Month: April 2024

Last week, Kim Foxx, Cook County’s unpopular State’s Attorney, announced that her office will prosecute unlawful protestors at Chicago’s Democratic National Convention. For the last four years, Foxx has failed to prosecute criminal violations committed during protests that she deemed “peaceful,” which probably means “mostly peaceful” as so memorably stated during the Kenosha BLM riot by a CNN reporter in front of a burning building.

Now, Foxx has decided to selectively change Cook County prosecution rules as many Democrat officials stand idly by while violent protests break out on college campuses in Illinois and beyond.

Foxx should never have allowed illegal, violent protests and flash mobs to occur without serious consequences, and instead should have been prosecuting offenders to the fullest extent of the law. Violent crime in Chicagoland leads the nation because of rogue prosecutors like Kim Foxx and Eric Rinehart.

“Protestors, regardless of race or background, including BLM, antifa and pro-Hamas group protesters at Northwestern University and other campuses, who engage in serious criminal conduct, endanger citizens with acts of violence, resist arrest, and destroy property should always face repercussions for such unlawful acts – not get a free Foxx pass. For the last four years, soft-on-crime, do-little prosecutors like Foxx and Rinehart have endangered our state by failing to do their sworn duty and letting criminal defendants with long rap sheets out of custody and free to undermine, endanger and threaten public safety,” said Illinois Republican Chair Don Tracy.

CHICAGO — As Americans across the country filed their taxes, Illinois residents should remember: Corruption costs taxpayers billions of dollars. When corrupt politicians lie, steal and cheat, the people of Illinois pay the price.

See for yourself:

“Plenty of forces enable corruption to thrive in Illinois – loophole-ridden ethics laws, policymakers unwilling to confront the problem head-on and a drastically shrunken nonpartisan press corps that once kept a close eye on political chicanery.”

. . .

“The ComEd bribery also produced a direct cost to millions of ratepayers across northern Illinois, as the utility’s balance sheets took on a gold-plated hue.

In last spring’s ComEd trial, a senior company executive testified that one piece of legislation that was part of the Madigan bribery scheme generated a $1.8 billion windfall for ComEd.

That same 2016 law included another $2.3 billion over 10 years for ComEd corporate parent Exelon to bail out two of its cash-draining nuclear power plants. That money largely came from ratepayers, though ComEd has said that energy efficiencies allowed under the 2016 law also helped customers save money.

Northwestern University law professor Juliet Sorensen teaches courses on corruption and is a former federal prosecutor.

“Corruption . it’s a killer of economic growth and development,” Sorensen said. “The ComEd case is a stark example. It looks like the jury understood it to be as well.

“Some cases are more subtle. A hand-to-hand bribe transaction may not directly impact me in my daily life. But it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t negatively impact the place I live and the economy that I live in.”

CHICAGO — Tax season always causes worry, headaches and stress for families across our country. Illinois causes more worry than most though. A recent study declared Illinois as the state with the HIGHEST tax rate in the United States. Even though Illinois has the highest tax rate in the U.S., that doesn’t stop Illinois’ tax-and-spend Democrats from wanting to raise them even higher. See for yourself:

• Brandon Johnson property tax hike was soundly rejected by voters, but he hasn’t given up
• JB Pritzker’s newest budget includes $800 million in tax INCREASES
• Illinois continues to be named the least ‘tax friendly’ state in the country

It’s doesn’t get any clearer than this:

“Slew of taxes threatens future of Chicago as a finance hub. Trading firms, exchanges want new mayor to curb surging crime”

Bloomberg: Trillion-Dollar Industry Powering Chicago at Risk of Leaving, 9.23.23
Bottom line: Illinois Democrats want to raise our taxes even higher.

CHICAGO — Another week of Democrat chaos reigns as JB Pritzker and Brandon Johnson bicker over too late migrant funds, silence members of their own party, and state Democrat leaders face the music for the Illinois Prisoner Review Board’s release of Crosetti Brand that resulted in the death of an 11 year-old boy. It’s more clear than ever before that where Democrat leaders go, chaos follows. See for yourself:

Chicago Tribune: Blocked DNC protest permits spark lawsuit as convention pressure builds

Activist groups hoping to “make life miserable” for the Democratic National Convention’s organizers and attendees filed a federal lawsuit Friday alleging Chicago violated their First Amendment rights by blocking their protest plans.

“The tens of thousands of people that are coming – not only from the Midwest, but all across the country – will be marching on the DNC, permit or not,” Hatem Abudayyeh, executive director of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, said at a Federal Plaza news conference Friday after groups affiliated with their protest filed the suit.

