There’s an update following the Daily Northwestern‘s urging that charges against two students who had tampered with the newspaper’s front page in October be dropped. Now, the paper’s publishing company has issued a statement announcing it has hired attorneys to convince the Cook County State Attorney’s Office to drop the charges. Why, you might ask? The perps’ race.

Read for yourself:

The charge the two people face is misdemeanor-level “theft of advertising.” They apparently weren’t arrested but instead received notice of the charge in the form of a written citation (like a ticket but worse). However, one citation apparently was delivered in person by uniformed police, which we’re sure was an unpleasant, if not downright frightful, experience. For someone convicted of theft of advertising, the penalties can be as harsh as some jail time, a substantial fine (for a student), or both. It also can mean a permanent mark on someone’s “record” that follows them for many years, if not forever. Illinois allows for expungement of records for these types of crimes after a certain amount of time, but there’s no guarantee.

It’s only been in the last four days that we learned more information about the people charged: that they are students; that they are Black. Some may disagree, but these facts matter to us.

We have been listening to our fellow community members, and they have been heard. We understand and recognize why we need to take action. We hope to heal the hurt and repair the relationships that have been damaged and frayed by our unintentional foray into the criminal justice system.

The rest of the statement can be found here.