Smollett [non] prosecutor faces tough reelection fight

There’s good news and bad news about Kim Foxx, the Cook County state’s attorney who dropped all charges against actor Jussie Smollett after he staged a fake racist/homophobic attack against himself. The good news is that, according to the Washington Post, Foxx is facing vigorous challenges to her reelection. The bad news is that her main challenger agrees with Foxx on criminal justice policy.

Foxx is part of the wave of new ultra-leftist prosecutors who are, in effect, decriminalizing crime. In fact, she was at the vanguard of that movement, which stands for cutting criminals loose without bail, lenient sentences for “non-violent” offenders (broadly defined), non-enforcement of criminal laws deemed insufficiently woke, and making life difficult for police officers.

Thus, it’s heartening to learn that she may be in political difficulty. It’s disheartening, though, to learn that her “decriminalization of crime” policies are not under fire.

Foxx’s opponents in the Democratic primary are all over her for the Smollett case. However, they cast their critique in leftist terms — Foxx’s handling of the case demonstrates that she “caters to the rich and famous.”

Well, yes, that’s part of it — and typical of the left. But Smollett isn’t just rich and famous. He’s a “fourfer” — black, gay, Hollywood, and connected to the Obamas (through Tina Tchen, Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff).

Thus Foxx’s rivals are probably off base when they infer from her treatment of Smollett that she can’t be counted on to prosecute white-collar crime and public corruption. She can be counted on to prosecute such offenses with a vengeance if the alleged offenders fall on the wrong side of the political spectrum and/or identity politics continuum. If they fall on the right side, their chances of skating, or at leniency, will be excellent.

I strongly suspect that the same is true of the candidates who are trying to replace Foxx.

Even so, I hope one of them succeeds. Foxx’s is a scalp worth taking on general principles.

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