Cook County’s State Attorney dropped charges against three Northwestern faculty members and one graduate student Friday after being charged earlier this month for “obstructing a police officer” at the pro-Palestinian encampment in April.
The four individuals were charged with Class-A misdemeanors, the highest misdemeanor possible, that carry a maximum penalty of up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. The University permits “peaceful demonstrations,” but not disruptful activity that violates the law or harasses community members, NU spokesperson Jon Yates said in a statement.
“This decision is consistent with our office’s policy to decline prosecution against peaceful protesters,” said the Cook County’s State Attorney’s Office in an email to NU’s Queer Media Association.
One of the previously-charged faculty, Josh Honn, the Humanities & Prison Education Librarian, is “disturbed by the Palestine exception on campus” and believes that pro-Palestine activism may be treated differently, according to posts by QMA.
The charges come two months after the encampment on Deering Meadow and after pro-Palestinian encampments on college campuses around the country where both faculty and students have been arrested.
“I’m relieved that the State Attorney’s office dropped the charges,” Alithia Zamantakis, a previously-charged Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing professor, said to QMA. “But I’m still floored that the University would charge us for expressing our solidarity with the people of Palestine.”
The charges came from the protective line between student protestors and campus police during the first day of the encampment, Honn said to the Sun-Times.
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Related Stories:
— Four individuals face charges for April’s pro-Palestine encampment
— Administrators, student demonstrators reach agreement to end encampment on Deering Meadow
