This isn’t a Chicago story. It’s a Democratic Party story.
Kim Foxx, the state’s attorney for Cook County and darling of MSNBC, has managed to increase murders in Chicago to astounding levels even at a time when we’re all getting used to astounding crime figures. Nationwide in 2020, murder and non-negligent manslaughter were up 29.4%, according to the FBI. That’s more than double the previous record of 1968, when murders increased by 12.7%.
Under the careful management of Foxx, murders in Chicago were up 55%. To put this in perspective, last year, there were nearly as many murders in Chicago (population: 2.7 million) as in New York City and Los Angeles combined (total population: more than 12 million).
Perhaps you’ve heard about the Wild West shootout in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago two weeks ago? One group of gang members shot up the house of rival gang members at around 10 in the morning. They blasted the house with more than 70 rounds, using handguns that had been modified into automatic weapons. Their rivals fired back from inside the home, in a gun battle that lasted so long, it was still going on when the police arrived.
All of this took place in full view of police street cameras, as well as the first officers on the scene.
Police arrested the two gang members from the hospital, as well as the three gunmen inside the home.
Foxx refused to bring charges against any of them on the grounds that it was “mutual combat.” At this point, the Chicago PD’s only option may be to resubmit charges on environmental grounds — polluting the air with lead.
Who knew that when Foxx talked about not prosecuting the small stuff, she was talking about murder and mass shootings? In today’s Chicago, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is legal.
Foxx’s bullheaded refusal to prosecute in this case was a shock to everyone in the country, except anyone living in Chicago. This is nothing new for the Democrats’ favorite DA. The police ought to put together a calendar of Foxx’s Released Murderer of the Month.
In July it was the murderer of Chrys Carvajal, a 19-year-old National Guardsman who was gunned down when he stepped out of a house party over Fourth of July weekend. Three eyewitnesses and video evidence led the police to a notoriously violent 38-year-old gang member.