What an Illinois village says about the US 25 years after 9/11

(RNS) — Six police officers removed a 14-year-old Muslim boy from a meeting of the Fire and Police Commission of Oak Lawn, Illinois, a close southwest suburb of Chicago, last month. Video taken at the meeting appears to show one of the officers applying a chokehold . Reportedly, in the course of removing him, “officers threw the boy into a counter at the rear of the room,” according to local news reports.

Criminal charges were brought subsequently against the boy’s mother after she “ interfered with the officers ” who used so much violence against her child. He attended the meeting with a group of Arab American activists who have regularly protested at village public meetings over alleged racist police misconduct.

All of this took place at an open public meeting of a municipal government in the United States. And, despite happening in a major media market, these outrageous events have raised scarcely a peep across a nation wearied and exhausted by government assaults against religious and racial minorities.

We should say, the boy was not innocent. He called Fire and Police Commission Board Chair Jim Baker a “jackass” after Baker mispronounced his name. Baker had the boy…