(10:55):
them basically until Big Shorty gets shot because when when
Big short he goes down like another they get another
guy who's like pretty big in the scene and the
guy's like, oh, yeah, no, he got shot by Wats
and they're like, wait, hold on now. The cops go
to the FBI, and the FBI, it turns out, has
been trying and failing to put again put together a
(11:16):
case against Watts for so long that like they're on
there like second like agent who they've had in charge
of the case because the first guy like I just
could do it and laugh. And so they had another
guy and almost immediately after this, uh, there's there's another guy.
There's another dealer named Fears who he has this Fierce
has this great grift which is like all of his
people wear Obama shirts just like just like eight but
(11:38):
he doesn't know, doesn't seven or something? But yeah, so
like that all all the people doing this thing, they
wear Obama shirts and they call the drugs like Obama.
And so when everyone they had their lines called Hope
so and like this this this actually works on the FBI,
Like the FBI doesn't understand that they're running drugs because
they think that they're that like all the Messa references
of Obama are just like they're talking about like Obama.
(12:01):
It's like, oh, there's there's so many, there's so many
great like FBI weird incompetences to the story like that.
There's one point where the cops are going through the
documents and they see the word they see Lou, and
it's just a lose a short for lieutenant, right, But
the FBI thinks that Lou is like a name, and
so they're kind of tracked down this guy named Lou,
(12:21):
which is just it's it's ah's just baffling, incredible and
coms never thrilled when they have to investigate cops. Yeah, yeah,
even though it is literally their job. Yep. But hey,
I hate doing my job too, so please continue, Chris
(12:43):
So So that fears guy who choose doing the Obama thing,
like take seventeen rounds to the chest, and so the
FBI round to take to the chest. Yeah, that's a lot,
it's it's it's it's interesting number two right because like
like cfcult significance. Guess yeah. What would also like like
is did they like reload Like do they have a
(13:03):
gun that has seventeen round man? Yeah? No, no, no no,
there's yeah, there's that's not that's not is it is
it like a handgun or is it a rifle? I
think it's a handgun, yeah, or like Baltimore people with
handguns block seventeens have seventeen round magazines. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
(13:24):
So so after this, the FBI investigation intensifies, and so
the FBI goes to the Internal Affairs Division or i
a D, who are like the most hated cops of
all cops by other cops because there're people who are
supposed investigate the police and you know, so so they
tell that you guys who are going after watch, they're
going to be protected. And this works for like a year,
(13:46):
and then the head of a I D changes and
it's like a cop cop guy instead of so they
had this like they brought an FBI guy who had
been had of a D. And that he gets kicked
out and they bring in like a cop, and that
cop just immediately tells literally everyone that that the two
cops are running an investigation against Watts, and so uh
do they die with the next few months there studdingly no.
(14:08):
I as best I can tell, Watts seemed to have
thought that like they wouldn't just wouldn't be able to
get him because anti mus protection which worked for a while.
Um yeah, it's yeah, he has a lot of power. Yeah. Well,
and also, I mean the other thing about this is
she just like his stuff, starts getting wilder. So he
goes after this guy. He tries to go after the
drugs of this guy named Monk, and like Muk is
(14:30):
carrying a bunch of drugs's trying to He's trying to
rob bunk Um from the intercept a wild car chase
and suited on the Dan Ryan Expressway like sure Drive
and ultimately into the Hyde Park neighborhood, where Monk lost
control of the car and crashed in a park. He
fled on foot. Watson his team seized the dope in cash.
They didn't even check on the condition of the women
and infant who remained in the car, which is great.
(14:51):
And also that's that's standard. That that's that that's like
standard CPD procedure. I have literally seen this happen like
in Hyde Park, like I have there when I was
in college. I almost got run over in a seat,
Like the CPD almost ran me over in this like
car chase that went bad and this giant multi car
crash and like there's like sixteen cops, right, they all
just run past the car crash after you guys are
(15:13):
chasing and like I have to go make sure no
one died. And I was like, I, this is great.
You have just almost murdered me. And then also you're
not checking on all of these people in this carven
into wreck. I I hate the CPD. I hate them
a lot. This took this sound? This sound nice? Yeah,
it's great there there. Yeah, this just happens like all
(15:37):
the time, like often enough that like literally in the
same place like all of these big because you've got
like a few really big shitty big city police departments.
You've got your l A p D. You're in yp D,
You've got your Chicago Police Department. By god, you've got St.
Louis cops, and they're all they're all shitty and simultaneously
(15:58):
the same in different ways. Like they're there, it's the
same basic idea. It's brutality, it's violence, it's robbery. Um,
but they they find unique ways to do those shitty things,
which is fascinating. Yeah. Like if I always like like
the NYPDS, like they're big thing is if you get
a large number of people together, the NYPD is just
(16:18):
going to annihilate you, like l A p D has
like the Nazi gangs. CPD thing, CPDS thing just seems
to be crime. CPD just torture. It's torture and yeah St.
Louis Police Department will attack you with dogs if you're
not a white person. Like, yeah, they've all got they've
they've they've they've chosen their cops subclass. Yeah now okay,
(16:44):
so but back in the investigation, the two cops in
investigating Watts are like even so basically all the researchers
get cut off. It's literally just them to watch. Note
like basically knows that he's they're coming from them, and
they almost get him anyways because cops are just not
very smart, um, and you know they're about to get
him on a sting for drug running. And then right
(17:07):
before like, look, I think it's like the day of
that they're running the sting, they suddenly get like transferred
to the police academy and they basically just like get
detained in this police academy for like weeks, and it's
it's purely weird, and eventually, like and you know that
this is when like everything just completely comes apart with
the liaison between the CPD and the FBI literally tells
(17:27):
them they can't move on the case because if they
move on the case, it's going to reveal that Watts
murdered a dude, because well they so they don't have
good evidence some big shorty, but they have they have
evidence that they have good evidence that he killed Fears
and uh, and the head of Internal affairs basically tells
them like, yeah, like I won't do anything about Watts
because it comes out that another CPD unit had gone
(17:47):
rogue after s OS, I'll be done for so I'm
just gonna cover for them. The second cartel is too much.
Only one cartels, It's great, Um, I can excuse is
one cartel, but I tried the line too, but once
she hit four cartels, we're back too good, which is
why I am such a big fan of the Los
(18:10):
Angeles Police Department. It's great. Look you got it, you got,
you got you just you just gotta get over the
cartel hump. And once you're over, Yeah you got, it's
like it's like growing out your your hair. Right, there's
gonna be that period where it looks really awkward. That's when.
That's when you've got two cartels, and then you get
hot at four cartels. Then you're fuckable again. Yeah, it's great.
(18:31):
So there's an interesting description from one of the two
cops that I want to read because it gets out
how the coade of silence works um from the intercept
he had, she said, this is about the A A D.
Guy he had, She said made too many deals, there
by neutralizing his ability to act, attributing her understanding of
this dynamic largely two conversations with Rivera himself, conversations she
denied ever occurred. She described him as ensnared in a
(18:53):
web of mutual blackmail, at which bosses have leverage over
one another by virtue of their shared knowledge of the
deals they've made. She gave an example, I'll make the
cr gets your guy go away if you promote my
guy within your unit, the code of silence and cloud
or thus entwined rivera she recalled, once remarked to her
that the bosses quote trade crs for favors like baseball cards.
(19:17):
So yeah, this is this is what the code of
silence is. It's it's it's an informal code sort of.
That's also called the thin blue line, which is great.
Uh yeah that basically it says that costs you know,
it's that cops will protect the road. But but it's
more than that. If if, if you, if you cross
the name blue line and you break the code of silence,
you will be formally retaliated against by your commanders. And
(19:38):
when when when I say breaking the code of silence,
what that means literally is if you take any action
against another cop, like it literally doesn't like they can
be torturing people, they could be literally running a cartel,
it doesn't matter. If you say anything about them, you
will be like formally retaliated against by every other cop.
