In Major Reversal, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx Says She Won’t Prosecute Lawbreaking Convention Protesters If ‘Peaceful’ – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx now says she will not prosecute protesters who break the law at this week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago as long as they are “peaceful.” That’s a reversal of what she said in April about arrests of protesters violating the law during the convention.

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) will not prosecute peaceful protestors and will decline to prosecute cases with misdemeanor charges, including disorderly conduct, public demonstration, unlawful gathering, criminal trespass to state-supported land and curfew charges, as Foxx discussed in comments The Triibe reported in its story Sunday.

Foxx has had that general, no-prosecute policy in place since 2020 for protesters at other venues, which she reconfirmed in a November 2023 memo to her staff.  However, this April she told the Chicago Tribune that the policy on protests won’t be in effect for the convention, meaning nonviolent crimes would be prosecuted.

The Democratic convention, as the Tribune said, “would have been a particularly ill-suited occasion to give these groups advance notice that protesters won’t be prosecuted so long as they behave “peacefully” (as defined by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office). Prosecutors and law enforcement ought to have every tool at their disposal to ensure the convention runs as smoothly as possible and that other normal activities in the nation’s third largest city can be pursued unimpeded.” Fortunately, the Tribune said, Foxx agreed. “She told us Thursday when we asked about the Nov. 15 memo that her office’s policy on protests won’t be in effect for the convention.”

Now that’s out the window. Have at the lawbreaking as long as it’s “peaceful,” at the convention and everywhere else. That’s the message she has sent. “Whether it’s the O’Hare 40, or the educators at Northwestern, or the students at the Art Institute. We are consistent. We don’t prosecute these cases,” Foxx told The Triibe. (The “O’Hare 40” is a reference to pro-Palestinian protesters who were arrested for blocking expressways, who she declined to prosecute.)

In addition to the “peaceful” law violations listed above, Foxx’s policy also provides for a presumption against prosecution for the following crimes unless body camera footage is available or the complainant is an officer: Resisting/obstructing arrest, assault, misdemeanor aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery to a police officer, reckless conduct, mob action and obstructing identification.

The new policy appears to render nearly meaningless the city’s new procedures designed to assure mass arrests can be made when legal and necessary, the process for which was found lacking during the 2020 riots in Chicago. A mass arrest for, say, trespassing, curfew violation or refusing a lawful order to disperse now would not result in prosecution.

Some of the violations Foxx won’t prosecute for convention protesters might still be prosecuted by the City of Chicago. However, the city has limited resources for prosecutions and violation of a city ordinance would have to be found. That’s the case with the O’Hare 40, who Foxx won’t prosecute but the city has been pursuing.

Foxx has essentially posted a green light to mass criminal behavior by convention protesters. Her policy is utterly irresponsible and an extraordinarily dangerous abuse of prosecutorial discretion.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.