One of the other progressive politicians facing federal criminal charges alongside Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw in connection with a protest at the Broadview ICE Detention Facility has dropped her campaign for the Cook County board.
Catherine “Cat” Sharp announced she is suspending her campaign for the Cook County Board’s 12th district seat to focus on fighting the charges brought against her, Straw and four others who took part in a protest at the facility in September. The group, dubbed the “Broadview 6,” was charged with conspiracy to impede the work of a federal law enforcement officer and assaulting/resisting/impeding officers last October.
In her statement, Sharp said she was dropping her campaign to “focus on winning the legal battle against the Trump administration.”
“Navigating this unimaginable legal process and all the costs — emotional and financial — that come with it, have made running for office much more difficult,” she said. “I know that we will prevail against these unjust, ridiculous charges, which were designed to force people like us to sit down and shut up. I’m ready to continue that fight, because I know it’s what is required of me and all of us in the face of the inhumane, brutal treatment of immigrants and refugees. And I know it’s what is required of me as we face unprecedented attacks on our First Amendment and other constitutional rights by this authoritarian regime.”
Sharp, 29, also serves as chief-of-staff for Chicago 40th ward alderperson Andre Vasquez.
The other co-defendants in the case are 9th District U.S. Congressional candidate Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh, 45th ward Democratic committeeman Michael Rabbit and protestor Joselyn Walsh and Andre Martin, who works on Abughazaleh’s campaign.
The federal indictment alleged that the co-defendants were among a crowd of protestors who blocked, pushed against and banged on a vehicle being driven by a federal officer into ICE’s Broadview Detention facility the morning of Sept. 26. U.S. Judge April Perry set the next hearing in the case for Jan. 28.
The case has been among the most publicized legal battles to result as fallout of President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” in addition to federal cases regarding alleged human rights violations of immigration detainees at the Broadview facility where the protest took place.
Last month, attorneys for the defendants said they will seek to have the case dismissed on selective prosecution and first amendment grounds ahead of the next hearing.
