Kim Foxx Defeats the Negligent Prosecutor of the Laquan McDonald Shooting in Cook County

Kim Foxx defeated incumbent Cook County State's Attorney, Anita Alvarez, in the Democratic primary on Tuesday. Foxx will now move on to the general election in November in the heavily Democratic area.

Alvarez had been heavily criticized for her handling of the police shooting of Laquan McDonald. She failed to charge officer Jason Van Dyke for more than a year after the 17-year-old was killed. Chicago activist groups, including Assata's Daughters and BYP100, rallied support to remove her from office.

"The work is just beginning, and our struggles here are very real," Foxx, 43, told a jubilant crowd. "The need to rebuild a broken criminal justice system here in Cook County is not work that should be taken lightly."

Foxx secured 58% of the vote.

According to the Chicago Tribune, she ran on a platform that emphasized community reconciliation.

She hammered the incumbent on the need to reform the office by diverting low-level drug offenders into treatment, work harder to right wrongful convictions, hold more bad cops accountable for their actions and stop prosecuting students for fistfights in school.

Cook County is the second-largest county in the nation.


Here's video from a few of the activists who organized to oust Alvarez.

Cook County Kim Foxx Laquan McDonald