Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner wants everyone to know that he doesn’t care about the record homicides in his city. He is far more focused on attacking Republicans.
When a reporter suggested that Krasner’s soft-on-crime policies aren’t working, he insisted that they were. Just two days ago, the city reached the grim milestone of 400 homicides, and it has been determined that half of the homicides in the city go unsolved. The city is on pace to break last year’s homicide record, and shootings, armed robberies, property crimes, commercial burglaries, and overall violent crime have risen compared to last year.
But Krasner doesn’t want to talk about that. He wants to talk about how homicides are a conservative problem.
“These states in the United States that have a rate of homicide that is 40% higher are MAGA states, they are Trump states,” Krasner said. “I will say it again, the rate of homicide in Trump states as compared to Biden states, take all 50 of them, is 40% higher.” He added that “Republicans lie. That is what they do.”
Reporter: “Maybe [your soft-on crime policies] are not working.”
Philly DA Larry Krasner: “It is working.”
Reporter: “There’s 1,000 people killed in 20 months.”
Krasner: “The rate of homicide in Trump states and Trump cities compared to Biden states is 40% higher. pic.twitter.com/WwUTjgMNDW
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 29, 2022
This is the same fun talking point that has been pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), and it is ridiculous. Republican governors do not control crime in cities. Republican legislatures do not control crime in cities. Cities are run by local officials — mayors, district attorneys, and police chiefs. The most violent cities in the country are run by Democrats. Those cities that are responsible for the vast majority of homicides in “Trump states” are “Biden cities.”
Part of the problem, especially in cities like Philadelphia, is that they have incompetent district attorneys like Krasner.
Unless Krasner and Newsom are proposing that Republicans roll into St. Louis, Missouri, or Cleveland, Ohio, with the National Guard and begin handling crime themselves, Dirty Harry style, this attack is nonsense. Governors and state legislatures can certainly make crime worse (hello, New York), but it isn’t Republican-run states that are letting repeat violent criminals cycle in and out of jail. It’s Democratic mayors and district attorneys who, like Krasner, don’t care about crime or public safety.
Even if everything Krasner said wasn’t ridiculous, it would still be irrelevant. Philadelphia had the eighth-highest homicide rate of any city during the first half of this year. Philadelphia broke its record for homicides last year under Krasner and is on pace to break that record once again this year — again, under Krasner. Even if it were somehow true that Republicans were causing high homicide rates (again, there’s no sense in which they are), how would that justify Krasner’s abysmal job performance?
Pennsylvania has a Democratic governor. So what Republican is he blaming his failures on?
Krasner does not actually care about crime — only about avoiding blame for crime. He is happy to release violent career criminals so that they can re-offend again and again. He subscribes to an ideology that says criminals are victims of the justice system, and crime victims don’t matter at all. Philadelphia’s record homicides only concern Kranser insofar as they make it harder to attack Republicans. For him, crime is a political inconvenience, not a serious issue, and Philadelphians have been paying the price for his lack of concern.
