chicagobusiness.com
Parent of Northwestern's student newspaper under fire over response to fake papers
By Brandon Dupré
By Brandon Dupré
Brandon Dupré is a reporter covering labor, nonprofits, higher education and the legal industry for Crain’s Chicago Business. Prior to joining Crain’s in 2022, he covered breaking news and COVID-19 at the New York Times. He was part of the Times’ coronavirus-tracking project, an effort that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2021.
Credit:Northwestern University
Northwestern's Evanston campus
February 05, 2024 02:43 PM
Students Publishing Company, the parent company of Northwestern's student newspaper The Daily Northwestern, is facing growing criticism for bringing charges against two NU students accused of producing and distributing a fake student paper that said the school was “complicit in genocide of Palestinians.”
https://www.chicagobusiness.com/education/daily-northwestern-parent-criticized-over-response-fake-papers
Northwestern roiled by criminal charges against two students who made parody copies of student paper
Syed, Zareen Buckley, Madeline
. Chicago Tribune (Online)Tribune Publishing Company, LLC. Feb 5, 2024.
Divisions over the war in Gaza, questions about race as it relates to how the law is enforced, and what free speech means on campus are part of a controversy at Northwestern University and its student paper after two Black students were charged criminally for distributing a parody of the publication.
Nearly 90 Northwestern students, professors and community members criticized the response to the incident late last week, calling it part of an effort to silence pro-Palestinian voices that disproportionately affect people of color.
The two students were accused of distributing a parody of The Daily Northwestern and the consequences have many students and faculty calling it an overstep and a “symptom of the over-policing of Black students” on campus.
The men, 20 and 22, were charged in December with theft of advertising services, a class A misdemeanor, according to Cook County court records. The records say they were released on the scene, but the charge is still pending.
The men were the subject of the letter that identified them as Northwestern students who allegedly created an imitation front page of the campus newspaper that critiqued the university’s actions in connection to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in response to last year’s Hamas terror attacks.
An attorney representing the men declined to comment. They are scheduled to appear in court again Feb. 29 in the Skokie branch court.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx also declined to respond to messages seeking comment.
“I think the approach to these two students was extremely aggressive and unnecessary,” said Mary Pattillo, professor of sociology and chair of the Department of Black Studies at Northwestern, who signed the letter. “This strikes me as very much in line with a country that has no other way to manage behavior other than criminalizing it.”
On Oct. 25, students on campus could find a single-page flyer that looked similar to the popular student-run newspaper with the headline “Northwestern complicit in genocide of Palestinians” printed across its lower third.
A court filing accuses the two men of attaching “an unauthorized replica of the Daily Northwestern Newspaper” to a previously distributed edition and placing copies in the newspaper stand.
The charges say they did so “without a contractual agreement between the publisher and an advertiser.” Listed as the complainant is Stacia Campbell, general manager of Student Publishing Co.
In a Monday statement, Student Publishing, parent company of The Daily Northwestern, said it reported the fake front page to campus police, which resulted in charges filed by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
It noted that as a private entity, it does not have the ability to file or dismiss charges.
“The content of the fake front page had no bearing on this decision,” the statement read.. “This is not an issue of speech or parody. A fake newspaper distributed on its own, apart from The Daily Northwestern, would cause no concern. But tampering with the distribution of a student newspaper is impermissible conduct.”
Evgeny Stolyarov, a second-year student of Middle East and North African studies, said when he first saw copies of the parody newspaper in his biology lecture hall on Oct. 25, he thought the move was “genius.”
“I don’t think a single person who saw those thought it was the real ‘Daily Northwestern,’” Stolyarov said. “First of all, it was not called the ‘Daily Northwestern,’ but the ‘Northwestern Daily.’ The reaction wasn’t as big at the moment, and I don’t think anyone expected that it would be a Class A misdemeanor.”
Stolyarov noted that the authentic newspaper’s print cycle is Mondays and Thursdays, and the parody was distributed on a Wednesday.
“So no one was looking for the new copy and walked into this thinking, ‘Oh, I’ve been fooled!’” he said. “So to say that somehow this infringed on the rights of the journalists – who also released a statement saying that the charges should be dropped – I just think that all across the board, the arguments don’t add up.”
In an editorial posted Feb. 5, The Daily Northwestern Editorial Board said they don’t support the criminal prosecution of the students responsible for the parody paper.
“Our newspaper has always prided itself on its commitment to informing and supporting students, and we believe our publisher should play no part in perpetrating harm against the communities we aim to serve,” the editorial stated.
“Our university and community — along with the American policing and justice system as a whole — has a long history of placing people of color in harm’s way. As a publication that strives to unearth these injustices through our reporting, we remain wholeheartedly opposed to any course of action that would entwine our publication with this harmful legacy.”
Pattillo said, unfortunately, the approach taken doesn’t surprise her. The conflict has stirred controversy at elite universities across the country.
“I think campuses are always forever challenged with how to approach the energies of their students,” she said. “In this moment where we might think about other approaches like restorative justice or, on a college campus, one might think of more dialogue – instead, this escalated to the criminal legal system.”
Pattillo noted that this type of policing is what Black students organized against last year after the university announced it would use private security to remove them from campus buildings at night when Northwestern University Community Not Cops’ (NUCNC) protests to invest in Black students were met with pepper spray and arrests.
“I think given that students of color are especially at the forefront of this particular social movement, and at the forefront of many social movements, it is the students who represent groups who experience oppression who rise up and protest,” Pattillo said.
According to Pattillo, students of color facing a greater extent of the law is an issue seen on college campuses near and far.
In November, a Palestinian American student at the University of Illinois at Chicago was handcuffed and arrested in a classroom and charged with criminal defacement for marking up property with messages supporting Palestine around campus.
Though the charge was dismissed, students said the consequences were an overreach by the university.
