Our Chicago: Candidates For Cook County State's Attorney
CHICAGO (WLS) -- This November, voters will elect the Cook County State's Attorney.
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Incumbent Kim Foxx is not running for re-election. Three candidates are seeking to replace her: Republican Bob Fioretti, Democrat Eileen O'Neill Burke and Libertarian Andrew Kopinski.
ABC7 Chicago spoke with O'Neill Burke and Fioretti. Mr. Kopinski had planned to join us, but was unable to because of a family matter.
The conversations began by asking both candidates what their top priority would be, if elected.
O'Neill Burke said guns were a top priority.
"That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone because we had 764 shot this summer in Chicago alone," she said. "We are seeing a mass shooting now on a regular basis."
For Fioretti, his first priority is "to restore the rule of law."
"Second, support the victims of crime," he added. "And third, let's break this whole cycle of crime and corruption that we see throughout this city and county."
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When it comes to youth violence, Fioretti proposed jobs.
"Anybody that has a job eight hours a day, five days a week, you know what, they're too tired to commit a crime," he said. "They want self-respect, they don't want to be selling drugs out on the corner, they don't want to doing smash-and-grabs. I'm going to be a very active state's attorney."
O'Neill Burke, laid out a potential pilot program for young offenders by partnering with community organizations.
"We are going to put pretrial conditions on them, meaning you get checked in at school at 8 o'clock, you're checked on at noon, and you get checked out at 3:30. Vast majority of juveniles are arrested between 3:30 and 10 o'clock at night. That's when we're going to keep them busy."
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