Year-End Letter from Maira
Emma Chosy, Maira Khwaja, and Emma Perez at the Invisible Institute, 2019. Photo by Anwulika Anigbo
December 13, 2021
This winter marks five years since the U.S. Department of Justice issued its report on unconstitutional policies and practices of the Chicago Police Department. As we assess the partial reforms to date — and the massive challenges yet to be addressed — we return to our central, grounding questions: What has been the impact, if any, on the lives of those most affected by state violence? And, how do we know what we know?
The answer still lies in holding relationships with those most affected and seeing our work as accountable to this community. In pursuit of our mission, we sometimes have occasion to take risks as journalists, but we recognize that our work would not be possible without the risks that those who have suffered police abuse take by coming forward to file a complaint or share their story publicly.
Our ongoing Beneath the Surface project, for example, analyzes the patterns that emerge from thousands of testimonies from official complaints made against Chicago Police officers alleging gender-based violence. These testimonies became public through a lawsuit brought by formerly incarcerated Charles Green. And in 2021, we built an algorithm to analyze this mass of documents in partnership with Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) and with the help of more than 200 volunteers.
The work ahead includes continuing inquiry into gender-based violence, investigations into the ongoing legacy of torture at the hands of associates of disgraced police commander Jon Burge, continued reporting on the abuse by Sgt. Watts and crew, and making police complaint records public from Mr. Green’s lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department. These efforts always originate, and are shaped by, the persistence of those who insist, often in the face of official indifference, on telling their stories and seeking justice.
We know handling lives and their stories with care is an enormous responsibility. It is essential in our work to maintain long-term connections with the people who share their stories, because for us journalism is an extension of being a good neighbor and fellow world citizen. This thinking informed our decision to work with the people most affected as a collaborators in the reporting: bringing on Shapearl Wells, for example, as a co-investigator and podcast host in Somebody; working closely with the Cortez Bufford family on an investigation into their son being killed by St. Louis police; or inviting sexual assault survivors to be central to the volunteer process in creating Beneath the Surface.
We are grateful for the recognition our work received in 2021, including the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for our collaborative investigation Mauled, and its subsequent impact on K9 policies, and the awards for Somebody and its impact on the Office of Inspector General’s investigation into the death of Courtney Copeland. Still, we approach the new year acutely aware that we must push the bounds of our creativity at this critical juncture if we are to strengthen civil society to hold our public institutions accountable. We can only do this with your help.
At the Invisible Institute, we constantly ask each other and ourselves a simple question: what won’t get done if we don’t do it? Our commitment to you is the same we make to our collaborators and ourselves—we will invest ourselves and our resources in the necessary work. We are grateful for your support.
We are pleased to announce a match opportunity from the Feinberg Foundation. Donations made this month will be matched up to $5,000. Double your impact by making a contribution now. (Edit: This match opportunity is no longer available.)
Onwards,
Maira Khwaja
Director of Public Strategy
