(Originally published in Newsmax.)
Kimberly Foxx Foxx is failing at her job; that failure will wind up costing the City of Chicago dearly.
Sometimes bad leadership happens. It just does. You assign a manager who doesn’t have any experience running a store, or maybe you just hire a coach you think will do wonders for your team, but the next thing you know, you have a dismally losing record by the end of the season.
However, losing scenarios are much more critical when you have a leader demonstrating proven ineptitude at their job; a job where lives are also on the line.
The above describes the current situation with respect to Kimberly Foxx, who currently serves as elected district attorney for The Windy City.
This writer has discussed her in the past.
She’s had a number of issues leading to Chicago’s current problems. But lately, those issues are beginning to take hold, gripping the city, thanks to ever increasing criminal elements and not enough police officers to counter them.
Foxx recently implemented extended shifts to remaining officers on staff to cover for three who comparatively recently committed suicide.
As part of this, vacation days have also been canceled, leading to probably the lowest drop of morale in the department.
But that’s just a small portion of a rather large problem unearthed by Fox News.
The site reports that more than 235 people have resigned from Foxx’s office since July 2021, noting her “abysmal failure” to serve as elected district attorney.
In fact, three of those resignations — from her own Felony Review Unit — resigned on the same day. No doubt she made a decision that didn’t sit well with them at all.
Think about it.
Over 235 people have left administrative positions because of Foxx’s decisions in the hopes to make the city better. Obviously, something isn’t working.
“Foxx’s implemented policies that have made Chicago less safe, that have made people feel unsafe and emboldened criminals, and created this new level of in seeing brazenness among criminals that was unimaginable prior to her tenure,” said former Cook County Assistant States Attorney Dan Kirk, who is among those who have resigned.
“But I also think that her term in office of state’s attorney has been an abysmal failure from the perspective of what it’s done to the state attorney’s office in recent years. The most senior people have all left the office in this mass exodus, which has been unprecedented.
“She likes to blame it on COVID, except in every other prosecutor’s office around Chicago and the other neighboring counties have either maintained their size or actually, in many cases, grown.”
How do you blame something of this ineptitude on COVID?
While there are still active cases out there, I just can’t fathom how so many people are leaving her office because of that. You don’t see other people resigning because of that.
It makes no sense.
That said, Foxx remains defiant.
Speaking with WTTV (CBS Bloomington, Indiana) earlier this week, she said, “We have just brought in a new class of attorneys. 50 back in August will be sworn in next month.
“So, we’re trying to keep up with attrition. We’re not fully staffed. We certainly are much better than we were. We’re on par with our colleagues across the country. Somewhere around 15 percent of our positions remain open.”
So, let’s see if we have this straight.
You have these problems within office that are making people leave in droves, and your goal — in an effort to turn around criminal activity within your city — is to hire people who agree with you and see if it works in the long run?
Here’s the newsflash: Chicago police officers don’t have time to see these results.
To just put it out there. Foxx is failing at her job. Miserably.
Her lack of effectiveness has put the city, its officers, and its citizens in even more grave danger.
Foxx’s response is to simply fill roles left behind; she’s hoping that things will eventually shape up. News Flash II — they won’t!
It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a profusely bleeding injury.
Kimberly Foxx needs to resign. She won’t, of course, even while her city potentially burns to a crisp. She’ll just insist everything is fine and move along, at her own pace, and in her own way.
But it isn’t fine. All it takes is the loss of more officers and administrative workers to see that. She should just accept the loss and hand the reigns to someone that can do their job more effectively — providing Chicago with a rescue it so desperately needs.
Michael Letts is the founder, president, and CEO of InVest USA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping communities provide bulletproof vests for their police forces: through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs. Officer Letts has over 30 years of law enforcement experience.
