Prosecutions are down, the jail is half empty and it's safe to go to Chinatown!

Criminal justice advocates praise Kim Foxx for fewer drug, theft prosecutions
The number of black and Latino people sent to prison monthly was down over 30% last year compared with 2012.

By Sam Charles Feb 12, 2020, 2:32pm CST

Sarah Staudt, center, a senior policy analyst and staff attorney at the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers, discusses a new report on Cook County prosecutions, immediately before their departure for Chinatown, where they will present the report.  Sam Charles/Sun-Times

A group of criminal justice advocacy organizations unveiled a new report Wednesday that heaped praise on Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s administration for its policies that have resulted in far fewer black and Latino people being sent to prison.

“We know that mass incarceration over the past four decades has fallen primarily on the backs of black and Latinx communities,” said Sarah Staudt, a senior policy analyst and staff attorney at the
Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice and the Chicago Council of Lawyers. “What our report today shows is that that situation is getting better in Cook County and continues to get better as Kim Foxx stays in office.”

The report used four metrics — sentences of incarceration, felony theft prosecutions, felony review rejections and felony drug charges dropped before arraignment — to compare the effects of Foxx’s policies with those of former State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. The report focused on the years 2012 — when Alvarez was in office — and 2019 because the two had similar crime rates.

On average, 1,063 black and Latino people were sent to prison every month in 2012 after prosecutions by the Alvarez administration. In 2019, the average was down to 706, according to the report.

“We’ve seen some of the biggest changes in the ways that drug cases and retail theft cases are being treated,” Staudt said.

The sharp decline “has partially resulted from the state’s attorney’s office moving away from a culture that rewards mass incarceration to one that values rehabilitation and outcomes rooted in justice,” the report concluded.

Foxx is facing reelection this year and has sought to highlight her office’s restorative justice practices, though she has been dogged by her handling of the now-infamous Jussie Smollett case.



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Hundreds in Chinatown plead for ‘safe, quiet community’ at vigil for 2 men killed in apparent robbery
Memorial for 2 men killed last weekend brought out friends and neighbors from Chinatown who said they are fed up with crime in the community.

By Jake Wittich@JakeWittich Feb 12, 2020, 8:31pm CST

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A woman cries as hundreds of mourners gather for a vigil Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020, in a parking lot in the 2000 block of South Wells in Chinatown, where Huayi Bian and Weizhong Xiong were shot to death last weekend. Bian and Xiong were killed during an apparent robbery, for which a suspect faces two counts of first-degree murder. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times


Hundreds of Chinatown neighbors and friends of two men killed during an apparent robbery last weekend gathered Wednesday night to honor their lives with traditional Chinese ceremonies.

They lit hundreds of candles, which lined the fence outside an apartment building in the 1200 block of South Wells, along with flowers and various signs reading “We demand justice,” “Asian lives matter” and “All lives matter.”

One by one, several close friends of Huayi Bian, 36, and Weizhong Xiong, 38 — who were killed in the Sunday attack — spoke in Chinese about the community’s loss and to express they are fed up with crime in the neighborhood.

“We’re here to protect our community,” said Darien Lin, a Chinatown resident who has been best friends with Bian and Xiong for about a decade. “They were very friendly and caring people that the world lost. We still can’t believe it.”

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Mourners chant as hundreds gather for a vigil in a parking lot in the 2000 block of South Wells in Chinatown, where Huayi Bian and Weizhong Xiong were shot to death, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020. Bian and Xiong were killed during an apparent robbery, for which Alvin Thomas faces two counts of first-degree murder. Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Lin said Bian and Xiong had both moved to the U.S. from Shenyang, China. They both have families who still live in China that they haven’t seen in several years since moving out of the country.

A donation box collecting money for their families, who relied on Bian and Xiong for assistance, was passed around during the vigil.


Lin said he had just been out to dinner with Bian and Xiong before the attack happened. Bian lived in Chinatown, but Xiong and his wife were in town from Minnesota to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Xiong’s wife, 44, also a victim in the attack, was too distraught to attend the vigil, Lin said.

Bian, Xiong and his wife had just parked in the lot of an apartment complex around 2:10 a.m. Sunday when they were allegedly confronted by Alvin Thomas, who was charged this week with fatally shooting Xiong and Bian. Xiong’s wife heard the shots and crawled under a nearby vehicle, avoiding the gunfire, prosecutors said during Thomas’ bail hearing Tuesday.

Thomas was arrested about 10 minutes after the shooting, prosecutors said. He was ordered held without bail.

“Why are people like that still walking around outside?” Lin asked during the vigil Wednesday. “Crime has gotten worse in Chinatown for the last three or four years, and we just want a safe, quiet community.”

A Chinatown resident confronted Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez at the rally, whose ward encompasses Chinatown, demanding that the city take more action against crime in the neighborhood.

“Why do we have to wait until someone dies to take action? The robberies have been going on here for many years,” she said. “The city is very reactive, but we need permanent, preventative solutions.”

Sigcho-Lopez said the Chicago Police Department had already seen a spike in neighborhood robberies and increased patrols in Chinatown, and the city would be installing new cameras to improve surveillance in the neighborhood.

“We’re doing everything we can to bring more resources or violence prevention to Chinatown and the 25th Ward,” Sigcho-Lopez said.