This is what you get when you fill state’s attorney offices with activist who happen to have a law degree. Criminals are let back out onto the streets — some of the violent felon variety — because of some prosecutor trying to “reform” the justice system on their own. Democratic Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx — yes the same Kim Foxx that dropped all charges against alleged hoaxer Jussie Smollett — seems to be one of those prosecutors.
According to an analysis by the Chicago Tribune released on Monday, Foxx has dropping more than 25,000 felony cases — including murder charges — in the last three years. That number is nearly 6,500 more than her predecessor Anita Alvarez during the same amount of time.
The Chicago Tribune reported:
During Foxx’s first three years as the county’s top prosecutor, her office dropped all charges against 29.9% of felony defendants, a dramatic increase over her predecessor, the Tribune found. For the last three years of Anita Alvarez’s tenure, the rate was 19.4%.
In all, a total of 25,183 people had their felony cases dismissed under Foxx through November 2019, up from 18,694 for a similar period under Alvarez.
This might be one of the answers to a question that people have been asking for a while now. Why is there so much violent crime in Chicago?
The Tribune reported that in talking to Foxx about the report, the State’s Attorney noted that her office has “dismissed cases against low-level, nonviolent offenders so prosecutors can concentrate on crimes of violence.”
The problem with Foxx’s excuse is that the Tribune also noted how a good percentage of the dropped cases by Foxx were alleged violent crimes.
For the three-year period analyzed, Foxx’s office dropped 8.1% of homicide cases, compared with 5.3% under Alvarez, the Tribune found. Under Foxx, the office dropped 9.5% of felony sex crime cases; the rate was 6.5% for Alvarez.
Foxx’s office also increased the rate of dropped cases for aggravated battery and for aggravated battery with a firearm. And under Foxx, the percentage of cases dropped for defendants accused of aggravated battery of a police officer more than doubled, from 3.9% to 8.1%.
Foxx is nationally known for her dismissal of 16 felony counts against “Empire” actor Smollett in 2019 after Smollett allegedly staged a racist and homophobic attack against himself that attempted to make supporters of President Donald Trump look bad.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Foxx said that people are “looking for answers no blame” in the wake of the rampant looting that savaged the downtown area of Chicago Sunday night.
Maybe if Foxx started going after criminals who are to blame, she’d get the “answers” she and other people are seeking. Just a thought.