And so the two cops who are investigating wats like,
they get arrested by internal affairs. Internal affairs like tries
(20:01):
to like basically make a fake case against them, and
they eventually get out. But their you know, their careers
are over right, because they you know, attempted to like
do the thing sort of that cops are nominally supposed
to do and they just immediately get arrested. Um, and
you know, and they have a lot of other stuff
(20:22):
happened to them. Like one of the two cops comes
home to a bell box literally full of ship, with
a note that says, since you like ship so much,
thought you'd enjoy this. Yeah, you know what I mean.
That's fun. That's fun. That should happen more often, just
that should happen a lot more off other other scenarios. Yeah, yeah,
it's it sucks that these are the cops that this
(20:43):
is happening, Like, of all of the this is like
the only time I like do not approve of like
sending cops ship like this is this is the wrong
reason for the wrong reason to center you're canceled. That's
true that they have probably gotten stuff, have done something.
I will make sure it's better, it can be safer
(21:06):
if it's If dogshit is used, then d n K
is harder to track anyone, you know what, the safest
ship of all to use. No, I don't panther ship.
Panther ship, see I can Yeah, I think I p
I is never going to figure that one out. Yeah,
(21:26):
I get the technology, get right on I'll get right
on that. Yeah, we're gonna go to go collect panther
ship will be gone for a month. It could be
their unibomber for like fifteen years. They're trying to track
down what kind of ship is getting put in people's
mailboxes until your brother sends them a letter saying I
know someone who has access to a lot of panther
(21:47):
ship and grudge tragic tail time, and then you can
get uh an HBO miniseries where they make you like
look slightly like you're in a boy band, only slightly.
It's like you were in a boy band but aged out. Yeah, yeah,
(22:08):
you were in. So the coat of silence also extends
a friendly politicians the report. Soon after he came to
(22:29):
the confidential section, he was given the assignment of investigating
a deputy superintendent. The allegation was at the officer. The
official lived outside the city. Mills worked on the case
for months. He concluded the allegation was true. He produced
a thick file take months. I'm sorry I have to
take months there cops allowances for the caper of where
(22:52):
does this guy who works here? Yeah, very funny. Then
next day the file came back to him. It was marked.
There was a yellow posted with the handwritten message and
make it unfounded. So that's fun, awesome, amazing, Yeah, make
(23:14):
it the cops are cops are a breed of their
own poetry. Yeah. So actually, there there's a long history
of like, yeah, politicians do this off the cops all
the time. Like remember the story right, like rama, Manuel's
like nephew or something killed a guy in a car
(23:37):
crash and the CPD he got, Manuel got the CPD
to just like that, never investigated it. They just were like,
oh someone died in the car crash and it just
went away. It's it's real fun. Um. Yeah. So so
eventually shortly after this sort of those two cops get
like detained at the police academy. The FBI and the
(23:57):
in the CPT move on Watson, his partner Mohammed and
no one else. Interestingly, because again, if you think about
this for about five seconds, they were an enormous number
of people who either know about this operation or are
actively involved in running a fucking drug cartel. That is
one of the biggest players on the South Side who
are still just cops. And like the CPD goes after
(24:18):
exactly two people, there are like dozens of people who
were actively involved in this who are still cops. Um
and and you know, and the only real tradition of
this is that that the FBI and the CPD are complicit,
which is that you know, I mean, so parts of
the CPD want to keep doing keep keep running the cartel.
The FBI is like, both the FBI and the CBD
(24:39):
also have an interest in keeping this covered up because
they don't want like, you know, oh hey, look at
the look at the loss of trust in in in
law enforcement. It comes out that there were actually two
cartels running in the same place at the same time,
parallel to each other, and then we didn't catch them.
Like yeah, but it's great because literally nothing happens to
these people. They're still out there, they're still cops. Shit.
(25:01):
Uh yeah, only two people went down for that, and yeah,
so the cartel is just still there. It's that's good,
it's still well. It proves that if you put in
the work, you can really build something that lasts. And
I think that's a lesson, we all should be inspired
by pulled yourself up by your uh jack bootstraps and wow,
(25:24):
yeah that's good stuff. Okay, So so interlude number two.
On May four six, someone threw a stick of dynamite
at some cops and Haymarket Square in Chicago tree a
general strike for the eight hour work day they start did.
The cops fired wildly into the crowd, and the state
rounded up a bunch of completely random anarchists who, by
their own admission, had nothing to do with it, and
(25:44):
had them executed. Now, the cops, for their part, built
a statue for the cops at Haymarket. Now, the first
of these statues were destroyed on May fourth by a
guy who is great. So he had he he was like,
he's a street car driver, right, he had to like
every single day he had to go past the statue
of the hammarker cop. And one day he was just
(26:06):
like no, and he he ran his street car off
of the street. Cards are on rails, right, He random
off of the rails and rammed it into the statue.
This guy rules dope. So the costs build another statue,
and that that second statue was blown up by the
weather underground in October nineteen nine. Uh, the costs make
(26:26):
another statue, the third statue. He's also blown up by
the weather underground in October ninety. It was like that
was less than a year later. Yep. Yeah, and so
the cost they originally they rebuilt it again, right, and
originally they have it under like a twenty four hour
armed guard Jesus and then and then and then. But
you know, even then they were like, okay, we can't
(26:46):
protect it. So they moved it into an enclosed courtyard
in the middle of the of Chicago Police Academy because
they're too cowardly to show it in public. That's good,
that's a win. That's a win. They ran on everyone
thinks so much that they have to hide the statue
to the assholes who got killed. Yeah, that's great. One day,
(27:07):
one day, that fourth statue will follow the first three.
One day, one day by the mere cosmic forces of
the universe, by entropy. The force of entropy will one
day destroyed the statue. Yes, okay, So onto story number four.
Story number four is Chicago Police Department's black site. So
(27:30):
the Chicago Police Department has a black site called Home
and Square. Um so so normally, you know, you go
to a police station and you get booked, right, they
book you. They put you into the system. And you know,
because you're in the system, like you know where um
like people people can find you, right because you can
just look someone up. You can look someone up in
(27:51):
the system. Uh. At Home and Square, they don't book
people if you just if you go there, you just disappear.
There's no record of you. Uh, there's no there's no
way to contact a lawyer if you're in there. Uh,
your lawyer doesn't know where you are because again there's
no records of where you are. You've just been grabbed
off the street and taken to a building. Um. Yeah.
And and this is a so sto storage people there
(28:14):
tends to be pretty short. They don't tend to hold
people longer than a couple of days. But what it's
therefore is this is this is a confession machine. This
is the way to force confessions out of people, um,
by just you know, literally disappearing them, uh and denying
them access to lawyers or literally anyone knowing where they are,
and then just holding them until they confess. Uh. And
(28:34):
also yes, so so at Home and Square prisoners are
are routinely shackled for for hours, like like tens of hours,
sometimes twenty four hours, beaten, denied phone calls, and robbed constantly.
This is this is another fun seep at E tradition
is Yeah, they'll just take you to this black site
and then rob you and then maybe they release you,
but you know they've still robbed you. And yes, you
(28:55):
know they do these beatings. And these beatings are incredibly intense,
like you know, they're punching people. They're doing like knee
strikes between elbow strikes. You' hitting people with batons. Sometimes
they're tassering people. Uh. We we have a report that
that the cops filed of listening to listen as a
cop being assaulted. And the thing that they're listening as
a non it was like like non like fist assault.
(29:17):
Was the guy spat blood. Yeah, well and they listened
to that as an assault. Yeah, it's great, it's yeah.
