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Join me this Saturday for a very timely presentation about the rogue policies being introduced by the new Cook County State's Attorney (CCSA), Eileen O'Neill Burke, and how they're (negatively) impacting public safety and your wallet! We're lucky to have Naomi Johnson, Co-Executive Director for Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts as well as Austin Segal, their Research Manager, presenting and answering your questions for us at our monthly public meeting.

14th District Council Meeting - Saturday, Sept 13th, 1pm
Wicker Park-Bucktown Library, 1701 N Milwaukee Ave

Rising fascism and attacks against democracy, accountability, and transparency unfortunately aren't unique to Trump and the Feds.

Earlier this year, CCSA Burke created a pilot policy to bypass felony review and allow officers to directly charge people with felonies in certain majority Black neighborhoods on the South and West sides. Normally, officers make arrests and collect evidence that the prosecutor reviews when deciding what, if anything, to charge an individual with. Thoroughly reviewing evidence that might justify a felony charge is a fundamental aspect of the prosecutor's job, and doing away with this practice means we are one step closer to having Judge Dredd roaming our streets, with no checks, balances, or accountability of any kind.

I was one of several District Councilors who signed an open letter denouncing this new policy. (Many other DCs likely would have signed if they were aware sooner or had more time).

More recently, the CCSA has moved to eliminate the Brady List of police who cannot be trusted credible witnesses at trial. This is problematic because allowing such officers who are guilty of perjury or more serious misconduct and patterns of behavior to testify as part of prosecution's cases at best wastes our time, freedom, and limited resources. At worst, it creates false convictions that result in huge lawsuits after those wrongfully imprisoned are ultimately vindicated. Removing Brady Lists in no way removes the unreliability of certain officers, nor does it remove the CCSA's responsibility to provide all exculpatory (casting doubt on the case) information to the defense, or our liability as taxpayers to pay the high cost.

For decades, Cook County courts have been flooded with bad cases from millions of unconstitutional pretextual traffic stops. Again, with the extremely low successful prosecution rate for these cases (not more than 50%), wasting our resources is only the best case scenario for this backwards policy. Increasing false prosecutions and wrongful convictions robs individuals of decades of their lives, robs families of parents and children, while robbing communities of stability and, ironically, contributes to future criminal infractions. Not to mention the billions of dollars it costs taxpayers!

It's worth noting that Ex-CCPSA Commissioner Yvette Loizon lied about the policy in the Chicago Reader article about eliminating the Brady List of unreliable officers.

Bring your questions to our meeting this Saturday!