© Alex FreemanIndeed, for some there is “no outlet” from Homan Square.
Prior to the other revelations about Homan Square, it would have just been assumed that the cops were incompetent and let the suspect shoot up the evidence. Then it would have been assumed that they were lazy when parts of the file missing. After the explosive revelations about the facility, the public has to wonder how a suspect was capable of shooting up while inside of a police facility. It is highly unlikely that a suspect on the verge of overdose would be out attempting to purchase narcotics. The only likely scenario is that he injected, or someone else injected him with, the narcotics inside the police facility.
In light of the situation, The Fifth Column began reaching out to other victims of Homan Square. One of those was Jose Gonzales. During our interview he relayed his story:
It began the way most of the incidents involving Homan Square do. A no-knock raid sent police storming into his house. They wore no uniforms and arrived in an unmarked minivan. They said they had a warrant, but wouldn't let him see it. His pregnant cousin was pushed to the ground, his grandmother and the kids in the house had automatic weapons shoved in their faces, and Jose was taken away. They searched the home and found no drugs.
He was placed in an interview room inside of Homan Square where there was red stuff on the floor that he believes was blood. The police began asking him questions about narcotics deals. Jose couldn't answer the questions not just because he wasn't really involved in drugs, but because the Jose Gonzales the cops were looking for was born in the 1960s. Jose is currently 27. The police weren't happy with Jose's constant denials and statements that he didn't know anything. He repeatedly requested a lawyer, but he was never allowed one. That's when they told the handcuffed and shackled Jose that they were going to inject him with heroin to make him talk.
When Jose was telling his story this was a tiny detail that he glossed by, and I'm not sure if he realized exactly how important the bizarre threat was. In talking to him it definitely seemed like he wanted me to know that they beat people in the place and that there was blood on the floor. The heroin threat was kind of an afterthought.
He went on to tell me about them finally realizing they had the wrong guy. They told him they were going to charge him with a misdemeanor involving marijuana even though they didn't find any pot. He had been held for more than 24 hours without access to a lawyer before he was allowed to leave. The officers didn't allow Jose to use the phone to call somebody to pick him up and since he didn't have any cash, Jose had to walk several miles back to his home. He never received a court date for the misdemeanor.
The story was confirmed by documentation involving the misdemeanor and by witnesses to his abduction and return. What was said inside the interrogation room can only be confirmed by the cops. I have to admit that in light of Chicago Police Department's implausible explanations related to the heroin overdose that happened while in custody, I didn't even call the department for comment. Eventually journalists reach a point where they are tired of being openly lied to by government officials.
The Fifth Column is currently interviewing scores of people that were detained in Homan Square, and those stories will be released at a later time. It became a priority to make this story public immediately once a Fifth Column journalist in Chicago was able to confirm that officers at Homan Square do, in fact, have access to heroin via the Homan Square evidence locker that stores narcotics seized in the city.
So the reader has to think critically. In the case of John Hubbard, who died of a heroin overdose in the facility, is it likely that police allowed him to shoot up the only evidence of his crime? Or is it more likely that Hubbard was uncooperative and they injected him with heroin in an effort to make him more relaxed and receptive to interrogation?
Either way, Hubbard died in a facility that routinely denies people basic constitutional protections. The Chicago Police Department has a duty to its citizens to close the facility and to arrest all of the officers that violated the rights of suspects. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a duty to conduct a probe of the facility in relation to the use of Heroin as a method of enhanced interrogation.
The denials by the Chicago Police Department reek of a government organization that is waiting for the scandal to blow over. The Fifth Column now has access to enough former detainees to run one story a week until sometime in late 2016. We will not allow this story to blow over. The legal process in the United States is designed to be transparent. Any attempt at subverting the rule of law and the basic rights of people in the city will be met with a constant barrage of media attention. This facility must be closed and those behind the abuses must go to prison.
Comment: More light needs to be shed, not just on this black site, but other sites like it.