'I was beaten with a flashlight': Reparations for Chicago police torture victims fall short
I was beaten until I confessed to crimes I didn't commit and served 31 years in prison. But the city still hasn't fully kept its promise of repair.
Editor's note: In 2015, the city of Chicago became the first to pull together a reparations package for victims of police brutality. Starting in the 1970s, a Chicago Police Department program included the torture of more than 100 people, many of whom confessed to crimes they did not commit. The People's Law Office worked to get torture victims released. Vincent Wade Robinson, who was given multiple life sentences and was released after serving 31 years, tells the story of his torture and struggles to make a living in the short essay below. The reparations package included, among other things, up to $100,000 for each survivor, curriculum about torture in schools and a memorial that has yet to be built.
My life before I was picked up by Chicago police was great. I was working as my father's assistant in his sign painting endeavors. Once the police picked me up and tortured me, my life changed overnight, and my battle for survival began. It took years just to get corrective surgery for the damage and physical injuries I received from Chicago officers.