“We’ve had so many instances where UICPD has been aggressive to Muslim students for no reason,” said Celine Taki, a Syrian American junior at UIC, who was at a January rally calling for the firing of the campus police officers who carried out the arrest. “That girl was arrested just because she wrote Free Palestine on the wall. There’s been over 130 cases of vandalism on this campus, but only that one resulted in an arrest where she was detained.”
According to the latest available UIC police records, the Palestinian American student is the only person to have been arrested for criminal defacement on campus.
“On university campuses, it is always important to remember that we’re talking about 18- to 22-year-olds, sometimes 17- to 22-year-olds – I think the most important approach is to think of the university as one large classroom and to treat all students as students and that this is their learning journey, and to approach them as learners and as teachers as well,” Pattillo added. “I do think that their activism is also instructive for their colleagues and for their faculty members and staff and administrators. That is the kind of approach that should be taken in these very, very tense and difficult moments.”
Northwestern community members who penned the North by Northwestern letter are asking others to show support by adding their names to a Change.org petition demanding the charges be dropped.
“The vast majority of the student body, whether it’s groups that are directly connected to Palestine or groups that have nothing to do with the movement, all agree that this will have a chilling effect on free speech,” said Stolyarov, who is a member of Jewish Wildcats for Ceasefire. “It’s nothing new that the university uses police brutality, especially against black students, so it was both shock and a sense that we’ve seen this before.”
Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union Illinois, said the charges feel like “a misuse of the statute” the pair was cited under.
“These are college students that were engaging in a political protest, one might even describe it as a stunt to make a political point,” Yohnka said. “No one was meaningfully harmed as a result of this.”
Yohnka noted that criminal charges could follow and potentially harm individuals for years and said the use of the statute in this instance raises concerns that criminal charges could be levied unequally based on the type of speech in question.
“This is where the prosecutorial power that is going to be used feels a little off the mark in a use of taxpayer dollars,” he said.
Copyright Tribune Publishing Company, LLC 2024
From <https://www.proquest.com/central/printviewfile?accountid=6749>
Works Cited
Syed, Zareen, and Madeline Buckley. Northwestern Roiled by Criminal Charges Against Two Students Who made Parody Copies of Student Paper. Chicago: Tribune Publishing Company, LLC, 2024. ProQuest. 6 Feb. 2024 .
From <https://www.proquest.com/central/docview/2922216686/8A9367F22DBA4A39PQ/3?accountid=6749&sourcetype=Blogs,%20Podcasts,%20&%20Websites#>
Outcry Over Northwestern Students Charged for Parody Pro-Palestine Newspaper
‘OVER-POLICING’ Two students face charges for distributing a fake front page condemning Israel with the university’s official student newspaper.
Edith Olmsted
Breaking News Intern
Published Feb. 06, 2024 2:55PM EST
From <https://www.thedailybeast.com/outcry-over-northwestern-students-charged-for-parody-pro-palestine-newspaper>
Two students at Northwestern University are facing up to a year in prison for distributing a parody front page attached to the school’s newspaper that criticized the university’s response to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The faux “Northwestern Daily” paper’s front page featured the headline “Northwestern complicit in genocide of Palestinians,” along with invented quotes from school officials, a false report about a leaflet drop telling students who lived above a certain street to evacuate their homes, and a fake ad for a “Birthright Israel” trip with the slogan, “One man’s home is another man’s former home!”
The students face charges for theft of advertising services, a Class A misdemeanor specific to Illinois and California that was originally used to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from distributing materials in their daily papers, according to The Intercept. The charges carry a potential sentence of up to a year in prison, and a $2,500 fine.
When 300 copies of the fake paper were first distributed in October, Students Publishing Company, which owns the real Daily Northwestern, announced that it had informed the police about the incident.
“We reject and condemn this act of vandalism, and we have engaged law enforcement to investigate and find those responsible,” the Board of Directors wrote in a statement. A spokesperson for the SPC told The Intercept that the organization had pursued a criminal investigation.
On Monday, The Daily Northwestern’s editorial board published a statement objecting to the charges and the treatment of their peers.
“While the students’ alleged actions may violate Illinois law, we believe SPC’s decision to engage the criminal justice system during this investigation was unnecessary and harmful,” they wrote. They have asked the SPC to notify the Cooks County State’s Attorney’s office that it no longer wishes for the charges to be prosecuted.
The Daily Northwestern’s editorial board said that the case against the students, who are Black, is part of “a long history of placing people of color in harm’s way.”
“We hope this situation invites reflection about the impacts that people, particularly people of color, may face as a result of decisions that involve the police,” they wrote in the statement. Over 6,000 Northwestern students have signed a petition opposing the criminal charges, and the “targeted over-policing of Black students.”
The SPC’s board has denied having a political agenda in its pursuit of criminal charges. “This is not an issue of free speech or parody,” the board said in a statement on Monday. “[J]ust as you cannot take over the airwaves of a TV station or the website of a publication, you also cannot disrupt the distribution of a student newspaper.”
Edith Olmsted
Breaking News Intern
@edieocreedith.olmsted@thedailybeast.com
From <https://www.thedailybeast.com/outcry-over-northwestern-students-charged-for-parody-pro-palestine-newspaper>
Criminal Charges for Pro-Palestine College Newspaper Parody
Publishers of the school newspaper notified police. Now the students, charged under an obscure anti-KKK law, face a year in jail.
Connor Echols
February 5 2024,
Students at Northwestern University, in the Chicago suburbs, woke up on October 25 to face an unexpected allegation. “Northwestern complicit in genocide of Palestinians,” declared the school’s venerable student newspaper, the Daily Northwestern, in a front-page story.
