State’s Attorney Kim Foxx: A Pioneer for Justice – By Emma Young
Kwame is a 23-year-old husband and father of a three-year-old. A devoted family man, he supports his family by working low-paying temp jobs and receiving government benefits, despite having several certifications that qualify him for above-minimum wage jobs. Five years ago, at the age of 18, Kwame was sitting in a car with some friends, one of whom was smoking marijuana. All four young men were charged with possessing marijuana and that conviction has prevented Kwame from obtaining meaningful employment. This story is nothing new. Kwame could be anybody living in Cook County, especially in one of Chicago’s West Side or South Side neighborhoods. Kwame is looking forward to an expungement and a new lease on life thanks to the progressive initiative of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. In December 2019 Foxx kicked off the first wave in a mass effort to automatically clear tens of thousands of low-level marijuana convictions from court records. She presented the county’s Chief Judge, Tim Evans, with the first of about 1,000 petitions during a special hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Christa A. Hamilton, Executive Director of Centers for New Horizons, a non-profit agency that services people like Kwame is very pleased with the progress Kim Foxx’s office has made thus far. She states, “Each year, a significant number of individuals are excluded from the job market, due to marijuana offenses and suspended driver’s licenses. Therefore, Kim’s relentless advocacy to change these policies/laws will immediately open at least 50 percent more opportunities for the population of people dealing with these issues.” Hamilton makes the very good point that the ability of a person to gain employment has a residual positive impact on the entire family, which overflows into the entire community, then unto the city.
Deborah Harrington, CEO of Harrington Group agrees with Hamilton’s assessment. “Kim Foxx touches many areas of the lives of Black and Brown people and she uses the power of her office for justice and equity for everyone,” says Harrington. “For example, she focuses on the fees and fines that a lot of people can’t afford, which systematically hurts people in lower-income communities. Then people languish in jail because they can’t pay cash bonds for minor offenses.”
Harrington also points out the fact that Kim Foxx was born and raised in the Cabrini Green projects. “So a part of who she is and her value system comes from where she came from and her experiences,” says Harrington. “She’s committed to fixing our justice system and we’ve made progress under her leadership. We can’t afford to go backward,” says Harrington. “Harrington firmly believes that Foxx is a proven choice, “So much has happened positively and we can’t afford to let the detractors and a false narrative turn people way.”
There are many detractors including the FOP, who want the County to return to its racist tactics of the past. Bob Fioretti, who has a history of running failed campaigns against Black women (Madeline Haithcock, Patricia Van Pelt Watkins, Toni Preckwinkle, and now Kim Foxx). Also weighing in is Bill Conway, an obscure public defender whose misleading ad starring his client, attempts to intimate that the woman received entirely different treatment from Jussie Smollett. In reality, the cases were so diametrically opposite it would be like comparing a murderer to a loiterer.
Speaking of Jussie Smollett, Dan Webb the special prosecutor assigned to investigate the case, concluded that he found no wrongdoing on Kim Foxx’s part. That should end the drama right there. Also, by re-indicting Smollett, Webb’s grand jury indicted on only six counts, 10 down from the 16 counts that originally would have carried a ridiculous 60-65 years (according to one account) if convicted.
In offering Smollett Community Service and the forfeiture of his bail, this writer contends that Kim Foxx’s State’s Attorney’s office did the right thing. Not only was Smollett ridiculously overcharged for a minor victimless misdemeanor, but his guilt is still questionable. The only two witnesses, the two Nigerians, have been sent back to Nigeria, negating the possibility of a fair trial – especially with President Trump’s recent ban against allowing Nigerians into the country.
They claim that is a “scandal.” They also claim the fact that Ald. Ed Burke donated $10,000 to her campaign is a scandal. However, after Burke was indicted on corruption charges in May 2019, Foxx immediately donated his $10,000 contribution, splitting the money between the Equal Justice Initiative and the Brian Sleet Memorial Fellowship at Chicago Votes. There was no “deal” as Conway’s commercial falsely claims.
Those situations are far from the “scandals” that Conway, Fioretti and the FOP are claiming, and do not come close to the real scandals that are part of the office of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s history.
For instance, in 1969, former Cook County State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan led a raid on Black Panther headquarters that culminated in the assassinations of Mark Clark and Fred Hampton, who were both unarmed and sleeping at the time. Now that’s a scandal! Or, Former Cook County State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley’s scandalous actions in rejecting the request to investigate Jon Burge’s torture of Andrew Wilson, which resulted in “scores of additional African American men being tortured by Burge and his men during the next decade” (People’s Law Office.com).
A recent scandal took place when Foxx’s predecessor, Anita Alverez was sued for her part in a “broad scheme to undermine efforts to expose wrongful convictions.” In light of the progress toward real justice that Kim Foxx has made in the State’s Attorney’s office, it would be a shame to return the office to the same racist mindsets that perpetrated those scandals which resulted in the abuse, wrongful convictions and false imprisonment of Black and Brown citizens for decades.
