Justice in Chicago

The high-pitched tone you hear is the sound of Elliot Ness spinning in his grave. From The London Daily Mail:

Top Chicago prosecutor Kim Foxx's office has dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases - including murders, shootings, sexual assaults and Jussie Smollett's 'hoax' attack

• • Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx dropped charges against 29.9% of felony defendants during her first three years in office, the Chicago Tribune found
  • Foxx's case dismissal rate is more than 35% higher than that of her predecessor
  • The state's attorney told the Tribune that its analysis gave an 'incomplete picture of her commitment to keeping the public safe'
  • She said she's dropped cases against low-level, nonviolent offenders so prosecutors can focus on violent crimes
  • But data showed Foxx's office has dismissed cases involving murder, shootings, sex crimes and serious drug offenses at a much higher rate than her predecessor
  • Foxx gained notoriety last year when her office dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett, the actor accused of staging a racist, anti-gay attack on himself

Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has dismissed more than 25,000 felony cases - including many involving charges of murder and other serious crimes - in her first three years on the job, a new report shows.

Foxx gained notoriety last year when she dropped felony charges against Jussie Smollett, the Empire actor accused of staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in January 2019.

The Chicago Tribune on Monday published an analysis of Foxx's overall record on dropping charges, revealing that she has done so at a rate that's 35 percent higher than her predecessor.

In the first three years after Foxx took over as Cook County's top prosecutor in 2016, her office dismissed all charges against 29.9 percent of felony defendants, the Tribune found.

By comparison, Foxx's predecessor Anita Alvarez dropped charges against just 19.4 percent of felony defendants over her last three years in office.

I thought the idea of being a County Attorney is that you are supposed to prosecute the criminals. It is not your job to be lenient and to drop the charges.

Reading between the lines, the population of Cook County, Illinois is 5,132,000 people. It is interesting to note that for the last five years, the growth rate has been negative with 24,000 people leaving in 2019. Compare this to 362,650 people moving in in 1970 and 620,930 in 1960.

Foxx dismissed about 30% of the total felony convictions - more than 25,000 felony cases. This makes the total number of felony cases a bit under 84,000 (83,333.33). That makes a felony rate of 1.64%. To rephrase this, in a population of 100 Cook County citizens, 1.6 of them have been arrested for felony charges.

I do not see any quick reference for crime demographics but I am betting that this rate is a lot higher than many other urban areas.

Welcome to the third world and it is not getting any better.