The students, however, weren’t really looking at the Daily Northwestern. Instead, they had found the Northwestern Daily, a parody newspaper attacking the school’s stance on Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
The mock front page featured fake quotes from school officials, accusations of Israeli war crimes, and a fake ad for Birthright Israel — the travel abroad program that sends young American Jews to Israel — with the tagline “One man’s home is another man’s former home!” Overnight, someone had pinned the mock papers on bulletin boards, spread them on desks in lecture halls, and even wrapped the false front pages around roughly 300 copies of the Daily Northwestern itself.
IMAGE: A photo of the parody cover of the Daily Northwestern mocking Northwestern University’s stances on Israel’s war in Gaza.
Obtained by The Intercept
The stunt quickly sparkedOpens in a new taba furor among Israel’s supporters online. One writer, at the conservative National Review, said the fake newspaper included an antisemitic “blood libel.” The university itself saidOpens in a new tabthe spoof “included images and language about Israel that many in our community found offensive.”
The parent company of the school paper, Students Publishing Company, or SPC, announcedOpens in a new tabthat it had “engaged law enforcement to investigate and find those responsible.” The results of the inquiry are just now coming to light.
Following the investigation, local prosecutors brought charges against two students for theft of advertising services. The little-known statute appears to only exist in IllinoisOpens in a new taband CaliforniaOpens in a new tab, where it was originally passedOpens in a new tabto prevent the Ku Klux Klan from distributing recruitment materials in newspapers. The statute makes it illegal to insert an “unauthorized advertisement in a newspaper or periodical.” The students, both of whom are Black, now face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
have never seen anyone charged with theft of advertising,” said Elaine Odeh, a lawyer who formerly supervised public defenders in Cook County, Illinois, which includes Evanston, where Northwestern is based.
Jon Yates, a spokesperson for Northwestern, told The Intercept and Responsible Statecraft, “The Students Publishing Company, independent publisher of The Daily Northwestern, pursued a criminal complaint related to the publication of the ‘fake Daily’ this fall. As required by law, University Police pursued a criminal investigation, which led to a citation for violating state law that was issued to multiple students.” (SPC is independentOpens in a new tabfrom the university, though several professors and students sit on its board of directorsOpens in a new tab.)
Some student staffers working for the actual Daily Northwestern are angry that charges are going forward, according to a former Daily Northwestern editor and current student, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation from school officials. “It’s very clear that this is a discriminatory action,” the student said. The Daily Northwestern’s own editorial board wroteOpens in a new tabMonday that its publisher should formally request that the case be dropped, calling the investigation “unnecessary and harmful.” (Disclosure: I am a graduate of Northwestern’s journalism school but was never involved with the Daily Northwestern.)
The Class A misdemeanor charges, the highest level short of a felony, represent an escalation in the battle over free speech and protest on college campuses as the war in Gaza drags into its fifth month. Pro-Palestine activism on campus has faced a severe crackdown due to what Israel’s backers say is antisemitism and hate speech, with school administrations working closely with police.
“It’s always a concern when colleges and universities appear to be disproportionately targeting one form of political speech.”
At American University, school officials enlisted the FBI to help investigate incidents in which students defaced pro-Israel posters. Several colleges have banned or suspended chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, a popular pro-Palestine group, including at Columbia University, which subsequently beefed upOpens in a new tabits police presence. And several dozen students at the University of Michigan are facing charges for trespassing after refusing police orders to leave a building.
Graham Piro of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit specializing in free speech advocacy, said, “It’s always a concern when colleges and universities appear to be disproportionately targeting one form of political speech.”
“Pursue It as a Criminal Act”
At Northwestern, the criminal charges struck many as a serious escalation. One student, who requested anonymity to prevent backlash from family in Israel, said he found the parody “offensive” but felt the charges went too far.
Stephanie Kollmann, the policy director of a Northwestern’s law school clinic focused on criminal justice, questioned why SPC chose to go directly to the police rather than issuing a cease-and-desist letter to the students. Kollmann said colleges and affiliated institutions often seek to keep incidents out of the courts despite potential criminal conduct. The fact that charges were brought in this case means that SPC, university police, and the state’s attorney’s office all used their discretion to opt for the harshest response.
“The idea that multiple people in a chain of reaction to this incident repeatedly decided to not use any of the other tools of reproval available to them,” said Kollmann, “but rather chose to pursue it as a criminal act is frankly remarkable.”
Many at the university are pushing back on the charges. Over 70 student organizations — including high-profile groups like Mayfest Productions, which sponsors an annual music festival on campus — have pledgedOpens in a new tabto not speak with the Daily Northwestern until the charges are dropped. “Even students who have just been generally quiet on what’s happening with Israel and Palestine, I’ve been seeing them speak out for the first time regarding this,” said a student organizer, who requested anonymity due to fears of retaliation from the university.
More than 5,000 people have signedOpens in a new taba student-led petition calling on SPC to drop the charges and alleging that the incident represents “targeted over-policing of Black students.”
Students and lawyers expressed surprise that prosecutors chose to bring the hammer down using such a little-known law, especially one originally designed to target white supremacist groups. Chicago police have only ever arrested one person under the statute, according to the city’s arrest databaseOpens in a new tab.
Israel’s War on Gaza
The decision of whether to prosecute the charges now rests solely with the local prosecutor, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, which did not respond to a request for comment. SPC, however, can join students in asking prosecutors to drop the case, which could influence their decision-making going forward.
SPC’s board of directors, for its part, denies that political motivations had anything to do with its decision to report the incident to police. “This is not an issue of free speech or parody,” the board said in a statement. “[J]ust as you cannot take over the airwaves of a TV station or the website of a publication, you also cannot disrupt the distribution of a student newspaper.”
The board includes several prominent journalists and media executives, including longtime ESPN personality J.A. Adande, CNN legal director Steve Kiehl, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Robert Samuels.
The war in Gaza has created a litany of challenges for Northwestern. President Michael Schill initially drew backlash when, shortly after October 7, he saidOpens in a new tabthe school would not take a position on the conflict. Schill issuedOpens in a new taba second statement just a day later, in which he condemned Hamas’s attacks as “barbaric acts” that are “clearly antithetical to Northwestern’s values.”
