Protest in Joliet Begins at Mayor's House, Ends At Councilman's

JOLIET, IL - And JustUS4All began their protest on Saturday in front of Mayor Bob O’Dekirk’s house. After attendees spoke and chanted, they moved the group of about 15 people down the street to do the same in front of Councilman Pat Mudron’s home. Both O’Dekirk and Mudron live on Buell Avenue in the Cathedral area of Joliet.

“Just because you are the mayor, the law still applies to you,” Loretta Hobbs said.

Loretta Hobbs and Bernell Simmons founded AndJustUS4All to “bring positive and productive change to the City of Joliet & abroad.”

The protest on Saturday was to draw attention to the cases of Erick Lurry, Koenica Morrow, Victor Williams and Jamal Smith as well as to call for the resignation of O’Dekirk.

Flowana Mitchell said she wants justice for Lurry, who is her nephew.

“What was done to him was cruel and was not justice,” she said of Lurry. “We would like to have justice served to the police...that they are held accountable.”

Steven Newell, member of AndJustUS4All spoke about the lack of a status update for the investigation from the incident on May 31 when O’Dekirk was seen on video pulling Williams down to the ground. Initially Williams and his brother Smith were charged with aggravated assault and mob action, but those charges were dropped.

“The misconduct and the corruption comes from the top. So if you are the head, authoritative figure in our town, then you need to be held accountable for your actions on the night of May 31 and you need to also do something about the misconduct that has been going on ever since you were under the badge.
As we can see it’s been about 2 months, we still haven't heard anything so far as your the investigation that the Illinois State Police were supposed to have been conducted on you, still haven't reached out to us with a status update or anything about that.”

He said that the group has been protesting outside O’Dekirk’s house because he is the head of the city.

“If you’re our leader, you need to act like one, but if you’re not going to lead us, then step down and resign,” Newell said. “If you’re gonna do what you did on May 31 and those are gonna be your actions, if you're gonna let stuff go on like what happened to Erick BJ Lurry, if you’re just going to allow for things like that to happen on your watch and it is on your watch because you’re the mayor, if you’re gonna let that happen than we dont need people like you leading us because you're leading us down the wrong path.

Once the group got down to Mudron’s house, with chants of Pat, Pat, where you at, they began addressing the councilmember.

They were demanding the same answers from Mudron, accountability for decisions made on appointments to the Police and Fire Commission and accountability for what they see as the council members doing their job.

“You all living very well off of our dollar so you all are gonna do what you’re supposed to do,” Newell said. “You need to stand up, you went to stand up, but then you sat back down.”

For his part O'Dekirk said the protests are not his concern.

“I don't pay attention to five people," he said.

He also criticized the local media in attendance for stepping on his lawn.

AndJustUS4All's next event is in conjunction with the Lurry family Aug. 8 in a location to be determined.