Philadelphia now is the homicide capital of the United States of America. The city has the highest per capita homicide rate among the 10 largest cities in the U.S. The precipitous rise in killings parallels the term of Soros-backed District Attorney Larry Krasner. This parallel should not go unnoticed.
Krasner has been an unmitigated disaster for minorities in Philadelphia — and for black people, in particular. During his time in office, the overwhelming majority of the homicide victims in Philadelphia have been black. If the Soros-backed Krasner believes that black lives matter, the record-shattering number of black lives lost during his time in office reveals otherwise.
Krasner made a commitment to transform the city’s criminal justice system and reduce the prison population. This meant fewer felony prosecutions and more criminals on the street harming people as opposed to being incarcerated. Mostly, he has achieved this through funneling gun-related cases to a court diversionary program called Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition. ARD existed before Krasner was in office — however, during his first year, Krasner increased the cases sent to the ARD program by nearly 600%.
An example of the horrors associated with Krasner’s policies is the oft-cited story of Maalik Jackson-Wallace. In less than a month, Jackson-Wallace was arrested three times on gun possession charges. The first two times, he escaped any jail time because of Krasner’s ARD program. By the third time, he was charged with murder for the death of a 26-year-old man. Had Jackson-Wallace been locked up, the 26-year-old would still be alive.
The most recent data in 2021 reveal that over 1 out of every 3 homicides occur in just five ZIP codes in Philadelphia — all of them in predominately majority-black neighborhoods. This is on top of the fact that homicides in Philadelphia are at their worst since the 1990s. This comes on the heels of 2020, a year in which there was a 30-year low in felony prosecutions and the second-most homicides in the city’s history. In less than a decade, Philadelphia’s homicides have doubled. The lower the number of felony prosecutions, the greater number of black lives lost.
Overall, 94% of all shooting victims have been nonwhite Philadelphians: 85% black and 9% Hispanic. Yet, these same groups only comprise about 56% of the city’s population: 42% black and 14% Hispanic.
The number of homicide victims hit 314 last week — an increase of 35% from a year ago, when the city had the second-highest murder rate. The city is on pace to shatter the record for the most homicides in a year and achieve the lowest number of felony prosecutions.
Unfortunately, this pattern has become all too familiar. Democratic policies are proving to be catastrophic for the minorities they claim they want to help the most. The more Soros-backed politicians like Krasner win office, the more black lives are lost. To politicians like them, what seems to matter most about black lives is saying that they support them instead of actually protecting them.
