Letters: Op-ed attacking Kim Foxx’s tenure as Cook County lacks logic and relies on lazy arguments

In their op-ed, Charles “Cully” Stimson and Zack Smith make the audacious claim that the election of reform-oriented prosecutor Kim Foxx ushered in a wave of violence (“Kim Foxx’s pro-criminal policies are to blame for rising violence,” July 20).

They specifically cite the year that Foxx took office, 2016, as the year that homicides in Chicago hit a record high. Foxx did not take office as Cook County state’s attorney until Dec. 1, 2016, after the vast majority of the record number of homicides had taken place that year. Foxx’s predecessor, Anita Alvarez, who comparatively was known to be much more punitive in her policies and practices, was in office during those homicides.

Stimson and Smith then compare the aggregate homicide rates for the handful of years preceding and following Foxx’s election, ignoring the fact that the first two full years of Foxx’s term saw significant drops in homicide rates — about 35% from the 2016 rate by the end of 2019. Blaming Foxx for increases over a span of years while ignoring significant decreases during that same time is illogical.

The high average for the period after Foxx’s election is in part due to increases in shootings in and after 2020 that were seen all over the country, even in places without reform-oriented prosecutors. Blaming policies like bond reform, which show no negative impact on public safety, for such national trends is irresponsible and misleading.

The additional claim that Foxx is responsible for a “skyrocketing” rise in retail theft follows similarly flawed logic: It ignores that retail theft has risen and fallen significantly during Foxx’s tenure.

Stimson and Smith’s opinion piece is just that — their opinion. It is not informed by fact, logic or evidence, and it makes incredibly lazy arguments about the causes of violence in Chicago, a complex issue that has various confounding causes, such as severe disinvestment in some of the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods. The authors push for harsher and more punitive policies, like longer sentences, which have been shown not to keep our communities safe.

If we are going to get results we have never gotten, we have to try doing things differently than we always have. The first change we must make is to base our conversations about criminal justice reform on facts, not feelings, fearmongering and blame-shifting. This is how we will make Chicago safer.

— Briana Payton, senior policy analyst, Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts

Petty way to discredit senator

Thank you to the Tribune Editorial Board for emphasizing that U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., is a senator from a “former Confederate state” (“GOP Sen. Tom Cotton overreaches in sending a warning to big law firms about DEI efforts,” July 26).

I had previously been impressed with the former military officer but didn’t realize that because of which state he is from, his actions must be racially motivated. Therefore, his views are severely flawed and should be belittled.

— Joe Juszak, Sugar Grove

Federal judge pushes back

It looks like Hunter Biden’s lawyers rolled the dice and thought U.S. Judge Maryellen Noreika wouldn’t peel the onion and look at the innards of this very generous plea deal. This sleight-of-hand strategy didn’t pan out. So, what now?

— Scott Thompson, Bloomington, Indiana

The slogan I believe in

I proudly display a decal on my car that states, “Make Truth Great Again,” instead of MAGA, or “Make America Great Again.” Isn’t it ironic that the politician who has a social media site named Truth Social is the biggest purveyor of lies in the history of politicians?

It’s a mystery why intelligent people support such a habitual liar and egomaniac. Support “Make Truth Great Again.”

— Tom Beck, Glen Ellyn

Problem with ‘Oppenheimer’

After teaching high school English and film studies for 36 years, I am rarely able to see anything except through the prism of how a high school student would view it. Thus, I was quite conflicted when I saw Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” It is a brilliant film that will probably lead to Academy Award nominations for Nolan, Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr.

It would be a great movie for every high school student in the country to see — except for the graphic and totally gratuitous nudity that permeates the film and quite correctly earns it its R rating. How unfortunate that a generation whose future will deal with this film’s same kind of moral questions as regards to artificial intelligence, climate change and fake-news character assassination won’t be able to see this film during their formative years.

Ironically, by putting sex in the film in order to sell it, Nolan simultaneously blocks it from the very people who could learn the most from it.

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Disservice to Wirtz, readers

When a great person dies, or any person, it is an honorable thing to focus on the positive contributions that person made to the world and to ignore, at least for the moment, any negative. Shame on the Tribune for not holding to that honorable standard when announcing Rocky Wirtz’s untimely death (“Hawks hit highs, lows under his leadership,” July 26). He gave so much to the city of Chicago, and the world, and was such a kind and ethical man. (I knew him in high school; he was so, even then.)

Shame on the Tribune for very needlessly noting an allegation of someone else’s misconduct in a front-page headline (“Fans’ return, 3 Stanley Cups later offset by sexual assault allegation”). It was needless, irrelevant and distracting.

Rocky deserved better, as did the thousands who are mourning his passing. So did your readers.

— Phyllis Beattie, Winnetka

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