They also do things like they put like flex cups
around people's necks torture. Yeah that is yeah, they Yeah,
(29:39):
that's a way for someone to die. It's almost like
that's maybe part of the intention is that someone will
quote accidentally die or we'll get to that. Okay, well,
so not great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's not it's
it's bad. There's another guy who Okay, so the cops
are completely convinced this guy who was completely innocent. I well, okay,
I do want to say, like I'm gonna say a
(29:59):
lot of people are in this because they are, but
also like, even if you're guilty, no one deserves this,
Like maybe the cops doing it deserve it, but even
then it's I don't even think they do, Like yeah
you don't. Yeah, yeah, Like so this guy you might
knock down a statue or three, but yeah, like you know,
like it's yeah, it's it's really grim like yeah. So
(30:21):
they hold this guy's mouth open with a pen, right,
and then they keep elbowing him in the stomach until
he throws up. Um. And so she tries to get
medical attentions because he keeps throwing up because he has asthma,
I mean also because she just got elbowed in the
stomach repe his mouth. Yeah um. And instead of giving
him medical treatment even though he like easily could have died,
(30:41):
the cops just beat him up for asking. There's another
guy who gets uh sexually abused with the barrel of
a gun and when he starts screaming, the guard the
gun goes on a ranch about how he needs to
be careful or he might accidentally pull the trigger. Oh boy,
it's it's bad. Um, this is all thin that specific. Yeah,
this is this is this is this is all just
(31:03):
in Home and Square. Um. He claims that like the
cell he's being held in, he doesn't get any food,
doesn't get any water. They keep them there for hours
and the like the cell just smells like blood and
like feces because yeah, they don't let people go to
the bathroom. To other individuals. Uh. Stephanie Martinez and Calvin
CoFe described relieving themselves well shackled in a Home and
(31:25):
Square and interrogation room. Martinez, locked up in two thousand
and six, was told by a guard that she did
not have the key to Martinezs handcuffs and could not
take her to the bathroom. Kofe, taken to Home and
Square on the sixth of February two fifteen on suspicion
of narcotic activity, defecated on the floor after two hours,
fruitlessly requesting for the bathroom. A police officer made Calvin
(31:46):
clean it. Up with his skull cap. The lawsuit alleges
it's these people are sick there, it's it's yeah yeah, yeah,
they hate that. It's like up and you know that
they do it. They're holding children in here, like they
have people as young as fifteen who are being sure
(32:07):
literally everything is about this is that when? So sometimes
sometimes you get sort of like arrested normally, although again
I should mention that the constitution does not exist like
it's it's fake, it's a lie. No one ever gets
fucking read the miranda rights. It doesn't matter because the
constitution doesn't exist if you're poor. Yeah, it sort of
exists if you're not. But I will guarantee you they're
(32:28):
reading their miranda rights to people who look like they
got yeah yeah yeah. No. These people there's actually a
story of these two quarto Rican guys who got brought
in and they like the cops are like trying to
get them, give us something, and they just like they
start name dropping like civil rights lawyers, and the cops
are like, okay, okay, uh, we're good. We'll we'll we'll
drive you back. If you don't talk, we'll we'll drive
We'll drive you back to like where you came from. Yeah,
(32:48):
it's yeah, it's it's extremely grim. Yeah. They just want
to funk with people who can't defend themselves. Yeah. Yeah.
And you know, and the way they do this, right,
Like they they do these raids where like everyone's they're
they're they're they're not wearing adges. Everyone's just like wearing
matt like like black armor and like black masks. And
so people describe getting like dragged out of their house
and like they don't know if they're getting robbed or
like if they're being kidnapped, and then they are being
(33:10):
kidnapped by just being kidnapped like by the cops, and
they get dragged and then again they're they're dragging like
fifteen year olds into the into this thing. Uh. There
there's one guy who gets found unresponsive in an interrogation room. Um,
now the police say they dive from heron overdose. But
this makes literally no sense. So the first reason why
(33:33):
doesn't make any sense is that the cops initially lie
about where he about where he like had the overdose
and died because they don't want to reveal that he
uh you know, was in their secret black site. So
they like linens that he was another he was at
another site. Now, the other thing you know that contradicts
the claimed that this guy was had a heroin overdose
is that the hospital when he when when the hospital
(33:53):
saw him, they wrote that he was sober. So I
mean he could have he could have had a heroin overdose.
In turn to the cops injecting, yeah, like yeah, that's
the most likely thing, Like there's nothing part of this.
So so this guy was selling cocaine right, Um, but
again he's selling cocaine, not heroin. And the other and
you know, his his partner, like there was another guy
(34:15):
he was he was selling cocaine with like his partner
when everyone who knew him was completely insisted that you
know he does he doesn't do drugs, right, he sells
them because you know, you sell drugs. But yeah, and
and the cops and you know, there are things that
the cops do. The comp thing where they changed their
story twice. So originally they said that he like committed
suicide by heroin overdosing, and then they changed their story too.
(34:37):
He died by accidents. Um. The the other thing that
that indicates that he probably did not in fact die
from heroin overdose. Is that there's bruises all over his face,
he has a busted lip, his neck is super red,
and none of that shows up in the in the
police autopsy. And yeah, yeah, and this all reads just
like a standard Burge error interrogation, so that like they
beat him, they put a bag over said to suffocate him,
(34:59):
and then you plant heroin on him and you know,
you call him yeah, the day's work. Yeah yeah, And
you know, and there's there's another thing that that that
I should mention here about the story, which is that, Okay,
so this guy is in a Chicago Police Department black site, right,
how did he get heroin in? Like everyone in his
(35:19):
black site, he is literally shackled to a wall, like
there's no the old the old place the hair we
could possibly have come from is the cops. So it's like,
you know, and independent autopsy says he dies of asphyxiation.
Uh so yeah, I'm gonna read something from the Guardian
about the guy who uh, the guy's partner who was
(35:40):
in the next cell over. The other partner who requested
to be cited as John Dowell. He rebuilds his life
post conviction, was in a home and square interrogation room
near Galvin's. While Doe was unable to see inside, he
told The Guardian he heard a lot of commotion, then
booming and banging, and then a gagging sound coming from
his friend's cell. His partner. Yeah, so this this guy,
(36:02):
uh like his partner, like he's that guy's also like
chained to a wall for like twelve hours. Um here
here's he he's a both them today. I heard a holler,
I heard officers talking to him. After that, I just
heard a lot of commotion like boom boom boom boom
and banging boom boom, boom, boom boom, And then I
didn't hear nothing after that. My door was kind of
cracked and then they shut it. After that, they shut
(36:23):
my door all the way before the police shut the
door dozed. I heard a gagging sound like he makes
a choking noise, like choking, like somebody was choking after
the commotion, like choking. I yeah, oh yeah, it's it's
very it's very obvious from the get Yeah. Yeah, like
they tortured this guy to death and yeah, it's yeah.
And and the other fun part about Homo squares that
(36:44):
homele square is also used to torture political prisoners. All right,
So Brian Brian Jacob Church is a member of the
NATO three, which is a group of antion NATO protesters,
and she doesn't twelve who got set up by an
incredibly elaborate government and trapment scheme and arrested for it. Um.
And he was taken immediately to Home and Square. He's
never read his miranda rights. He's cuffed to a bench
for seventeen hours, um. And he asked to call his
(37:07):
lawyer because like a good leftist, he has the National
Lawyer's Field number written on his arm. And you know,
this is something that's important. So the Guardian talked to
like dozens of people who were held here right, Um,
exactly two of them were able to contact a lawyer
and they were both white and Church Church is one
of them. And this is actually how uh part of
how Home and Square goes public because Brian Jacob Church
(37:29):
like talks to the press about it and Spencer Ackerman,
it's a great journalist, does a bunch of incredible reporting
and like brings the black site to light. And so
there's there's seven thousand and eighty five people we can
prove we're taken to Home and Square. Uh, six thousands
of those people are black. Less than one percent of
those people had their rest logged, which means the cops
(37:49):
just vanished them. Uh, it's almost certainly more people. Now,
I'm going to read something about this from from the
book Writings from the World of Policing. This Home and
Score revelation seems to me to be an institutionalization of
practices that date back more than forty years, said Flint Taylor,
the civil rights lawyer and most associated with pursuing Area
(38:10):
to Commander John Burge. Back when I first started working
on torture cases and started representing criminal defendants in the
early nineteen seventies, Taylor continued. My my clients often told
me they've been taken from one police station to another
before ending up an area to where they were tortured.
