To the Honorable Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul,

We, the undersigned individuals, organizations and businesses in Illinois, are asking that you take immediate action to intervene to protect the rights of Arab, Black, Latinx, and other communities of color in Oak Lawn, Illinois, by immediately launching an independent investigation into the Oak Lawn Police Department’s (OLPD’s) continued violations of the civil rights of Oak Lawn residents and double standards in its police practices.

It is well known that in July of 2022, OLPD officers made a traffic stop in which one of the vehicle's passengers fled. In pursuit of the then-minor, Hadi Abuatelah, who had fled the scene, three officers – Patrick O’Donnell, Brandon Collins, and Mark Hollingsworth – proceeded to violently beat the boy almost to death.

The beating was caught on video by a bystander who filmed the entire interaction. As a result of the savage assault, Abuatelah suffered a broken pelvis, fractures to his face, and bleeding in his brain. Our communities’ demands prompted Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to bring charges of battery and official misconduct against one of the officers, O’Donnell, despite the documented refusal of the OLPD to assist in the Illinois State Police’s investigation.  

In addition, the OLPD has refused to take any further disciplinary action, and instead has reiterated its full support of O’Donnell, allowing him to keep his job even while facing these violent, felony charges. A civil lawsuit filed by the Abuatelah family against OLPD has since been settles in the amount of $825,000.

In June of 2023, a young Arab man named Murod Kurdi was returning from work when he parked his vehicle on the street in front of his Oak Lawn home. Upon exiting his car, he was struck by a speeding driver in another car and subsequently killed. The driver, a white female, admitted to Oak Lawn police that she had been drinking, speeding, and using her phone when her car struck Kurdi. Despite these confessions, the OLPD allowed her to leave the scene of the accident after she refused a field sobriety test. 

She was neither detained nor forced to have her blood drawn to test for Driving Under the Influence, both of which should have been standard procedures considering the circumstances. Eleven days following the accident, Kurdi’s family and their attorney met with the same officer, Hollingsworth, who was involved in the beating of Abuatelah. At this meeting, the family and lawyer were disrespected repeatedly, lied to, and told that “based on body warn camera footage” reviewed by Hollingsworth, the OLPD was no longer pursuing this as an alcohol involved accident. The OLPD is clearly attempting to close the door on the family receiving any kind of justice or closure. 

The two instances mentioned above exemplify a deeply systematic, problematic, and ongoing issue in Oak Lawn. The Arab community in particular, and other communities of color in general, are not being served by the OLPD. Repeatedly and publicly, it and the Village of Oak Lawn have refused to engage in meaningful change to address its police officers’ biases and violations of residents’ civil and other rights. Instead, they have repeatedly stonewalled and denied and refused any and all levels of accountability.  

For this reason, we are asking the Illinois Attorney General’s office to take immediate action by launching an independent and comprehensive investigation into the OLPD's repeated violations of the rights of Arabs and other communities of color. 

The stakes are too high for your office not to intervene, because if left to their own devices, the OLPD and the Village of Oak Lawn will continue their violations against our communities with impunity.

Signed,

(Original signatories, list in formation)