Protesters Shut Down Oak Lawn Fire And Police Commission: Video

OAK LAWN, IL — Protesters shut down the fire and police commission meeting Wednesday evening, following the arraignment of an Oak Lawn police officer who was captured on video last summer with two other officers punching a 17-year-old boy during his arrest.

Members of the Arab American community and activists have been showing up at fire and police commission meetings since July 2022, demanding that the three officers involved in teen Hati Abuatelah's arrest be fired and charged. Oak Lawn Police Officer Patrick O’Donnell, 32, appeared Wednesday morning at the Leighton Criminal Courts on charges of aggravated battery and official misconduct. The other officers involved have not been charged with wrongdoing.

The protesters claim the teen and his friends were racially profiled when they were pulled over in a traffic stop on July 27, 2022. Officers said they could smell marijuana coming from the teens’ vehicle. Abuatelah ran away before officers could search the teen’s cross body accessory bag, which police said was later found to hold a loaded gun.

WARNING: Video contains profanities

About 50 protesters from the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) gathered in front of Oak Lawn Village Hall before the start of Wednesday’s meeting. The fire and police commissioners were scheduled to hand out honorable mention certificates to Oak Lawn police officers, pay bills and approve promotions for village firefighters, according to the evening’s agenda.

Muhammad Sankari, AAAN’s lead organizer, told the crowd that he had been at O’Donnell’s court hearing that morning, and that 50 uniformed officers packed the courtroom in a “show of force.” An Oak Lawn police officer later told Patch they were there to support O’Donnell.

Posters were distributed to the crowd, showing O’Donnell’s face with the words “Fire O’Donnell” and “Send O’Donnell to jail.” The protesters chanted outside village hall before heading into the meeting.

>>> Oak Lawn Cop Indicted For Punching Teen Released On $75,000 I-Bond

At the start of the meeting, the commission chair, John Rolence, motioned to move up the public comments portion of the meeting to the beginning, when approximately 30 people had signed up to speak.

Oak Lawn resident Steve Radice said he was there to support the police officers. Radice told the commission that he and other residents who supported the police department had relinquished their three minutes of speaking time to show a 24-minute video compilation of police officers getting shot by violent criminals. The same video was played at a village board meeting in September.

“When we point the finger at police, we’re encouraging this type of behavior, and it can lead to people being shot and killed, both officers and civilians,” Radice said.

Rich Glenke, who said he was at the meeting to support “law and order in Oak Lawn,” asked attendees if they had seen the final Illinois State Police report documenting its excessive force probe into the three police officers.

“No one has seen it,” Glenke said. “That’s because the Cook County State’s Attorney doesn’t want you to see it. If there is any more of this video, can you please relinquish my time to see it.”

As the video played, an audience member could be heard asking, “what the hell is this?”

“This is public comments,” another said.

Rolence repeatedly called for order as the audience grew louder and began shouting over the video. Someone in the back of the auditorium shouted the f-word. It wasn’t clear who it was directed to.

“Please refrain from vulgarity,” Rolence said.

“How about showing Hadi getting beat up by the cops,” a woman called out.

“You don’t bring your minions in to show a f—-in' video,” another man said.

The protesters in the audience began chanting, “shut down the video.”

Rolence asked for a motion to end public comment, which was unanimously approved by the other commissioners. When the audience still wouldn’t quiet down, Rolence asked for a motion to postpone the meeting.

“Do your duty, talk to the public,” said Mark Kuhner, a community activist from Southsiders for Peace.

Other people started quoting the open meetings act. As Oak Lawn police officers told the audience to clear the room, a woman yelled that they’d be back. The protesters made a noisy exit, chanting “we’ll be back.”

Once outside village hall, Sankari told the group to “bring five people” with them to the next commission meeting, and to O’Donnell’s hearing on April 6. Members of the group were also given instructions on calling Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office to demand the indictments of the other two officers.

Later, Sankari told Patch that over the past eight months of attending the meetings, Abuatelah’s supporters were never allowed into the room early before the meetings started. Sankari called Wednesday’s repeat of the pro-cop video “high-level coordination” because the village knew the news media would be coming because of O’Donnell’s arraignment.

“We saw the night and day difference of the way they treat people coming to speak in support of the police who beat this young man, as opposed to how they treat our community,” he said.