Yesterday Eileen O’Neill Burke was sworn in as Cook County States Attorney, replacing the execrable Kim Foxx. The editors of the Chicago Tribune declaim:
Speaking specifically about domestic violence after swearing in newly elected Cook County judges, Evans on , “There are gaps in the system that I hope we can work on with the incoming state’s attorney.”
O’Neill Burke’s solution to those “gaps” is clear: Those charged with committing violent crimes will be presumed dangerous, and her office will be asking Evans’ judges to protect the public from them while their cases are adjudicated. How will Evans respond? Will he wait for more tragedies like Beldie’s killing to take action, judge by judge? Or, will he nod to the public’s desire, reflected in O’Neill Burke’s election, for a tougher approach to violent crime?
Under the landmark SAFE-T Act, the 2021 law (amended in 2022) that ended cash bail in Illinois, prosecutors and judges play huge roles in keeping dangerous people off the streets as they await trial. A judge can’t order a defendant detained if prosecutors don’t first make the request. And then, when prosecutors do ask for detention, judges have to agree. Any mistake from either party can lead to tragedy.
The system can’t be foolproof. As Evans noted in his interview, “Humans are running the system,” and they aren’t perfect. But we surely can do a better job of protecting the public than we have been doing.
What does doing a better job constitute? It means putting the concerns of victims before those of accused criminals (or paroled criminals, for that matter); it means displaying zero tolerance for the carrying or use of illegal weapons; it means protecting women when they’re threatened by their partners or ex-partners.
In those respects and more, Eileen O’Neill Burke has started to check all of the right boxes.
As I have pointed out before one of our greatest present problems is that the police, states attorney, and judges all need to be aligned. Ms. Burke appears to have her head screwed on right and, based on the quoted remarks, at least some judges are starting to come around as well.
We’ll see.
