LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Sept. 26, 2020

A north shore suburb of Chicago, The Village of Northbrook had a Trump rally last night that was put on by Glenbrook North High School junior Peter Christos. I was one of many peaceful protesters who were there to counterprotest. I am horrified at what I experienced.

To preface, I am a strong supporter of freedom of speech and freedom to peacefully assemble regardless of whether I agree with your political views. However, the hatred and vitriol that was spewed by the “Power to the People” protesters was unacceptable and very unbecoming of the village of Northbrook. In fact, if we really examine what took place, Northbrook should be ashamed of itself.

The protesters associated with Peter Christos's "Power to the People" rally repeatedly made racist, homophobic, and xenophobic remarks to the peaceful counterprotesters. At times, they would cross the street and taunt the peaceful protesters and made jokes about raping and assaulting people in the crowd. At the end of the night a young man assaulted a woman by hitting her over the head with his board. The police briefly detain him.

And to put things over the top, none of these individuals were wearing masks. I hope they did not trigger a COVID-19 superspreader event in Northbrook.

Northbrook cannot be defined by Peter Christos’ “Power to the People” rally attendees who made extremely derogatory and inflammatory attacks towards peaceful protesters. We cannot accept violence in our community. We are better than that. We need to continue working towards making Northbrook strong again, and we need to value all the ways that individuals of different races, religions, sexual orientations can contribute to our village. Please, Peter Christos’s “Power to the People” protesters: stop the hatred and violence!

Tammy Sherlock, Northbrook resident

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Are you interested in writing a Letter to the Editor? We look forward to reading and publishing it. Please keep the subject of the letter relevant to local issues and be respectful of others. Send your letter to Editor Eric DeGrechie (eric.degrechie@patch.com).

This article originally appeared on the Northbrook Patch