Chicago Jewish leaders ‘let down’ law enforcement, downplaying anti-Semitism as reason for shootings

Jewish leaders in Chicago are urging the district attorney to upgrade the charge against a Muslim man who allegedly shot a Jewish man attending synagogue in West Rogers Park, home to one of the city’s largest Orthodox Jewish populations, to a homicide on Saturday. motivated by hate.

The 22-year-old suspect allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he exchanged fire with police officers who responded to the initial shooting.

“We are very disappointed,” said Shlomo Soroka, director of government affairs for Agudath Israel in Illinois. Jewish Insider. “I hope they add hate crime charges later, but regardless of whether there are technical reasons why they didn’t file hate crime charges, they need to understand what this really was — not even this specific incident — but what we said for a long time, that the visibly Jewish community, which is the Orthodox community, is in grave danger. And it’s not just here in Chicago.”

Before the charges were announced, Soroka said law enforcement did not do enough to “calm down” the “anxious community.”

“Certain details of the incident are not being shared or reported to the public,” he said. “There’s a sense that if this happened to another community, it would be covered differently.”

In a statement Monday, Debra Silverstein, alderwoman for Chicago’s 50th Ward, where the shooting took place, said she was “very disappointed by this turn of events.”

Silverstein went on to say that he “strongly encourages the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office to prosecute the offender to the fullest extent of the law,” noting that “additional charges — including hate crime charges — may still be added.”

“I can assure you that law enforcement is taking this incident extremely seriously,” Silverstein said.

In a press release Monday detailing the allegations, Chicago police did not mention any indication of the victim’s Jewish identity, despite the fact that she was dressed as an identifiable Orthodox Jew, according to Agudath Israel. Chicago Tribune nor did he identify the victim as Jewish.

The 22-year-old suspect, Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, shouted the Arabic phrase as he fired at police officers and paramedics responding to the shooting, according to video footage obtained by a door camera. The police standoff took place after Abdallahi shot a 39-year-old man, wounding him in the shoulder. Abdallahi was charged with six counts of attempted first degree murder, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm at a police officer and one count of aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm.

Over the weekend, Larry Snelling, superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, held a conversation with a select group of local Jewish leaders, the recording of which was obtained by Jewish Insider. Snelling said he was hesitant to immediately label the shooting a hate crime because that would lead to “accusations by the police department that they focused hatred toward the Muslim faith without that evidence.”

“Because this person was of the Muslim faith, without any evidence of motive, to say we’re investigating it as a hate crime would give the Muslim faith the ability to say the Chicago Police Department is racist against them,” he said Snelling. .

“What we don’t want to do is raise fears on the other side,” Snelling continued. During a news conference Saturday, Kevin Bruno, deputy chief of the Chicago Police Department’s detective bureau, did not address the fact that the victim was Jewish until asked by a reporter. Bruno replied that “he was from the community.”

Lonnie Nasatir, president of the Jewish United Fund, the Jewish federation of Chicago, and a former prosecutor, told JI before the charges were announced that it was important to add a hate crime charge “because it sends a message to the community that we are going to take these things seriously and that we have law enforcement that will use all the tools at their disposal.”

The result is a contrast to the swift accusations of hate crimes that came after a man fatally stabbed a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy last October in a Chicago suburb.

While the investigation was still ongoing, Nasatir said in a situation like this, it was reasonable for a police investigation — which could include getting a warrant to go into the suspect’s home computers to look for a manifest – to last some time.

“Law enforcement has been very responsive to us,” Nasatir said. “This is a serious crime that’s going to be thrown at this guy, including the shooting of a police officer, and in Illinois you add a hate crime offense, which in some cases can raise the charges from a misdemeanor to a felony, but in this case your I’m already getting attempted murder.”

But he was less impressed with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has not released a statement on the shooting since Monday.

Earlier this year, Johnson voted in favor of a resolution calling for a ceasefire without mentioning Hamas.

“Whether it was religiously motivated or not, the fact that an innocent person walking the streets of Chicago was shot this weekend, the mayor should reach out and express his concern for the family, as he does with many shootings ,” Nasatir said.