CHICAGO – On the 116th day of his rooftop vigil to build a community center designed to provide opportunities to his community, Pastor Corey Brooks wished to share his thoughts on how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx handled the Jussie Smollett case.
What follows has been lightly edited. We strongly encourage you to watch the accompanying video so you may hear the pastor in his own words.
If there is any good that has come out of this Jussie Smollett debacle, it is that this whole saga revealed how corrupt Kim Foxx and the Chicago legal system really are.
As the Cook County state's attorney, Kim Foxx gave Smollett the golden glove treatment that we Americans are simply tired of seeing that elites receive. Foxx and her office treated Smollett favorably from the very beginning while lying to the public about it. When the media glare became too much, Foxx claimed she cut off communications with Smollett's family, which she really hadn't. Then she dropped the case altogether, which is why we had to bring in a special prosecutor just to revive the case.
Then, after Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation and ordered to pay back the cost of the investigation, Kim Foxx wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times that the justice system "failed" in the Smollett case and that the prosecution of Smollett was "damaging, costly and disingenuous."
The top government attorney in all of Chicago called Smollett's trial a "kangaroo prosecution."
JUSSIE SMOLLETT’S LEGAL TEAM FILES FOR RELEASE PENDING APPEAL IN EMERGENCY MOTION
Sometimes I have a hard time believing this stuff that happens in our city. How can we trust someone who mishandled the Smollett case from the beginning and who now questions the verdict and the sentence to lead our legal system? How can we trust someone who disparages the very legal system that she was sworn to uphold? How can we trust someone who gave someone special treatment because of their fame, race or sexual orientation instead of allowing the justice system to turn its wheels properly?
Kim Foxx's office repeatedly says they will "continue to prioritize violent crime." They said that as an excuse. Why not to prosecute Smollett in the first place? Yet they prosecuted people who committed non-violent crimes. They even prosecuted a man named Jim Van Buskirk, who they accused of faking an attack upon himself. They claimed that Jim lied about being tied up and robbed at his restaurant that he manages. Jim was found innocent, but lost his savings, lost his reputation in the process.
What infuriates me is that people like Kim Foxx get away with these outrageous lies, and we let them. The biggest and most harmful lie is that she "prioritizes violent crime." She clearly prioritized Smollett's case, that's for sure. She prioritized it so much she spent time on our taxpayer money writing an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times, criticizing the verdict and the sentence.
Where was she when over 800 Chicagoans were shot and killed in 2021? When I gave the eulogy this past December for a mother and son that were tragically killed? Where was she? How come folks like us don't matter? Why does a man with all the privilege in the world matter more than us?
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Another reason why it's so infuriating is the fact that Chicago cleared only 45% of the homicides in 2020, a clearance rate that is far worse on the south side of Chicago where I live.
How can people have faith in a justice system that bends over backward for the Smolletts of the world? And when cases go unsolved, what happens? People lose faith in the system, and so they retaliate with more violence, and the cycle never ends. That is why at Project H.O.O.D. we have a Violence Impact Team, a Violence Prevention Team to work on these retaliations. We're not government officials, but we are citizens who try to step in where the failures of government happen.
Those people are the true heroes, not Kim Foxx. Jussie Smollett hurt our city and used this false cry of racism to divide us, but it was Kim Foxx that did the most profound and lasting damage to our city and that will continue to hurt us. That is why we must do everything in our power to hold her and people like her accountable. The reputation of our city government depends on it.
We cannot allow individuals to get away with things like this in our democracy.
Follow along as Fox News checks in Pastor Corey Brooks each day with a new Rooftop Revelation.
For more information, please visit Project H.O.O.D.
Eli Steele is a documentary filmmaker and writer. His latest film is "What Killed Michael Brown?" Twitter: @Hebro_Steele.
Camera by Terrell Allen.