Oak Lawn police arrest Black teacher for protesting brutality

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) and the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR).

On Tuesday, August 25th, the racist Oak Lawn Police Department (OLPD) arrested Kobi Guillory, a Black teacher and leader in the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), after he left the Oak Lawn Village Board of Trustees meeting. For over four years, the community has been protesting both the racist patterns and practices of OLPD and the village that refuses to hold criminal cops accountable.

The protest was organized by the AAAN, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, CAARPR, Southsiders for Peace, and others. Almost 20 people testified in public comment to the Oak Lawn mayor and trustees, demanding that the mayor clean up his racist police department and village.

When the meeting was over, OLPD then followed Guillory from the village hall in six squad cars, boxed in the vehicle he was traveling in, and threatened to smash the vehicle’s windows before forcing him into custody. Previously, as an attempted tactic of intimidation, OLPD showed up to question him at the school in Chicago where he works.

AAAN, Guillory and CAARPR, and the Palestinian community of Oak Lawn and the southwest suburbs have been protesting the OLPD and the Oak Lawn Fire and Police Commission meetings for years. Protests have called for the firing and charging of the white, racist officers involved in the brutalization and hospitalization of Palestinian teenager Hadi Abuatelah in 2022 (Abuatelah ultimately won over $800,000 in a settlement against the village); as well as accountability for racist decisions that led to Leanne Cusack – a white woman who had been drinking and murdered an Arab man, Murod Kurdi, with her car in 2023 – being allowed to walk away with only a speeding ticket. 

Guillory’s arrest is the latest in a string of retaliatory arrests and false charges against community members who have spoken out against these abuses. Two weeks ago, OLPD arrested the mother of a 14-year-old who was lifted off his feet, slammed into a counter, and placed in a chokehold by police while giving public comment at the commission meeting on August 5th. Right before the protest August 26 protest, police arrested a AAAN organizer.

“These frameups are a clear attempt by Oak Lawn and OLPD to skirt accountability for their racist abuse against Arab and other Black and brown community members, especially the criminal assault on the 14-year-old earlier this month,” said Nadiah Alyafai, another AAAN organizer. “And then OLPD puts out a statement yesterday attacking the AAAN, CAARPR, and other organizers for upholding our first amendment right to protest their racism. It’s just one Oak Lawn fail after another!”

Guillory and the fifty protesters who waited for him were undeterred following his release late Tuesday night. “We’re going to keep on showing up, we’re going to get this independent investigation of Oak Lawn PD, we’re going to clean this police department out from the top-down,” Guillory said.

AAAN, CAARPR, and their partners in the campaign will continue demanding that Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raul initiate an independent investigation into the Oak Lawn police, and are calling for the community to mobilize for the Fire & Police Commission meeting on September 2nd. Until the false charges are dropped, the community will also be mobilizing to support the three who have been arrested, starting at their court hearing on September 17th in Bridgeview, Illinois.

#OakLawnIL #IL #Chicago #InjusticeSystem #CAARPR #AAAN #OLPD