On Halloween evening some 500 pretty young teens gathered in Downtown Oak Park. It was a problem, seemingly unanticipated, as there was rowdiness, some fights, and one known discharge of a gun that left a hole in an apartment window at Forest and Lake.
Oak Park police put out a call for assistance as its officers worked to get control of the situation and began to move the young people out of downtown and toward Austin where it was concluded most of the teens lived. Several local police agencies turned out, including River Forest, Forest Park, Berwyn, Maywood and the Chicago Police Department which managed the arrival of the crowd at Lake and Austin.
What’s troubling is, as the Journal reported over the weekend, pepper balls were deployed against these youth in Oak Park.
Pepper balls. A chemical weapon made famous by the thugs at ICE and Border Patrol in their near indiscriminate use against protesters and those being detained in the Trump administration’s attack on immigrants and American values.
Oak Park is a town on the forefront of resistance to this authoritarian rule. We are bold in our statements: a village trustee has horrifyingly been indicted by the discredited Department of Justice for protesting at the ICE detention facility in Broadview.
So how is it possible that, in this village, pepper balls are being used against teenagers?
When we first asked the village about this we were quickly told, “Not our officers!” And “we’ll find out who did this and get back to you.” Turns out it was an officer from River Forest. Based on video provided to the Journal, we asked River Forest if it was their officer. Yes, they said, it was our officer and it turns out the multiple rounds of pepper balls deployed into a driveway at Lake and Harvey in response to a small fight among a handful of stragglers was not the only instance of the weapon being used. A River Forest officer also used his pepper ball gun at Lake and Forest where, River Forest officials told us, there was a person with a bat who did not quickly drop it.
We have serious questions about why River Forest police have pepper balls available to them. We have serious questions about a chain of command, admittedly during a chaotic event, where Oak Park police say they are in charge but somehow a chemical weapon is deployed. And we cannot figure out how the Journal learned which department was responsible for the action even as, on Monday, Oak Park police said they did not know.
We saw the videotape. The River Forest officer was surrounded by Oak Park cops at Lake and Harvey when he shot at least five pepper balls. The Oak Park officers did not say, “Whoa. Can’t do that here!” And then none of those cops raised their hands and told their leaders exactly who fired the pepper balls?
This is not good. It is not acceptable.