Sister Afrika Porter, acclaimed writer, author, film producer, public relations expert and executive producer of a new film, “Chicago at the Crossroad,” remembers as a child growing up on the Southside of Chicago hearing “Crooked County,” before she ever knew of “Cook County. She says, “For years, we’ve grown up, lived under and were prosecuted under an unfair, corrupt, disenfranchised Criminal Justice System in the State of Illinois.” She notes that in the few short years Foxx has been in office, “Violent crimes have decreased as well as incarceration rates.”
Mark Wallace, Executive Director of the Committee to Abolish Red Light Cameras has been in the fight for justice a long time, and he welcomes the innovative inroads Foxx has made in her quest for fairness within Cook County’s justice system. “Nobody in the history of that office has done the kind of prosecutorial reform that Kim Foxx has.” He notes that she is “reviewing cases of nonviolent offenders and doing the kinds of mass resentencing or expungements and overall reforms that are resulting in more justice for the Black community than we have ever seen before.” He points out that people in other cities and states are following Foxx’s lead, using her initiatives and tactics as a model for criminal justice reform measures within their states and cities.
Christa Hamilton agrees and adds that “Kim Foxx has gained the momentum needed to restore trust and legitimacy in the Cook County State’s Attorney office for ALL constituencies. She has challenged the status quo and is working diligently to create an environment of fairness, particularly for those who have been marginalized by the system.” “It seems that the Office now has the vision and compassion to protect both the rights of petty offenders, victims of a sanctuary city,” Hamilton pointed out. She also stated, “Kim has made significant progress in a short amount of time – which speaks to her work ethic and commitment to “Liberty and Justice for All.” Of the many initiatives that Kim Foxx has brought to the office, the one that stands out the most for Hamilton is the Gun Crimes Strategies Unit (GCSU), the goal of which is to bring prosecutors to a local level to target violent crimes. Sister Afrika Porter agrees, “Kim Foxx is doing what has never been done before, taking prosecutors to neighborhoods on the South and West sides of Chicago where there has been generational disinvestment.”
According to data compiled by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, “Between 2016 and 2018 gun violence declined faster in the five GCSU districts than in the city as a whole. Cook County prosecutors embedded in those districts have led the City of Chicago in referring enhanced gun charges for Armed Habitual Criminals (AHC), a Class X felony, for prosecution. Ron Holt, father of teenager Blair Holt who was murdered in 2007 feels Foxx is doing a good job in the area of reforming the office and looking at cases that are necessary to prosecute, as opposed to cases that are not. Holt is especially pleased that she is prosecuting a lot more gun cases and violent crimes instead of frivolous cases that clog the system and cause unnecessary paperwork.
“I’m a parent who lost a child to gun violence some years ago,” says Holt. “I’m glad she is focusing on and giving attention to parents whose cases don’t have any closure. No one knows what it’s like to lose a child and how important it is to have the right people in place to prosecute effectively.” Holt says that Foxx’s office has reached out to many of those parents. Holt also says she is bringing justice to the Cook County State’s Attorney office by “unearthing cases of Black men who had been wrongfully convicted or had forced confessions.” Holt says, “These men have sat in prison for quite some time. Her office has turned the page and released them so they can get back to some semblance of life.”
“Kim Foxx keeps it real,” said Christa Hamilton. “As a Black woman from one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago, she has learned to be bi-lingual, which means she has never lost her edge. But she can level set with the guys on the block or before a judge in the courtroom. That means a lot for the Black and Brown communities who have been underrepresented in the past.”
Democratic Presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsed Kim Foxx, calling her “a seasoned advocate” and a “champion invested in rethinking the county’s approach to criminal justice reform.” More recently, State’s Attorney Foxx was endorsed by Democratic Presidential frontrunner Senator Bernie Sanders, who predicted that she will “fundamentally transform our racist and broken criminal justice system.”
The LaQuann McDonald scandal gave us a chance to put a real reformer into the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Now the racists are trying to get that office back so they can continue business as usual. The FOP especially wants the office back so that white racist officer can continue to murder unarmed Black and Brown men and women with no fear of prosecution. Anita Alvarez, when backed into a corner with no recourse but to charge Jason Van Dyke, charged him with first-degree murder, knowing that charge would result in an acquittal. By adding second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, Kim Foxx assured a conviction. That’s the kind of smart and fair decision-making we need in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.
Congressman Danny K. Davis sums it up: “Kim Foxx, for those of us who believe in criminal justice reform is like “Manna from Heaven.” She is the epitome of what people like me have been fighting for over the last 20 years. Kim Foxx recognizes that people should not be locked up, hamstrung and locked out for life because of a misdemeanor or minor crime. She said that’s what she was going to do when she was running for election, and that’s what she’s been doing. And I’m going to do everything in my power between now and the March 17th Primary to make sure Kim Foxx is re-elected.”
