The Pennsylvania GOP-controlled House impeached Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday over allegations that his policies led to a spike in the city’s violent crime.
Pennsylvania Republicans filed articles of impeachment against Krasner on Oct. 27 for “negligence of duty.” Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff said that, under Krasner, there have been almost 1,000 homicides in Philadelphia in the last 22 months, as well as “over 1,000 carjackings since the beginning of the year,” according to the Philadelphia Tribune.
The House voted to impeach Krasner 107-85. The vote will now go to the Senate, where critics need a two-thirds majority to convict Krasner. However, Republicans hold only a slight majority, so it is unclear whether they will be able to get the votes needed to oust the Philadelphia district attorney.
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Krasner wrote in a statement to the Washington Post on Wednesday that he was impeached without House lawmakers “presenting a single shred of evidence connecting our policies to any uptick in crime.”
“In the hundreds of years the Commonwealth has existed, this is the only time the House has used the drastic remedy of impeachment of an elected official because they do not like their ideas,” he said. “History will harshly judge this anti-democratic authoritarian effort to erase Philly’s votes — votes by Black, brown, and broke people in Philadelphia.”
He previously spoke out against the state House filing for impeachment, stating that it was for “purely political purposes ahead of the November 8 election” and that several other counties in the state have seen greater increases in crime than Philadelphia.
The city of Philadelphia sees 63,036 crimes annually, with 15,754 violent crimes and 47,282 property crimes every year, according to NeighborhoodScout. A total of 259,960 crimes occur every year in the state as a whole, consisting of 49,793 violent crimes and 210,167 property crimes, according to the database website.
The chances of being a victim of violent crime are higher in Philadelphia, at 1 in 102, than compared to the state as a whole. Pennsylvania residents have a 1 in 261 chance of being a victim, according to the website.
If Krasner is convicted, it will be the first time for a district attorney in the state’s history.
Under Krasner, Philadelphia prosecutors released at least 10 people who were wrongly convicted of murder from incarceration, according to the Washington Post. He is known for embracing lenient criminal justice policies, such as reduced prison sentences and taking public health approaches, rather than incarceration, to address the state’s drug addiction crisis.
In October, a Pennsylvania House committee issued a report accusing Krasner of firing longtime prosecutors as well as failing to convict people in cases related to illegal firearm possession.
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Philadelphia’s drug crisis entered the spotlight recently after it was discovered that Mexico was using footage from the city’s streets in its ads as part of a campaign to put off young people from drug use.
The city’s number of overdose deaths continues to climb, reaching 1,276 deaths last year. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney is known for supporting supervised injection sites. Advocates of these sites see them as a way to curb the scourge of overdose deaths, but critics argue that the safe injection sites just perpetuate illegal drug use and burden neighborhoods.
