VIDEO: Law Professor Claims She Was Assaulted by Laborers' Sabitoni and 4 Others
GoLocalProv News Team
VIDEO: Law Professor Claims She Was Assaulted by Laborers' Sabitoni and 4 Others
The incident took place at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on the opening night, August 19.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTDr. Nadia Ahmad is a professor of law at Barry University in Florida. She has filed a formal complaint with the City of Chicago’s Commission on Human Rights for the assault, which included repeatedly hitting her in the head with a political sign. The incident was captured on a number of videos posted to social media and took place inside the United Center arena at the Democratic National Convention.
Her letter to the Commission was dated August 30, 2024. She said she had also filed a formal complaint with Chicago Police.
In Ahmad's letter of complaint, Ahmad, an elected delegate representing Florida, wrote: “On the opening night of the convention, August 19, 2024, I was peacefully protesting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by holding a banner that read ‘Stop Arming Israel.’ This protest was in line with my constitutional right to free speech and peaceful assembly. However, I was targeted by five members of the Laborers' International Union of North America (LiUNA), who aggressively and physically assaulted me without any provocation. They were seated in the box office behind me.”
She wrote in her complaint:
The individuals involved in the assault were:
- Brent Booker, General President, LiUNA
- Michael F. Sabitoni, General Secretary-Treasurer, LiUNA
- Michael E. Hellstrom, LiUNA Vice President and Eastern Regional Manager
- Oscar De La Torre, LiUNA President Local 261
- Scott Gustafson, Regional Organizing Director at LiUNA, Old Rochester Region High
These men not only exhibited physical aggression, but their actions also appeared to be driven by prejudice against my visible Muslim identity. I was physically attacked by three men, while the other two forcibly removed the protest banner from my hands. The nature of the attack leads me to believe that it was motivated by Islamophobia, as I was the only visibly Muslim woman involved in the protest.
Ahmad, in an interview with GoLocal, said, “I felt that if I turned around even to stop it, I may fall down because it's like a very steep area and it's a small area and, in fact, when they first started hitting me I did kind of fall forward, and my chair and just kind of got jolted forward.”
Sorry guys I deleted my tweet bc these aren’t uncommitted delegates. Reposting the video here pic.twitter.com/NYTsi3eHDQ
— Akela Lacy (@akela_lacy) August 20, 2024
She said her protest consisted only of holding the banner; they did not protest verbally.
“We still held on to the banner and then I just stood up again and, you know, stood up with the banner again, and then they started hitting me again, and I didn't see who was hitting me. I just felt like something on top of my head. I didn't want to turn around because I didn't want to get hit in the face with whatever they were hitting me with, and I figured that they would just stop or security would show up to stop it,” said Ahmad.
WATCH THE FULL GOLOCAL INTERVIEW ABOVE
But the hitting went on for another three to four minutes, she said.
She said security finally stopped the hitting, but that didn’t stop the incident.
Another video shows another man sitting in the Laborer’s box, reaching over and ripping the sign out of her and two others’ hands.
I’m at the DNC. Palestinian protestors quietly held up a cloth banner, I assume calling for a ceasefire, and two white men violently snatched it out of their hands. Prior to this people were told to hold up their signs to cover the banner as Biden spoke about democracy. #DNC2024 pic.twitter.com/oZrxgYLg92
— Renee Bracey Sherman (@RBraceySherman) August 20, 2024
"I sent the DNC an official complaint to Jamie Harrison, who chairs the Democratic National Committee, and we identified them [the Laborers] because in the box they were sitting in, they had these bright orange seat covers, and somebody before and I was making small talk with them and they said that they were with LIUNA which was like essentially a construction union,” said Ahmad said in the interview with GoLocal.
Credentials Revoked
Ahmad writes in her letter to the Commission on Human Rights that despite being an elected delegate, her credentials were revoked after the incident.
“This act of credential revocation was not only discriminatory but also appeared to target me specifically as a Muslim delegate. Even though half of the seats in the Florida delegation remained empty, neither floor credentials nor guest passes were provided to me or other Muslim delegates, including Saima Farooqui, an alternate DNC delegate,” she wrote in the letter to the Chicago Commission on Human Rights.
GoLocal reached out to Sabitoni on Monday with the following questions:
Do you have comment on her accusations?
Is it appropriate to hit a woman in the head with a sign because you disagree with her silent protest?
Have you been contacted by Chicago Police?
Do you think she deserves an apology?
He did not answer any questions.