The mounting feud between Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx over a daylight shootout in the Austin neighborhood in which SA Foxx has refused to file any charges against anyone is severe enough that even the editors of the Chicago Sun-Times are moved to comment:
This was a shocking incident, even in a city that seems increasingly inured to daily violence, caught on video and described by one source as “just like the Wild West.†More than 70 shell casings were found, and many more shots likely were fired. Police apparently arrived in time to witness at least part of the shootout.
Who can blame anybody for asking: “If charges can’t be filed in a case like this, when can they?â€
Who can blame anybody for thinking that the handling of this case will embolden thugs to shoot and kill with even greater abandon?
Reporter Tom Schuba wrote in Monday’s Sun-Times that the firefight, which left one shooter dead and two suspects wounded, grew out of an internal dispute between two factions of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang, according to an internal police report and a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation.
At least three individuals reportedly jumped out of two cars and began to shoot into a brick house. Those inside the house fired back. When the shooting stopped, those in the house refused to come out until a SWAT team arrived.
Schuba’s source said police sought to charge all five suspects with murder and aggravated battery. But instead, after discussion with prosecutors, the suspects were released without charges. On Monday, police said an investigation is continuing.
Here’s the critical part of the editorial:
Late in the evening on Monday, Foxx responded with a statement that read in part: “The detectives reached out to our office on Friday and acknowledged at the outset that given the chaotic nature at the scene they were unable to determine how the events unfolded. We reviewed the evidence that was presented to us in consultation with the detectives and they agreed we were unable to approve charges based on the evidence presented.â€
Nothing? No charges? Of any sort? Though the cops arrived at the scene before the shoot-out ended? Yes, let’s hope this is not the end on this case.
A police report reportedly stated Foxx’s office cited “mutual combatants†as a reason not to press charges. “Mutual combatants†is a phrase cops use to describe, for example, two people who agree to go outside a bar and fight. Police infamously used the concept as an excuse not to investigate the case of David Koschman, the young man who died in 2004 after being punched by a nephew of a former mayor.
But on Monday, lawyers with both defense and prosecutorial backgrounds told us the idea of “mutual combatants†simply does not apply here. Not when there’s a lethal firefight in broad daylight.
That no charges were filed is absurd. There is a law on the books in Illinois banning “aggravated discharge” of a firearm. At the very least such charges should have been leveled. There’s a pretty clear prima facie case for such charges in a number of cases. Refusal to file charges under the circumstances is, at the very last, unethical.
Back at election time I opposed the re-election of Kim Foxx on the grounds that she wasn’t particularly interested in filling the statutory role for states attorneys. Her actual interests were in a role that doesn’t exist, sort of an über public defender.
The Sun-Times endorsed her.
You can’t have it both ways. Either you think that illegal use of firearms is a serious problem or you don’t. If you think it is, then enforcing laws against such uses is a necessity. Enforcing the law is the job of a states attorney.
The problem is NOT the black gangbangers. The problem everywhere is the elected black officials and middle class and upper class blacks who incite the gang violence and protect the perps. The same problem exists in Portland and Seattle, although there it is the White elected officials and White middle and upper classes who protect Antifa.
Chicago does not have a gun problem nor a gang problem. It has a black upper and middle class problem. Until something is done about the Obamas, the Lightfoots, the Foxxs et al. the gangs will continue to run amok.
Peter Turchin, the demographic and economic historian at UConn, believes that civil wars and social disruptions are fights between the elites and wannabe elites. They occur as result of elite overproduction and competition for scarce goods like mayoralties and senate seats.
It is hard to think of Obama or Lightfoot or Foxx as elite, but the term refers to possessors of power and not to possessors of merit.
And, the cherry on the sundae, we have a senile pedophile as President.
PS. A full-blown fuel crisis has descended on the world. Natural gas prices in Europe have quadrupled over the last year, reaching $1/cu m, and there may be wide spread power outages across Europe this winter. Oil hit $79/bbl of WTI crude, the highest level in the last few years. And coal is in short supply everywhere. Factories in Europe, Britain, and China are closing for lack of fuel and electricity.
Part of this is supply change disruptions due to the actions of our governments, part is due to disinvestment in fossil fuel production, and part is OPEC flexing its muscle. 80% of all our energy usage comes from fossil fuels, and demand is increasing, even demand for coal and coal-fired power stations.
Back in the day when most of the cops were Irish, I’ve heard that they sent the Italian kids to prison for crimes but just gave the little Micks an ear boxing and sent them home.
Do Blacks feel sympathy for even the worst of their own, because they are their own?
Agree there could have been charges, but need to answer the question of who shot first. BTW, in many states shooting into a occupied building is a felony offense. If any are felons, federal charges of felon in possession are possible.
But what I suspect is that Chicago’s Black ruling class demurred bringing charges out of sympathy for their Brothers’ wrongdoing by no fault of their own but only as a result or reaction to hundreds of years of white oppression aggravated by today’s ongoing systemic racism brought to a boil by daily microaggressions that African American pharmaceutical entrepreneurs endure on a daily basis at the hands of the Racist police.
“Back at election time I opposed the re-election of Kim Foxx on the grounds that she wasn’t particularly interested in filling the statutory role for states attorneys.”
Multi-factorial seems to be the phrase of the month. Well, almost everything is multi-factorial.
The gangs are surely the proximate issue. That people are scared to be snitches, or have other motivations is also a factor. But who wouldn’t be scared of being vocal and brave when the Foxx’s of the world just swoop in and abdicate their responsibilities. You get hung out to dry. Foxx knows who butters her bread and what he wants: George Soros. $2MM to the PAC that supported her, of which at least $500K went to her.
Well. Scrap that last part. Even though its been widely reported, a doctor who reads technical papers better than other human beings informed me Soros is just a right wing boogeyman. So we should go with that, he being a doctor and all that.
At least you understood the beast who was running, Dave. Things won’t change in IL (or St Louis, where a Soros funded Foxx clone resides) until people wake up or cast off their partisan blinders.
Sorry Drew, this is all my fault. I had breakfast last week at a chain restaurant. The CEO of the restaurant chain supports liberal causes. He donated $100,000 to a PAC which sent money to another PAC which supported Foxx. I accept full blame for getting Foxx elected. Will avoid that chain in the future.
Steve