Community groups gathered outside Oak Lawn Village Hall on Tuesday to accuse local police of assaulting a 14-year-old Palestinian American boy and then arresting his mother in retaliation. The rally was timed ahead of the village board of trustees meeting, with organizers demanding accountability for an incident they say was captured on video.
According to CBS Chicago, the Arab American Action Network supplied video purportedly showing Oak Lawn officers lifting the teenager and placing him in a chokehold. Community groups say the teen's mother was subsequently arrested and charged with assault and obstruction of justice, though those details have been attributed to the community group rather than confirmed by prosecutors. Oak Lawn police did not immediately respond to a request for a statement, per the same report.
Illinois law is unambiguous on the tactic community groups say was used. Under state statute 720 ILCS 5/7-5.5, peace officers are prohibited from using chokeholds or restraints above the shoulders that restrict breathing unless deadly force is legally authorized. The rule is part of a broader expansion of restrictions on police physical force that took effect in 2021, requiring officers to weigh the totality of circumstances and barring positions that compress the chest or restrict free breathing during an arrest, according to the law office of Glasgow & Olsson.
A Pattern Activists Say Keeps Repeating
Tuesday's confrontation echoed a separate August incident reported by Fight Back! News, in which a physical altercation between Oak Lawn officers and a 14-year-old Palestinian American youth occurred inside Village Hall during public comment at a monthly Oak Lawn Fire & Police Commission meeting, as community members were criticizing local police conduct. Following that incident, the Arab American Action Network circulated a petition calling on Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to open a formal state investigation into allegations of police misconduct and racial profiling within the department.
It remains unclear from available reporting whether the two incidents describe the same encounter or separate confrontations involving the same community and department. Open questions include whether body-worn or room surveillance cameras captured the Village Hall encounter, what specific criminal charges prosecutors formally filed against the mother and minor, and whether the Attorney General's office will pursue an independent civil rights review.
A Department Already Facing Scrutiny
The allegations land amid years of friction between Oak Lawn police and the local Arab American community. In November 2025, the Oak Lawn Village Board approved an $825,000 settlement resolving a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Hadi Abuatelah, a Palestinian American teenager who was violently beaten by Oak Lawn police during a 2022 arrest — a case Hoodline previously covered. During that July 2022 traffic stop, then-17-year-old Abuatelah was hospitalized for six days with brain bleeding, a broken nose, and a fractured pelvis after officers repeatedly punched him in the head while he was pinned to the ground, according to FOX 32 Chicago; police at the time said officers feared the teen was reaching for a loaded gun in a cross-body bag.
Oak Lawn Mayor Terry Vorderer said the board settled that case due to pressure from the village's insurance carrier and maintained the agreement finds no fault in the actions of the department, according to CBS News. Separately, in December 2024, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office under Eileen O'Neill Burke dropped all criminal charges — including aggravated battery and official misconduct — against Officer Patrick O'Donnell in connection with the Abuatelah arrest, citing insufficient evidence, a decision that came one day before a scheduled bench trial.
Broader Community Grievances
Community distrust has also been fueled by other cases involving Arab American residents. A June 2023 crash killed 28-year-old Arab American resident Murod Kurdi, who was fatally struck by a driver who admitted drinking alcohol; Oak Lawn police released that driver with a $750 traffic ticket without conducting a breathalyzer test, according to FOX 32 Chicago. The driver later pleaded guilty to failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.
Oak Lawn sits within one of the largest concentrations of Palestinian Americans in the country, alongside neighboring communities like Bridgeview and Palos Hills, following migration waves that began in the late 1960s and 1980s, per the Middle East Forum. That demographic backdrop helps explain why encounters between local police and Arab American youth continue to draw sustained community attention and organizing, including Tuesday's rally outside Village Hall.
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