As National Review’s unofficial Chicago correspondent, I figure it’s always helpful to drop in with a Zeitgeist Update for the readers. How are things vibing here in the Windy City in the aftermath of Brandon Johnson’s election? For some evidence of how it’s going, consider the open letter that 20-year veteran state’s attorney Jason Poje wrote to his colleagues a few days ago , as he resigned in frustration.

Here are some key excerpts, all of which match my understanding of how both the state and Cook County’s prosecutors operate nowadays. After recounting the good work he feels he and his colleagues have done, he continues:

And yet, I’m leaving. Why could that be? The simple fact is that this State and County have set themselves on a course to disaster. And the worst part is that the agency for whom I work has backed literally every policy change that had the predictable, and predicted, outcome of more crime and more people getting hurt.

Bond reform designed to make sure no one stays in jail while their cases are pending with no safety net to handle more criminals on the streets, shorter parole periods, lower sentences for repeat offenders, the malicious and unnecessary prosecution of law enforcement officers, overuse of diversion programs, intentionally not pursuing prosecutions for crimes lawfully on the books after being passed by our legislature and signed by a governor, all of these so-called reforms have had a direct negative impact, with consequences that will last for a generation. . . .

The current people in charge of this state, including the [State’s Attorney’s Office] suffer from a fundamental misunderstanding. . . . Once we start doing too much of the defense’s job, once we pull our punches, once we decide that it’s worth risking citizens’ lives to have a little social experiment, that balance is lost. The unavoidable consequences are what we are witnessing in real time, an increase in crime of all kinds, businesses and families pulling up stakes, and the bodies piling up; the whole time with a State’s Attorney who insists that there is nothing to see here, and if there is it must be someone else’s fault. And then they wonder why they cannot retain experienced prosecutors or even hire new ones . . . it’s because any true prosecutor recognizes the importance of this balance, and that they will not be permitted to be a prosecutor under this administration.

Worry not, Chicagoans! Poje offers a consolatory drink of hemlock to those of us who remain here:

I will not raise my son here. I am fortunate enough to have the means to escape, so my entire family is leaving the State of Illinois. I grew up here, my family and friends are here, and yet my own employer has turned it into a place from which I am no longer proud to be, and in which my son is not safe.

Read the entire thing and despair. The vibes, they are not good here in Chicago nowadays.