Why Eileen Burke’s defense of common sense marks a turning point in Chicago’s fight for law and order
Winston Churchill once stood before a battered Britain and told his people: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Chicago is no North Africa in 1942, but we are fighting our own long, grinding war — against chaos, against crime, against the smug, Soros-bankrolled “reformers” who spent the last decade turning the city into a social justice laboratory where residents doubled as guinea pigs.
And last week, for the first time in years, sanity scored a win. Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke announced that her office would not file charges against four Chicago police officers who shot and killed Dexter Reed after Reed opened fire on them during a traffic stop. The decision was backed up by an independent appellate prosecutor, leaving the “abolish the police” crowd sputtering into their megaphones.
It may not be the end. It may not be the beginning of the end. But make no mistake — it is the end of the beginning of the counterrevolution against the progressive crusade to make criminals the victims and cops the villains.
The Reed case: A reality check
The facts are simple — so simple that only a Northwestern law professor could manage to confuse them.
March 21, 2024: A Chicago Police tactical team serving with the 11th District pulls over Dexter Reed. They’re in plain clothes but wearing police vests. Reed refuses to comply with lawful police commands, pulls a gun, and fires 11 shots. Officer Gregory Saint Louis takes a bullet to the wrist. The other officers return fire. Reed keeps shooting, then stumbles out of the car and collapses behind it.
Forensics proved what everyone already knew: Reed’s gun matched the bullet in the officer’s arm. Gunshot residue on his hands, his DNA on the weapon, empty magazine locked open. The entire incident was caught on camera. It lasted 71 seconds.
This wasn’t Selma, this wasn’t George Floyd, this wasn’t a grainy cell phone video where activists could scream “murder” into the void until the press caved. This was cut and dried: A man armed with an illegal gun shot at cops, and they shot back. End of story.
Goodbye Kim Foxx, hello reality
The reason Burke’s decision feels like such a breath of fresh air is because for eight long years, Cook County was run by Kim Foxx — Preckwinkle’s favorite puppet and George Soros’ proudest investment. Under Foxx, justice was replaced by ideology.
Shoplifting? Practically decriminalized. Violent offenders? Given a wrist slap and an ankle monitor before heading right back out to terrorize the same neighborhoods. The infamous SAFE-T Act eliminated cash bail, ensuring that “serial armed robber” became an entry-level position with no barriers to re-employment.
The results? Chicagoans lived through it: Gang shootings off the charts, teenagers carjacking mothers in broad daylight, mobs looting Michigan Avenue while police were told to stand down. Foxx and her cheerleaders explained it all away as “equity.” Meanwhile, actual equity — the kind that means “fairness” — vanished from the streets of Chicago.
Burke is the antidote. She didn’t get her law degree from the Soros U. She applied the law on the books. Reed shot a cop. The cops shot back. That’s not injustice — that’s paying the price for using terrible judgment and attacking police officers with a firearm.
Eileen Burke: A prosecutor, not a progressive
Burke is a rarity in Cook County: A prosecutor who actually prosecutes. She isn’t looking to pad her resume with glowing profiles in The Nation. Burke isn’t angling for a fellowship at the Soros Institute for Turning Cities into Burning Tire Piles. She believes the law means what it says.
By refusing to feed the mob its sacrificial cops, Burke drew a line: Chicago will no longer operate on the assumption that every officer is guilty until proven innocent. That is a sea change. And it’s driving the progressive peanut gallery insane.
Brandon Johnson and the CTU circus
Of course, don’t expect the mayor to notice. Brandon Johnson is still running City Hall as though the CTU contract were the city charter. His plan for public safety is the same as his plan for potholes, housing, or the budget: Spend more money on politically correct nonprofits and call it “investing in people.”
Violence interrupters? Please. They’ve interrupted nothing but the cash flow of taxpayers. Johnson has poured millions into “community solutions” while pretending police are optional. When Walgreens is calling 911 on the customers trying to report shoplifters, you know the city has become a parody of itself, a world turned upside down.
Johnson’s answer is always the same: Blame racism, blame “root causes,” blame Nixon, blame Trump, blame literally anything except the gangs running open-air drug markets on the West Side like it’s the farmer’s market at Green City.
The DSA Caucus: Crime’s best friend
If Johnson is the ringmaster, the DSA aldermen are the circus clowns. Twenty percent of the City Council now belongs to a movement whose core belief is that police are the enemy and criminals are simply oppressed.
These are the folks who demand “defunding” while hiding behind private security. They treat repeat carjackers as “youths in need of support.” They are the reason every Chicagoan now shops for items locked behind plexiglass like they’re buying diamonds.
They’re anarchists cosplaying as reformers, and, as Burke’s decision shows, their act is wearing thin.
Boss Toni’s losing streak
Let’s not forget Boss Toni Preckwinkle, queen of the Cook County machine. Preckwinkle anointed Foxx, defended every disaster of her tenure, and doubled down with a hand-picked successor who made Foxx look like Rudy Giuliani. Voters finally had enough, Preckwinkle’s candidate got smoked, and Burke — Preckwinkle’s nightmare — took over.
This is more than a bad election cycle for Boss Toni. It’s a reminder that even in Chicago, machine politics and Soros money can’t forever shield incompetence and lunacy.
Why this moment matters
Chicago is still bleeding. We’re still bankrupt. Michigan Avenue looks like Gary. We’re still the nation’s murder capital, both in raw numbers and reputation. But something important happened here.
Burke said no to the mob. No to the activists who demand that cops be prosecuted no matter the facts. No to the politicians who think justice is a sociology seminar. No to the idea that the criminal is always the victim.
For the first time in years, a Cook County State’s Attorney stood up and told Chicagoans the truth: When you shoot at police, you are responsible for what happens next.
That’s why this feels like a turning point. Churchill had his “end of the beginning” moment. Maybe this is ours.
What comes next
Don’t misunderstand: Chicago isn’t saved. The war is still on. But at least we have a State’s Attorney who recognizes which side she’s on.
Now the challenge is political. Johnson and his DSA allies are doubling down on their ideological insanity. They want more social workers, fewer cops, and fewer prosecutions. They want to hand the keys of the city to the very gangs who already treat it like their personal fiefdom.
Burke’s ruling shows that the tide can be turned. The people of Chicago can reject the madness. They can vote out the radicals, reject the Marxist cosplay, and put this city back on the side of law and order.
Chicago’s ray of sunlight
For too long, Chicago has been defined by decline. Nevertheless, Burke’s decision is proof that common sense still has a pulse in this city. It is a ray of sunshine piercing through the fog of progressive nonsense.
It is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But after eight years of Foxx, Preckwinkle, Soros, and the DSA carnival, it feels very much like the end of the beginning.
And that, my fellow Chicagoans, is something worth celebrating.
