White supremacist photos circulated after Mount Prospect patch rallies
Images circulating on social media after heated rallies Tuesday night about Mount Prospect's controversial police uniform patch show two men in attendance, one dressed as a member of the far-right Proud Boys, displaying hand signs linked to white supremacist groups.
In the photos, the men, who have not been identified, are making a hand sign touching the thumb and index finger to make a circle, with the remaining three fingers outstretched. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the "O.K." sign is used to signify "white power."
The photos were taken during the rallies that occurred before a Mount Prospect village board meeting to discuss the patch.
"It's destructive. It's not useful," Trustee Augie Filippone said of the pictures.
Mayor Paul Hoefert said he had not seen the photos but called them "disappointing."
"Outside groups, outside people are attracted to things like this," Hoefert said. "People that are not part of Mount Prospect."
The patch is a local issue being handled locally, "and we don't need people from outside Mount Prospect coming here to fan the flames," he added.
The uniform patch - featuring a black-and-white American flag with a single blue stripe - has been a source of division in the village for the past year. Police and supporters say the thin blue line honors law enforcement officers who've died in the line of duty. Opponents say the imagery has been co-opted by white nationalists and other extremist groups, and the police department's use of it is threatening to people of color.
Matters came to a head Tuesday, when the village board voted 4-3 to remove the patch from police uniforms. Filippone was joined by Trustees Colleen Saccotelli, Terri Gens, and Peggy Pissarreck in voting to eliminate the patch. Hoefert and Trustees John Matuszak and Richard Rogers voted to keep it.
Emotions were running high before the meeting when groups gathered outside village hall for separate rallies. A group opposed to the patch, led by the local League of Women Voters, was on Centennial Green on one side of Emerson Street, while patch supporters stood across the street in the Edwin and Elsie (Meyn) Busse Park.
Despite the contention around the patch, Hoefert insisted "we're not a divided community," and he pointed to events like the National Night Out that have brought residents together.
Filippone stressed that in the extensive discussion of the patch, no one has said anything bad about Mount Prospect police.
"Everyone loves the Mount Prospect police," he said. For those calling for the redesign, he said, it has always been about what the symbol is and how it affects minority communities and people of color.