Portland’s new district attorney was not alone in courting complaints by taking a lenient approach to prosecuting protesters. Similar backlash is growing in Chicago, where top prosecutor Kim Foxx faces criticism for choosing not to pursue felony charges against some of the people arrested for looting, the Washington Post reports. Foxx is standing by reforms she has put in place, including raising the standard for felony theft from a minimum of $300 to $1,000 in stolen goods, a threshold that Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said is a factor in allowing repeat offenders to cycle through the court system.
Foxx countered that of the 5,000 arrests police made in the policing protests through late June, 29 percent were felonies. Her office said police sought felony charges in 25 of the more than 100 cases arising from last weekend’s looting, and 24 were approved, including aggravated battery of a police officer, criminal damage to property, unlawful use of a weapon, and burglary/looting. But Democratic city Alderman Raymond Lopez told the Chicago business publication Crain’s that he will not support Foxx’s reelection campaign this fall. “She’s a bad candidate, and she’s giving our whole party a black eye,” he said. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, also a Democrat and political ally of Foxx’s, said she talked with the top prosecutor about the importance of charging the looters with felonies. She said police are scanning hundreds of hours of video from city-owned and store-operated cameras to strengthen the cases they present to Foxx. “We are doing everything we can, sparing no resource, to bring [the looters] to justice,” Lightfoot said.