That way, the police prevent their families and lawyers from
seeing them until they could coerci the torture or other
means confession from them. So, yeah, that that's our fucking
(38:33):
police reform. Instead of having a instead of taking the
police station to police station, the police have now been
reformed so that they have one institutionalized black site instead
of multiple ones home and Square is still open to
this day that this came out in fifteen, there have
been like over half a decade of protest against it.
Um so supposedly the rules have changed and if you
(38:54):
get a rested they have to put you in the system.
But Square is still open. There's probably another one somewhere
that they've just they've they've they've they've switched which side
they're doing their black sits on, and yeah, well, yeah,
I have I have a have a closing statement. It
(39:15):
is it is an inhuman crime that a single one
of these fucking demons is allowed to roam our streets
with the badge and the authority to rape, torture and
murder us, and the certainty that the system will beat
us into a pulp if we attempt, even in the
smallest way both symbolic way possible, to resist them. The
police must be abolished. There is no alternative. For the
sake of our survival, for the survival of children, and
for the sake of every generation that is born its
(39:36):
horrors before us. We could only abolish the police, salt
the earth u pump which it stands, and drive the
very concept of policing into a space of such infamy
and terror that even the worst among us would not
dare to even propose bringing it back. Also, get rid
of that last statue. Yeah, that one destroyed. Let's knocked
that one out of there too. I mean, I feel
like everyone who's ever been to that site has should
(39:58):
have the the the like universal right to take a
hammer and maybe you know, maybe maybe an RPG and
just like do whatever they want to that building. Yeah,
I think the men who continued to like in women
who continued to work in CPD, like anyone who was
ever arrested by them or or otherwise brutalize them should
(40:21):
just forever have the right to just give him like
a solid shot to the balls, you know, like just
just like they get to wear a little sign around
their neck. And it's like that guy used to that
guy was you know, it was one of Burgess dudes.
So anybody who sees them can just give him, give
him a little haymaker right in the right in the
bread basket. That is a proposal. That is I'm running
(40:43):
from mayor of Chicago. I mean, i i'd look our
bears all suck, So you know, move move over here,
and we we we we can propose a solution to
this problem that is so unbelievably not proportionately violence to
what the police have been doing that it boggles belief.
And I'm pretty sure I can still manage to be corrupt. Yeah, yeah,
(41:04):
I mean it's Chicago. You can't not. I mean, I guess,
I mean life was sort of corrupt, life was less
corrupt than normal. She's just bad. But yeah, it's Chicago.
You'll you'll find corrupt, corruption will be foisted upon you.
I'm I'm actually fine with that. Well, another another uplifting episode,
(41:31):
if it could happen. Yeah, I will say this like
a Garrison named it last yet earlier today. Hi, here's
a problem by you know, And I will say any
any time, any time someone tells you that, like, no,
it's fine, we're going to reform the police, just like
remind them that reforming the Chicago Police Department went was
that the reform was that we now have black sites.
We now have we now have consolidated the black We
(41:56):
went from multiple black sites to one black site. And
also they probably moved it again as it's just you
just have to get rid of that is the essence
of police report. Yeah, anyway, Yep, there's a problem. Okay,
bye bye. It could Happen here as a production of
(42:17):
cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check
us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources
for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone
Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.
Oh my goodness, it's could happen here. All right, Well
that's the introduction. I'm Robert Evans and my work's done
for today. Chris, Yeah, it's me, it's Christopher. We are
We are back with two more stories of rape, torture,
and murder from the Chicago Police Department un show we have. Yeah,
(00:27):
well you know, okay, this one, this, this one will
be more fun than last time because okay, so basically
since since I started showing up on this show, I
have made a case. I have been dropping references at
the fact that the Chicago Police Department is literally a cartel,
and today I am finally telling the story of how
this is a little unfair to But yeah, also also
I didn't mention this before we go win. There's also
(00:49):
a bonus cartel because while I was doing research on
one of the cartels, I realized that I couldn't actually
talk about it without talking about the other cartel. So
there's two. There are two completely unrelated CPD carte else
that are will show up in this story. Uh yeah,
it's great. So all right, this is the story of
Ronald Watts. Now, Ronald Watts joined the CPD in n
(01:12):
after serving in the army, making him yet another example
of the fabled troop cop combination that produces the worst
people on earth. Um, what Watts was assigned to patrol
Chicago's old public housing like projects now wants is from
housing himself. Um, there's okay. So some of the people
(01:33):
who knew him before he went into the police claimed that,
like he was just always like a drug ular and
that he went into the police too, like drug deal more.
I don't know if that's true, because I mean, he's
also in the army for a while, so I I
don't know, it's sort of unclear. But you know, he's
for the projects. He knows the ter reign well, and
(01:54):
that's why he was an extremely effective agent of terror
in a place where officers would regularly drive by blasting
the N word and other ray slurs out of their
cop car speakers. Uh yeah, here, here, here's the intercept
describing what like Chicago cops are just doing at the projects.
They were officers who found it amusing to toy with
those under their power, arranging the foot race of heroin.
Addics determined who would go to jail, for example, or
(02:16):
forcing a woman they had searched on the street to
walk home naked from the waist down. It's yeah, people
who find joint exerting their power over other people and
they think it's funny. Yeah, why they become cops. Yep. Well,
and you know, and the other reason to become a
cop is is the the second thing that they do constantly,
which is they just walk into the lobbies of these
(02:36):
buildings just start taking everyone's money. And like they literally
call the lobbies of the public housing buildings like quote
their ATM machine. So they're just doing this constantly. There's
also cops and this is not every cop that they're
specific cops you do this who would show up on
the first and the fifteenth of the month, wait for
everyone to catch their paychecks and then rob them. And
(02:57):
you know, the thing I think is important about this
is that, Okay, so like WATS and like the specific
cartels do this, but this isn't just WATS. This is like,
this is everyone who's working at these projects is just
walking up like to like the poorest people in Chicago
and just robbing them constantly. Um yeah, like this is
this is you know, this this is just how regular
policing works. And the elite units are even worse. So
(03:19):
Cartel number one or I guess, I guess you're talking
about Choo since we've introduced wats. But so, there used
to be an elite unit in the Chicago Police Force
called the Special Operations Section or s OS. And these guys,
these guys are different because they you know, they're they're
they're not attached to like an area or certificate. You know,
they're they're just completely their own thing. They're just like
they're the Special Response Team. And s OS would just
(03:41):
go into projects and just ransacked the entire building, like
they would go room by room like taking people's stuff
and just looting it and then just like walking out.
And you know, it's not even like there's not just
that they're taking cash, like they're taking TVs. And I
mean the thing that the thing the thing you if
when you when you re interview some people who lived
through this, like they're not just taking like stuff that's
(04:02):
like you know, let's use that are expensive there, they'll
take people's like lamps, like they're just walk out with
anything like literally anything they can sell um. And you
know again like these are these are the people living
in these projects are like huge like a lot and
a lot of these protures literally like segregation era, right,
and so they're they're almost entirely black, and they're just
taking like they're just getting robbed, but constantly by both
(04:25):
regular cops and special Operations section. And there's not even like,
you know, like cops nowadays have like they have like
civil ascid forfature where there's this like pseudo legal framework
and no, no no, this's like they're not even this is
the nights, They're not even doing that. They're just literally
walking in and robbing these people at gunpoint. Um. S
OS like they eventually get shut down sales in seven
(04:45):
after so there's a series of scandles about them. They
they steal like hundreds of thousands of dollars and people,
they do shape downs with drug dealers, they start kidnapping people. Um.
At one point in s OS, dude like tried to
hire his cowork here to do a hit on someone
who was like going to report them to the Feds.
