This is what Kim Foxx was originally trying to do in the Smollett case. As she has pointed out over and over again, cases similar to his rarely result in criminal prosecution. The Chicago Police Department was outraged when she declined to prosecute, and they got the white public all up in a hissy fit over it, but she was right. Prosecutors typically do not file charges in similar situations.

Prosecutorial discretion is a real thing, exercised every day in our criminal justice system. The alternative isn’t something anyone wants.

Unless the person benefiting from discretion is a famous Black man who pissed off the cops.

The Chicago PD’s insistence on prosecution is racism in action.