State’s Attorney puts punishment back on criminals not police in Oak Lawn case
Cook County's new state's attorney isn't afraid to put the law back into fighting crime, and defending the police against activist attacks on how they respond to criminal behaviour
By Ray Hanania
FREE/Police Crime Arab Americans Oak Lawn/Monday Dec. 23, 2024
Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has decided to put the emphasis on punishing the criminals not the police, a change that is welcomed by anyone who is a law-abiding citizen.
This week, O’Neill Burke announced she was dropping charges against Oak Lawn Police Officer Patrick O'Donnell who was accused of brutalizing an Arab American teenager, Hadi Abuatelah, who tried to flee a traffic stop by police while concealing an armed weapon in July 2022.
When Oak Lawn Police pulled over the vehicle with the two teenagers, including Abuatelah who was sitting in the backseat, they smelled marijuana in the car.
The driver complied when police asked him to step out of the vehicle and be searched. The search was conducted respectfully.
But when Abuatelah was asked to step out of the car’s backseat -- and to leave the weapons bag on the back seat -- Abuatelah grabbed the gun, a 25MM semi-automatic weapon with three live rounds of ammunition in the bag, and he ran.
Officer O’Donnell and the other officer chased and caught Abuatelah who refused to surrender the loaded weapon, which he clutched under his stomach on the ground. Police had to force him to release the dangerous weapon in the bag.
What was Abuatelah doing with a loaded weapon, sitting not in the front passenger seat but in the back seat of a car that was cruising around the community?
Instead of punishing their son to teach him a lesson that might discourage him from pursuing a life of crime, something most other responsible parents would have done, Abuatelah’s parents defended him.
He became a “community hero” when Arab American activists jumped on the case and accused police of anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia. The family also filed a civil lawsuit hoping to make money off of their son’s arrest, a practice many refer to as the criminal lottery pay-off where criminals injured while committing a crime are rewarded in the millions.
Sure enough, on Dec. 10, 2023, Abuatelah was arrested again. Now 19, Abuatelah was with two other Arab Muslim friends when they got into an argument with a man at LifeTime Fitness in Orland Park. While the victim was on the ground, he was kicked and punched in the face and body numerous times, according to Orland Park Police.
How ironic. The victim was on the ground. He wasn't clutching a gun like Abuatelah was. The victim had a cell phone one of the attackers stole.
Activists didn’t stand up for that victim, who was taken to a hospital with painful bruises and a dislocated shoulder.
Police arrested Abuatelah in his Bridgeview home on Jan. 4, 2024. They also arrested Sami Hirmiz, 19, of Oak Lawn, and issued an arrest warrant suspect for Nooh Masoud, 19, of Hickory Hills. The three accused suspects faced robbery, aggravated battery, and mob action charges.
The Abuatelah arrest and subsequent alleged involvement in another crime is a part of the pattern voters threw out when they elected O’Neill Burke. She replaces Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx who made it her mission to ease punishment of criminals rather than protect law-abiding citizens.
Under O’Neill Burke, Criminals won’t be given the benefit of the doubt as they have enjoyed in the past under Foxx so they can go out and commit more crimes.
Instead of standing up for law-abiding citizens, some Arab American and Muslim activists are angry and want to blame everyone else for their problems.
Many “leaders” in the Arab and Muslim communities are more concerned with promoting themselves to deflect from their ineffectiveness and failure to defend real community rights.
Their hypocrisy reinforces stereotypes that the public has against the Arab and Muslim community, which undermines other legitimate causes like standing up to America’s blank-check support for Israel’s government.
Instead, they prefer to champion a kid who violated the law by holding an illegally loaded weapon, driving around the streets in the backseat of a car, and doing what?
That’s the question the activists don’t want to answer.
I believe the majority of the Arab and Muslim communities find it despicable to defend a kid with a gun, regardless of their ethnicity or religion.
I also believe the majority of Arab and Muslim kids in Chicagoland are good. They are far more deserving of attention and of recognition for their educational achievements and community service. These are the young people activists should champion who, with proper support, can grow up to be pillars of the community and truly effective leaders themselves.
If the so-called community “leaders” won’t stand up for justice or the good kids, I am glad O’Neill Burke will.