Chicago's Police Superintendent, Mayor Slam Prosecutor for Soft Treatment of Looters

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In the wake of widespread looting and mayhem in Chicago's downtown Magnificent Mile Sunday and Monday, the city's top police officer and its mayor both say the Cook County State's Attorney needs to be tougher on looters.

“Criminals took to the streets with the confidence there is no consequence for their actions,” Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said, implying State’s Attorney Kim Foxx's reforms have emboldened criminals, especially rioters and looters.

A Chicago Tribune investigation found that during Foxx’s first three years, her office dropped all charges against nearly 30 percent of felony defendants; during the same time period of her predecessor, the rate was 19 percent.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot was more direct about the need for the state’s attorney’s office and the courts to “step up,” the Washington Post reports.

“Put your best people on this,” Lightfoot said. “We have made the case — we have the video, we have the officer testimony — that these people need to be held accountable and not cycled through the system. And judges that are holding these cases — you need to step up and be responsible. We can’t continue to allow this to happen, for people to believe there is no accountability through our criminal justice system. No one wants to hold people in jail because they are poor. But people who are engaged in this kind of criminal activity, they need to be held accountable. And we cannot do it alone.”

Speaking with reporters Monday, Foxx suggested that the police department has not brought her office enough cases that warrant felony charges.