* NBC 5 last year…
A group of protesters gathered outside the home of Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs this week, with vandals throwing red paint onto the home and shouting through a bullhorn in the early morning hours.
According to the treasurer, the group of pro-Palestinian protesters were demonstrating against his office’s decision to invest in companies with ties to Israel. The group also protested at a fundraiser that was held on behalf of Frerichs’ reelection campaign, but the demonstration then resumed near his home in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
Frerichs said that the paint splattered over the front of his home and also damaged toys belonging to his 1-year-old twins, who were asleep in the home at the time.
“The lead woman had a bullhorn, and she made it very clear what her reasons were (for protesting),” he said. “She made it very clear by singling out my children, calling out, saying she knew that they were at home, knew that they were in their cribs and that they shouldn’t be allowed to sleep.”
Since then, Treasurer Frerichs announced the renewal of $15 million in Israel Bonds that were set to expire and purchased an additional $10 million in Israel Bonds.
* More than a dozen protesters came back to Frerichs’ house at about 3 o’clock this morning with bullhorns…
I will always defend the right of people to peacefully protest. But coming to my home with bullhorns at 3 a.m. and frightening my family simply goes too far. This is intimidation to cause fear through scare tactics. They made it clear as they were leaving that they would continue to harass my wife and children where they sleep until my office divests from Israel Bonds. I won’t back down from these threats. I stand by the investment decisions I’ve made.
A Frerichs spokesperson said the treasurer took his family to the back of their house for safety. When Chicago police were dispersing the protesters, he heard them yell “We will be back until you divest.”
* They also attached this to a tree in front of Frerichs’ house…
Discuss.
- Alton Sinkhole - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:46 am:
Terrifying. Not much else to say.
- Anyone Remember - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:49 am:
Prosecute them to the fullest extent possible. 3 AM outside a private residence? At a minimum, disturbing the peace. Extra penalty points for targeting the family / minor children.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:49 am:
I absolutely hate Donald Trump but if there’s one thing I agree with him on is that people like this should be labeled as domestic terrorists. Why you would think you can get what you want with this sort of despicable tactic is beyond me. Nothing about what they did should be legal. They all need to be locked up.
- Andersonville Right Winger - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:49 am:
I hope they are prosecuted for vandalism to the tree. If they feel this strongly about divestment, I am sure there are legislators in Springfield who could help them pass legislation barring investment in Israel bonds. Instead they are harassing Frerichs and waking up his neighbors.
- H-W - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:49 am:
Protesting is an honorable tradition in the United States.
Intentionally causing psychological and physiological harm to children is not honorable.
Destruction of personal property is not honorable.
Those who protest and violate the norms of human decency lose any claim to a moral high ground. They become the enemies of their own cause.
- florida sunshine - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:52 am:
I am no doubt that some will call it a mostly peaceful protest.
- Baloneymous - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:52 am:
A few weeks ago, someone came up on my front porch while I was sleeping and stole a snow shovel that I forgot to put away. I was a little freaked out because my front porch is right next to my bedroom and someone had the audacity to come on my property and up on my porch given that probably every other home in my small town is armed. I cannot fathom how Mike and his wife much feel that a bunch of strangers are outside his house at 3am yelling at him. Very disturbing. And the whole “we will be back” comment is a direct threat on their safety.
- Oldtimer - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:52 am:
Winning no one over to their POV and alienating many.
- I-55 Fanatic - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:53 am:
Has dumping buckets of red paint on electeds private residences ever worked for anything? Like, ever? Either these people are too naive to see the futility of this “protest” or they’re using it as an excuse for harassment and vandalism. I tend toward the latter.
- Politix - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:54 am:
What do you do if “going high” and peaceful protest doesn’t work? What options do you have between elections? It’s easy to tell people what not to do. But what should you do when you are in the midst of a neo-fascist government takeover and no one is listening to you?
Many of these actions can be avoided by simply acknowledging the community’s concerns. Communicate. Do not ignore.
- Ducky LaMoore - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:54 am:
KKK-like tactics are a very bad look.
- Mark D - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:55 am:
Protest outside his office. Harassing his family undermines the cause.
- hisgirlfriday - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:56 am:
I am someone who in the past has been sympathetic to people encouraging divestment from Israel. These unproductive, menacing tactics make me less sympathetic to divestment efforts and of the Palestinian cause in general.
- DuPage Saint - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 11:57 am:
Maybe elected officials including librarians should be included in the protected class of a hate crime. You do not deserved to be called a political protestor when you become a vandal
If you think you are a political protestor stand up for your cause accept arrest and show others why you are correct otherwise you are a coward hiding in the night
- VK - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:09 pm:
$25 million in BONDS is the problem? There’s nothing you might consider as a bigger issue? No member of the other team who might be a better target for your displeasure?
One wonders if anyone in the activist community has ever head of the phrase “threat assessment”.
- Occasionally Moderated - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:12 pm:
Is residential picketing not enforceable?
