On December 1st, the reign of error of Kim Foxx’s two terms as the Cook County State’s Attorney ended as the new prosecutor, Eileen O’Neill Burke, was sworn into office.
Burke, a Democrat who previously served as an Illinois First District Appellate Court Justice before retiring to run for the office she now holds, pledged during her campaign to be tougher and smarter on crime than her predecessor, who chose not to seek a third term.
Barely a month in, O’Neill Burke has wasted no time in staying true to her word, with felony prosecutions for retail theft skyrocketing, according to a report from CWBChicago:
Shoplifters in Chicago are being slapped with felony charges 154% more often under Cook County’s new state’s attorney than they were under Kim Foxx’s administration.Retired justice Eileen O’Neill Burke took office on December 2 and immediately followed through on her campaign promise to adhere to state law by pursuing felonies against people who shoplift merchandise worth more than $300. Foxx ordered prosecutors to withhold felony charges unless the value exceeded $1,000 or the accused shoplifter had ten or more previous convictions.
For business leaders in Cook County, O’Neill Burke’s approach has been a welcome change after years of frustration over soft-on-crime policies from Foxx led to repeat offenders wreaking havoc on retail establishments:
“It’s going to help all business,” said Dave Garfield of Garfield’s Beverage Warehouse, which has locations in Old Town, Wicker Park/Bucktown, and several suburbs. “Certain products, we only put so much on the shelf—because we know they’re specifically targeted.”[…]Garfield represents the voice of small retailers across Cook County according to Rob Karr, president and chief executive officer of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association.”There’s hope,” Karr said. “The more strenuous approach on crime will discourage those—as you’ve noted and documented so well over the years, organized retail crime has become far more violent and confrontational and damaging.”
Though there has been some debate about how – and whether – O’Neill Burke will carry over any of the criminal justice “reforms” from Foxx’s time in office, there’s little debate about the impact of the changes she’s made so far and how that dovetails with what’s happening in other left-wing bastions elsewhere:
“I think the way that the country has been moving, this happened in California in this past election, there is a bit of a swing of the pendulum back to people who are not branding themselves as progressive prosecutors, people who have more small conservative goals for a prosecutor’s office,” [University of Chicago law professor Erica] Zunkel said.
Indeed. As we previously reported, the crime crackdowns have already started in California as well, with law enforcement officers and prosecutors alike taking full advantage of the voter-approved Proposition 36, which was an attempt at reversing parts of the disastrous soft-on-crime Proposition 47 that voters passed in 2014.
In addition to that, Alameda County voters recalled far-left District Attorney Pamela Price, and in Los Angeles County, Soros-backed District Attorney George Gascón was given his walking papers, losing his reelection bid.
Going into 2025, criminals in the Golden State and Chicago – two of the bluest areas in the nation – have been put on notice thanks to voter-backed initiatives and candidates who have made clear that their number one priority is making their communities safer again. This is another stunning defeat for the Defund the Police movement, which hasn’t given up but continues to be rejected at the ballot box in places you wouldn’t expect.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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