Muslim woman mistaken for terrorist sues Chicago officers
CHICAGO TRIBUNE VIA AP
Itemid Al-Matar, right, stands by her lawyer Gregory Kulis, during a news conference today in Chicago. Itemid Al-Matar is suing Chicago police who falsely singled her out as a potential terrorist on July 4, 2015, as she left a subway station wearing a headscarf, face veil and carrying a backpack.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE VIA AP
Itemid Al-Matar, left, listens as Hamed Rehab, right, Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago, speaks during a news conference today in Chicago. Itemid Al-Matar is suing Chicago police who falsely singled her out as a potential terrorist on July 4, 2015, as she left a subway station wearing a headscarf, face veil and carrying a backpack.
CHICAGO » A young Muslim woman today sued Chicago police who mistakenly identified her briefly as a potential “lone wolf” terrorist as she was leaving a city subway station last year on the Fourth of July wearing a headscarf, face veil and carrying a backpack.
Itemid Al-Matar says officers violated her civil rights by pulling off her religious garb as they arrested her on subway station stairs, then strip-searched her later at a police station, according to the federal lawsuit filed in Chicago on her behalf.
“Several (officers) ran up the stairs and grabbed the Plaintiff and threw her down upon the stair landing, then pulling at her and ripping off her hijab,” it says.
Security-camera video made public shows several minutes of the arrest in the subway. Several officers can be seen pushing through a crowd on a stairway to reach Al-Matar, but soon move out of view of the camera.
The fact that Al-Matar was wearing a headscarf, known as a hijab, and the face veil, called a niqab, “was the impetus behind the actions” of the officers, the court filing alleges. In a statement Thursday, Phil Robertson, a lawyer for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and a co-counsel in the civil case, argued that “blatant xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racial profiling” underpinned the officers’ actions.
A police report filed the night of the incident says officers had been “on high alert of terrorist activity” on the Fourth of July holiday when they spotted Al-Matar exhibiting what they believed was “suspicious behavior,” including walking at “a brisk pace, in a determined manner.” It also says officers saw what they thought could be “incendiary devices” around her ankles and were also suspicious of her backpack, which was clutched to her chest.
“(Officers) believed that subject might be a lone wolf suicide bomber and decided to attempt to take subject into custody,” it says.
A K-9 unit searched for explosive materials, the report says, “with negative results,” while “the objects strapped around arrestee’s ankles” turned out to be “ankle weights.” But Al-Matar was still charged, including with obstructing justice after police accused her of resisting and refusing to comply with orders. She was acquitted on all charges at a state trial earlier this year.
Today’s lawsuit names six officers and the city of Chicago as defendants, accusing them of excessive force, false arrest, violation of freedom of religious expression and malicious prosecution.
A police spokesman declined to comment specifically on the suit, saying the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation. But police issued a brief written statement that says “officers work hard each day to investigate suspicious activity and fight crime and we strive to treat all individuals with the highest levels of dignity of respect.” The city’s law department, which represents officers in civil litigation, declined comment.
The case comes amid heightened scrutiny of city police. The release last year of a video showing a white officer fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times sparked weeks of protests and led to an ongoing Department of Justice investigation of Chicago Police Department practices.
17 responses to “Muslim woman mistaken for terrorist sues Chicago officers”
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The police acted exactly as they should have based on the situation with which they were confronted. She fit the profile of a terrorist. The fact that she was acquitted of the charges filed against her does not in any way show that the police acted improperly.
Looks like a bank robber.
It sounds like the police acted correctly under the circumstances but she’ll probably win her case. That’s a strange religion where women have to be covered up like that. Feel sorry for those people.
that niqab looks like a red cape to a bull or a target suit to an American cop. Stupid religious practice. Didn’t a judge rule a driver’s license did not have be granted to a applicant because she wouldn’t take off that stupid mask. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Muslim is religion so out of date with modern reality.
EVERY religion is out of date.
That’s how Obama’s hometown rolls.
Somehow, I don’t think he’s having a nice vacation.
Honest mistake. You walk into a bank dressed like that and see what happens. She sues Chicago and prevails, everyone will be wearing hi jabs and carrying bags on the subway, buses, trains, planes.
You dress like a terrorist expect to be stopped.
Actually, when we read about suicide bombers dressed like that, they live in countries where most people dress in loose clothing and women are usually covered. People who commit these terrible attacks aren’t dumb — they dress to blend in, not to stand out, in order to avoid suspicion.
Any would-be suicide bomber in this country is gonna leave the niqab at home so as NOT to fit the profile. They’ll wait till the weather turns cold and don blue jeans and a puffy jacket to fit in with the crowd.
If someone goes on a vehicular rampage down a crowded street, betcha they’ll be driving an F-150 and wearing a cowboy hat. Just common sense.
Reverse psychology works also. Suit would be acceptable if proceed of suit is donated to charitable causes not connected with religion?
Sue, sue, sue! I’m going to sue everybody too.
This was a bad arrest. Really bad. The City will pay damages and the suit should also demand additional training for officers.
Your are probably right but your still an ….
I mean about the paying damages. not about the arrest. The officers acted appropriately.
cair is a radical Islamic terrorist front of the Muslim brotherhood and as far as I am concerned the officers acted the right way to arrest her. there are women terrorist and men who dress up in that kind of clothing for suicide attacks. good job Chicago police in protecting our citizens.
Any single woman on any big city transit system would be well advised to “walk in a determined manner” and hold tightly on to her belongings. It’s important to give the impression that you’d be tough to victimize.
Of course a squad of Chicago cops is capable of victimizing just about anyone, like those off duty cops did to the female bartender a couple years back.
Good luck with the civil rights lawsuit! Federal cases have a much better chance than anything that comes before a Chicago judge.