by WorldTribune Staff, August 12, 2020
Among the factors fueling this summer’s spike in urban crime, consider the following pattern:
- Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx, whose jurisdiction covers Chicago, refused to prosecute a large number of the rioters arrested during recent unrest in the city.
- Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, another soft-on-crime prosecutor, is a former defense attorney who had never prosecuted a case before winning the city’s DA election.
- Since John Creuzot was elected Dallas County District Attorney, murders have risen to the highest level in over a decade.
There is one bond that ties these soft-on-crime DAs together — they were all elected with major funding from leftist billionaire George Soros, Peter Hasson, editor of The Daily Caller, noted in an Aug. 10 report.
The New York Times has credited Soros with pioneering the “push to overhaul prosecutors’ offices” across the country.
In 2016, Soros gifted $400,000 to the Illinois Justice & Public Safety PAC, Illinois State Board of Elections records show. Foxx was the only candidate that the PAC supported in 2016. After the influx of Soros cash, Foxx defeated incumbent Anita Alvarez in the Democrat primary and easily won the general election.
It was Foxx’s office which notoriously first prosecuted – and suddenly dropped – all charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett. Chicago police and then-Mayor Rahm Emmanuel were outraged.
The Daily Caller noted that, shortly before taking office, Foxx said she wouldn’t charge shoplifters with felonies unless they either had more than 10 previous felony convictions or if they stole more than $1,000 worth of goods, which was more than triple the previous felony threshold of $300. Storeowners blamed Foxx’s policy in December 2019 for what they said was a string of brazen thefts targeting their businesses.
The Chicago Tribune published reported on Monday that Foxx dropped all charges against 30 percent of defendants in her first three years in office.
Soros kicked $2 million to a committee supporting Foxx in her re-election bid this year against three Democrat primary challengers. Foxx won comfortably. She faces Republican former Cook County Judge Pat O’Brien in November.
In Philadelphia, Soros pumped $1.45 million into a super PAC that backed Krasner in the Democrat primary in May 2017, paving the way for an easy victory.
Krasner diverted a significant number of gun-related charges away from prosecution and into rehabilitative programs in his first year in office, The Trace reported in January. In April, the city’s mayor and police commissioner called on Krasner to be more aggressive in prosecuting gun crimes amid a spike in violence.
City data show that homicides so far this year are up 30 percent compared to the same time period last year. When pressed on the still-high rates of gun violence during an NBC News podcast interview, Krasner blamed poverty and the criminal justice system.
“You know, the truth is that poverty equals bullets. And poverty has always equaled bullets. The truth is we haven’t dealt with poverty. You know, we haven’t dealt with all kinds of things. And in many ways, the criminal justice system has caused this problem,” he said.
In Texas, Dallas County DA Creuzot won his seat in 2019 with the help of Soros cash, he acknowledged in a November 2019 interview with D Magazine following his victory.
“Yes, I did,” he said, when asked if his campaign received national funding. “Through Soros.”
Creuzot drew criticism from Republicans when he announced in April 2019 that he would no longer prosecute the theft of “personal items” valued under $750 if they were considered “necessary items.”
“Personal items are limited to necessary items,” Creuzot wrote in a letter explaining the decision. “Personal items would include items such as necessary food, diapers and baby formula.”
Murders in Dallas reached the highest levels in over a decade last year and are on pace to remain at similarly high levels this year as well, the Dallas Morning News’s editorial board noted in an Aug. 6 column.
“In his short tenure, Creuzot has lost or dropped 20 percent more felony cases than his predecessors and attained a significantly lower conviction rate for violent and serious crimes as well,” the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund’s report found.
In a July 30 report for FoxNews.com, Ronn Blitzer noted the records of several Soros-backed DAs, saying: “District attorneys and current candidates whose campaigns benefited from the work of left-wing organizations – including ones backed by liberal billionaire George Soros – are now pushing for new practices that could see sharp reductions in prosecutions and incarcerations.”
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Report: Recent soft-on-crime DAs across U.S. share same benefactor added by World Tribune on
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