Posted on 05/08/2023 5:08:25 AM PDT by TigerClaws
A 20-year veteran prosecutor has quit the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and will move his family out of Illinois.
Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Poje blasted Chicago’s leadership and cited rising crime and the politicians who do nothing to stop it as a reason for leaving the state.
In a statement announcing his departure, Poje said he can’t raise his son in the state and is moving his “entire family” out of Illinois.
Poje sent a blistering goodbye email to 85 colleagues that said: “After 20 years, I always kind of figured an email like this would start with ‘It is with a heavy heart that I leave…’
“The truth is, I can’t get out of here fast enough.
“Let me start with the positive. There is not a single day that has gone by that I have not felt truly honored to work with such an incredible group of people who spent every waking hour on behalf of victims. This opportunity has been a gift for which I have no words to explain the extent of my gratitude.
“My partners, our Victim/Witness advocates, our Investigators, our support staff, the police officers and detectives, time after time I see each of you putting everything you have into helping people we encounter on the worst days of their lives. So often I see our personal lives, and indeed at times our own well-being, set aside just to do a little bit more on that last case for that last victim. It’s been nothing short of inspiring not as a lawyer, but as a person.
“And yet, I’m leaving. Why could that be? The simple fact is that this State and County have set themselves on a course to disaster. And the worst part is that the agency for whom I work has backed literally every policy change that had the predicable, and predicted, outcome of more crime and more people getting hurt.
“Bond reform designed to make sure no one stays in jail while their cases are pending with no safety net to handle more criminals on the streets, shorter parole periods, lower sentences for repeat offenders, the malicious and unnecessary prosecution of law enforcement officers, overuse of diversion programs, intentionally not pursuing prosecutions for crimes lawfully on the books after being passed by our legislature and signed by a governor, all of these so-called reforms have had a direct negative impact, with consequences that will last for a generation.
“Many years ago my family found a nice quiet corner of the suburbs. Now my son, who is only 5, hears gunfire while playing at our neighborhood park, and a drug dealer is open-air selling behind my house (the second one in two years). If it were just me to consider, I’d stick it out. I’ve been through stupid State’s Attorney policies before. But this Office’s complete failure to even think for a moment before rushing into one popular political agenda after another has put my family directly in harm’s way.
“The current people in charge of this state, including the [State’s Attorney’s Office] suffer from a fundamental misunderstanding…we live in a society with adversarial court and criminal justice processes. Defense attorneys, legal aid clinics, Public Defenders, defendant advocate groups…they fight like hell to protect the rights of criminal defendants. And they should. Their work is as noble as ours.
“But we have an obligation to fight like hell on behalf of the People. It should go without saying that this must be done ethically and even-handedly. When both sides vigorously defend their positions, a balance is reached between protecting rights while preserving some sort of order and safety. Once we start doing too much of the defense’s job, once we pull our punches, once we decide that it’s worth risking citizens’ lives to have a little social experiment, that balance is lost.
“The unavoidable consequences are what we are witnessing in real-time, an increase in crime of all kinds, businesses and families pulling up stakes, and the bodies piling up; the whole time with a State’s Attorney who insists that there is nothing to see here, and if there is it must be someone else’s fault.
“And then they wonder why they cannot retain experienced prosecutors or even hire new ones…it’s because any true prosecutor recognizes the importance of this balance, and that they will not be permitted to be a prosecutor under this administration.
“I will not raise my son here. I am fortunate enough to have the means to escape, so my entire family is leaving the State of Illinois. I grew up here, my family and friends are here, and yet my own employer has turned it into a place from which I am no longer proud to be, and in which my son is not safe.
“To everyone in the trenches in the State’s Attorney’s Office and in law enforcement, my one regret is that I cannot be at your side anymore as you continue to fight the good fight. I do not envy the task you have before you, but you have my utmost respect for carrying on. I hope one day you are successful at returning some kind of common sense and security to our communities.
“Thank you all so much for this opportunity to serve. I will treasure every moment of this chapter in my life. Be safe, be well, fight hard.”
Once they control just one major city (Philly, Detroit, Chicago, etc.) they control the entire state.
The criminals are the Brownshirt shock troops to run out political opponents.
Do nothing to stop it? On the contrary, they are doing everything they can to encourage it.
Third world shithole.
True and every policy is designed to aid the drug cartels this is not accidental.
“The truth is, I can’t get out of here fast enough.”
Quickly enough.
The cancerous rot of the City States is achieving what the conservative opposition can not. The City States are failing, rotting internally, by from their own progressive excess.
The American political and legal systems have failed from excess of the application of founder principles carried beyond extreme.
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Chicago has gone Full Third World. A real schitt hole. I wouldn’t live there either. The joint is more corrupt and lawless now than it was during the Capone days. Guns aren’t the problem. CRIMINALS and out of control little brats walking the streets are the problem. As much as they don’t want to, grown-ups are going to have to start acting grown up again to save that sewer.
The more colloquial “fast” sets a better tone.
Other than that, things are just peachy. Say, who counts the votes there?
I can’t think of one that utterly failed. The inevitable end seems to be a permanent, sucking abyss.
It took him 20 years to figure it out. 20 YEARS.
You are correct. However, pay attention to Portland and San Francisco. Portland is actually failed but not yet acknowledged as a failure. San Francisco is not very far behind.
As an indicator of failure an excellent indicator is Walmart.
Walmart and others closed up many shops and departed. Such action means the city exists in a state of failure.
In all seriousness, the guy is most likely a Democrat and that needs to be taken into account for his slow to learn affliction. Things didn’t start getting really, really bad until the St. George Floyd riots in the summer of 2020.
20 years = retirement / pension.
Have to grind it out.
I have relatives working as teachers in this situation.
bttt
A little slow on the uptake there
Left-wing legal theory: Crime only exists when law enforcement observes crime; therefore, disabling law enforcement makes crime go away - “because [fill in perp name here] would not do that [fill in crime here],” said perp’s parental person . . .
. . . despite video of perp having spent [fill in day of week here] sucker punching pedestrians in downtown Chicago.
As judges release said perps with fantastic criminal records to continue the crime wave, and teachers unions argue for more pay and genital amputation.
The prosecutor’s letter broaches a subject that is on my mind and I dare say, many others today across all walks of life. Indeed, I will go so far as to suggest it is the one topic on the minds of all humanity. It can be summed up as follows ‘Stop the train, I want to get off.’ For now, the prosecutor escapes to a state that is saner than the one he’s in but the nagging question remains - where does one eventually flee to when the world as a whole is on the same road to hell?
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