“If this was done about literally any other topic, there would not be this amount of blowback.”
Some facultyOpens in a new taband studentsOpens in a new tabhave loudly condemned the school, saying it’s showed a bias against pro-Palestinian activists. However, pro-Israel advocates claim Schill has failed to protect Jewish students. Alums for Campus Fairness droppedOpens in a new taba cool $600,000 on ads attacking Schill, including a 30-second spot that ran during Northwestern’s bowl game. The ad allegedOpens in a new tabthat student groups “resoundingly support” Hamas and called on the school to “take decisive action against individuals violating university policy.”
Evgeny Stolyarov, a Jewish student at Northwestern who supports a ceasefire in Gaza, said that the charges will have a “chilling effect on speech” related to the war.
“If this was done about literally any other topic, there would not be this amount of blowback,” Stolyarov said. “It also, in some ways, reinvigorates the student body,” he added. “Hopefully this ends up bringing activists on campus together.”
From <https://theintercept.com/2024/02/05/northwestern-criminal-charges-palestine-newspaper-israel/>
Editorial: The Daily objects to the prosecution of our peers
The Daily Northwestern Editorial Board
February 5, 2024
In a letter to the editor published in student magazine North by Northwestern on Friday, 89 student organizations, faculty and other Northwestern affiliates called on Students Publishing Company to drop charges against two Black students implicated in the false front pages placed onto copies of The Daily Northwestern’s Oct. 23, 2023 print paper. As of Sunday night, over 5,500 people have signed a petition urging the same.
After SPC — The Daily’s parent company — reported the incident to University Police, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office charged two Northwestern students with theft of advertising services in November. This charge is a Class A misdemeanor in Illinois and carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
Specifically, the act of attaching imitation papers to The Daily’s print paper without a contract can be seen as theft of paid advertising space under Illinois law –– regardless of their content or status as protected speech under the First Amendment.
While the students’ alleged actions may violate Illinois law, we believe SPC’s decision to engage the criminal justice system during this investigation was unnecessary and harmful. As the editorial board, we have outlined our concerns with SPC’s course of action and asked the board of directors to submit a formal recommendation to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office requesting that charges against the two students be dismissed.
Neither SPC nor The Daily has the authority to bring or dismiss criminal charges against any person — that decision lies with the state’s attorney’s office. However, the editorial board hopes that if SPC notifies the office that it no longer has an interest in seeing the students prosecuted, the prosecutor will likely drop the charges.
The Daily did not authorize the copies nor their content. We object to tampering with The Daily, and we acknowledge that the imitated front pages damaged our relationships with community members. Our publication remains committed to free expression and sharing stories with accuracy, nuance and precision.
Despite these objections, the editorial board cannot support the criminal prosecution of our peers.
Our newspaper has always prided itself on its commitment to informing and supporting students, and we believe our publisher should play no part in perpetrating harm against the communities we aim to serve.
Our University and community — along with the American policing and justice system as a whole — has a long history of placing people of color in harm’s way. As a publication that strives to unearth these injustices through our reporting, we remain wholeheartedly opposed to any course of action that would entwine our publication with this harmful legacy.
We hope this situation invites reflection about the impacts that people, particularly people of color, may face as a result of decisions that involve the police. Making a call or filing a complaint demands extraordinary thought and consideration beyond an action’s legality.
This piece represents the majority opinion of the editorial board of The Daily Northwestern. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members or editorial board members of The Daily Northwestern.
From <https://dailynorthwestern.com/2024/02/05/top-stories/editorial-the-daily-objects-to-the-prosecution-of-our-peers/>
Students Publishing Company: We will intercede with State’s Attorney on charges
John Byrne, Chair of Students Publishing Company Board of Directors
February 6, 2024
To the Northwestern Community:
Just a few days ago, most of you had no idea of our existence. Now, after a change.org petition, letters to the editors of campus publications, an editorial, board statements, social media posts, calls for boycotts, more letters to the board, and now local and national news media coverage, I thought it might be good to introduce the Students Publishing Company Board of Directors.
We are part of the Northwestern community – 13 volunteers who are students, faculty, staff members and alumni – including four former editors-in-chief of The Daily Northwestern. Our primary role is to manage the business of the paper, including significant fundraising, and select editors-in-chief who have the talent and wits to run a thriving, independent newsroom. Each board member loves what we do as the collective nonprofit “publisher” of what we consider the best student newspaper in the country.
We owe you a fact-filled explanation of what’s been happening since several hundred copies of The Daily were tampered with on October 25, 2023. And we need to express our regret for the unintended consequences of our actions since that tampering, not the least of which has been the harm to the students criminally charged in connection with the incident, as well as the distress over it in our own newsroom.
You’ve probably already heard about the tampering, which involved wrapping several hundred copies of The Daily Northwestern with a fake front page designed to closely resemble the paper, down to the look of the top “nameplate,” as well as the layout and the fonts used. Except the nameplate read “The Northwestern Daily,” and the content was not something you would ever see in the actual Daily.
Whatever you might think about the content of that fake front page – and many of us were offended by it – the disturbing words and images weren’t the reason we decided to take action. It was the use of The Daily as a vehicle to distribute the fake front page that upset us. This co-opting of the work of our student journalists and the potential damage to the reputation of the paper built upon more than a century of hard work was the problem. To us, it seemed no different from someone hacking into our website to post their own content and replace ours.
So, we reported the tampering to Northwestern Police, thinking this was our best option. Our intent was to protect the student journalists at The Daily, as well as the paper’s reputation. We wanted to show how much we valued our students’ efforts and our front page, the manifestation of the best of our journalists’ reporting efforts.
