For years, Chicago politicians, police officers, and residents have complained about Cook County state’s attorney Kim Foxx’s “catch-and-release” policy. Serial shoplifters and carjackers routinely get turned loose after booking and have roamed the streets without apparent consequences. Since October 8, “peaceful protesters” against Israel have joined the chaos. Their ongoing protests throughout the city have led the Democratic National Committee to prepare for disruption both inside and outside of the arena. Concern among Democratic leaders is so great that even Foxx got the message, promising that her office would hold protesters accountable—but only during the DNC.
Foxx has long followed a noll pross policy for protests that her office deems “peaceful.” Since the George Floyd demonstrations convulsed the city in 2020, Foxx has declined to pursue charges for criminal violations committed during left-wing events. She reinforced that policy in November 2023, when she issued a memo reiterating that anti-Israel protesters should not be prosecuted. Last month, she drew criticism from progressive activists after she told the Chicago Tribune that her office would drop this policy during the DNC.
As of last month, Foxx’s years-long amnesty approach was apparently still in effect: the state’s attorney dropped misdemeanor charges against the self-styled “O’Hare 40” on June 4. The nom de guerre refers to 40 anti-Israel protesters arrested for blocking Interstate 90 at O’Hare International Airport on April 14. Predictably, they were released soon after booking. (Meanwhile, Foxx pursued felony assault charges against a man who threw a Big Gulp at her.)
But now the City of Chicago has thrown a curveball. The city’s law department has pressed misdemeanor charges against the 40 arrestees. It turns out that obstructing traffic violates a city ordinance and can carry jail time. It turns out that the city has its own prosecutors on staff. And it turns out, too, that the citizens of Chicago have not been solely at the mercy of Foxx, their progressive Cook County prosecutor, but city leaders more broadly, who have at their disposal a municipal code that authorizes the city’s law department to bring charges for sundry offenses, several of which carry the possible consequence of imprisonment. Instead of using these tools, Johnson has chosen to allow petty crime to proliferate, degrading the city’s safety and quality of life—all the while allowing the public to believe that Foxx holds sole prosecutorial discretion.
On July 18, the O’Hare 40 held a press conference outside City Hall. Together with Chicago alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez (who drew criticism earlier this year for speaking at a rally where a U.S. flag was burned to protest American support for Israel), they decried the city’s trampling of their “First Amendment right” to peaceful protest, as well as the mayor’s politically motivated prosecution, which they linked to the DNC.
Shutting down an expressway isn’t peaceful protest, and it certainly isn’t protected by the First Amendment. But the protesters have one thing right: theirs is absolutely a selective prosecution. Chicago has shown that it can enforce law and order when it chooses. It’s time for the city to do so for its long-suffering residents, instead of serving as private security and prosecutor for the Democratic Party.
Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images