(WBBM NEWSRADIO) --Democrat Clayton Harris says he's running for Cook County State's Attorney and he's doing it for the people who are afraid of violent crime and injustice.
While Kim Foxx's years as State's Attorney has drawn much criticism from conservatives, Democratic candidate Clayton Harris III says there's a lot the outgoing incumbent did right and he would continue those efforts.
"When we look at reform, when we look at restorative justice, when we look at the conviction review unit, we're gonna continue with that," he said.
The former prosecutor and now professor says if elected, he would be tough on violent crimes like carjacking.
"These are the highest prosecuting cases in the county," Harris explained.
"So what we're going to do is we're going to stand up a division that is dedicated to carjacking, to organized crime, organized retail theft and we're going to make sure that we are prosecuting these cases aggressively when and where called for."
He said any crimes committed with a gun would be aggressively prosecuted as well. Harris acknowledges there's fear in some communities and different kinds of fear.
"I'm running for people who are scared to come downtown or scared to take public transportation but I'm also running for, you know, the the individual that's been pulled over wrongly on a pretextual stop," he added.
"I'm running for the business that feels like they need to close up shop, because of crime, but I'm also running for the worker whose wages have been stolen or the community that feels like they have to look over the shoulder."
Former appellate judge Eileen O'Neil Burke is running against Harris in the Democratic primary.
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