Once we informed the NU Police of the incident, their investigation identified two people who were possibly involved. At that point, we were asked to sign “complaints” against those two individuals, presumably as part of the investigation. We didn’t understand how these complaints started a process that we could no longer control – and something we never intended. As it turned out, we were never informed by the State’s Attorney’s Office that these people would be charged – and we were not asked whether we even wanted them to be charged. We heard nothing further on the investigation from NU Police despite reaching out to them. Eventually, we received some second-hand information – now clearly incorrect – that the two individuals were not NU students. Otherwise, we didn’t know anything about them.
The charge the two people face is misdemeanor-level “theft of advertising.” They apparently weren’t arrested but instead received notice of the charge in the form of a written citation (like a ticket but worse). However, one citation apparently was delivered in person by uniformed police, which we’re sure was an unpleasant, if not downright frightful, experience. For someone convicted of theft of advertising, the penalties can be as harsh as some jail time, a substantial fine (for a student), or both. It also can mean a permanent mark on someone’s “record” that follows them for many years, if not forever. Illinois allows for expungement of records for these types of crimes after a certain amount of time, but there’s no guarantee.
It’s only been in the last four days that we learned more information about the people charged: that they are students; that they are Black. Some may disagree, but these facts matter to us.
We have been listening to our fellow community members, and they have been heard. We understand and recognize why we need to take action. We hope to heal the hurt and repair the relationships that have been damaged and frayed by our unintentional foray into the criminal justice system.
So, what are we doing? As of yesterday, we have hired legal counsel to work on our behalf with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to pursue a resolution to this matter that results in nothing punitive or permanent. Since we are not a party to the case, we lack any authority to ensure this resolution, but we intend to use all available resources in good faith to try to get there.
As a board and as individual members of the Northwestern community, we don’t wish to cause harm to other members of this community. We hope that everyone else in our community feels the same.
We have been reminded of Students Publishing Company’s primary mission: “To enhance, implement and further the educational and charitable goals of Northwestern University … and to serve the interests of the Northwestern University community.” We are reaffirming our commitment to this mission.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
John Byrne
Medill 1990, Daily Northwestern Editor-in-Chief 1989-90
Chair, Students Publishing Company Board of Directors
From <https://dailynorthwestern.com/2024/02/06/top-stories/students-publishing-company-we-will-intercede-with-states-attorney-on-charges/>
NU newspaper publisher criticized by campus groups, student editors for pursuing criminal charges over fake front pages
Two students charged with rare misdemeanor originally created in response to white supremacist group
byAlex HarrisonFebruary 6th, 2024
Students Publishing Company, the nonprofit owner and publisher of student newspaper The Daily Northwestern, is facing backlash from campus organizations and the newspaper’s own staff for filing misdemeanor complaints against two Black NU students for allegedly wrapping imitated front pages around real copies of the paper in October 2023.
The single-page leaflet imitated the style and layout of The Daily’s front page, and contained content accusing Northwestern University of being “complicit in genocide of Palestinians” in reference to the ongoing Israel-Hamas War. Sometime before the morning of Oct. 25, 2023, prints of the leaflet were wrapped around copies of The Daily’s Oct. 23 print edition in dozens of newsstands and left on classroom desks around Northwestern’s campus.
Now, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is prosecuting two Northwestern students for creating and distributing the leaflets with charges of “theft of advertising services” based on criminal complaints filed by SPC. The charge is a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a sentence of up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500, and was originally created in 2001 in response to a white supremacist group’s activities downstate.
A collection of student organizations and other campus community members have published letters to the editor in The Daily and student magazine North by Northwestern calling on SPC to request prosecutors drop the charges.
“These charges are a stark reminder of the intersectional battle against racial bias and the silencing of dissenting voices within our academic institutions,” reads the letter published in The Daily, which is signed by 70 student organizations. “They reveal a disturbing confluence of over policing and anti-Blackness, disproportionately affecting students of color who dare to engage in critical discourse and advocacy.”
A majority of The Daily’s student editors published their own editorial objecting to the charges on Feb. 5.
“The editorial board cannot support the criminal prosecution of our peers,” the editorial reads. “Our newspaper has always prided itself on its commitment to informing and supporting students, and we believe our publisher should play no part in perpetrating harm against the communities we aim to serve.”
The same day, the SPC board published its own statement in The Daily responding to an online petition demanding the charges be dropped, writing that the decision to file criminal complaints was “not an issue of speech or parody.”
“A fake newspaper distributed on its own, apart from The Daily Northwestern, would cause no concern,” the board’s statement reads. “But tampering with the distribution of a student newspaper is impermissible conduct.”
SPC Board Chair John Byrne and Daily Editor-in-Chief Avani Kalra both declined to comment beyond the published statements.
The RoundTable confirmed the students’ identities but will not publish their names due to the charges being misdemeanors. The students’ defense attorney, Andrew Finke, declined to comment for this story.
Imitating the front page
The newspaper-length leaflet wrapped around the newspapers included a masthead reading “The Northwestern Daily” in a similar font and color as the paper’s real masthead, as well as an altered website and social media handle.
Below the masthead was a photo of doctors holding a press conference surrounded by deceased civilians in the rubble of al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on Oct. 18, following an explosion that killed hundreds of Palestinians the day prior. Further down the page was a satirical article with the headline “Northwestern complicit in the genocide of Palestinians,” as well as a fake advertisement for Birthright Israel and a QR code linking to the website northwesternhasbloodonitshands.com.
Following the leaflets’ discovery on Oct. 25, Kalra said the paper’s staff were “unaware and unaffiliated with” their creation, while the SPC board of directors wrote in a statement that they “reject and condemn this act of vandalism.”
“We have engaged law enforcement to investigate and find those responsible,” the SPC board wrote in its statement.
One month later on Nov. 27, criminal complaints signed by SPC General Manager Stacia Campbell were filed alleging the students committed theft of advertising services, according to court filings reviewed by the RoundTable on Feb. 5. The filings did not contain any incident or investigation reports, or other information about the investigation conducted by Northwestern’s University Police.
