The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped criminal charges Wednesday afternoon against two Northwestern University students who made a parody newspaper to protest the war in Gaza.
“The students were just expressing their right to free to speech,” said Murisi Zimbwa, a sophomore at Northwestern.
The students faced "theft of advertising services’" charges, the Cook County State's Attorney said, for putting a pro-Palestinian parody front page over campus newspapers in October. The misdemeanor charge is punishable by up to a one year in prison, if convicted.
“I think what started as a case of non-violent civil disobedience has escalated into a criminal matter,” said Brett Gadsden, Associate Professor of History at Northwestern.
Professor Gadsden says he knows the two students, who did not want to do media interviews.
“The students themselves have been having to deal with a great trauma, you know, in terms of having to protect themselves from these legal charges,” Gadsden said.
The students’ parody newspaper, which they placed on top of hundreds of copies of The Daily Northwestern, criticized the university’s response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The campus newspaper is managed by Students Publishing Company and volunteers from Northwestern, who called campus police at the time to report “tampering.”
“I feel like the university could have used different avenues to handle it better,” said Kaprice Daniels, a freshman at Northwestern.
In a Tuesday editorial, the publishers said in part, “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.”
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The publishers did not immediately respond to NBC Chicago's request for comment.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday afternoon it dropped the charges, which had been filed by Evanston Police. The most recent statement from the Cook County State's Attorney can be found below:
“Recently, two Northwestern University students were charged with theft of advertising services, a misdemeanor, by Evanston Police. In misdemeanor cases, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office (CCSAO) does not review or approve the charges prior to filing in any instance. Police departments have the discretion to file misdemeanor charges directly with the court based on their investigative findings.
Given the specific nature of these cases, we have thoroughly reviewed the circumstances and spoken with the campus newspaper publisher, the complainant, and we are dismissing the charges in agreement with the publisher. Our criminal justice system should only be utilized when there in no other recourse for accountability.
Northwestern University and campus police are fully equipped to hold the involved individuals accountable, ensuring that such matters are handled in a manner that is both appropriate to the educational context and respectful of students' rights.
Our office remains dedicated to upholding justice and protecting constitutional rights, fostering an environment where lawful expression is both respected and protected.”