And yeah, but s OS isn't the main story today
(05:07):
because Watts is writing is running an even larger version
of this operation. Um, and you know, well I's always
researching this. I had the realization that like So I've
talked to people in Chicago about like the CpG Cartel's right,
And I had the realization that there are conversations that
I have people where we've been, we've both been talking
about different ones, and we both we both thought we
were talking about this. Like I've had people talking backwards like, oh,
(05:29):
they were talking about I was like, no, no no, I
met the Watts one. It's it's it's great. It's love
love our institutionalized just robbery system. Yeah. So the other
thing I want to mention because so the intercepted like
(05:49):
really good, like four like huge four part series on
on the Watts, uh like cartel. But I think it's
worth mentioning that, like even you know, there's to quote
unquote good cops who like go after wats And for
years and they've let you bring him down. But like
even those cops are doing things that are objectively horrifying.
Like most of the actual cop work in this story
(06:11):
is done by is literally just the good cops. Like
they know a homeless guy they called Chewbaka who they
paid to be an informant in like blankets, sleeping bags
and food and like it's like it should be fair
Chebaca like genuinely like likes the two of them. But
Cheubaca is the guy who does all of the work here,
(06:32):
like what Wastz gets like like he's the guy who's
like wearing the wire. He's the guy who knows everything
the cops. The cops don't know anything, and Chibaka has
known that everything that was going on from the beginning.
They just don't ask him for years. But like in
Chebaca like goes to prison at one point because Wats Okay,
so what Watson wats is just like a drug dealer, right,
(06:55):
um so wants and uh so, so Chebaca would like
you know, he he was like he was like a
sort of low level like runner. Right, you'd get a bag,
you'd like move it sometimes. And one time in watch
all these new informations, So one time, like Watts was
like trying to get information on where a drug stash
was so we could rob it and then like well
down so he could do a police raid on it
(07:17):
and then take the drugs and sell them. And Chebaca
just like didn't know. So what's just like through be
in prison for two years and it's just like you
know this this this time will happens constantly that there
are so many people who are just you know, like
people try to survive in the city. And then oh, hey,
you don't have the exact specific information that this cop
(07:38):
wants on this drug thing, so we're just gonna send
you to prison for two years. And Chebacca, who like
risks his life wearing a wire and brings down one
of the biggest cartels in the CPD, as best I
can tell, is still living on the street because the
society is just broken in ways that like are difficult
to comprehend and incredibly bleak. Yeah m hmm. Yeah. So okay,
(08:00):
back to Watch this operation. Watts has this thing called
the Watts Tax, and the watch tex is if you
run drugs, you pay the tax to Watts and this
this tax gives you production from the police. If if if
you don't pay the Watch tax, the cops show up,
they put you in prison, they take all your cash,
they raise your drugs, and then Watch resolves your drugs
that are profit I mean that is like objectively, that
is a decent grift, like in terms of it's pretty
good in logistical plans, like yeah, okay, I can I
(08:24):
can see how how this would actually be very profitable. Yeah,
it's genius and like and and and the other thing
about these taxes, like these taxes are enormous amounts of money,
like if if so if if. If you're running a
drug that's like, okay, so you have a drug that
you move and the drugs I've ran drugs for thirty years,
I know. Yeah, so the tax for the for that
(08:46):
single drug can be as high as fifty dollars a week.
So he is he is making a lot of money,
so much money, just an incomprehensible amount of money off
of this. I would have to become coughs. I have
an idea for a pivot doing in the cartel pivot.
(09:06):
This is how we give this is how we get
funded by this in a lower cartel. And we've always
been a cartel, but that's well, when we moved from
podcasting into drugs, we can partner with our friends at
the scene a lower cartel. Yeah, would be great. Eventually,
(09:28):
there's a guy named Big Shorty who's another like sort
of player in the scene. And so yeah, all the
people in this name of the Stall of great names. Yeah,
it's great. So Big Shorty is like, I'm not paying
like fifty k a week per drug to do this anymore,
I'm gonna go to the FEDS and so so be short,
like he threatens to go to the FESS and he
goes to the d A and then like a couple
(09:50):
of days later, she's gunned down the street by yeah
you never yeah no, like yeah, well if you do,
you have to make sure they like disappear you because uh,
you never threaten it, like that's the yah, yeah, yeah
you don't. Yea. These worlds you mentioned, like cops and
going to in any combination, and everyone around you just like,
(10:10):
all right, well this person's got to be dead. That's
just how that's gotta go. Yeah, it's it's not it's
not the best move I've ever seen. It's yeah, so
you know. And and this is when, this is when
the cops, the two cops are gonna bring watch down,
like actually started to take notice because literally for years,
I mean, they're they're all sorry about this, like people
they'd be locking people up and people would say things
(10:33):
like why are you going after me for two bags?
And Watts is running the dope and just no one
believes them. Like the cops are being told constantly for
years like that. The cops who aren't in on the
on the inn I being told literally for years that
that this whole thing is you know that that Oh yeah, well,
why why are you bothering me? Watches running this operation?
They don't believe them, and they don't they don't believe
(10:55):
them basically until Big Shorty gets shot because when when
Big short he goes down like another they get another
guy who's like pretty big in the scene and the
guy's like, oh, yeah, no, he got shot by Wats
and they're like, wait, hold on now. The cops go
to the FBI, and the FBI, it turns out, has
been trying and failing to put again put together a
(11:16):
case against Watts for so long that like they're on
there like second like agent who they've had in charge
of the case because the first guy like I just
could do it and laugh. And so they had another
guy and almost immediately after this, uh, there's there's another guy.
There's another dealer named Fears who he has this Fierce
has this great grift which is like all of his
people wear Obama shirts just like just like eight but
(11:38):
he doesn't know, doesn't seven or something? But yeah, so
like that all all the people doing this thing, they
wear Obama shirts and they call the drugs like Obama.
And so when everyone they had their lines called Hope
so and like this this this actually works on the FBI,
Like the FBI doesn't understand that they're running drugs because
they think that they're that like all the Messa references
of Obama are just like they're talking about like Obama.
(12:01):
It's like, oh, there's there's so many, there's so many
great like FBI weird incompetences to the story like that.
There's one point where the cops are going through the
documents and they see the word they see Lou, and
it's just a lose a short for lieutenant, right, But
the FBI thinks that Lou is like a name, and
so they're kind of tracked down this guy named Lou,
(12:21):
which is just it's it's ah's just baffling, incredible and
coms never thrilled when they have to investigate cops. Yeah, yeah,
even though it is literally their job. Yep. But hey,
I hate doing my job too, so please continue, Chris
(12:43):
So So that fears guy who choose doing the Obama thing,
like take seventeen rounds to the chest, and so the
FBI round to take to the chest. Yeah, that's a lot,
it's it's it's it's interesting number two right because like
like cfcult significance. Guess yeah. What would also like like
is did they like reload Like do they have a
(13:03):
gun that has seventeen round man? Yeah? No, no, no no,
there's yeah, there's that's not that's not is it is
it like a handgun or is it a rifle? I
think it's a handgun, yeah, or like Baltimore people with
handguns block seventeens have seventeen round magazines. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
(13:24):
So so after this, the FBI investigation intensifies, and so
the FBI goes to the Internal Affairs Division or i
a D, who are like the most hated cops of
all cops by other cops because there're people who are
supposed investigate the police and you know, so so they
tell that you guys who are going after watch, they're
going to be protected. And this works for like a year,
(13:46):
and then the head of a I D changes and
it's like a cop cop guy instead of so they
had this like they brought an FBI guy who had
been had of a D. And that he gets kicked
out and they bring in like a cop, and that
cop just immediately tells literally everyone that that the two
cops are running an investigation against Watts, and so uh
do they die with the next few months there studdingly no.
(14:08):
I as best I can tell, Watts seemed to have
thought that like they wouldn't just wouldn't be able to
get him because anti mus protection which worked for a while.
Um yeah, it's yeah, he has a lot of power. Yeah. Well,
and also, I mean the other thing about this is
she just like his stuff, starts getting wilder. So he
goes after this guy. He tries to go after the
drugs of this guy named Monk, and like Muk is
(14:30):
carrying a bunch of drugs's trying to He's trying to
rob bunk Um from the intercept a wild car chase
and suited on the Dan Ryan Expressway like sure Drive
and ultimately into the Hyde Park neighborhood, where Monk lost
control of the car and crashed in a park. He
fled on foot. Watson his team seized the dope in cash.
