The controversial Jussie Smollett case was solely vaguely referenced at a subdued debate Saturday between incumbent Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and challenger Bill Conway.
Hosted by Progressive Baptist Church, 3658 S. Wentworth Ave., the 2 candidates went head-to-head, however largely prevented attacking one another. Foxx’s different two challengers within the March 17 election — former Ald. Bob Fioretti and former prosecutor Donna More — couldn’t make it.
The Smollett case was launched again into headlines on Feb. 11 when a particular prosecutor introduced new costs in opposition to the previous “Empire” actor and accused him of faking a 2019 hate assault — nearly a yr after Foxx’s workplace dropped costs in opposition to Smollett, a controversial determination that has adopted her re-election marketing campaign.
“There’s been a lot of attention that’s been made about one celebrity case — I’m sure we’ll get there — but there was another one last year that I stood up and asked for people to cooperate in our investigation of someone who was alleged to be violating women for the last 30 years,” Foxx mentioned, alluding to her workplace’s costs in opposition to singer R. Kelly.
“As a result of that, our hotline received numerous calls and we were finally able to indict someone who used his power and privilege to take advantage of young black women,” Foxx mentioned.
That was the one reference to both Smollett or R. Kelly through the hour-long debate, throughout which the 2 candidates stayed cordial and Conway did little to set himself other than Foxx, regardless of having hammered her on social media and in political promoting in regards to the Smollett debacle.
Foxx made her case for re-election by highlighting her workplace’s accomplishments, which she mentioned included expunging information for individuals convicted of minor marijuana offenses, taking over President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies and reforming the county’s money bail system.
Conway confused his expertise working as a prosecutor, serving within the U.S. Navy and instructing finance. He mentioned he would tackle Chicago’s gun violence by focusing on provide chains for unlawful weapons coming into the town.
“If we’re really going to get under the gun crime epidemic around here, we need to disrupt the supply chain that brings all these guns to Chicago,” Conway mentioned, including that “if somebody commits a crime with a gun, they should go to jail.”
Foxx agreed that the workplace ought to go after the unlawful gun commerce, however referred to as for a “more nuanced conversation about guns.”
“Stopping the flow of guns into our communities isn’t innovative or new,” Foxx mentioned. “What is innovative or new is our gun crimes strategies unit, where we put our prosecutors into the communities that are hardest hit by gun violence to work with law enforcement and community partners to go after the drivers of violence.”
Discussing immigration, Foxx highlighted measures her workplace has taken to make sure the security of immigrants, together with making a fraud hotline for undocumented immigrants and declaring that ICE brokers received’t be allowed on the courthouse.
Conway agreed that no Cook County assets needs to be utilized in ICE raids and promised to not give the federal company entry to the county’s gang database.
“We all have come from immigrants,” Conway mentioned. “I say that because our immigrant population gets decried and picked on; hate crimes on our immigrant population because of our deplorable president have had an enormous explosion, and we have to be vigilant and prosecute them.”
Foxx nodded, however then rapidly refuted Conway’s assertion.
“I’m not from an immigrant. I come from enslaved people,” Foxx mentioned. “I come from people who were stolen from their land and brought here, and that language matters because I don’t want to minimize what that experience looks like in our criminal justice system.”
When it got here to marijuana, which was legalized for leisure consumption within the state final month, Foxx…