 
Illinois Uses Felony to Silence Outspoken Artist
Contact: Chris Drew * 773/561-7676 * umcac@art-teez.org |
Illinois Uses Felony to Silence Outspoken Artist
Contact: Chris Drew * 773/561-7676 * umcac@art-teez.org |
October 10, 2010
For Immediate Release Contact: C. Drew (day) 773/561-7676 (Evening) 773/973-1863 e-mail: umcac@art-teez.org Illinois Uses Felony to Silence Outspoken ArtistC Drew will appear in court in Chicago at 26th and California on October 22nd at 9:30am in a hearing to determine if Mr. Drew's motion to suppress the evidence on his audio recorder will be supported by Judge Stanley Sacks. His lawyer, Josh Kutnick, argues that there exists no valid warrant to investigate the audio-recorder and therefore the evidence should be suppressed. This hearing should tell how determined Cook County State's Attorney, Anita Alvarez, and Judge Stanley Sacks are to continue the prosecution of Mr. Drew - an artist arrested for selling art for a $1 on State Street on December 2, 2009, and later charged with a 1st class felony, risking 4-15 years in a state prison for audio-recording his own arrest. The artist, out on a $20,000 bond, continues to print and give away free art-patches in public. Mr. Drew is inviting artists to submit art-patch designs for volunteers to screen print on patches to be given-away pinned to literature promoting First Amendment literacy and awareness that artists' rights to sell art in public are being blocked by unconstitutional laws in Chicago. Mr. Drew has advocated for artists' for 23 years as the Executive Director of the Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center. He has watched emerging artists struggle to survive and too often give up in Chicago where there is not a single open-air arts market where artists can freely sell their work in public. Art is protected by the First Amendment as speech. This gives artists the right to sell their art in public. "As a Nation with a First Amendment, and our unique respect for freedom of speech, we should provide artists whose work is protected by the First Amendment more public opportunities than other nations," Mr. Drew says. "But Chicago ranks behind many other cities nationally and internationally in the public forums it provides its artists to sell their work. We even rank behind Moscow." Drew claims. Many people in Chicago think that Mr. Drew's long time criticism of the City's policy toward artists' vending rights and his intended challenge to the peddlers license are the real reasons Anita Alvarez is charging the artist with this extreme 1st class felony for audio-recording his own arrest when he was picked up for only selling art for $1 and went peacefully to jail. The eavesdropping law is rarely enforced against citizens and when it is, the arrests often appear to be politically and/or racially motivated. Consider the cases of Hindi, an animal rights activist, arrested for audio-recording a policeman at the Illinois State Fair in 2000 when he was speaking out on animal rights. Also, in 2004 two African American activists in Champaign, Illinois, Thompson and Miller, were charged for audio-recording police while working on a documentary comparing police stops of African American teenagers with police treatment of college students. Edolphus Towns, Congressman from New York, has proposed a Sense of Congress Resolution, H.Con.Res.298, stating that governments should not use wiretapping laws to charge citizens for audio or video recording police in public when they do not interfere with the officers work. Maryland has dropped the eavesdropping charges against the man who Time Magazine made famous, Anthony Graber. The judge ruled on-duty police have no privacy to protect in public. The ACLU has filed suit against Anita Alvarez in federal court for enforcing this unconstitutional law against Mr. Drew and others. We will have a clue as to how the ACLU's action will influence Mr. Drew's case at his next court appearance. Will the State be more or less aggressive toward this outspoken artist now that the ACLU is challenging Anita Alvarez?
ACLU's Filing
http://www.art-teez.org/free-speech-movement/100819-aclu-v-alvarez.pdf
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