They didn't even check on the condition of the women
and infant who remained in the car, which is great.
(14:51):
And also that's that's standard. That that's that that's like
standard CPD procedure. I have literally seen this happen like
in Hyde Park, like I have there when I was
in college. I almost got run over in a seat,
Like the CPD almost ran me over in this like
car chase that went bad and this giant multi car
crash and like there's like sixteen cops, right, they all
just run past the car crash after you guys are
(15:13):
chasing and like I have to go make sure no
one died. And I was like, I, this is great.
You have just almost murdered me. And then also you're
not checking on all of these people in this carven
into wreck. I I hate the CPD. I hate them
a lot. This took this sound? This sound nice? Yeah,
it's great there there. Yeah, this just happens like all
(15:37):
the time, like often enough that like literally in the
same place like all of these big because you've got
like a few really big shitty big city police departments.
You've got your l A p D. You're in yp D,
You've got your Chicago Police Department. By god, you've got St.
Louis cops, and they're all they're all shitty and simultaneously
(15:58):
the same in different ways. Like they're there, it's the
same basic idea. It's brutality, it's violence, it's robbery. Um,
but they they find unique ways to do those shitty things,
which is fascinating. Yeah. Like if I always like like
the NYPDS, like they're big thing is if you get
a large number of people together, the NYPD is just
(16:18):
going to annihilate you, like l A p D has
like the Nazi gangs. CPD thing, CPDS thing just seems
to be crime. CPD just torture. It's torture and yeah St.
Louis Police Department will attack you with dogs if you're
not a white person. Like, yeah, they've all got they've
they've they've they've chosen their cops subclass. Yeah now okay,
(16:44):
so but back in the investigation, the two cops in
investigating Watts are like even so basically all the researchers
get cut off. It's literally just them to watch. Note
like basically knows that he's they're coming from them, and
they almost get him anyways because cops are just not
very smart, um, and you know they're about to get
him on a sting for drug running. And then right
(17:07):
before like, look, I think it's like the day of
that they're running the sting, they suddenly get like transferred
to the police academy and they basically just like get
detained in this police academy for like weeks, and it's
it's purely weird, and eventually, like and you know that
this is when like everything just completely comes apart with
the liaison between the CPD and the FBI literally tells
(17:27):
them they can't move on the case because if they
move on the case, it's going to reveal that Watts
murdered a dude, because well they so they don't have
good evidence some big shorty, but they have they have
evidence that they have good evidence that he killed Fears
and uh, and the head of Internal affairs basically tells
them like, yeah, like I won't do anything about Watts
because it comes out that another CPD unit had gone
(17:47):
rogue after s OS, I'll be done for so I'm
just gonna cover for them. The second cartel is too much.
Only one cartels, It's great, Um, I can excuse is
one cartel, but I tried the line too, but once
she hit four cartels, we're back too good, which is
why I am such a big fan of the Los
(18:10):
Angeles Police Department. It's great. Look you got it, you got,
you got you just you just gotta get over the
cartel hump. And once you're over, Yeah you got, it's
like it's like growing out your your hair. Right, there's
gonna be that period where it looks really awkward. That's when.
That's when you've got two cartels, and then you get
hot at four cartels. Then you're fuckable again. Yeah, it's great.
(18:31):
So there's an interesting description from one of the two
cops that I want to read because it gets out
how the coade of silence works um from the intercept
he had, she said, this is about the A A D.
Guy he had, She said made too many deals, there
by neutralizing his ability to act, attributing her understanding of
this dynamic largely two conversations with Rivera himself, conversations she
denied ever occurred. She described him as ensnared in a
(18:53):
web of mutual blackmail, at which bosses have leverage over
one another by virtue of their shared knowledge of the
deals they've made. She gave an example, I'll make the
cr gets your guy go away if you promote my
guy within your unit, the code of silence and cloud
or thus entwined rivera she recalled, once remarked to her
that the bosses quote trade crs for favors like baseball cards.
(19:17):
So yeah, this is this is what the code of
silence is. It's it's it's an informal code sort of.
That's also called the thin blue line, which is great.
Uh yeah that basically it says that costs you know,
it's that cops will protect the road. But but it's
more than that. If if, if you, if you cross
the name blue line and you break the code of silence,
you will be formally retaliated against by your commanders. And
(19:38):
when when when I say breaking the code of silence,
what that means literally is if you take any action
against another cop, like it literally doesn't like they can
be torturing people, they could be literally running a cartel,
it doesn't matter. If you say anything about them, you
will be like formally retaliated against by every other cop.
And so the two cops who are investigating wats like,
they get arrested by internal affairs. Internal affairs like tries
(20:01):
to like basically make a fake case against them, and
they eventually get out. But their you know, their careers
are over right, because they you know, attempted to like
do the thing sort of that cops are nominally supposed
to do and they just immediately get arrested. Um, and
you know, and they have a lot of other stuff
(20:22):
happened to them. Like one of the two cops comes
home to a bell box literally full of ship, with
a note that says, since you like ship so much,
thought you'd enjoy this. Yeah, you know what I mean.
That's fun. That's fun. That should happen more often, just
that should happen a lot more off other other scenarios. Yeah, yeah,
it's it sucks that these are the cops that this
(20:43):
is happening, Like, of all of the this is like
the only time I like do not approve of like
sending cops ship like this is this is the wrong
reason for the wrong reason to center you're canceled. That's
true that they have probably gotten stuff, have done something.
I will make sure it's better, it can be safer
(21:06):
if it's If dogshit is used, then d n K
is harder to track anyone, you know what, the safest
ship of all to use. No, I don't panther ship.
Panther ship, see I can Yeah, I think I p
I is never going to figure that one out. Yeah,
(21:26):
I get the technology, get right on I'll get right
on that. Yeah, we're gonna go to go collect panther
ship will be gone for a month. It could be
their unibomber for like fifteen years. They're trying to track
down what kind of ship is getting put in people's
mailboxes until your brother sends them a letter saying I
know someone who has access to a lot of panther
(21:47):
ship and grudge tragic tail time, and then you can
get uh an HBO miniseries where they make you like
look slightly like you're in a boy band, only slightly.
It's like you were in a boy band but aged out. Yeah, yeah,
(22:08):
you were in. So the coat of silence also extends
a friendly politicians the report. Soon after he came to
(22:29):
the confidential section, he was given the assignment of investigating
a deputy superintendent. The allegation was at the officer. The
official lived outside the city. Mills worked on the case
for months. He concluded the allegation was true. He produced
a thick file take months. I'm sorry I have to
take months there cops allowances for the caper of where
(22:52):
does this guy who works here? Yeah, very funny. Then
next day the file came back to him. It was marked.
There was a yellow posted with the handwritten message and
make it unfounded. So that's fun, awesome, amazing, Yeah, make
(23:14):
it the cops are cops are a breed of their
own poetry. Yeah. So actually, there there's a long history
of like, yeah, politicians do this off the cops all
the time. Like remember the story right, like rama, Manuel's
like nephew or something killed a guy in a car
(23:37):
crash and the CPD he got, Manuel got the CPD
to just like that, never investigated it. They just were like,
oh someone died in the car crash and it just
went away. It's it's real fun. Um. Yeah. So so
eventually shortly after this sort of those two cops get
like detained at the police academy. The FBI and the
(23:57):
in the CPT move on Watson, his partner Mohammed and
no one else. Interestingly, because again, if you think about
this for about five seconds, they were an enormous number
of people who either know about this operation or are
actively involved in running a fucking drug cartel. That is
one of the biggest players on the South Side who
are still just cops. And like the CPD goes after
(24:18):
exactly two people, there are like dozens of people who
were actively involved in this who are still cops. Um
and and you know, and the only real tradition of
this is that that the FBI and the CPD are complicit,
which is that you know, I mean, so parts of
the CPD want to keep doing keep keep running the cartel.