Stephanie Kollmann, the policy director of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, wrote in an email to the RoundTable that while it’s reasonable for the published to want to “prevent any future tampering” which could cause confusion for readers, pursuing criminal charges seems “disproportionately harsh” and “contrary to the goal itself.”
She added that other options like university discipline or a cease and desist letter could have been pursued instead, and noted that the specific charge is obscure and “is almost never used to prosecute anyone.”
“Neither the SPC nor Northwestern notified the broader student campus community of the fact that wrapping a parody sheet around a student newspaper could be considered a criminal act,” Kollmann wrote. “To me, if the goal were to prevent future incidents of students wrapping the newspaper, the information that it was a crime to do so would have been publicized.”
Northwestern spokesperson Jon Yates told the RoundTable via email that University Police completed the investigation and delivered misdemeanor citations to the students, and that officers did not arrest the students in the process.
“The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office determines whether charges are brought with respect to this matter,” Yates wrote. “We cannot comment on specifics of the pending investigation.”
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Legislative intents
State law defines theft of advertising services as when someone “attaches or inserts an unauthorized advertisement in a newspaper or periodical” without the consent of the paper’s publisher or distributor.
The offense was created in Illinois by the adoption of House Bill 3214 in 2001, and otherwise appears to exist only in California, where it was intended to combat recruitment efforts by the Ku Klux Klan.
Prior to the bill’s initial passage by the Illinois House of Representatives, sponsor and former State Rep. Sidney Mathias said that it was introduced in response to “a hate group” inserting “hate literature” into newspapers in peoples’ driveways in the downstate town of Pekin, according to a legislative transcript. The Copley News Service reported at the time that this group was the neo-Nazi “World Church of the Creator,” led by white supremacist Matt Hale.
According to another legislative transcript, sponsor and former State Sen. William Peterson said prior to its passage in the Illinois Senate that the bill was not intended to criminalize placing unauthorized materials outside of a newspaper. One example he discussed was if a political campaign volunteer placed a pamphlet for their candidate on top of a newspaper at someone’s home.
“An individual can put the pamphlet underneath the paper; they can put it on top of the paper,” Peterson said, according to the transcript. “They can’t put it in the paper. What you’re doing is depriving that newspaper of the funds that they would receive if you went and gave them those pamphlets to insert [and] to distribute. There are other ways to get around it.”
In its Feb. 6 statement, the SPC board stressed that decisions to drop or pursue criminal charges are “made by the state’s attorney alone.” In their editorial published the same day, The Daily’s editors wrote that they hope that “if SPC notifies the office that it no longer has an interest in seeing the students prosecuted, the prosecutor will likely drop the charges.”
Kollmann, the legal policy director, stressed in her email to the RoundTable that “political speech is well-protected” and wrote she’s concerned the charges will lead students to believe “the parody itself is somehow illegal.”
“Because risking confusion over whether speech is criminalized is not in the public interest,” Kollmann wrote, “and the goals of preventing future incidents like this were able to be achieved in so many other ways that do not involve state and county resources, it would not surprise me if the Cook County State’s Attorney decided to decline to prosecute the incident.”
The students’ next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 29, according to court filings.
From <https://evanstonroundtable.com/2024/02/06/nu-newspaper-publisher-criticized-by-campus-groups-student-editors-for-pursuing-criminal-charges-over-fake-front-pages/>
Cook county
https://www.cookcountyil.gov/agency/states-attorney>
https://www.cookcountystatesattorney.org/about/kimberly-foxx
Criminal Prosecutions Bureau
As the largest bureau within CCSAO, the Criminal Prosecutions Bureau (CPB) comprises multiple divisions and units. With a team of approximately 500 dedicated Assistant State’s Attorneys, CPB is committed to serving the residents of Cook County through diligent and honest prosecution of crimes.
From <https://www.cookcountystatesattorney.org/criminal-prosecutions-bureau>
Organization of the Circuit Court
The Circuit Court of Cook County of the State of Illinois is the largest of the 24 judicial circuits in Illinois and one of the largest unified court systems in the world. It has about 400 judges who serve the 5.2 million residents of Cook County within the City of Chicago and its 126 surrounding suburbs. More than 1 million cases are filed each year.
From <https://www.cookcountycourt.org/ABOUT-THE-COURT/Organization-of-the-Circuit-Court>
https://www.cookcountycourt.org/ABOUT-THE-COURT/Organization-of-the-Circuit-Court
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Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office
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With more than 700 attorneys, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office is the second largest prosecutor's office in the nation. The CCSAO is responsible for the prosecution of all misdemeanor and felony crimes committed in Cook County, one of the largest counties in the United States. The CCSAO als... Read more
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Headquarters
Employees
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KF
Kim Foxx
Cook County State's Attorney
Kim Foxx
ull Licensed Name
Kimberly Michelle Foxx
Registered Address
Cook County State's Attorney
69 West Washington Suite 3200
Chicago, Illinois 60602-3174
Registered Phone
(312) 603-3035
From <https://www.iardc.org/Lawyer/SearchResults#>
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Cathy McNeil Stein
Full Licensed Name
Cathy McNeil Stein
Registered Address
Cook County State's Attorney's Office
50 W. Washington Street 5th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60602-1305
From <https://www.iardc.org/Lawyer/SearchResults#>
Chief Civil Actions Bureau
EH
Ethan Holland
Chief Criminal Prosecutions Bureau
James Chandler
Chief Special Litigation Division
Meriel Coleman
Chief Ethics Officer
Patrick Waller
Chief Special Prosecutions Bureau
DG
Donyelle L. Gray
Director Of Diversity Equity And Inclusion
Lauren Simmons
Director Of Community Engagement
Matthew S.
