In front of the Chica­go Police Head­quar­ters yes­ter­day on the city’s South Side, a group of about 100 marchers, flanked by clus­ters of police offi­cers on the side­walk, hud­dled togeth­er with signs read­ing ​“Two Decades Too Many” and ​“Repa­ra­tions Now.”

The ordinance, first introduced in October 2013, has received support from 27 aldermen, including its most recent endorser Ald. Robert Fioretti from the 2nd Ward, a progressive running for mayor against Rahm Emanuel. While Emanuel has publicly apologized for Burge’s actions, activists say he has yet to put a close to the city’s “dark chapter” by supporting reparations for the police torture victims.

“We [are here] for the sur­vivors of this heinous wrong … per­pe­trat­ed under the uni­form and the badge of the city,” said Adam Green, a Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go his­to­ry pro­fes­sor and a mem­ber of the Chica­go Tor­ture Jus­tice Memo­r­i­al (CTJM).

Mem­bers of activist groups We Charge Geno­cide (WCG), Project NIA and Amnesty Inter­na­tion­al marched along­side mem­bers of CTJM Tues­day after­noon to deliv­er 40,000 peti­tion sig­na­tures in sup­port of the Repa­ra­tions Ordi­nance. The five-mile march also held a memo­r­i­al at City Hall to hon­or the sur­vivors of police tor­ture under for­mer Chica­go Police Offi­cer Jon Burge, as well as to pay trib­ute to vic­tims of police vio­lence like Michael Brown.

Green said Tuesday’s demon­stra­tion was inspired by WCG’s recent vis­it to the Unit­ed Nations’ Com­mit­tee’ Com­mit­tee Against Tor­ture and com­pelled the ​“city to act” on the ​“lack of true account­abil­i­ty for the offi­cers and sys­tem that per­pe­trat­ed this violence.”

For near­ly 20 years, Burge led a ​“tor­ture ring of white Chica­go detec­tives” and used vio­lent mea­sures to get con­fes­sions from their sus­pects. In 2010, Burge was con­vict­ed of per­jury for lying about the police tor­ture. After serv­ing most of his four-year sen­tence, Burge was released from prison and trans­ferred to a halfway house in Flori­da to com­plete the rest of his sentence.

“For too long, their wit­ness, truth and human dig­ni­ty was denied by a depart­ment and a city that ignored facts and obstruct­ed jus­tice,” Green said.

The ordi­nance, first intro­duced in Octo­ber 2013, has received sup­port from 27 alder­men, includ­ing its most recent endors­er Ald. Robert Fioret­ti from the 2nd Ward, a pro­gres­sive run­ning for may­or against Rahm Emanuel. While Emanuel has pub­licly apol­o­gized for Burge’s actions, activists say he has yet to put a close to the city’s ​“dark chap­ter” by sup­port­ing repa­ra­tions for the police tor­ture victims.

Mark Clements, a Burge tor­ture sur­vivor, asked City Coun­cil to ​“have a heart” and approve the ordi­nance. In 1981, Clements, who was 16 at the time, con­fessed to a crime he did not com­mit after being tor­tured by police. As a result, he spent near­ly 30 years in prison.

“Six­teen years old, hand cuffed to a ring around the wall, hav­ing my gen­i­tals grabbed and squeezed and called a ​‘n‑word-boy,’” Clements said, tears run­ning down his face as he recalled the hor­rif­ic inci­dent inside a Chica­go police station.

“We are indi­vid­u­als that have suf­fered. Each and every day, I suf­fer,” he con­tin­ued. ​“Where is my psy­cho­log­i­cal treat­ment? Where is my med­ical treat­ment? I’m sick right now. Does any­one care?”

Clements stressed that tor­ture vic­tims them­selves aren’t the only ones who have suf­fered in the years since the tor­ture; fam­i­ly mem­bers, too, have been trau­ma­tized, he said — and need­ed to be account­ed for.

“I need coun­sel­ing,” said Jeanette Plum­mer, moth­er of Chica­go police tor­ture vic­tim John­ny Plum­mer. ​“I can’t sleep.” Plum­mer said her son, now 38, was just 15 years old when he was beat­en into giv­ing a con­fes­sion for a mur­der he now says he did not com­mit and is still in prison today.

“I’m tired. My health is fail­ing me,” Plum­mer said. ​“I’m tired. I want my son to come home. Let me get my son before I leave this earth.”

Arman­da Shack­elford, the moth­er of Ger­ald Reed, anoth­er tor­ture vic­tim, stood along­side Plum­mer and echoed her despair.

“I’m here for all the men that are there [in prison] for crimes they did not com­mit. I want them out also,” Shack­elford said. ​“This is my job.”

Shack­elford and Plum­mer said they will not only con­tin­ue to fight for the free­dom of their sons but for oth­er tor­tured vic­tims still silenced by the police violence.

The march and the memo­r­i­al ser­vice set the tone for the role of young activists in chal­leng­ing and recon­struct­ing the per­cep­tion of young peo­ple of col­or and police vio­lence in Chicago.

“The fight isn’t about me any­more. The fight is about my grand­chil­dren,” Clements said. The 49-year-old activist said it was encour­ag­ing to see young peo­ple take inter­est in Tueday’s demon­stra­tion because activists like him are ​“get­ting older.”

Page May and oth­er mem­bers of WCG wore a black shirt with text print­ed in red read­ing: ​“Unapolo­get­i­cal­ly Black.”

“It’s good to be angry. You should be angry,” May says. ​“But we’ve got to get orga­nized.” The pur­pose of the WCG is to pro­vide a plat­form of lead­er­ship for young peo­ple of col­or, May adds.

Mal­colm Lon­don, a local poet and mem­ber of WCG, led a chant in ask­ing ​“which side are you on” and pre­sent­ed the ​“naughty” and ​“nice” list of alder­men who did and did not sup­port of the Repa­ra­tions Ordinance.

“Being black and being on the West Side of Chica­go, police pres­ence and police con­tact [with me] is preva­lent,” Lon­don said. ​“This ulti­mate­ly affects my fam­i­ly and peo­ple who look like me across the coun­try and across the globe.”

May and Lon­don shared that their roles in the orga­ni­za­tion have been a mul­ti­tude of emo­tions, from empow­er­ing to depressing.

“It’s eas­i­er to pre­tend it’s not hap­pen­ing. It’s eas­i­er to just let your­self feel enough like when you go to meet­ings,” May says. But join­ing the cam­paign against police tor­ture has been a deeply emo­tion­al, she says. ​“There are days I don’t want to wake up. That’s a part of the strug­gle — rec­og­niz­ing how awful it is.”

The ordi­nance, out­lined by CTJM, sur­vivors and activists, would pro­vide sur­vivors with free edu­ca­tion at City Col­leges and build a cen­ter to offer voca­tion­al train­ing, psy­cho­log­i­cal coun­sel­ing and health care ser­vices. Chica­go Pub­lic Schools would also need to include cas­es of local police vio­lence in their cur­ricu­lum, as well as offer fund­ing for pub­lic memorials.

May says pass­ing the ordi­nance would ​“lib­er­ate” tor­ture sur­vivors and their fam­i­lies from the years of tor­ment they have dealt with — and start the heal­ing process for victims.

With con­tributed report­ing by Jor­dan McCurdy.