Why having an independent State's Attorney is best in Cook County

Cook County needs a State's Attorney who will be independent of the political influences, someone who doesn't have to worry about partisan politics and is concerned about citizen safety.

- Cook County needs a tough State's Attorney who will push back against the leniencies of the SAFE-T Act which puts the interests of criminals above the safety of citizens.

- Only someone who is not under the control of the county's powerful party political leaders can be an effective and tough State's Attorney. Cook County needs someone who is independent and will confront the politics that has corrupted and weaken criminal prosecution.

By Ray Hanania

Paid/Wed, Jan. 31, 2024

The last time we had real justice in Cook County was when Bernard Carey was the State's Attorney.

Carey, one of the last effective Republicans to hold office in Cook County, from 1972 until 1980 when he was defeated by Richard M. Daley who sought the office purely for political reasons, to use it as a base to challenge Chicago Mayor Jane M. Byrne.

Jack O'Malley, also a Republican, served as State's Attorney from 1990, after succeeding Daley after Daley became Chicago Mayor, until 1996. But O'Malley was a political state's attorney, not a prosecutor.

After O'Malley, we had Mayor Daley's crony Dick Devine serve in the office but he was never independent of Daley. And Devine was followed by Anita Alvarez, who tried but just couldn't break from the influence of party politics.

Then we had Kim Foxx, who made race the criteria for prosecutions, blocking prosecutions of many criminals to off-set what she believed was a systematic bias against Blacks. She favored cases involving influential celebrities like when she acquiesced to indirect pressures from Michelle Obama and low-balled the prosecution of Jussie Smollett.

Cook County hasn't seen real criminal justice in decades. Carey was really the only State's Attorney who took the mandate of the office -- prosecuting crime across the board based on the rule of law -- seriously.