Students Face Criminal Charges for Pro-Palestine College Newspaper Parody

Title says it all, really.

Following the investigation, local prosecutors brought charges against two students for theft of advertising services. The little-known statute appears to only exist in Illinois and California, where it was originally passed to prevent the Ku Klux Klan from distributing recruitment materials in newspapers. The statute makes it illegal to insert an “unauthorized advertisement in a newspaper or periodical.” The students, both of whom are Black, now face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

“I have never seen anyone charged with theft of advertising,” said Elaine Odeh, a lawyer who formerly supervised public defenders in Cook County, Illinois, which includes Evanston, where Northwestern is based.

I ask anyone who stands against the ongoing crackdown on the free speech of anti-genocide protestors, or against the disproportionate criminalization of Black people and their speech, or for the freedom of the press and the freedom to parody, to consider signing this student-led change.org petition.