Chief Data Technology Officer
Donyelle L. Gray
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Christine Chan
Community Engagement Liaison
Joshua Wilkinson
Clerk Human Trafficking Unit
Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office ICAC Task Force
From <https://theorg.com/org/cook-county-states-attorneys-office>
https://www.cookcountyil.gov/sites/g/files/ywwepo161/files/service/county-wide-org-chart-12-7-18.pdf
==============
alma.anaya@cookcountyil.gov
From <https://www.google.com/search?q=%40cookcountyil.gov&newwindow=1&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=7412f18cd7d011ba&sxsrf=ACQVn08ffdAf8a2TGrfl4epMRSR5dptf8Q%3A1707291588966&ei=xDPDZY7DOqe2qtsPtfCx4Ag&ved=0ahUKEwiOtcDl3JiEAxUnm2oFHTV4DIwQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=%40cookcountyil.gov&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiEUBjb29rY291bnR5aWwuZ292MgQQABgeMgQQABgeMgQQABgeMgQQABgeMgQQABgeMgQQABgeMgQQABgeMgQQABgeMgQQABgeMgQQABgeSPwwUKYjWJQucAV4AZABAJgBcqAB4AGqAQMwLjK4AQPIAQD4AQL4AQHCAgoQABhHGNYEGLAD4gMEGAAgQYgGAZAGCA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp>
ALMA E. ANAYA
alma.anaya@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...on/alma-e-anaya
ANTHONY J. QUEZADA
BILL LOWRY
Bill.Lowry@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...rson/bill-lowry
BRIDGET DEGNEN
Bridget.Degnen@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo.../bridget-degnen
BRIDGET GAINER
Bridget@bridgetgainer.com
https://www.coo...ridget-gainer-0
DENNIS DEER
Dennis.Deer@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...son/dennis-deer
DONNA MILLER
Donna.Miller@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...on/donna-miller
FRANK J. AGUILAR
Frank.Aguilar@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...frank-j-aguilar
JOHN P. DALEY
john.daley@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...on/john-p-daley
JOSINA MORITA
KEVIN B. MORRISON
Kevin.Morrison@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...evin-b-morrison
MAGGIE TREVOR
MONICA GORDON
SCOTT R. BRITTON
Scott.Britton@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...scott-r-britton
SEAN M. MORRISON
Sean.Morrison@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...sean-m-morrison
STANLEY MOORE
stanley.moore2@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...n/stanley-moore
TARA S. STAMPS
From <https://cook-county.legistar.com/People.aspx>
LAW ENForceMENT COMMITTEE
DONNA MILLER
Commissioner
12/3/2018
12/6/2026
Donna.Miller@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...on/donna-miller
FRANK J. AGUILAR
Vice Chairman
5/21/2020
12/6/2026
Frank.Aguilar@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...frank-j-aguilar
KEVIN B. MORRISON
Commissioner
12/3/2018
12/6/2026
Kevin.Morrison@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...evin-b-morrison
SCOTT R. BRITTON
Commissioner
12/3/2018
12/6/2026
Scott.Britton@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...scott-r-britton
SEAN M. MORRISON
Commissioner
12/5/2022
12/6/2026
Sean.Morrison@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...sean-m-morrison
STANLEY MOORE
Chairman
4/11/2013
12/6/2026
stanley.moore2@cookcountyil.gov
https://www.coo...n/stanley-moore
TARA S. STAMPS
Commissioner
6/29/2023
12/6/2026
From <https://cook-county.legistar.com/DepartmentDetail.aspx?ID=21918&GUID=1B1E5177-ED4F-44CB-BD29-E6C3ED84ADB8&Search=>
COOK COUNTY BOARD PRESIDENT:
COOK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS:
1st District: Earlean Collins, earlean.collins@cookcountyil.gov, (312) 603-4566
2nd District: Robert Steele, r.steele@robertsteele.org, (773) 722-0140
3rd District: Jerry “Iceman” Butler, jerry.butler@cookcountyil.gov, (312) 603 6391
4th District: William M. Beavers, william.beavers@cookcountyil.gov, (312) 603-2065
5th District: Deborah Sims, deborah.sims@cookcountyil.gov, (312) 603 6381
6th District: Joan Patricia Murphy, joan.murphy@cookcountyil.gov, (312) 603-4216
7th District: Jesus G. Garcia, jesus.chuy.garcia@gmail.com, (312) 603-5443
8th District: Edwin Reyes, edwin.reyes@cookcountyil.gov, (312) 603-6386
9th District: Peter N. Silvestri, cookcty9@aol.com, (312) 603-4393
10th District: Bridget Gainer, commissioner@bridgetgainer.com, (312) 603-4210
11th District: John P. Daley, john.daley@cookcountyil.gov, (312) 603-4400
12th District: John A. Fritchey, commish@fritchey.com, (312) 603-6380
13th District: Larry Suffredin, larry.suffredin@cookcountyil.gov, (312)603-6383
14th District: Gregg Goslin, commissioner.goslin@cookcountyil.gov, (312)603-4932
15th District: Timothy O. Schneider, tim.schneider@cookcountyil.gov, (312) 603-6388
16th District: Jeffrey R. Tobolski, Jeffrey.tobolski@cookcountyil.gov, (312) 603-6384, (708)352-2301
17th District: Elizabeth “Liz” Gorman, liz@lizgorman.com, (312 )603-4215
From <https://news.wttw.com/content/contact-cook-county-leadership-team>
==================
Office of the Independent Inspector General
Phone Number
(312) 603-0350
Email
Independent.InspectorGeneral@cookcountyil.gov
Mission Statement
The mission of the OIIG is to detect, deter and prevent corruption, fraud, waste, mismanagement, unlawful political discrimination and misconduct in the operation of Cook County government with integrity, independence, professionalism and respect for both the rule of law and the people we serve. The OIIG conducts investigations and issues findings and recommendations to Cook County government officials. The OIIG also investigates potential criminal violations involving the conduct of Cook County employees acting in their official capacities and refers such matters for prosecution. Because the OIIG is a fact-finding agency, it cannot dictate a legal outcome.
