Newly-elected Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke Is Moving Us Backward
The membership of United Northwest Side calls for the immediate reversal of Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s felony review bypass program on the South Side.
In internal memos uncovered by Bolts Magazine, SA Burke is piloting a program in two majority-Black police districts to empower police officers to press felony gun possession charges without any review by her prosecutors.
In these two police districts, residents can now face felony gun charges based only on the word of police, and without any review by the States’ Attorney’s office. Even if later dismissed, felony charges carry serious consequences, including increased risk of pre-trial detention, potential loss of employment, and significant costs. Chicagoans, led by activists who were themselves locked up unjustly based on police misconduct, have fought hard for every piece of police oversight we have. In six years, CPD has only complied with 16% of court-ordered reforms imposed by the Consent Decree. With a single decision, Burke has exposed residents of these neighborhoods to a greater risk of harm from police. In every other police district in the city, residents are entitled to review by a prosecutor before they can be charged with a felony for these crimes. Historically, 10% of felony gun possession charges were declined, meaning hundreds of people will face felony charges that wouldn’t have otherwise. This policy is unconstitutional in its design and racist in its implementation.
We oppose this policy at any time, but especially now, when Donald Trump is renditioning people from the U.S. and sending them to prison camps in El Salvador. Donald Trump’s hatred of Black people is well-known and longstanding, and he is sending clear warnings that he will turn his sights on Chicago—citizens and immigrants alike— to try to tear apart our communities. Any act that feeds more people into Trump’s Latin American concentration camps must be stopped.
SA Burke has ignored community members and elected officials who question the policy change. She has threatened to charge people with perjury if they come forward to help reverse wrongful convictions. She has stopped directing non-violent gun cases to restorative justice courts. She’s spreading a false narrative about Chief Justice Evans’ ability to run electronic monitoring—a program which his office has run for 14 years—and has instructed her prosecutors to try to put more people in jail while they await trial. Every change she has made will lead to more incarceration. These changes do not make any Chicagoan safer.
United Northwest Side General Membership