Five Things To Read This Week
1) Voters Assign Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot an “F” on Public Safety
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has made tackling gun violence a top priority in her office, creating a dedicated gun crimes strategy unit and championing gun violence survivors at the Illinois legislature. But none of that has stopped Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot from making desperate, cynical, and opportunistic attacks against Foxx. It appears that Lightfoot’s strategy on gun violence is to relentlessly point the finger elsewhere while refusing to look in the mirror. But Chicago voters aren’t buying it.
Chicago voters say that Lightfoot bears responsibility for the increase in murders and disapprove of how she is handling violent crime in the city, according to this new poll of likely voters. And for good reason. Lightfoot’s Chicago Police Department fails to solve most of the shootings and murders that happen in the city.
2) Las Vegas District Attorney Steve Wolfson In The Hot Seat (Again)
It’s been a rough two weeks for beleaguered Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson.
First, he is facing new scrutiny for thehead-scratching dealshis office has given to wealthy and powerful people who are accused of crimes (think: a billionaire with a suitcase full of meth, heroin, and LSD who Wolfson allowed to make a donation to a non-profit in order to avoid prosecution, which might be fine if Wolfson’s office didn’t lustfully imprison poor, Black people for the same crimes). Ozzie Fumo, a local attorney and former state Assemblyman who recently announced that he’s entering the race for District Attorney against Wolfson,sat down with local CBS affiliate to discuss these allegationsand more (andhere’swhat Wolfson told local television news when confronted with the allegations).
Second, Wolfson also faced new questions about old statements he made that “reveal a culture of indifference to sexual assault.” Earlier in his career, Wolfson represented a bus driver who beat, raped, and fondled multiple 13-year-old girls. Even though Nevada law clearly states that a child under 16 can never consent to sex with an adult, Wolfson told the judge, according to The Las Vegas Review-Journal: “From what I gather, most of these acts are consensual anyway.”
The shocking statement prompted Judith Whitmer, Chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party,to call out Wolfson: “I am calling on District Attorney Wolfson to publicly address these statements, and affirm that he is committed to seeking justice for victims of sexual assault and violence. In recent years, we’ve seen a lot of women courageously speak out against abusers. But we’ve also seen a lot of people dismiss this courage as 'cancel culture.' Statements like those made by District Attorney Wolfson—who has the power to deliver justice for victims—discredit the real experiences of women and girls across the nation, and here in Clark County.”
3) Meet The Strip Club Owner Fueling Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s Political Career
Extortion. Credit card fraud. Dishing out brutal physical beatings. Money laundering. These are all crimes--along with prostitution, human trafficking, and wage theft--that a mini-empire of strip clubs in Houston, owned by Ali Davari, are alleged to have committed. Given Davari’s decades of legal troubles, one might imagine any respected political figure wouldn’t touch Davari’s money with a ten foot pole.
But not Kim Ogg.
Kim Ogg is the elected District Attorney of Harris County, Texas, which encompasses the city of Houston. Her literal job is to investigate and prosecute crimes like wage theft, prostitution, human trafficking, extortion, money laundering, fraud, and assault. This isn’t a hypothetical problem: Before Ogg took office, a previous Harris County District Attorney’s Office accused the Davari brothers of money laundering and seized $2.17 million from their accounts at three banks. Ultimately, a judge ruled that approximately $1.5 million of that money was contraband. So, if there is any elected official who should think twice about accepting donations from Ali Davari, the District Attorney would be that person. Kim Ogg, though, took six separate donations totaling over $25,000 from Davari to line the coffers of her re-election campaign, according to Harris County campaign finance records.
4) “Toxic...for African American Youth”
Over the past two years, Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich has prosecuted 73 children as if they were adults. 96% of those children were Black. Weirich prosecutes children as adults more often than every other prosecutor in Tennessee combined. For example, in 2018, Shelby County transferred 73 children to adult court, meanwhile the other 94 counties in the state transferred a total of 58 children to adult court.
The U.S. Department of Justice previously investigated and monitored Shelby County’s juvenile court, but abandoned oversight in 2018 under President Trump and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The final monitor report from that year, which objected to DOJ’s departure, called Weirich’s approach to prosecuting children “toxic...for African-American youth.”
A trio of billboards went up around Memphis this week underscoring the “toxic” environment Weirich has cultivated for Black kids in the county.
5) Following A New Poll of Wake County Voters, District Attorney Candidates Pledge Not To Accept Contributions From Police Unions.
A new Raleigh Watch poll of likely Wake County voters, fielded by Data For Progress, found:
By 23 percentage points, voters said candidates for Wake County District Attorney should decline donations from national police unions.
By 21 percentage points, voters said candidates for Wake County District Attorney should decline donations from local police unions.
By 22 percentage points, voters said candidates for Wake County District Attorney should decline donations from police union Political Action Committees (PACs).
In light of these results, which are described more fully below, Raleigh Watch reached out to both candidates for District Attorney for their reactions:
Lorrin Freeman, Wake County District Attorney, said that her “campaign has not received any such donations” this cycle, and that she decided over a year ago that she would “not take any campaign contributions from police unions.”
Damon Chetson, who is challenging Freeman, also said that he has “not received any money from any law enforcement unions, law enforcement PACS or other law enforcement associations, and will decline to accept such donations.”
This is a significant shift for District Attorney Freeman, and a sign of the strong headwinds police unions face in Wake County. For years, Freeman depended on and even flaunted a cozy relationship with police unions to fuel her political career.
