(Photo Credits: Screengrab from Associated Press’s YouTube Account)

In the latest installment of the Jussie Smollett saga, two groups staged what Chicago Tribune has described as a “dueling protest” right outside Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s downtown office on Monday—April 1, 2019.

It can be recalled that Chicago prosecutors dropped the charges against Smollett last March 26, Tuesday. Smollett’s lawyers said that it was the prosecutors’ office who proposed a deal to drop the 16-count indictment and not the other way around. 

For her part, Foxx wrote to Chicago Tribune, “There were specific aspects of the evidence and testimony… that would have made securing a conviction against Smollett uncertain,” ABC News reported. Foxx said that these “cases are routinely resolved, particularly… involving suspects with no prior criminal record, long before a case ever nears a courtroom.” She added, “I welcome an outside review of how we handled the Jussie Smollett case” Watch the interview below.

The dropping of charges spurred the outrage of the members of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), prompting them to call for Foxx’s ouster. On the other side, a group called Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, alongside Rev. Jesse Jackson,was quick to rally behind the embattled prosecutor. The former chanted, “Foxx must go” and “Blue lives matter” while the latter said that “FOP is racist.” Activists explained that the other group’s outrage wasn’t about Foxx’s decision per se but, rather, due to the fact that “a black man is not in prison.” Watch below as the rally unfolds. 

On a related note, Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel demanded that Jussie Smollett pay the city $130,000 “to help offset the costs of the investigation.”

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