Heads up, everybody! Heads up! Kim Foxx, the State’s Attorney of Cook County, wants us to know she is instructing prosecutors in her office not to prosecute people who are driving cars that are stopped by police for routine traffic violations, then searched for illegal guns and drugs. She says too many people are stopped because they’re Black or Latino, most of whom she says are not found to be carrying poor hiding drugs or guns. In other words, the problem is more racial than criminal. The police are saying that stopping and searching is the best way to prevent guns and drugs from doing damage to Chicago neighborhoods, especially neighborhoods on the West and South sides. The State’s Attorney says she’s facing increasingly more incidents involving police stopping people of color. Some members of the Chicago City Council are saying if neighborhoods are to be safe, police and prosecutors must do everything they can to get drugs and guns off the streets. My neighborhood has had gun trouble, so I know the fear of what can happen and the value of a message delivered publicly during a prosecution. And I disagree with our State’s Attorney. Please, Ms. Foxx, don’t put restraints on your prosecutors.

Walter Jacobson gives his Perspective: