Liberal prosecutors across the country have overseen significant crime waves in America’s major cities this year — and have largely stood by their aggressive reforms.
The district attorneys came into office vowing to address the inequality they say plagues much of the criminal justice system, to much fanfare from the Left.
However, few have acknowledged the seeming link between their departure from the prosecutorial status quo and the rise in violence.
Here is how some of the most radical district attorneys have reshaped law enforcement in their cities.
Larry Krasner
Philadelphia’s liberal district attorney has come under fire for presiding over an explosion in gun violence — and for attempting to downplay it.
Krasner was forced to apologize in December after he said the historic increase in his city’s crime levels doesn’t rise to the level of a “crisis.”
“Basically, we don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence, and that is a category that includes gun violence,” Krasner said in early December, sparking backlash.
Krasner has framed himself as an opponent of mass incarceration, touting how dramatically his office has cut jail time on the homepage of his website. The district attorney boasts of imposing more than 25,000 fewer years of jail time during his tenure compared to the previous four years, even though crime has skyrocketed in that time.
Philadelphia experienced more than twice the number of murders in 2021 than its average annual homicide rate during the four years before Krasner took office, according to Philadelphia Police Department data.
The city broke its all-time record for murders this year, surpassing the previous high of 500 murders in a single year, which occurred in 1990. As of Dec. 16, the city saw 535 murders.
Krasner’s office has stopped prosecuting prostitution and marijuana possession. He campaigned in 2017 on ending cash bail, which he ultimately did for most nonviolent crimes.
Liberal billionaire George Soros’s super PAC poured $1.65 million into Krasner’s district attorney bid during the primary race.
Chesa Boudin
Raised by radicals from the far-left Weather Underground group after his parents went to prison for murder, Boudin campaigned to become San Francisco’s district attorney on an aggressively liberal criminal justice platform.
He now faces a recall election in June as the people of his deeply Democratic city question the leniency with which he’s approached crime since taking office in 2020.
Boudin fulfilled his campaign promise to get rid of cash bail upon taking office, noting on his website that “everyone who does not pose a serious public safety risk should be free from jail while their case is pending.”
According to Boudin’s office, the district attorney chose not to file any charges against suspects in nearly a third of all arrests made by San Francisco police over the past two years.
Boudin ended the practice of “stop and frisk” last year, unveiling a new policy under which his office would decline to file most “possession of contraband” charges against suspects whose drugs or other illegal items were discovered by police during unrelated traffic stops.
He also moved to stop prosecuting prostitution, camping on the streets, and public urination, among other “quality of life” crimes.
But under Boudin’s watch, crime has flourished in San Francisco. Residents now face 1-in-16 odds of becoming a victim of a crime, according to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, which described San Francisco in November as more dangerous than 98% of U.S. cities.
Boudin made headlines in mid-December for speaking out against plans by the city’s liberal mayor to crack down on crime in response to the growing concerns of residents.
Marilyn Mosby
Under the guise of public health, Baltimore’s top prosecutor said her office would stop prosecuting drug possession, attempted drug distribution, trespassing, prostitution, and other nonviolent offenses in March 2020 to lower the risk of spreading the coronavirus in prison.
The Baltimore City state’s attorney ultimately made those policy changes permanent, continuing a trend of liberal criminal justice policies that she has implemented since taking office in 2015.
Her refusal to prosecute a number of lower-level crimes as homicides have soared prompted Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to order an investigation into whether her office should continue to receive state funds.
Baltimore has experienced consistently high homicide rates over the past several years, weathering more than 300 murders this year.
Kim Foxx
Chicago-area State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has found herself embroiled in controversy for months over her office’s decision last year not to prosecute Jussie Smollett, the former actor now convicted of staging a hate crime against himself in an attempt to get publicity.
A special prosecutor who investigated the circumstances behind the controversial deal Foxx cut for Smollett found she and her team committed “substantial abuses of discretion,” although he concluded her actions fell short of criminal conduct.
But Foxx’s liberal leanings have invited scrutiny that goes well beyond her handling of Smollett’s high-profile hoax.
An analysis from the Chicago Tribune last year found Foxx had dropped all charges in nearly a third of felony cases sent her way, declining to prosecute murder and other serious crimes far more often than the previous Cook County state’s attorney.
With crime in Chicago skyrocketing, the city’s Democratic mayor recently joined with critics of Foxx’s office in questioning why the state’s attorney has failed to prosecute more shootings.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot also accused Foxx’s team last year of not doing enough to hold accountable the rioters and looters who caused destruction across the city as part of nationwide protests in the summer of 2020.
Cook County had reached a near-historic level of homicides by the end of November 2021, notching more murders than any year since 1994.
George Gascon
Los Angeles’s district attorney faces a recall effort of his own thanks to residents who resent his approach to preventing violence in their city.
Gascon has pursued many of the same policies embraced by similarly liberal prosecutors in other major cities, such as ending cash bail and moving away from the death penalty.
But Gascon has gone further, eliminating criteria upon taking office that encouraged longer sentences for criminals associated with gangs or who had committed multiple prior crimes.
Gascon instructed prosecutors in his office to stop seeking the sentence of life without parole, even for murder convictions.
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Homicides in Los Angeles rose 46% in the year Gascon has held office.
After the Los Angeles sheriff recently criticized Gascon’s office for overseeing such a significant rise in crime, Gascon responded in a way that invited a backlash.
“My dad used to say that when you wrestle with a pig, you both get muddy and the pig likes it,” Gascon said in response to the criticism.