The city has so far blocked every protest permit requested near the August convention’s United Center headquarters, despite Mayor Brandon Johnson’s promises that demonstrators will have a fair platform and security. Instead, the city has offered each group the same two-block route through Grant Park – a proposal the groups allege doesn’t fulfill their right to be within “sight and sound” of the convention.

“The First Amendment is not important when everybody agrees, but it’s critical when there are disagreements,” Williams said.

WMAQ NBC: Mayor Johnson to seek $70M more in funding for migrant crisis in an apparent reversal: sources

Two months after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to add another $70 million in funding for the city’s migrant crisis, all signs pointed to Johnson changing his mind.

In February, Gov. J.B. Pritzker visited Chicago City Hall and sat down with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Johnson to find a dollar amount to care for migrants through the 2024 fiscal year.

Pritzker asked the Illinois General Assembly to approve $182 million from the state. Preckwinkle and Johnson, meanwhile, agreed to split the rest – $70 million each.

However, a week later, Johnson distanced himself from the deal, saying “I’m not aware” when he was asked repeatedly by reporters on Feb. 15.

The State Journal-Register: Pritzker calls for improved training for Prison Review Board following fatal stabbing

Further changes could be coming to Illinois Prison Review Board, a state agency recently seeing its chairman and a board member step down.

The governor’s office announced the resignations of chair Donald Shelton and board member LeAnn Miller last week, following a controversial decision to grant parole to a Chicago man with a history of domestic violence.

Crosetti Brand, released by the review board from Stateville Correctional Center last month, is now facing charges for allegedly stabbing his pregnant ex-girlfriend and killing her 11-year-old son.

While Pritzker advocates for improved training, Republicans are calling for a broader overhaul of the board and pointing the blame on the Democratic governor.

Legislation yet to be filed would establish a qualifications standard to be eligible to serve on the board and immediately notify victims if a prisoner is released early. Raising the qualifications, requiring a minimum of 20 years of working in the criminal justice system, Senate Republican Leader John Curran said would effectively “tie the governor’s hands” as he selects replacements.

“Requiring the governor to actually find people with broad based experience in the criminal justice system will elevate the board as a whole,” Curran, R-Downers Grove, said in a press conference on Tuesday.

At the same time, Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, is targeting penalty enhancement for those violate the terms of an order of protection. First-time offenders would now face a Class 4 felony and subsequent violations would jump to a Class 3 felony – a potential prison sentence of five to 10 years.

Jayden Perkins’ death shines a tragic spotlight on Prisoner Review Board

Editorial: Republicans are right to call out failings of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Illinois Prisoner Review Board

The horrifying case of Crosetti Brand has surfaced an issue that’s been percolating in Springfield for four years: the performance of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.

The state body, comprising up to 15 members and by law required to include representatives of both parties, is responsible (among other things) for the critical job of deciding whether and when criminals should be paroled. It was the Prisoner Review Board that ruled last month it couldn’t continue to hold Brand when he clearly committed acts that should have been deemed parole violations and should have returned him to prison. Brand was initially paroled late last year after serving eight years of a 16-year sentence for home invasion and aggravated battery involving an ex-girlfriend.

After the board decided it lacked evidence to continue holding him despite his threats early this year to a different woman he had dated more than a decade before, he was released and the following day attacked her, according to police and prosecutors. Her 11-year-old son, Jayden Perkins, was killed on March 13 trying to defend his 33-year-old pregnant mother, who was badly injured but survived.

. . .

But the issue of the board and how it’s operated under Pritzker is far from settled. Senate Republicans who sounded the alarm for years on questionable parole decisions (well before the Crosetti Brand fiasco) now are proposing wide-ranging legislation to reform the board and to increase penalties for violations of orders of protection in domestic situations. Among other things, the bill would require more stringent qualifications for board members, who are paid nearly $100,000 a year.

“We have been raising red flags,” state Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, said Tuesday at a news conference to unveil the bill. “We have been warning about the lack of qualifications of some of the governor’s appointees for years. Literally years. . I don’t know why it’s taken a dead child for people to recognize some of these people are not qualified to serve on the board.”

Plummer, the top Senate Republican on the Executive Appointments Committee, said the board under Pritzker has been more than twice as likely to parole convicts, including murderers, than the past three governors, including two Democrats.