(720 ILCS 5/21.1-2) (from Ch. 38, par. 21.1-2)
Sec. 21.1-2. Residential picketing. A person commits residential picketing when he or she pickets before or about the residence or dwelling of any person, except when the residence or dwelling is used as a place of business. This Article does not apply to a person peacefully picketing his own residence or dwelling and does not prohibit the peaceful picketing of the place of holding a meeting or assembly on premises commonly used to discuss subjects of general public interest.
(Source: P.A. 97-1108, eff. 1-1-13.)
Criminal Damage to Property (720 ILCS 5/21-1)
Disorderly Conduct (720 ILCS 5/26-1)
Don’t know where the tree is, maybe trespassing.
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:16 pm:
You come to a person’s home to start something, be prepared for life-changing consequences.
- Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:16 pm:
Protest in the United States is typically both celebrated and condemned depending on the perspective of the person sharing the narrative. We are a nation that was founded and made independent by people who planned protest like Samuel Adams. Adams utilized petitions and boycotts but also was involved with organizing the destruction of property and mob violence against public officials.
Standing outside of an elected officials home in the wee hours of the morning with a bullhorn and vandalizing their property is an action that is clearly intended to intimidate the elected official.
The manner that these folks choose to protest an elected official is not done in a vacuum. It has the ability to make them and people that support the same positions as them look bad. Look violent. Look unhinged. It has the ability to make a public official appear sympathetic.
But the fact of the matter is that we still celebrate Samuel Adams in this country and so we talk out of both sides our mouths on this issue and in forums like this one we see pontification of values that don’t reflect the reality of the history of our country.
So play around with some of the comments before mine, read them like this. “The Boston Tea Party was unhonorable. The Sons of Liberty lacked human decency and had no claim to the moral high ground. The Sons of Liberty were enemies to their own cause.”
I don’t support or condone the method used in this protest, but I am unwilling to apply a standard that was recently invented that seems contrary to what I was taught in during my K-12 education.
The State Treasurer knows what the Government of Israel is doing. People have a right to be upset about it. The State Treasurer also did not make an investment decision when he bought those bonds. He made a political decision.
Some of you all need to take a step back from this specific event and ask yourselves whether or not you support unlawful protests — because there’s this guy in the White House who has some unique opinions about what makes a protest unlawful.
I wouldn’t participate in this protest against the Treasurer. I don’t think his family should be harassed. I don’t think his property should be vandalized.
But seriously — we need to stop pretending like this sort of behavior is some massive deviation from “honorable tradition” in the United States.
What on earth do you people think it meant when mobs burned people in effigy in colonial America?
- illinifan - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:18 pm:
This is wrong. Protest in the public square and the street in front of the house is not the public square. These folks should be prosecuted
- Middle of the Road - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:18 pm:
These folks are starting to get more and more desperate as they begin to realize that they only speak for a marginal and dwindling segment of population. They also seem to be disproportionately fixated on this particular geopolitical situation, while they seem unconcerned about bigger and more deadly wars around the world, like Syria, Ukraine, etc. I wonder, is there anything particular about Israel and Israelis which causes these protesters to be so hateful? Mmmm, what could it be?
- Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:20 pm:
Would they dare do this at MAGA politicians’ houses? Or do they only go where it’s safe for themselves. Trump wants to empty out Palestine, but crickets at Mar-a-Lago. There are no more Kamala rallies for safe performative screaming.
- Pekin - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:21 pm:
Someone at the ISP needs to wake up. The sooner the better.
- John Candy and Nuts - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:25 pm:
This is how I know whoever leads these causes is unserious. You’re taking a big swing at *checks notes* the Illinois State Treasurer?
So we are not protesting the current Commander in Chief, who controls military spending and the might of the US Military and who plans to displace every single Palestinian and turn Gaza into a vacationing resort. We are instead going after the much more influential Illinois Treasurer who invests public dollars into Israeli companies?
I’m all for protests. I’m all for movements who need protestors. That said, a really famous protestor once wrote from jail, “an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”
I believe it is time for these protestors to have their conscience tested. If a Birmingham jail was good enough for Dr. King, then those who would throw red paint and yell at 1 year old children should find great comfort in their morals in a local Illinois jail. In a state that has no-cash bail, I am sure they will have no difficulty convincing a judge they no longer pose a threat to the Treasurer despite their promise that “they’ll be back.”
- Frida’s boss - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:27 pm:
These protestors are just another piece of why DT is in office.
If they think middle America cares about their cause and see them acting like morons, what party gets blamed? All those protests on college campuses helped elevate the GOP.
But go ahead keep protesting Frierichs maybe you can flip Illinois red just like the US, while you’re at it.
- Remember the Alamo II - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:28 pm:
Also Candy -
You can compare protests to those that happened during the 1700’s, but you have to acknowledge one difference - the protestors eventually went to war with those that they were protesting. They did commit acts of violence because they were at war with the crown.
- Excitable Boy - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:33 pm:
- people like this should be labeled as domestic terrorists -
Yeah, no, this isn’t terrorism. They should be charged with whatever harassment and vandalism laws that apply, and there should be a restraining order on how close they can be to the property.
I don’t agree with these tactics but they don’t meet any reasonable definition of terrorism, and that term is being incorrectly used to violate free speech in very serious ways right now.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:34 pm:
Excitable Boy is right. Everybody take a breath.
