Skullcap Crew

http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/mandel111407

In 2003 and 2004, Diane, a fifty year old African-American school janitor and mother of three, was subjected to multiple acts of abuse by a group of Chicago police officers.  These officers were members of an elite tactical team that patrolled public housing on Chicago’s south side.  Known as the “Skullcap Crew” to local residents, they had a reputation for racist and sadistic behavior.  Over the course of the year that they targeted Diane for abuse, they forced her, on two separate occasions, to disrobe and bare the most private parts of her body.  They threatened her with a loaded gun, needle-nosed pliers, and a screwdriver, leaving her convinced that they planned to rape and kill her.  They beat and choked her.  They hurled racial and gender-based epithets toward her.  They tore up her home.  They desecrated religious objects sacred to her.  They threatened to plant drugs on her and to falsely arrest her.  They beat her teenage son.  They brought a middle-aged African-American neighbor into her home and forced her son to beat the older man for their amusement.  Diane was subjected to these assaults on multiple occasions, despite initiating complaints with the Chicago Police Department (CPD).