The guilty verdicts in the Jussie Smollett fake hate crime trial underscore just how radical Chicago State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has proven to be.
She campaigned for office in 2015 advocating a radical brand of “criminal justice reform,” including no bail policies for almost every defendant and reduced sentencing, and during the riots last summer, her office adopted a “presumption of dismissal” for certain low-level charges.
Then came the Jussie Smollett case and the inexplicable dropping of charges against the actor, despite other prosecutors in her office claiming they had a “slam dunk” of a case. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called it a “whitewashing of justice.”
Related: Even Chicago’s Woke Mayor Is Fed Up With State’s Prosecutor Kim Foxx
Foxx had abused the privileges of her office by appointing her deputy to handle Smollett’s case because she said she had contact with a relative of Smollett’s after the fake hate crime occurred. The judge ruling on the legality of that move said that Foxx’s action was unnecessary, and he appointed special prosecutor Dan Webb to handle the investigation.
Webb found plenty.
Dan Webb, the special prosecutor appointed to the case, accused Foxx and her office of repeatedly abusing their discretion and making false public statements in the case against Smollett. His 12-page outline criticized Foxx and her staff for how they decided on March 26, 2019, to toss charges against the actor and singer. Among the focuses of Webb’s inquiry was whether Foxx acted improperly by speaking to a Smollett relative and a onetime aide of former first lady Michelle Obama , Tina Tchen, before the charges were dropped. It also looked at how Foxx only recused herself after news broke about the communication.
While Webb’s investigation did not lead to any criminal charges against Foxx or anyone else in her office, it did “develop evidence that establishes substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures” in the case.
No one should be surprised by Foxx’s actions. Like other local prosecutors backed by billionaire Democrat George Soros, she has thumbed her nose at the law in favor of some nebulous definition of “social justice.” If the defendant has the right skin color, it’s more than possible that criminal charges will simply disappear.
A 2020 Chicago Tribune investigation into Foxx showed she dropped more felony cases involving charges of murder and other serious offenses at a higher rate than her predecessor. During Foxx’s first three years as Cook County’s top prosecutor, her office dropped all charges against 29.9% of felony defendants. Her predecessor, Anita Alvarez, had a rate of 19.4%.
In October, she became embroiled in a fight with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after she declined to press charges related to a shootout that left one dead. When Lightfoot urged Foxx to reconsider and “look at the evidence,” Foxx said: “I was quite honestly mortified by what happened yesterday, particularly because the mayor, as a former prosecutor, knows that what she did yesterday was inappropriate.”
Nearly one in three felony defendants were set free? But we’re assured that Foxx’s policies of reduced or no bail for all but a tiny handful of defendants, vastly reduced jail sentences, and a desire to tie the hands of local law enforcement are necessary “reforms”?
Homicides in the city were up 50% in 2020 and will apparently see a spike in 2021 as well. To believe that policies that coddle criminals, tell them they’re victims of racism and police brutality, and allow them back on to the streets to continue to commit crimes don’t lead to an increase in violent crime is to deny reality.
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