Sly like a fox. The keen member of the family Canidae, that is. The phrase certainly doesn’t describe Kim Foxx, Illinois state’s attorney for Cook County. The controversial figure launched herself into the headlines over the Jussie Smollett hoax case and is a continual poster child for how to do your job in the most egregious, inefficient way. Foxx’s department has lost 235 people in a little over a year, and crime in the Windy City is blowing near Al Capone record levels, seemingly ignored and unchecked by prosecutors. Yes, there is a link. And no, she isn’t taking any of the responsibility.
Most recently, after being asked to volunteer at an understaffed court traffic department, four high-profile attorneys from the Felony Review Unit skedaddled – three on the same day – and fingers are wagging toward the state’s attorney herself. All this rigamarole follows a scathing resignation letter sent to the entire department in July from a 25-year veteran Cook County prosecutor. Jim Murphy, an assistant state’s attorney, said he “cannot continue to work for an Administration I don’t respect.” He wrote, “I wish I could stay … However, I can no longer work for this Administration. I have zero confidence in their leadership.”
That raises a fundamental question: Who in Illinois does have confidence in Kim Foxx?
How Bad Could It Be?
Former Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Dan Kirk, and one-time colleague of Foxx, says he believes the SA is competent and a “great individual,” which is about all the praise he seemed able to muster:
“Foxx’s implemented policies that have made Chicago less safe, that have made people feel unsafe and emboldened criminals, and created this new level of seeing brazenness among criminals that was unimaginable prior to her tenure. But I also think that her term in office of state’s attorney has been an abysmal failure from the perspective of what it’s done to the state attorney’s office in recent years. The most senior people have all left the office in this mass exodus.”
How did Kim Foxx react? Well, she blamed COVID and the Great Resignation of 2022. But that makes little to zero sense as all other departments have gained or maintained their current roster of attorneys since the pandemic. Kirk continued, “I hear it every day … I still know of hundreds of people in office, and I only hear one unanimous message from them, which is that morale has never been lower in the office … They believe that the administration puts politics and PR first above victims.”
Kirk was interviewed by Fox News Digital about Ms. Foxx. He spoke with news analyst Gianno Caldwell, who recently lost his brother to gun violence in the city. Caldwell says nothing is being done to solve the murder and prosecute the crime. And Foxx is apparently indifferent at best in doing the job she gets paid $278,940 a year to do. According to Caldwell, “She’s dropped 25,000 cases, including felony murder and rape. She has shown herself to be a prosecutor who’s fully derelict in her duties. If you have a boss who has no interest in fighting crime, then what’s the point?”
Kim Foxx (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images for EMILY’S List)
The answer seems to be progressive pandering and public relations. Unfortunately, the prosecutor is the player who kicks the ball across the goalpost on behalf of a victim. And Kim Foxx appears to be hanging out in the locker room while crimes classified as violent – including burglary, robbery, theft, and motor vehicle theft – are up 37% on average compared to each of the previous four years. Even the local media stations in Chicago run a daily tally of gun violence in the streets.
And during a resurgence in violent crime, Illinois passed the SAFE-T Act. For those not living in the state, the controversial SAFE-T Act – Illinois Safety, Accountability, Fairness, and Equity Today Act – is a comprehensive criminal reform attempt. When this initiative goes into effect in January 2023, law enforcement cannot purchase military-style equipment, weaponized vehicles, or aircraft, and there can be no more chokeholds in restraining suspects. It also orders officers to stop others from using excessive force while making arrests.
Instead of doing their jobs, prosecutors under Kim Foxx must rely on criminals reforming themselves and law enforcement policing each other. How is this constructive? Longtime businesses have shuttered windows permanently, factories have moved to safer cities, and crime is still rampant. The governor and legislature might need to coax their state’s attorney out of the foxhole to do the people’s work. And sooner rather than later, before the Windy City reverts to Al Capone’s playground.