- JR - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:35 pm:
If it can happen to him, who is next? Everyone should be worried. It’s not fair to those sweet baby boys. This needs to stop.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:36 pm:
=What on earth do you people think it meant when mobs burned people in effigy in colonial America?=
We can honor our history and acknowledge a change is what is acceptable at the same time. These two things are not mutually exclusive.
Harassing and threatening family is off limits. Period.
- Mason born - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:36 pm:
Good on Treasurer Frerichs for not bowing to their intimidation.
Does the Treasurer have a Security Detail? If not his family could use one for the immediate future. Just in case any of tge protestors were to further lose their head.
- Michigan Snow - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:36 pm:
I do believe that the Safe T Act comes to play here…Citation only and not a physical arrest
Is residential picketing not enforceable?
(720 ILCS 5/21.1-2) (from Ch. 38, par. 21.1-2)
Sec. 21.1-2. Residential picketing. A person commits residential picketing when he or she pickets before or about the residence or dwelling of any person, except when the residence or dwelling is used as a place of business. This Article does not apply to a person peacefully picketing his own residence or dwelling and does not prohibit the peaceful picketing of the place of holding a meeting or assembly on premises commonly used to discuss subjects of general public interest.
(Source: P.A. 97-1108, eff. 1-1-13.)
- H-W - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:42 pm:
@ DoGood
=== So play around with some of the comments before mine, read them like this. “The Boston Tea Party was unhonorable. The Sons of Liberty lacked human decency and had no claim to the moral high ground. The Sons of Liberty were enemies to their own cause.” ===
Republican wordsmithing?
My words follow the tradition of Dr. ML King, Jr, who graduated with a sociology degree and studied Gandhi, Augustine, Aquinas, Jesus, etc.
There is just and there is unjust resistance toward unjust laws. Unjust resistance causes harm intentionally. You may recall Dr. King’s relationship with Stokely Carmicheal and Malcom X. King did not agree with their methods. Their methods violated the the spirit of love or Love Force” that frames all just resistance toward unjust just laws and practices (satyagraha, which he took from Gandhi). As a result, King chose not to participate in their practices of protest because they included violence.
It is not that King disagreed with Carmichael or Malcolm. The goals were just, and he continued to fight the same injustices. But he did so, non-violently, in ways that did not offend “satyagraha,” the Love Force).
The people protesting the extermination of Palestinians in Palestine, Israel, are righteous. Genocide by any qualification is genocide. But as I am sure you will recognize, “and eye for an eye will leave everyone blind.” Violent protest, even for just cause, uses evil to confront evil. It is a race to the bottom.
I never said the things you impute in your paraphasing, and I did not mean what you infer I might have meant. Peace be with you, DoGood. You are a good colleague, but you are wrong in your assessment.
- H-W - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 12:59 pm:
@ John Candy and Nuts
You are wrong sir. You advocate violence as a way to test resolve for Good. You use of Dr. King to confront Good is unjust, and contrary to Dr. King and his words. Read the letter again, from beginning to end. You may find yourself represented in the last third.
- ElTacoBandito - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 1:09 pm:
==What on earth do you people think it meant when mobs burned people in effigy in colonial America?==
Similarly, I remember learning about tarring and feathering in school like it was some sort of fun game where the British ended up looking silly, not the brutal torture that it was.
There is a serious disconnect between how protests are seen at the time and how they are viewed as time passes. MLK and Muhammad Ali’s protests were not seen as “honorable” by a large majority of the country.
- Big Dipper - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 1:09 pm:
The first time I remember this happening was with Rahm’s home. It was wrong then and it’s wrong now. Picket at government buildings.
- Excitable Boy - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 1:16 pm:
- You’re taking a big swing at *checks notes* the Illinois State Treasurer? -
I’m still not defending these actions, but change often starts at the lower levels of power. Treasurer Frerichs made the decision to invest taxpayer money into Israel while they are carrying out what many consider ethnic cleansing, and he could decide not to do that.
- Give Us Barabbas - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 1:19 pm:
The protesters’ rights to be there end at the point where they committed property damage. The paint throwers should be arrested and tried and ordered to make restitution.
- Occasionally Moderated - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 1:20 pm:
With the increasingly good weather Treasurer Frerichs needs to fertilize his lawn.
A new sprinkler system might be in order too.
- Steve - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 1:23 pm:
It is my belief that you have no right to demonstrate in front of politicians, public servants, and judges houses. This is not about speech , it’s about intimidation. I hope whoever does these sorts of things are prosecuted.
- Norseman - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 1:33 pm:
MAGA is about sating its unconstrained anger and hate.
This makes me extremely angry, but I know in a civilized society and in what I used to see as values of our country, one must restrain anger and let the authorities deal with any crimes and our voices and votes address policy differences.
- low level - Wednesday, Mar 12, 25 @ 1:54 pm:
== But seriously — we need to stop pretending like this sort of behavior is some massive deviation from “honorable tradition” in the United States.==
No, it is a massive deviation. Sorry. Usually I agree with you but not here. Coming at 3am is not a peaceful protest nor is it in keeping with accepted norms.