With this Democratic primary endorsement for the Office of Cook County State’s Attorney, the Tribune editorial board continues its decades-long tradition of endorsing political candidates appearing on Illinois ballots. More endorsements in local, state and federal races will be rolled out in coming days. Prior to election day, we’ll also offer our “bedsheet ballot,” allowing voters who wish to take our endorsements with them into the voting booth.
Eileen O’Neill Burke wants to be Cook County State’s Attorney. And if she is successful?
“Criminals,” she told us Tuesday, “will know that there is a change.”
Central to the candidacy of O’Neill Burke, a former prosecutor, defense attorney and judge who comes off as tough and determined, is the notion that the office of the Cook County State’s Attorney is a vessel that has teetered too far to the port side when it comes to delivering justice and keeping Chicagoans and suburbanites safe. O’Neill Burke said she is dedicating to righting that high-profile ship, should she get to replace its controversial current captain, Kim Foxx.
O’Burke said that her years as defense attorney had taught her that word on the street would travel fast, once it became known that the risk of detention for criminal behavior had now increased. “That will change the behavior,” she said.
O’Neill Burke, a lifelong Chicagoan who grew up on the Northwest Side, certainly is qualified for this office. We’re impressed with her experience on all sides of the justice system, a broad history that should better her understanding of, and empathy for, the many stakeholders who interact with this office. She knows prosecutors and their ambitions, has heard plenty of explanations from defendants, gets the stresses faced by police officers and, given her experience working as a judge in the Cook County Circuit Court, knows about the importance of ethical integrity. When she asked if she would be taking phone calls along the lines of the politically connected one to Foxx that aided the hoaxster Jussie Smollett in 2019, she shot daggers across the table at the very suggestion. “No special deals,” she said, scowling at the thought.
O’Neill Burke also spoke eloquently about the need for training of young prosecutors who, under the provisions of the still-young Safe-T Act, are tasked with deciding whether to ask judges to detain defendants deemed likely to be a risk to their communities. Much of the coverage of that issue has focused on judicial discretion, but O’Neill Burke noted that judges can’t decide unless the prosecutors ask first to keep communities protected.
That begs the question: How can we expect mostly young lawyers to make that potential life-and-death determination, one that may come to haunt them later in their careers, unless the State’s Attorney’s office offers the resources and the firm criteria to protect its own prosecutors? She assured us providing “unparalleled” training would be a top priority.
That’s not mere, tough-on-crime, law-and-order sloganeering and, in fact, may even better empower a prosecutor to allow for bail where appropriate. But it’s the way to restore the office of the Cook County State’s Attorney to being a prestigious place to work and also the right thing to do. The quality of prosecutors matters to all stakeholders here: we think O’Neill Burke will be able to stem the exits, better retain capable staffers and attract talented young lawyers looking for trial experience. We trust her when it comes to ethics, especially given her years as a judge, and we think she’ll be able to convince staffers she has their backs. We also think that she will not push things too much the other way and become some ready-for-prime-time prosecutor failing to pay attention to restorative justice or extenuating circumstances. “I’m an introvert,” she told us.
O’Neill Burke said she would reverse the controversial Foxx decision to raise the felony threshold for theft from $300 to $1,000, widely (and perhaps unfairly) blamed for the online proliferation of videos depicting retail theft and the media coverage of crime-weary retail outlets shutting up shop in Cook County.
That change probably was more damaging in terms of what it symbolized that what it actually wrought. But as we all should all know by now, perceptions matter when it comes to issues of crime. That doesn’t mean all thefts would be charged as felonies, she said, but it adds to the prosecutorial toolbox. Many charges are of course pled down so it behooves this office to start with something as substantial as possible.
We also agree with her determination to end the so-called gun diversion (or deferral) program, a popular cause among progressive prosecutors that has led to American cities becoming awash with guns and social-media platforms lighting up with mostly young folks openly flaunting their weapons with apparent impunity. “We have to get control of guns,” O’Neill Burke said, noting that most of the recent murders that have shocked Chicago have featured automatic weapons with extended magazines, compounding their lethality.
We’re all for steering some defendants charged with non-violent criminal offenses toward mental health services, substance abuse treatment centers, or even being offered housing, education or employment opportunities as alternatives to being sent to prison, and we’re confident that O’Neill Burke would support such common-sense programs that can turn young lives around.
But not when it comes to folks using guns in criminal activity. We can all see the consequences of our collective failing to ensure that firing off a gun doesn’t happen in our city. Ending one program won’t fix that, but it’ll send a message.
The other candidate in this primary is Clayton Harris III, a lecturer at the University of Chicago and once an assistant to former Mayor Richard M. Daley, a chief of staff at the Illinois Dept. of Transportation and an aide to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
We very much liked Harris, who has been endorsed by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Congresswomen Jan Schakowsky and Robin L. Kelly, and the Chicago Teachers Union, among others. Harris did not strike us in any way as a progressive’s patsy; he discussed some smart ideas about working further on the root causes of crime, especially when it came to methodically working up the chain of command for the criminal enterprises that send off what he called “dispensable” kids to rob stores with specific shopping lists, knowing that they are likely ruining their lives. Harris is impressive in many ways, but he does not represent the reboot that this crucial office needs.
For that we need Eileen O’Neill Burke, who has the Tribune’s endorsement.