Page 10 - FOP May 2019 Magazine

SecondVice President’s Report
What won’t Kim Foxx do for her friends?
As the scandals increase in number and magnitude around Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, a cen- tral question emerges: Just how far will Foxx go to sup- port her friends, and how far will her friends go to support Foxx?
The question looms larg- est in the media frenzy over Foxx’s de- cision to drop all charges against Jussie Smollett after a few phone calls from fellow Democratic political allies. In the wake of that scandal, three top mem- bers of her administration are hitting the road, and President Trump announced a
federal review of Foxx’s actions.
But another document released last week paints an even graver picture of the Foxx administration. It is a motion for a special prosecutor to be appointed in a police battery case. In it, attorney James McKay argues that his clients, eight Chi- cago Police Officers, are the victims of a premeditated arrest by activist and fervent Foxx supporter Jedidiah Brown. They argue that Brown intentionally got himself arrested at a protest over a fatal police shooting. In another video made shortly before his arrest, Brown could be observed removing jewelry and making comments indicating that he planned
on being arrested at the demonstration. Brown is accused of repeatedly dis- obeying police orders, blocking traffic and ultimately punching a cop — an act which the attorney for the officers says is
captured on video.
After his arrest, prosecutors under
Foxx refused felony charges, despite the fact that the alleged battery was captured on video. But in addition to the evidence that Brown’s arrest was planned ahead of time, the refusal of felony charges is equally suspicious. The reason, accord- ing to the motion, is that another activ- ist, Lamon Reccord, announced on a Facebook video that Brown would not be charged with the felony before even the police were told.
How is that possible? How could Rec- cord know what prosecutors were going to do before the police did?
After the arrest, the officers were sued
in federal court for excessive force, even though the battery by Brown had been captured on video. Did Foxx or anyone on her staff publicly condemn the law- suit? Did they go to bat for the officers who are now facing a case that could take years to wind through the courts, one that could end up with the City once again arbitrarily paying out a settlement to Brown?
Just how much of this entire episode was premeditated?
In the course of his arrest, Brown made some eyebrow-raising comments, ac- cording to the motion for a special pros- ecutor. In it, Brown is accused of telling two of the police officers that he “was a paid political worker for Kim Foxx, hav- ing worked on Ms. Foxx’s campaign in 2015.”
Despite being charged with battery against a police officer, Brown later ap- peared with Foxx at an April 6 press con- ference at Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH headquarters. Foxx welcomed Brown onstage. Brown even took a selfie with Foxx, complete with a statement about the police and the Blue Klux Klan.
“Ms. Foxx’s public alliance with Jedid- iah Brown, while his criminal case is still pending, is just another punch and kick to these police officers, but this time it’s to their confidence in the criminal jus- tice system,” according to a petition.
Which brings us to the other import- ant side of Foxx’s friendships. Among
Foxx’s most powerful allies is a cabal of Chicago media activists. One function of these activists is to ignore the many scandals emerging in the Foxx admin- istration, even scandals that make the Smollett case pale by comparison — like the exoneration of convicted killers and vacated convictions of ranking gang members that will allow them to remain in the country. Another function is the relentless vilification of the police.
Consider the silence of NPR station WBEZ. Reporters from this station went to bat big-time for Foxx after the FOP staged a peaceful, legal protest at Foxx’s downtown headquarters several weeks ago. After the protest, WBEZ reporter Shannon Heffernan conjured up the im- agery of an association with some white nationalists, who, she said, supposedly hung around the protest that took place on a downtown sidewalk.
Heffernan sent an email to the FOP asking about it. The FOP condemned the question itself as ludicrous and of- fensive, appalled at the mere suggestion that the organization or its members would ever in any way knowingly asso- ciate with such a group. Heffernan put the question and the FOP’s response on social media.
The imagery tying white national- ists and the FOP now finds its way into Foxx’s speeches and statements, as she attempts to vainly quell the chaos envel- oping her scandal-ridden administra- tion.
On the one hand, WBEZ reporters seem content to gin up the false associ- ations of the FOP to white supremacist groups that Foxx is now employing in her speeches and statements. On the other hand, they covered nothing about the motion for a special prosecutor on behalf of the police officers.
By the by, the police officers represent a broad diversity of Chicago’s ethnic and racial demographics. WBEZ also said nothing about the accusations of a pre- meditated arrest by Brown or his associ- ations with Foxx. But why would WBEZ cover the other side of a story that might paint Foxx in a negative light?
After all, what are friends for?
MARTIN PREIB
10 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MAY 2019