The FBI is like, both the FBI and the CBD
(24:39):
also have an interest in keeping this covered up because
they don't want like, you know, oh hey, look at
the look at the loss of trust in in in
law enforcement. It comes out that there were actually two
cartels running in the same place at the same time,
parallel to each other, and then we didn't catch them.
Like yeah, but it's great because literally nothing happens to
these people. They're still out there, they're still cops. Shit.
(25:01):
Uh yeah, only two people went down for that, and yeah,
so the cartel is just still there. It's that's good,
it's still well. It proves that if you put in
the work, you can really build something that lasts. And
I think that's a lesson, we all should be inspired
by pulled yourself up by your uh jack bootstraps and wow,
(25:24):
yeah that's good stuff. Okay, So so interlude number two.
On May four six, someone threw a stick of dynamite
at some cops and Haymarket Square in Chicago tree a
general strike for the eight hour work day they start did.
The cops fired wildly into the crowd, and the state
rounded up a bunch of completely random anarchists who, by
their own admission, had nothing to do with it, and
(25:44):
had them executed. Now, the cops, for their part, built
a statue for the cops at Haymarket. Now, the first
of these statues were destroyed on May fourth by a
guy who is great. So he had he he was like,
he's a street car driver, right, he had to like
every single day he had to go past the statue
of the hammarker cop. And one day he was just
(26:06):
like no, and he he ran his street car off
of the street. Cards are on rails, right, He random
off of the rails and rammed it into the statue.
This guy rules dope. So the costs build another statue,
and that that second statue was blown up by the
weather underground in October nineteen nine. Uh, the costs make
(26:26):
another statue, the third statue. He's also blown up by
the weather underground in October ninety. It was like that
was less than a year later. Yep. Yeah, and so
the cost they originally they rebuilt it again, right, and
originally they have it under like a twenty four hour
armed guard Jesus and then and then and then. But
you know, even then they were like, okay, we can't
(26:46):
protect it. So they moved it into an enclosed courtyard
in the middle of the of Chicago Police Academy because
they're too cowardly to show it in public. That's good,
that's a win. That's a win. They ran on everyone
thinks so much that they have to hide the statue
to the assholes who got killed. Yeah, that's great. One day,
(27:07):
one day, that fourth statue will follow the first three.
One day, one day by the mere cosmic forces of
the universe, by entropy. The force of entropy will one
day destroyed the statue. Yes, okay, So onto story number four.
Story number four is Chicago Police Department's black site. So
(27:30):
the Chicago Police Department has a black site called Home
and Square. Um so so normally, you know, you go
to a police station and you get booked, right, they
book you. They put you into the system. And you know,
because you're in the system, like you know where um
like people people can find you, right because you can
just look someone up. You can look someone up in
(27:51):
the system. Uh. At Home and Square, they don't book
people if you just if you go there, you just disappear.
There's no record of you. Uh, there's no there's no
way to contact a lawyer if you're in there. Uh,
your lawyer doesn't know where you are because again there's
no records of where you are. You've just been grabbed
off the street and taken to a building. Um. Yeah.
And and this is a so sto storage people there
(28:14):
tends to be pretty short. They don't tend to hold
people longer than a couple of days. But what it's
therefore is this is this is a confession machine. This
is the way to force confessions out of people, um,
by just you know, literally disappearing them, uh and denying
them access to lawyers or literally anyone knowing where they are,
and then just holding them until they confess. Uh. And
(28:34):
also yes, so so at Home and Square prisoners are
are routinely shackled for for hours, like like tens of hours,
sometimes twenty four hours, beaten, denied phone calls, and robbed constantly.
This is this is another fun seep at E tradition
is Yeah, they'll just take you to this black site
and then rob you and then maybe they release you,
but you know they've still robbed you. And yes, you
(28:55):
know they do these beatings. And these beatings are incredibly intense,
like you know, they're punching people. They're doing like knee
strikes between elbow strikes. You' hitting people with batons. Sometimes
they're tassering people. Uh. We we have a report that
that the cops filed of listening to listen as a
cop being assaulted. And the thing that they're listening as
a non it was like like non like fist assault.
(29:17):
Was the guy spat blood. Yeah, well and they listened
to that as an assault. Yeah, it's great, it's yeah.
They also do things like they put like flex cups
around people's necks torture. Yeah that is yeah, they Yeah,
(29:39):
that's a way for someone to die. It's almost like
that's maybe part of the intention is that someone will
quote accidentally die or we'll get to that. Okay, well,
so not great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's not it's
it's bad. There's another guy who Okay, so the cops
are completely convinced this guy who was completely innocent. I well, okay,
I do want to say, like I'm gonna say a
(29:59):
lot of people are in this because they are, but
also like, even if you're guilty, no one deserves this,
Like maybe the cops doing it deserve it, but even
then it's I don't even think they do, Like yeah
you don't. Yeah, yeah, Like so this guy you might
knock down a statue or three, but yeah, like you know,
like it's yeah, it's it's really grim like yeah. So
(30:21):
they hold this guy's mouth open with a pen, right,
and then they keep elbowing him in the stomach until
he throws up. Um. And so she tries to get
medical attentions because he keeps throwing up because he has asthma,
I mean also because she just got elbowed in the
stomach repe his mouth. Yeah um. And instead of giving
him medical treatment even though he like easily could have died,
(30:41):
the cops just beat him up for asking. There's another
guy who gets uh sexually abused with the barrel of
a gun and when he starts screaming, the guard the
gun goes on a ranch about how he needs to
be careful or he might accidentally pull the trigger. Oh boy,
it's it's bad. Um, this is all thin that specific. Yeah,
this is this is this is this is all just
(31:03):
in Home and Square. Um. He claims that like the
cell he's being held in, he doesn't get any food,
doesn't get any water. They keep them there for hours
and the like the cell just smells like blood and
like feces because yeah, they don't let people go to
the bathroom. To other individuals. Uh. Stephanie Martinez and Calvin
CoFe described relieving themselves well shackled in a Home and
(31:25):
Square and interrogation room. Martinez, locked up in two thousand
and six, was told by a guard that she did
not have the key to Martinezs handcuffs and could not
take her to the bathroom. Kofe, taken to Home and
Square on the sixth of February two fifteen on suspicion
of narcotic activity, defecated on the floor after two hours,
fruitlessly requesting for the bathroom. A police officer made Calvin
(31:46):
clean it. Up with his skull cap. The lawsuit alleges
it's these people are sick there, it's it's yeah yeah, yeah,
they hate that. It's like up and you know that
they do it. They're holding children in here, like they
have people as young as fifteen who are being sure
(32:07):
literally everything is about this is that when? So sometimes
sometimes you get sort of like arrested normally, although again
I should mention that the constitution does not exist like
it's it's fake, it's a lie. No one ever gets
fucking read the miranda rights. It doesn't matter because the
constitution doesn't exist if you're poor. Yeah, it sort of
exists if you're not. But I will guarantee you they're
(32:28):
reading their miranda rights to people who look like they
got yeah yeah yeah. No. These people there's actually a
story of these two quarto Rican guys who got brought
in and they like the cops are like trying to
get them, give us something, and they just like they
start name dropping like civil rights lawyers, and the cops
are like, okay, okay, uh, we're good. We'll we'll we'll
drive you back. If you don't talk, we'll we'll drive
We'll drive you back to like where you came from. Yeah,
(32:48):
it's yeah, it's it's extremely grim. Yeah. They just want
to funk with people who can't defend themselves. Yeah. Yeah.
