Resident's Letter 'Factually Incorrect, Baseless:' OL Village Manager

This is an opinion piece submitted by Oak Lawn Village Manager Thomas Phelan

By Thomas E. Phelan, Oak Lawn Village Manager

I’m writing to address the many factually incorrect statements and baseless accusations that Oak Lawn resident Kelly Mason made in her recent Letter to the Patch. Ms. Mason seems to make a habit of writing letters like these, and it’s time that she be called out for doing so.

The “Oak Lawn Emergency Safety Alert” email I sent out on March 7 was about the Oak Lawn Police & Fire Commission Meeting on March 1, and my email was very much about “SAFETY”, which Ms. Mason would have understood had she attended that meeting or inquired about the matter.

The March 1 Police & Fire Commission Meeting almost devolved into fist-fights and a near-riot after protesters who have been regularly attending these meetings started shouting down others, spewing vulgarities and insults, and in some cases threatening and charging at people in a menacing fashion.

The “EMERGENCY” was due to the fact that there was another Police & Fire Commission Meeting scheduled for March 8, the day after my email, and the Village was receiving multiple inquiries from angry Village residents who wanted to attend.

Why were they angry? I believe I made that clear in my email, and included links to three videos pertaining to the March 1 Police & Fire Commission meeting, so that people understood what happened. Mrs. Mason asked about the relevance of one of those videos, a montage of police officers being shot that people wanted to play at that meeting during their public comments.

That montage was particularly poignant because one of the first videos was of a young man carrying a bag with an illegal gun who was stopped by a police officer for smoking marijuana. That young man refused to comply with the officer’s orders, fled, then turned and shot at the officer, and died in the exchange of gunfire.

Moreover, unlike Ms. Mason, I was present during that March 1 Police and Fire Commission meeting. I watched people, including some elderly females, leave Village Hall crying and shaking. When I left myself a half-hour later, there was still a group of protestors standing outside, and I was subjected to a gauntlet of “inflammatory language” when I walked to my vehicle.

I heard chants of “You’re a Racist!”, and “White Devil”, and “I hope you crash your car and die!” The sad part was many of those spewing this hatred were pre-teen girls, who in some cases were even smiling while doing it, hopefully because they didn’t really mean it, and instead because they were being coached by the adults with them.

As to Ms. Mason’s concerns about the “first amendment” and “free speech”, my Safety email did not “TELL” residents to stay away from the meeting, but stated very clearly “We are asking that you not attend, for your own safety.”

And that was the purpose of the email - PEOPLE’S SAFETY - given that the prior meeting almost erupted into a riot. To that end the email was an unqualified success, because at the March 8 meeting, the day after my email, there were far fewer people in attendance, and only one incident where a man - who was there to support the police - was asked to leave the meeting because of comments he made.

Ms. Mason also referred to the “Open Meetings Act” in her letter, criticizing the Police & Fire Commission’s decision to allow people to show a video montage during their 3 minutes of public comments. Apparently Mrs. Mason believes that limits or “specific parameters” must be placed on what people can say or how they say it. This is the same person who, 2 paragraphs earlier in her letter, was complaining about the “first amendment” and “freedom of speech”. For Ms. Mason’s benefit and others who may share this incorrect view, no board or committee at the Village of Oak Lawn prohibits or restricts what people say, or how they say it, during their 3 minutes of public comments, excepting for the obvious like threats, obscenities, etc.

And finally, as to Ms. Mason’s question and apparent astonishment about how I knew many of the protestors were not from Oak Lawn, the answer is “because they say so.” If Ms. Mason followed these protests and/or the media coverage about them, she would know that the most vocal among these protestors are from organizations outside of Oak Lawn. Doing a simple Google search would provide the same information.

Which doesn’t mean they or anyone else are prohibited from speaking at our public meetings, or otherwise discriminated against, as Mrs. Mason struggles mightily to suggest. Anyone who wants to speak can, and gets 3 minutes just like everyone else, including the many Oak Lawn residents who showed up to speak on March 1st but who were shouted down, sworn at, insulted and in some cases threatened.

Perhaps Mrs. Mason would be better served and certainly better informed if she attended these meetings in person, instead of submitting letters to the Patch with incorrect information, baseless accusations and divisive language which only serve divide our community.

That said, it’s reassuring to know that so few people share the same views as Ms. Mason, based on the 100+ communications the Village received in response to my SAFETY email, and the thousands of people who have communicated with us over the last several months who clearly and strongly said: WE SUPPORT THE OAK LAWN POLICE.