Foxx and YouTube face Pekau’s wrath

By Jeff Vorva

The Cook County State’s Attorney and YouTube have Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau hot under the collar.

Pekau continues to be upset with Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx about felons who are free who are coming into his community with illegal weapons. And he is none too happy with YouTube taking down a clip he posted from a recent board meeting.

Foxx’s job performance has been an ongoing problem with Pekau and other suburban officials chiming in over the past few years.

More fuel was added to the fire last week.

On Friday, the Orland Park Police Department arrested Nickolas Burch, of Calumet City, and Kelly Turner, of Park Forest, near Orland Square Mall. Burch was charged with resisting/obstruction and two counts of armed habitual criminal, which Pekau said carried a minimum six-year prison sentence.

Tuner was charged with one count of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon plus resisting/obstructing and child endangerment.

Pekau said they were both quickly out on $5,000 D-bonds, which required them to pay only $500 to get released and that angered him.

“They paid just $500 and are back sleeping in their own beds,” he wrote in a statement. “One of those who was arrested Friday night was on federal electronic monitoring and parole for armed robbery and attempted murder.

“I am fed up with our Cook County State’s Attorney who lets these violent criminals walk free. We’re seeing the outcome of these actions play out—it puts our community and police officers in danger.”

He called it “shameful” that they were not held without bail.

He added compliments to the police force and said the cops would continue to be vigilant.

“Criminals who come to Orland Park will not have a free pass,” Pekau wrote. “The work done by the Targeted Response Unit and the Orland Park Police Department is admirable, and is the reason why our community feels safe, because we know we have outstanding law enforcement professionals cleaning up the Cook County State’s Attorney’s mess.”

Pekau is also not pleased with YouTube. He pulled out and posted a five-minute clip from the Feb. 7 Village Board meeting in which he discussed a Sangamon County Court decision that allowed schools to relax their masking requirements.

He said Orland School District 130 and Consolidated High School District 230 made their masking optional and urged other schools to do the same. He said that the board called for this action in August.

He talked about how mandatory masking was illegal, according to the Supreme Court, and tossed out some figures via the Center of Disease Control and John Hopkins University studies.

Pekau, who is also running for the Republican nomination for the new 6^th Congressional District, told people on his email list that the video was taken down and YouTube said, “Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our medical misinformation policy.”

“Where is the misinformation in that clip?” he wrote. “Social media platforms like YouTube are overstepping their bounds here and are restricting people in our community to hear the real information being put out.”

The segment is still included in the video of the entire board meeting on YouTube. Pekau posted the clip on his Facebook page.