The two most powerful Black women in Chicago are beefing and it’s not pretty.
Apparently, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (who once dressed as Rona Destroyer) ran out here and noted that she was pissed that there had not been charges filed in a fatal shooting on Chicago’s West Side last week. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx found Lightfoot’s comments to be mad annoying since there hadn’t even been a full investigation of the case.
“We will continue to work with our partners in law enforcement to ensure that the necessary work is done so that we may bring charges and ultimately secure a conviction for those that engage in the violence that we have seen across this city,” Foxx said at a news conference, the Chicago Tribune reports. “That is our mission. It is not to try cases in the media nor to play politics on the deaths of children, and veterans, and people in our community.”
From the Tribune:
Foxx’s pointed comments marked the second day of dueling news conferences between City Hall and the county’s top prosecutor, which started Monday after Lightfoot said she was concerned by a decision by Foxx’s office not to bring charges related to a Friday morning exchange of gunfire where four people exited two vehicles and shot into a home on North Mason Avenue, and people inside fired at them, according to authorities.
One person was killed and the shooters outside the home fled during the incident, which was also witnessed by police officers and caught on a city street camera. But prosecutors declined to press murder charges, saying there wasn’t enough clear evidence to support a case due to grainy video and uncooperative witnesses.
Lightfoot slammed Foxx’s office Monday, claiming that there was enough evidence to bring a case and that not bringing charges against the men involved would lead to “chaos.”
Foxx then called her own news conference to call Lightfoot’s comments a political stunt like when former Mayor Jane Byrne moved into the Cabrini-Green housing project in 1981. Foxx also noted that Lightfoot’s comments about there being enough evidence to bring charges “simply weren’t true.” Foxx added that the job of the state’s attorney was to get a conviction, and in order to do that, evidence has to be “held in the highest integrity.”
That’s cool and all except the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois agreed with Lightfoot and police Superintendent David Brown, “who has been critical of Foxx’s office in the past and also believes charges should be filed in the shooting case,” the Tribune reports.
The ACLU issued a statement noting that both Lightfoot and Foxx “need to end the finger-pointing and blame game and get serious about addressing the spike in gun violence.”
Also from the Tribune:
In her news conference, Foxx pointed to rising violence not just in Cook County but around the country and added the state’s attorney office is being called “to operate in truly trying times,” which means cases need to be handled thoroughly and kept out of the media.
Foxx said the only way to move forward from increasing crime is to work together to find solutions supported by data, create trust in the criminal justice system and not lay blame or “lie about evidence.”
“What I’ve seen is a need for a quick answer,” she said. “‘Oh, it’s the state’s attorney office. Oh, it’s the police.’ It’s not. And I get it.”
Lightfoot did not back down from her criticism, however. At a news conference hours after Foxx spoke, Lightfoot said she’s asked the U.S. attorney’s office to consider filing charges in the case and wants an explanation from Foxx for why her office hasn’t brought charges.
“I’d like her to explain because I can’t explain it,” Lightfoot said. “I’m getting calls from residents. I’m getting calls from other officials. We have to understand how it’s possible when this kind of shootout is captured on film that there were no charges on any person even though people were brought into custody and arrested.”
Lightfoot did note that she plans to have a meeting with Foxx to hash out said issues.
“Everybody’s got to be working together, but we can’t send a message that it’s OK and you get a pass that you shoot up a residence in broad daylight captured on film and no consequences will happen,” Lightfoot said. “That can’t be the world we live in.”