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Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has her critics, but she easily cruised to reelection. 

Only days into her second term, Foxx sat down with WGN’s Tahman Bradley to answer questions about violence in Chicago and other issues facing her office:

Already this year, Chicago has seen more than 700 homicides and 3,800 shootings through November. What’s happening?

I think there are stretches on the South Side and stretches on the West Side where we’re seeing a high concentration of violence and if we just mapped what the resources are in those communities – if we look on the West Side, it would break our hearts to find that there are neighborhoods that have no access to libraries, no access to fresh foods, no access to health care and recognize that those are all symptoms of a larger problem where violence is the ultimate outcome.  

Do you think the same people, the so-called repeat offenders, are fueling, driving our violence?

You know I think we are seeing, as I’ve said before a spike in violence here in Chicago like we’re seeing across the country and the reality is that this year has been particularly challenging. 

We have to talk in facts and data. I think one of the things that’s been incredibly difficult is in the height of emotion that rhetoric is often said. “This is because these people fear that there are no consequences” and the data would suggest that people were being arrested, being prosecuted.

How can you and law enforcement work with the community so that you can help each other? 

The reality is the solution to violent crime isn’t just a law enforcement solution. There are things that have happened long before that final trigger is pulled. And that there are people in the community who know what the issues and needs are who may be fearful engaging with law enforcement.

What do you make of CPD Supt. David Brown and how is your relationship with him different than Eddie Johnson?

If the Chicago Police Department is not successful in their work, I’m not successful as a prosecutor. 

I don’t envy the fact that the superintendent has had to come into this job — which is a big job in and of itself — in the middle of a global pandemic and in a summer of civil unrest. And so I’ve found that he has work that is incredibly challenging. And it has been difficult for us because of COVID-19 to be able to connect in a way that superintendents previously and I had.

Do you have aspirations for higher office?

I am so humbled to do this work. It has not been without my critics. It has been demonstrated to me that I am on the right path in the work that I’m doing right now.