The OIIG also serves as a liaison between the County and outside law enforcement authorities and prosecutorial agencies when cases are referred.
The OIIG's jurisdiction includes employees, elected and appointed officials in the performance of their official duties, as well as contractors and subcontractors doing or seeking to do business with Cook County government.
Agency Head
Steven E. Cyranoski, Interim Inspector General
From <https://www.cookcountyil.gov/agency/office-independent-inspector-general>
=============
Address: Morton Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., Evanston, IL 60201
Email: erevelle@cityofevanston.org
Phone: 312.459.0644
From <https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/7th-ward>
Email: tsuffredin@cityofevanston.org
Phone: 847.859.7810
From <https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/6th-ward>
Email: jgeracaris@cityofevanston.org
Phone: 847-868-2197
Facebook: @NinthWardJuan
Instagram: @9thWardJuan
Ward Meetings
From <https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/9th-ward>
Email: dreid@cityofevanston.org
From <https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/8th-ward>
Email: bburns@cityofevanston.org
Cell: 847-766-5871
From <https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/5th-ward>
Email: jnieuwsma@cityofevanston.org
Phone: 773-255-0716
From <https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/4th-ward>
Email: mwynne@cityofevanston.org
Phone: 847.840.7751
From <https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/3rd-ward>
Email: kharris@cityofevanston.org
Phone: 847-448-0986
From <https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/2nd-ward>
Email: ckelly@cityofevanston.org
Phone: 224-612-2008
From <https://www.cityofevanston.org/government/city-council/1st-ward>
Bruce A. Lewis
Chief of Police and Senior Associate Vice President, Department of Safety & Security
847-491-4933
Eric Chin
Deputy Chief of Police
847-467-3064
Kenneth Jones
Commander of Police Services--Chicago
312-503-0371
Matt Wietbrock
Commander of Evanston Patrol Operations and Accreditation
847-467-7726
Latori Bartelle
Interim Commander of Investigative Services
847-467-5420
Jeff Burklin
Director of Security Systems & Technical Services
847-467-3205
Jill Johnson
Senior Director of Finance & Business Operations
847-467-3413
Merrill Silverman
Director of Transportation & Parking Services
847-467-5382
Chris Yohe
Director of Environmental Health & Safety
847-467-6342
Dave Young
Director of Behavioral Consultation Programs
847-467-2069
Joe Frascati
Emergency Preparedness Senior Manager
847-467-
From <https://www.northwestern.edu/up/about/contact/staff-directory.html>
BALewis@northwestern.edu
eric.chin@northwestern.edu
k-jones@northwestern.edu
matthew.wietbrock@northwestern.edu
l-bartelle@northwestern.edu
J-Burklin@northwestern.edu
jill.johnson@northwestern.edu
merrill.silverman@northwestern.edu
chris.yohe@northwestern.edu
dyoung@northwestern.edu
Joe@northwestern.edu
Serving the Campus Community
As our community returns to campus after years of pandemic challenges and the period of reflection inspired by the social justice movement, the Northwestern Police Department is evaluating the ways we can continue to serve our community with respect and effectiveness. Inspired by the work of the Campus Safety Advisory Board, we have made changes in several key areas and are working toward additional service enhancements, which are detailed on the Campus Safety & Wellness Committee website.
From <https://www.northwestern.edu/up/>
Bruce A. Lewis promoted to senior associate vice president
May 7, 2020
From <https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2020/05/bruce-lewis/>
bruce A. Lewis, associate vice president of the Department of Safety & Security and chief of police of Northwestern University, has recently been promoted to senior associate vice president, Craig Johnson, senior vice president for business and finance, announced May 7.
Bruce A. Lewis
Lewis will continue to oversee and facilitate the University’s security and emergency operations and will continue to serve as chief of police.
In addition to his current portfolio of law enforcement services, emergency management and parking and transportation, Lewis also will now expand engagement with our affiliate healthcare providers in Chicago.
“Bruce’s leadership and steady hand have been integral to the enhanced safety of our campuses over the last 17 years,” said Johnson. “His expanded role reflects Northwestern’s broad reach across the Chicago area, and I am confident he will bring to these new responsibilities the same dedication to service and community engagement he has always shown.”
In 2003, Bruce Lewis joined Northwestern as chief of police and in 2008 was promoted to associate vice president. His recent achievements with his team include raising community awareness to respond to critical incidents with the production of the Run-Hide-Fight training video, developing a centralized security plan on the Chicago campus for the Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center in collaboration with Lurie Children’s Hospital and transitioning to the AlertNU emergency notification system.
He prioritized strengthening University Police’s partnerships through joint tactical response readiness training with Evanston and Chicago police and fire departments and collaboration with the City of Evanston to facilitate the City’s use of Northwestern’s emergency operations command center to coordinate responses to major events.
“I am honored to serve Northwestern in this expanded leadership role,” Lewis said, “and I am proud to work with the dedicated Safety and Security team. I look forward to building upon our successes as we strive for the highest standards of professionalism and service to create an even safer environment in which our University community can learn, work and live.”
Prior to Northwestern, Lewis served as the chief of police of the University of Illinois at Chicago and at universities in Ohio and Louisiana. Lewis earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and master's degrees in criminal justice from Grambling State University and in public administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
He is currently pursuing a doctorate at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management and has completed executive education programs at Kellogg School of Management, Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Northwestern's Center for Public Safety and the FBI's Law Enforcement Executive Development Scho
From <https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2020/05/bruce-lewis/>
Eric.Reese@ic.fbi.gov;
Wheeler@ic.fbi.gov;
From <https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/robert-w-wes-wheeler-jr-named-special-agent-in-charge-of-the-chicago-field-office>