And you know, and the way they do this, right,
Like they they do these raids where like everyone's they're
they're they're they're not wearing adges. Everyone's just like wearing
matt like like black armor and like black masks. And
so people describe getting like dragged out of their house
and like they don't know if they're getting robbed or
like if they're being kidnapped, and then they are being
(33:10):
kidnapped by just being kidnapped like by the cops, and
they get dragged and then again they're they're dragging like
fifteen year olds into the into this thing. Uh. There
there's one guy who gets found unresponsive in an interrogation room. Um,
now the police say they dive from heron overdose. But
this makes literally no sense. So the first reason why
(33:33):
doesn't make any sense is that the cops initially lie
about where he about where he like had the overdose
and died because they don't want to reveal that he
uh you know, was in their secret black site. So
they like linens that he was another he was at
another site. Now, the other thing you know that contradicts
the claimed that this guy was had a heroin overdose
is that the hospital when he when when the hospital
(33:53):
saw him, they wrote that he was sober. So I
mean he could have he could have had a heroin overdose.
In turn to the cops injecting, yeah, like yeah, that's
the most likely thing, Like there's nothing part of this.
So so this guy was selling cocaine right, Um, but
again he's selling cocaine, not heroin. And the other and
you know, his his partner, like there was another guy
(34:15):
he was he was selling cocaine with like his partner
when everyone who knew him was completely insisted that you
know he does he doesn't do drugs, right, he sells
them because you know, you sell drugs. But yeah, and
and the cops and you know, there are things that
the cops do. The comp thing where they changed their
story twice. So originally they said that he like committed
suicide by heroin overdosing, and then they changed their story too.
(34:37):
He died by accidents. Um. The the other thing that
that indicates that he probably did not in fact die
from heroin overdose. Is that there's bruises all over his face,
he has a busted lip, his neck is super red,
and none of that shows up in the in the
police autopsy. And yeah, yeah, and this all reads just
like a standard Burge error interrogation, so that like they
beat him, they put a bag over said to suffocate him,
(34:59):
and then you plant heroin on him and you know,
you call him yeah, the day's work. Yeah yeah, And
you know, and there's there's another thing that that that
I should mention here about the story, which is that, Okay,
so this guy is in a Chicago Police Department black site, right,
how did he get heroin in? Like everyone in his
(35:19):
black site, he is literally shackled to a wall, like
there's no the old the old place the hair we
could possibly have come from is the cops. So it's like,
you know, and independent autopsy says he dies of asphyxiation.
Uh so yeah, I'm gonna read something from the Guardian
about the guy who uh, the guy's partner who was
(35:40):
in the next cell over. The other partner who requested
to be cited as John Dowell. He rebuilds his life
post conviction, was in a home and square interrogation room
near Galvin's. While Doe was unable to see inside, he
told The Guardian he heard a lot of commotion, then
booming and banging, and then a gagging sound coming from
his friend's cell. His partner. Yeah, so this this guy,
(36:02):
uh like his partner, like he's that guy's also like
chained to a wall for like twelve hours. Um here
here's he he's a both them today. I heard a holler,
I heard officers talking to him. After that, I just
heard a lot of commotion like boom boom boom boom
and banging boom boom, boom, boom boom, And then I
didn't hear nothing after that. My door was kind of
cracked and then they shut it. After that, they shut
(36:23):
my door all the way before the police shut the
door dozed. I heard a gagging sound like he makes
a choking noise, like choking, like somebody was choking after
the commotion, like choking. I yeah, oh yeah, it's it's
very it's very obvious from the get Yeah. Yeah, like
they tortured this guy to death and yeah, it's yeah.
And and the other fun part about Homo squares that
(36:44):
homele square is also used to torture political prisoners. All right,
So Brian Brian Jacob Church is a member of the
NATO three, which is a group of antion NATO protesters,
and she doesn't twelve who got set up by an
incredibly elaborate government and trapment scheme and arrested for it. Um.
And he was taken immediately to Home and Square. He's
never read his miranda rights. He's cuffed to a bench
for seventeen hours, um. And he asked to call his
(37:07):
lawyer because like a good leftist, he has the National
Lawyer's Field number written on his arm. And you know,
this is something that's important. So the Guardian talked to
like dozens of people who were held here right, Um,
exactly two of them were able to contact a lawyer
and they were both white and Church Church is one
of them. And this is actually how uh part of
how Home and Square goes public because Brian Jacob Church
(37:29):
like talks to the press about it and Spencer Ackerman,
it's a great journalist, does a bunch of incredible reporting
and like brings the black site to light. And so
there's there's seven thousand and eighty five people we can
prove we're taken to Home and Square. Uh, six thousands
of those people are black. Less than one percent of
those people had their rest logged, which means the cops
(37:49):
just vanished them. Uh, it's almost certainly more people. Now,
I'm going to read something about this from from the
book Writings from the World of Policing. This Home and
Score revelation seems to me to be an institutionalization of
practices that date back more than forty years, said Flint Taylor,
the civil rights lawyer and most associated with pursuing Area
(38:10):
to Commander John Burge. Back when I first started working
on torture cases and started representing criminal defendants in the
early nineteen seventies, Taylor continued. My my clients often told
me they've been taken from one police station to another
before ending up an area to where they were tortured.
That way, the police prevent their families and lawyers from
seeing them until they could coerci the torture or other
means confession from them. So, yeah, that that's our fucking
(38:33):
police reform. Instead of having a instead of taking the
police station to police station, the police have now been
reformed so that they have one institutionalized black site instead
of multiple ones home and Square is still open to
this day that this came out in fifteen, there have
been like over half a decade of protest against it.
Um so supposedly the rules have changed and if you
(38:54):
get a rested they have to put you in the system.
But Square is still open. There's probably another one somewhere
that they've just they've they've they've they've switched which side
they're doing their black sits on, and yeah, well, yeah,
I have I have a have a closing statement. It
(39:15):
is it is an inhuman crime that a single one
of these fucking demons is allowed to roam our streets
with the badge and the authority to rape, torture and
murder us, and the certainty that the system will beat
us into a pulp if we attempt, even in the
smallest way both symbolic way possible, to resist them. The
police must be abolished. There is no alternative. For the
sake of our survival, for the survival of children, and
for the sake of every generation that is born its
(39:36):
horrors before us. We could only abolish the police, salt
the earth u pump which it stands, and drive the
very concept of policing into a space of such infamy
and terror that even the worst among us would not
dare to even propose bringing it back. Also, get rid
of that last statue. Yeah, that one destroyed. Let's knocked
that one out of there too. I mean, I feel
like everyone who's ever been to that site has should
(39:58):
have the the the like universal right to take a
hammer and maybe you know, maybe maybe an RPG and
just like do whatever they want to that building. Yeah,
I think the men who continued to like in women
who continued to work in CPD, like anyone who was
ever arrested by them or or otherwise brutalize them should
(40:21):
just forever have the right to just give him like
a solid shot to the balls, you know, like just
just like they get to wear a little sign around
their neck. And it's like that guy used to that
guy was you know, it was one of Burgess dudes.
So anybody who sees them can just give him, give
him a little haymaker right in the right in the
bread basket. That is a proposal. That is I'm running
(40:43):
from mayor of Chicago. I mean, i i'd look our
bears all suck, So you know, move move over here,
and we we we we can propose a solution to
this problem that is so unbelievably not proportionately violence to
what the police have been doing that it boggles belief.
And I'm pretty sure I can still manage to be corrupt. Yeah, yeah,
(41:04):
I mean it's Chicago. You can't not. I mean, I guess,
I mean life was sort of corrupt, life was less
corrupt than normal. She's just bad. But yeah, it's Chicago.
You'll you'll find corrupt, corruption will be foisted upon you.
I'm I'm actually fine with that. Well, another another uplifting episode,
(41:31):
if it could happen. Yeah, I will say this like
a Garrison named it last yet earlier today. Hi, here's
a problem by you know, And I will say any
any time, any time someone tells you that, like, no,
it's fine, we're going to reform the police, just like
remind them that reforming the Chicago Police Department went was
that the reform was that we now have black sites.
We now have we now have consolidated the black We
(41:56):
went from multiple black sites to one black site. And
also they probably moved it again as it's just you
just have to get rid of that is the essence
of police report. Yeah, anyway, Yep, there's a problem. Okay,
bye bye. It could Happen here as a production of
(42:17):
cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check
us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources
for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone
Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.
It Could Happen Here News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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