Torture, Race, and Power: Examining Denial of the Systematic Nature of Chicago Police Torture

• In Event: Race, Ethnicity and Fear in the Media

Abstract

While a fair amount of torture literature exists, much of it deals in an international context with the torture of “enemy combatants”, non-citizens, or political opponents. Much less work has been done on domestic police torture. The use of torture against only some Americans, reflects a symbolic devaluation and marginalization of certain members of society. In this paper, I consider a case of systematic police torture in Chicago where up to 200 men were tortured between the 1970s and 1990s. Using data drawn from newspaper articles that discuss the police torture over a 23 year span, I examine how discourse surrounding Chicago police torture changed, reflecting both historical contexts, as well as major developments in the case. Consistent with sociological theory on police corruption, explanations for the police torture began with the “rotten apples” framework and briefly turned to issues of race in the 1990s. However, by the turn of the 21st century, the preference for colorblindness led to the disappearance of race from the discourse. This paper draws attention to the absence of dialogue about power and inequality from public discourse on torture.

Author

• Joy Kadowaki, Purdue University