Those parolees include some notorious examples such as Chester Weger – the so-called Starved Rock Killer, convicted of the 1960 murder of three women out for a hike – who was released in 2020 at age 83. Another was the 2021 release of Johnny Veal, who along with a second man was convicted of killing two Chicago police officers in 1970. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, generally sympathetic to restorative-justice and rehabilitation arguments, opposed Veal’s parole, describing the cop killings as “cold-blooded executions” and adding that Veal boasted about it.

Yet another was Ray Larsen, given a 100-to-300-year sentence for murdering a 16-year-old fishing in a forest preserve in 1972. The board moved to release him in 2021, and Larsen immediately violated parole and was a fugitive for a week before authorities caught up with him at a local hospital. While Larsen was unaccounted for, Foxx’s office warned surviving family members of Frank Casolari, Larsen’s victim, since Larsen previously had threatened to harm family members, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Under Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, the Prisoner Review Board voted 12-0 to deny Larsen parole. Under Pritzker, the board granted Larsen’s release on a 9-3 vote.

Republicans in Springfield often struggle to be heard, since Democrats enjoy overwhelming majorities in both legislative chambers. But they’ve been right to call out the governor on the failures of the Prisoner Review Board, and Democrats in the capital should have heeded their warnings far earlier.

Like it or not, Pritzker bears part of the responsibility for the nightmare Jayden Perkins’ family has endured. Many of his Prisoner Review Board appointees have reflected a philosophy emphasizing criminal rehabilitation over victims’ concerns, and the board’s decisions have followed suit.

We hope it goes without saying that Democrats must engage honestly with Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, says he’ll review the GOP proposal. Hopefully, that review won’t be just cursory. If Republicans’ proposal to require a minimum 20 years of consecutive experience in the criminal justice system isn’t the right prescription, Democrats need to negotiate a set of qualifications to reassure the public that board members won’t be more sympathetic to criminals than to victims.

Associated Press | April 2, 2024

https://apnews.com/article/domestic-violence-parole-prisoner-review-board-pritzker-ca95835e5555a8a8f38f2bdbd608e356

The Illinois Senate’s minority leader proposed legislation Tuesday to overhaul Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Prisoner Review Board after it released a convicted domestic abuser who then attacked a pregnant Chicago woman with a knife and fatally stabbed her 11-year-old son.

Republican Leader John Curran criticized Pritzker and said he plans legislation to require that board appointees have 20 years of criminal justice experience as a prosecutor, defense attorney, probation officer or judge, and that each member undergo annual training on domestic violence and sexual assault and the warning signs that precede repeat attacks.

Other proposed measures would require advance notice to victims of board decisions to release perpetrators and more transparency on the members’ deliberations in each case, including how they voted.

“For too long, these $100,000-a-year positions at the Prisoner Review Board have been given to political appointees who don’t have the requisite experience to make these life-and-death decisions,” Curran, who’s from the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, told reporters in a teleconference. “We must take politics out of the appointment process to create a qualified board with a deep understanding of the criminal justice system.”

Pritzker has acknowledged the parole board didn’t sufficiently consider evidence in releasing 37-year-old Crosetti Brand on March 12. The next day, Brand allegedly broke into the apartment of Laterria Smith, 33, who had an order of protection against him, attacked her with a knife and killed her son Jayden Perkins when he intervened to protect his mother.

. . .

Curran and his colleagues, Sens. Jason Plummer of Edwardsville and Steve McClure of Springfield, parried questions about whether Senate Democrats, who hold a supermajority, would entertain their plans.

“We’ve been warning about the lack of qualifications of some of the governor’s appointees for years,” Plummer said. “I don’t know why it’s taken a dead child for people to finally recognize some of these people are not qualified to serve on the board. My Democratic colleagues have largely taken a step back and allowed the governor’s office to drive the train.”

. . .

“I would hope that the Democrats in the Senate now realize that Gov. Pritzker has a policy of trying to get the most far-left, anti-victim people on the Prisoner Review Board,” McClure added. “My hope is that moving forward, the Democrats have learned their lesson.”

CHICAGO — Today, ILGOP Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement responding to the Democratic nominee Cook County state’s attorney, Eileen O’Neill Burke’s statement that she isn’t tough on crime: 

“Eileen O’Neill Burke campaigned in the Democratic primary as a genuine tough on crime States Attorney who will actually prosecute criminals and not coddle, defend or make excuses for them like Kim Foxx does. Now, Burke is flipping her stance and pandering to soft-on-crime Democrats that have made Chicago a beacon of crime. There is only one choice for voters looking for someone who will be tough-on-crime and clean Cook County up – Bob Fioretti.”