Oak Park’s board of trustees will vote on if it will direct the village’s Citizen’s Police Oversight Committee to investigate the use of pepper balls during the multi-agency police response to downtown Oak Park on Halloween night.
The board will vote Tuesday, Nov. 11 on a motion put on the agenda by Oak Park trustees Jenna Leving Jacobson and Chibuike Enyia that would direct CPOC to investigate the incident. On Halloween, River Forest police deployed multiple rounds of pepper balls in two locations along Lake Street after Oak Park police called for help controlling a crowd of some 500 teens and young people who’d gathered near the intersection of Lake Street and Harlem Avenue.
Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman said at the board’s Nov. 5 meeting that an investigation was necessary, and that any fact-finding work on the matter should be done through partnership between the Oak Park police department and the oversight committee.
“I’ve heard from every board member and many in the community about the need to (investigate,) and we have a staff that supports us in that effort. We will be able to move forward with answers,” she said. “I believe that’s in partnership with our police and our civilian police oversight commission. We’ll work to be as transparent in that as possible.”
There had reportedly been several fights among the crowd of young people on Halloween, as well as a shots fired incident that Oak Park police said put a hole through the window of an apartment on Forest Avenue. River Forest officials told Wednesday Journal last week that its officers had used the chemical munitions in response to the fights and the report of gun shots.
River Forest said its officers are provided with pepper ball guns after proper training and that it had reviewed body cam footage from the evening and concluded its officer had “properly deployed” the pepper balls and been successful in helping disperse the crowd.
“Pepper balls were deployed in two instances,” said River Forest officials. “The first was in the area of Lake Street and Forest Avenue right after a confirmed report of a gun being fired. The pepper balls were deployed at the ground at an individual armed with a bat and disobeying an officer’s commands. This intervention de-escalated the situation and dispersed the crowd.
“The second incident in which a River Forest officer deployed pepper balls was in the area of Lake Street and Harvey Avenue. The officer was responding to assist Oak Park police with a fight in progress. The pepper balls were deployed at the ground at numerous individuals [who were] actively striking a victim. This intervention de-escalated the situation and dispersed the crowd,” said the River Forest statement.
Several residents spoke out in favor of a village investigation into the incident at last week’s board meeting.
“I was devastated to learn that late Friday night it’s likely that some of the same kids I shared candy with had chemical munitions deployed against them in downtown Oak Park,” said Paul Goyette. “These are chemical weapons that effect people in the area indiscriminately, they are not appropriate for children. It is an absolute travesty that they were used in a so-called ‘welcoming village’ on Halloween. One of my great fears of Donald Trump’s cruel and unprecedented war on Chicago is that it may distort expectations about what appropriate policing looks like.”