The head of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police joined chiefs from several suburban police departments in calling for Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx to step down following her office's handling of the Jussie Smollett prosecution.
"Ms. Foxx needs to resign and she should do it quickly," Chicago FOP President Kevin Graham said during a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Already this month, groups of suburban police chiefs have issued a vote of no confidence in Foxx after her office decided to drop more than a dozen felony disorderly conduct charges against Smollett, reports WTTW.
Duane Mellema, president of the North Suburban Association Chiefs of Police, cited that case in a letter to Foxx, calling it the "latest and most egregious example of the failure by you and your staff to hold offenders accountable."
Mellema joined Graham at Thursday's press conference, where he called the dismissal "particularly worrisome" because of what he called a "complete lack of communication and failure to follow established procedures."
The Smollett case made national headlines during the investigation and only grew larger once charges in the case were abruptly dismissed.
Despite the timing of his statements, Graham insists his union's issues with Foxx pre-date the Smollett case, pointing to issues of officer safety and her office's work to free people who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes – people Graham said "should be remaining in jail."
"This didn't start with Jussie Smollett," he said. "It's a continuous problem. We need to have a prosecutor who is going to charge people when they commit a crime. If there's no charges and nobody goes to jail then obviously the law doesn't mean anything to anyone. That's a problem."
