Demonstrators outside Oak Lawn Village Hall on Friday called for the police officers who beat and injured a teenager during an arrest July 27 to not only be fired but be charged criminally.

Led by representatives of the Arab American Action Network, South Siders for Peace, Rainbow PUSH Coalition and other organizations, about 50 people chanted, “We want justice. You say how? Charge those racist cops right now,” and other messages of determination to stop police brutality of Black and brown people.

The Illinois State Police is investigating the arrest, which resulted after an Oak Lawn officer pulled over a driver because he said he smelled marijuana coming from the car, which had no front license plate.

A passenger fled the vehicle and was stopped at 95th and McVicker Avenue. At least three videos have become public, including one from a police car’s dashboard camera, that show the officers punching the 17-year-old Arab American while he was on the ground.

Oak Lawn police have said the juvenile from Bridgeview was not complying with police instructions and the officers feared he was reaching for a gun in the shoulder bag he was wearing. The officers did find a loaded handgun in the bag.

When asked why call for the officers to be criminally charged before the state police conclude its investigation, Muhammad Sankari, lead organizer for the Arab American Action Network, said, “It begs another question: How could the chief of police immediately say not only that they were justified in what they did but would have been justified in killing the young man, and the village took a similar position.”

“We all saw what happened on that video. They beat that young man almost to death.”

The teenager, who his family previously said will be a senior at Stagg High School this year, was hospitalized for five days with injuries from the encounter. Sankari said the teen had internal bleeding in his head and multiple fractures to his face.

“We want not only that the three officers are fired, but that the state’s attorney charges them with the crime of assaulting this young man,” Sankari said. “The police do not get to be judge, jury and executioner.

“Our communities are not safe as long (such officers) patrol our streets.”

The Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and an attorney for the juvenile and his family have filed a federal lawsuit against Oak Lawn, its Police Department and three unidentified officers, alleging they engaged in a “racially motivated conspiracy” to deprive the teen of his constitutional rights because he is Arab American.

Sankari told people to contact Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and urge her to bring criminal charges against the officers and not press charges against the teenager.

Oak Lawn police on Aug. 1 charged the teen with a felony count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, a felony charge of resisting arrest and possession of marijuana by a passenger in a vehicle, which is a misdemeanor.

Police said Friday they had no comment in response to that day’s protest.

Sankari asked people to come to the Oak Lawn Village Board meeting Tuesday morning and hold a vigil.

“Our work is just beginning,” Sankari said.

Bill Beaulieu, an Oak Lawn resident who is a member of South Siders for Peace, said he saw three videos of the arrest.

“There is no reason for the beating,” Beaulieu said. “There was nothing in them that justified what the supposedly trained police did, police who are trained to de-escalate conflict, and they held him down and beat him.”

The officers did not know the teenager had a gun in his bag when they were punching him, Beaulieu said.

“He was carrying an iPad bag,” Beaulieu said. “I have a bag just like that.”

Adam Shils, of Western Springs, who is not part of the groups that organized the demonstration, came to participate.

“It is important to show the community that they are supported in their fight against police brutality,” Shils said. “All over Chicagoland, in fact all over the nation, we saw the video. What we saw was clear: He was on the ground with both arms being held by police officers.

“The beating fits into the pattern of police brutality in which George Floyd is the best example.”

Another dozen or so people quietly watched the demonstration or yelled out their own comments.

“What about the gun?” asked T.J. Jendres, of Oak Lawn. “We don’t want illegal guns in our town, and we don’t want them brought in here by kids who smoke pot.

“I’m on the progressive side. I protested (Donald) Trump for four years” and protested after Floyd was killed by officers restraining him in Minneapolis in May 2020.

Jendres said he was happy to hear that the U.S. Justice Department this week brought charges against the Louisville, Kentucky, police officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whom police shot in her home in March 2020 when they broke into the wrong house.

“That was a murder,” Jendres said.

But in Oak Lawn “there was a crime committed and they’re making it about race,” he said.

Mark Zweig responded to the chants by yelling at protestors: “How about no more guns? But you don’t want to hear that.”

“They want to put a wedge between every single race,” Zweig said.

Emanuel Papadopoulos, a 40-year resident of Oak Lawn, was one who watched the demonstration quietly.

He said even after seeing videos of the arrest “it’s hard to know what really happened. It’s unclear.”

“I have faith in the police and the administration that they will conduct a thorough investigation and take appropriate action,” said Papadopoulos. “I guess that is the difference between someone like me and the people who are protesting.”

Papadopoulos added that when you run from the police “a lot of tragic things can happen.”

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.