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An Illinois man accused of harassing a woman for wearing a Puerto Rican flag in a Chicago area park was charged Thursday with hate crimes, according to authorities. G. Trybus, spokesman for the Cook County State Attorney's Office, Tandra Simonton, said:
Trybus could face five years in prison for each of the hate crime charges. He was released on bail Friday afternoon in Skokie
He also faces separate charges of assault and disorderly conduct after a June 14 incident involving Mia Irizarry which was videotaped [19659004].
Trybus will be represented by a public defender, but he has not yet been assigned to him, said the Public Defender's Office
CNN attempted to join Trybus to comment.
The officer resigns
A parks officer resigned after being criticized for not intervening during the June 14 incident. which was captured on video in a park in northwestern Chicago
. Irizarry pleads for the help of a man who harasses her, saying that his shirt is not American. The officer initially seems to ignore the pleas
Irizarry said she was celebrating her 24th birthday at Caldwell Woods Park when the man approached her. and asked her why she wore the sleeveless shirt of the Puerto Rico flag. Irizarry recorded the meeting on her phone, saying that she felt threatened, and posted the video on Facebook.
Monday, Forest Preserves of Cook County, who administers the park, tweeted that he was aware of the incident and the video and that he had opened investigation.
The county police officer of Cook County Forest Preserve, Patrick Conner, resigned on Wednesday and the investigation of the incident. The Labor Council's lawyer from the Fraternal Order of Illinois Police, who represents Conner, said the video "does not look good," but warned that the video might not tell the whole story. 19659002] "We do not know what was going on outside the video, we do not know what was going on inside his (Conner's) head at the time," he said on Thursday. Lawyer Tamara Cummings He was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to explain what was happening.However, given the media attention and pressure, he decided to resign. "
"Given his decision to resign, he will not offer any further comment on what may have happened during this situation," she said. "He is very distraught and does not look forward to leaving his job much earlier than expected, but because of the strong reaction of the public and political figures, he thinks it would be unrealistic to stay officer."
Chief of Police Kelvin Pope said that he did not know why Conner had apparently not intervened at the beginning.
Pope said that Conner felt like he had not been shaken and that he had "a lot of remorse." Conner resigned before investigators could ask him what happened at a disciplinary hearing, Pope said at a press conference Thursday.
The personal file of (Conner) will indicate that this officer did not resign in good standing. Cook County Commissioner General Arnold Randall said:
Appeal for Hate Crime Charges
Cook County Commissioner, Jesús "Chuy" García, has called for hate crimes charges. "A charge of simple assault or disorderly conduct is not enough," García said. "We can not allow this ugly rhetoric to be the norm in Cook County."
Randall, the keeper of the forest, said that his agency had apologized to Irizarry and had repaid the money that she had paid for a picnic table the day of the incident
He said his agency would re-examine the diversity training for its officers and other employees.
"It is up to each of us to present a better model to demonstrate with our own actions how to treat each other with greater respect," he told reporters on Thursday. "We could start with the beautiful example presented by Mia Irizarry and her family, who handled this horrible incident with calm, never lowering to the level of the man who attacked her."
The Incident
In the film, One can see a man approaching Irizarry saying, "You should not wear this in the United States of America." He gets close to her and asks "Are you a citizen? Are you a citizen of the United States?"
Irizarry says Puerto Rico is part of the United States and the man is not a citizen. approach her several times. She asks a park police officer to help: "I rent this area and he is harassing me about the shirt I'm wearing."
Later, she says, "Officer, I feel completely uncomfortable, can you remove … please officer "as the officer is seen away from her.
Then she says : "Officer, I rent, I paid for a permit for this area. I do not feel comfortable with him here, is there anything you can do? "
Then we see the officer talking to the man who makes him gesturing and tells him to" close the f ***.
More police arrive and Irizarry says she still feels unsafe. The man resumes his abuse by saying, "You are not American, if you were American, you would not wear it. You know it well? "
A policewoman asks to see her identity card and can be heard tell her that he is intoxicated, to which he replies," Well, that's your judgment. "She explains that Irizarry has a permit and warns that it could be stopped" to not be compliant. "
" You do not come here to harass people, "he said. officer continues "People have as much right to be here as you and when you're drunk, you're not here."
The policewoman then speaks with Irizarry, who gives her version of the incident and the officer explains that they were called to the area after a man had smothered a woman
Finally, the first officer on the scene takes notes on the story of Irizarry said that he was on the scene because of the incident, noting that she was not attacked admitting that she felt threatened. [Irizarry] 19659002] We can hear Irizarry explain to the officer that the incident started when they asked the group where the man was where they could move because they had a permit for the governed She said that the group had been politely bent but that her Puerto Rico shirt seemed to be a trigger for the man.
Puerto Rico is an American Commonwealth with its own constitution. Puerto Rican residents have been US citizens since 1917 and have the right to vote in the US presidential primaries, but not in the presidential elections.
By Amanda Jackson and Faith Karimi, CNN
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