Whoever follows Kim Foxx must continue the work of criminal justice reform.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has announced she will not seek a third term.
That’s a shame.
Six years ago Foxx defeated the incumbent Anita Alvarez as a result of a wave of public revulsion directed at her and Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the wake of the police murder of Lequan McDonald.
It reminded me and many others of the election that booted out State’s Attorney Ed Hanrahan in 1972 because of his role in the murder of Black Panther Illinois Chairman Fred Hampton.
The election of Foxx was part of a larger national movement to elect progressive advocates of criminal justice reform as prosecutors.
Among those who won office were Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Chesa Boudin in San Francisco and Kim Foxx among others.
Krasner has been elected twice.
Chesa Boudin lost a recall election in a campaign funded by some of the richest, racist Republicans in California and across the nation.
Kim Foxx has won her share of enemies as well. Chief among them has been John Catanzara and the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police.
John Catanzara and the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police protesting State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
But the facts are that Kim Foxx can be credited for being instrumental in Illinois adopting a whole series of criminal justice reforms, including ending cash bail for many non-violent offenses, and for turning Cook County into the national capital of reversing wrongful convictions.
Kim Foxx on a 2020 episode of Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers.
So when Foxx announced yesterday that she would not seek a third term I was disappointed.
It’s a shame that when our cities elect reform leaders, especially when they are Black women, they don’t receive the kind of support that sustains them.
Reports are that there are already many who are planning to run to replace Foxx.
I hope we find someone who continues the work Kim Foxx started.