About 300 people, including off-duty Chicago police officers,
gathered at the building where Foxx’s office is located in
downtown Chicago, wearing "Foxx Must Go!" buttons and carrying
signs reading "Resign now" and "Who let the Foxx in the
henhouse."
Smollett, who is black and gay, ignited a firestorm on social
media by telling police on Jan. 29 that two apparent supporters
of President Donald Trump struck him, put a noose around his
neck and poured bleach over him while yelling racist and
homophobic slurs on a Chicago street.
The 36-year-old actor, best known for his role on the Twentieth
Century Fox Television hip-hop drama “Empire,” was charged in
February with staging the incident himself and filing a false
police report.
In a stunning move on Tuesday, prosecutors dropped all charges
against Smollett, angering police who had not been told of the
decision ahead of time.
Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police organized the protest,
arranging for three buses to bring members from the city’s South
and North sides, said Kevin Graham, president of a local chapter
of the police union.
“We are here to let people know that we want justice in Cook
County," Graham said.
Foxx recused herself from the case before charges were filed
against Smollett because of conversations she had about the
incident with one of Smollett’s relatives, according to her
spokesman.
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In an interview with Chicago's ABC7-TV last week, Foxx side-stepped
questions over whether she personally believed Smollett was guilty.
“I think this office, based on (the) charging decisions, believed
that he is culpable of doing that,” Foxx said, referring to
accusations that Smollett staged the attack and lied to police.
A group of protesters supporting Foxx held a rally in close
proximity to the anti-Foxx demonstration. Chicago police officers on
bicycles separated the two groups. The tension between the groups
got testy at times, with some pushing and shoving. No arrests were
reported.
Supporters of Foxx, who is also African-American, were partly
organized by Jessie Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition. They were
upset with what they called the police union's selective outrage —
saying it stayed silent when Laquan McDonald, 17, was killed by
police in 2014.
Police officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, was sentenced in
January to nearly seven years in prison for shooting the black
teenager.
(Reporting by Bob Chiarito in Chicago; writing by Brendan O'Brien;
editing by Bill Tarrantand Leslie Adler)
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