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The case against Broadview 6 goes up in smoke
As Trump would say, they had prosecutorial misconduct LIKE NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN BEFORE.
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Last Thursday, the case against the “Broadview 6” imploded in spectacular fashion.
In a dramatic courtroom hearing, Judge April Perry revealed shocking misconduct by the US Attorneys Office in the indictment of individuals protesting ICE’s Midway Blitz dragnet.
The government tried desperately to cover up the rot at the heart of the case, even dismissing the felony charge in an attempt to hide the grand jury transcripts — all the while snorting indignantly at the “histrionic” suggestion that the US Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Illinois would engage in impropriety. And the coverup continues.
Prosecutors abruptly announced that they were dismissing all charges, then argued that the former defendants are necessarily excluded from the sanctions phase of the case, since they’re no longer parties.
Nothing to see here, kids! No endemic corruption at the DOJ and abuse of prosecutorial authority for political ends. Move along!
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Throwing elbows in the city of big shoulders
Last September, ICE and CBP agents surged into greater Chicagoland, arresting people who’d been living in the US for years and committed no crimes while clashing with the citizens who protested. The ICE facility in Broadview was a particular flashpoint.
The building was designed to quickly process immigrants and had only a holding cell with no beds or showers. Nevertheless, people were detained at Broadview for days or even weeks, sleeping on concrete floors next to overflowing toilets, denied medical care and basic hygiene, and given just three bottles of water a day. On November 5, a federal judge ordered DHS to provide bedding, showers, food, medical care, and access to phones and lawyers for detainees at Broadview.
Outside the facility, clergy members stood vigil and protesters filled the street. On the morning of September 26, demonstrators staged a “Jericho Walk,” moving back and forth in the public crosswalk to block access to the building. Broadview Police were on hand to create space for official vehicles, but at 7:45am, an ICE agent drove his Ford Expedition directly into the crowd.
A few dozen protesters surrounded the car, banging and shouting, and inflicting minor damage — someone tore off a wiper, and someone scratched PIG in the paint. The agent drove slowly and wound up being a couple minutes late for work. He was never in any danger and joked with his colleagues about “trash in the street” and how riot control is “fun.”
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The incident was caught on at least a dozen cameras, and prosecutors might well have been able to identify the culprits and charge them with misdemeanors. But instead they indicted six members of the crowd for felony conspiracy to impede a federal agent in the conduct of his duties, a crime with a potential six-year prison term.
The law in question has never been used to prosecute protesters for civil disobedience, and notably five of the six defendants were connected to local politics: congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, her field director Andre Martin, Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw, Cook County Board of Commissioners candidate Catherine Sharp, and Cook County Democratic Committee Member Michael Rabbitt.