On January 18, 2022, an organized group of 30-40 anti-maskers, some with their unmasked children, ambushed the St. Charles Public Library. They proceeded to disrupt library activities to the point where the library staff had no choice but to call the police. 

The President/Founder of Awake Illinois, Shannon Adcock, publicly posted a video of herself staging this event on the official Twitter and Facebook pages for their purported 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization. This event was also publicly posted on an Instagram page from “Freedom Illinois,” showing Chrissi Bretz talking about her willful refusal to adhere to the library’s mask policy, as well as featuring Shannon Adcock intentionally going maskless as a method of defiance. Children, not all of whom were part of this disruption, are visible in the videos.

This conduct continued until the St. Charles Public Library made the decision to close to the public for their own “health and safety.”

The St. Charles Public Library remains closed at the time of writing this Petition.

Following the incident, Awake Illinois made a post on their public page, celebrating those who returned to the library without a mask, knowingly violating their library’s mask policy and Governor Pritzker's indoor Mask Mandate.
And although local police responded to this incident, no known arrests have been made by law enforcement nor have any known charges been filed by the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office.

We, the signers of this Petition, want law enforcement to do their jobs, rather than leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves when extremists cross the line from “free speech” into potential criminal conduct.

We ask that St. Charles Police, as well as the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office, fully investigate this matter. And if no arrests are made, we would like an official statement why they felt trespassing, disorderly conduct and/or assault charges were not chargeable offenses to any of the participants in this incident.

While we fully support the right of all citizens to engage in protected First Amendment activities, including peaceful protest. These videos, made public from Awake Illinois and Freedom Illinois, make it clear that that this event, was disruptive, dangerous and intimidating to library staff and unaffiliated patrons, and led to the closure of the St. Charles Public Library. Inciting fear and panic does not fall under the protection of the First Amendment.

And as Illinois citizens who believe in law and order, we are tired of extremist groups like Awake Illinois and Freedom Illinois attacking ordinary citizens, as well as our institutions, through the use of dangerous and/or disruptive tactics.