Philadelphia District Attorney's Controversial Comments! (Washington: city hall, crime, broker)

[JimfromPennsyl]

It was understandable District Attorney Larry Krassner's statement this past Monday " We don't have a crisis of lawlessness, we don't have a crisis of crime, we don't have a crisis of violence." because crime statistics for crimes without a gun are down from prior to the Pandemic and District Attorneys are supposed to promote their City and it doesn't bode well in the area of getting people and businesses to move to the City and visit the City when the DA is acknowledging that there is a crisis of gun violence in Philly. Nevertheless, it was callous for the DA to make this statement to all the Philadelphians touched by the gun violence that has occurred and all those living in fear and somewhat paralyzed by the danger of this violence.

It must be remembered that Larry Krassner has been good for the City as DA because he has dramatically cut the number of Philadelphians caught up in the Criminal Justice system. Before Krassner's tenure I used to periodically drive down to City Hall in the morning and you would regularly see a line of people running from the middle of the 1400 block of Arch Street around the corner to the middle of the connecting block on Broad Street all people on probation or parole reporting in to the office there. So many people caught in the system wasn't good, the numbers included a disproportionate numbers of minorities very divisive and very bad for the City!

As numerous experts attest to the causes of gun violence are many and most of them are outside the purview of law enforcement personnel. Irregardless the DA should do more to fight this gun violence problem to demonstrate he hears the public's concerns and is responding to those concerns as best he can. Here is some ideas! In the Inquirer yesterday an article stated "Caterina Roman, a professor at Temple University and crime expert, said her research finds a link between the high numbers of shootings and heavy drug activity." I think the professor was spot on operatives in the drug world are a big block of the people shooting other people in the City, so the DA should target these operatives like they are the worst outlaws. On every case submitted to the DA's Office Charging Unit for criminal charges have the Detective on the case submit a form on the type of suspect involved in the case essentially flagging operatives in the drug industry; drug users that sell drugs to support their habit aren't operatives it is second tier people and higher that are wanted they deserve classification as operatives people that are players in the drug turf wars who have guns and will use them. For these operatives it doesn't matter whether their case is a DUI, domestic dispute, gun possession it doesn't have to be a narcotics trafficking case all these cases should be specially assigned to ADAs with the instruction get the respective operative off the street for at least a significant amount of time, no probation plea deals get that societal threat off the street. The assigned ADA should make sure the witnesses in the case show up for court so the case isn't thrown out or withdrawn. Doing this effectively should cut the shooting cases in the City because some of the shooters are being taken off the street.

Another idea is the DA is a prestigious progressive DA, progressives are in control in Washington the DA should use his high profile to get Washington to give the City a big grant to buy guns floating out there in the community. Don't pay something like $50 a gun, pay the seller of the gun what it is truly worth what a broker at a gun show would sell the gun for. No questions asked of the Seller of the gun, the seller doesn't even have to give his or her name. The logic is that this idea will help on the gun violence problem because if this program takes a sizable block of guns off the street common sense tells you that at least a few of the guns would have found their way into the hands of bad guys that would have possibly unlawfully used the gun.

Lastly, the DA has to do a better job at trying to maintain an effective working relationship with the Police Department. The unfortunate situation is the Philly Police Department doesn't like the Philly DA and human nature being what it is vice-versa exists. The DA however should still keep his record clean that being that he is a good ally of the Police Department. A recent development indicates the DA is dropping the ball here it was reported in the media that something like the DA's office reported a whole bunch of Philly police officers to the Philly Police Department Internal Affairs or Human Resource department for disciplinary action because in criminal cases these officers statements in the Police paperwork didn't match the videos from the camera's these officers were wearing during incidents involved in the case. That was a foolish, unfair move by the DA's office it did not show a good perspective about such things. Cops aren't lawyers, cops are about stopping crime and getting criminals off the street, almost daily they put their life on the line doing their job; cops understandably don't give a damn about paperwork details they have these more important priorities. The DA's Office should not have reported these cops for this bull dong; it would be a totally different story if police officers were planting drugs or guns on suspects and the officers body cameras showed this, but this situation wasn't about such type of wrongful behavior, it was about crap from people that don't put their life on the line to serve their community. It was doubly stupid for an office whose duty is to get perpetrators of drug trafficking and violence off the street because with this move you just provided the defense attorneys of these bad guys with significant impeachment evidence against the Commonwealth police officer witnesses in their cases. The Philly DA should come out and say the DA's Office will never do anything like that again casting a wide net claiming police officer dishonesty when such a broad brush claim really doesn't have merit!

[ilovephilly79]

Larry, what are you doing on CD? Just think of all the career criminals that you could be letting out without bail rather than worrying about what we are saying here.

[Wells5]

It's too bad that PA does not have legal recall of elected officials. If PA did, this Krassner character would be long gone.

[Redddog]

Originally Posted by Wells5

It's too bad that PA does not have legal recall of elected officials. If PA did, this Krassner character would be long gone.

Unfortunately, I think you're wrong.

This clown won re-election by a LANDSLIDE. He's currently, a national embarassment on both sides of the isle.

[cpomp]

Originally Posted by Redddog

Unfortunately, I think you're wrong.

This clown won re-election by a LANDSLIDE. He's currently, a national embarassment on both sides of the isle.

Wasn't turnout abysmal?

[person333]

Originally Posted by cpomp

Wasn't turnout abysmal?

Yes, it was decided in the Democratic primary, which had 17.6% turnout. Turnout in the general election was a pathetic 21.88%. The general election meant little, however, given that Peruto wasn't a real candidate and was just as unqualified for the job of District Attorney as Krasner. And one should always keep in mind when evaluating election results in Philadelphia that 52% of adults in Philadelphia are functionally illiterate. Not that literacy necessarily mattered for this election, of course, because the "paper of record" was plainly in the tank for Krasner and apparently was incapable of giving him negative coverage. What little criticism of Krasner there was before either the primary or general election came from sources that could easily be dismissed as fringe, right-wing, etc.

How convenient for the machine that all of the key city positions are elected in odd years.

[Tweb66]

Originally Posted by person333

Yes, it was decided in the Democratic primary, which had 17.6% turnout. Turnout in the general election was a pathetic 21.88%. The general election meant little, however, given that Peruto wasn't a real candidate and was just as unqualified for the job of District Attorney as Krasner. And one should always keep in mind when evaluating election results in Philadelphia that 52% of adults in Philadelphia are functionally illiterate. Not that literacy necessarily mattered for this election, of course, because the "paper of record" was plainly in the tank for Krasner and apparently was incapable of giving him negative coverage. What little criticism of Krasner there was before either the primary or general election came from sources that could easily be dismissed as fringe, right-wing, etc.

How convenient for the machine that all of the key city positions are elected in odd years.

You mean like most other major cities? Hell, like most municipalities of any size? What a petty complaint. Its stupid stuff like that distracts from any real criticism.



I voted for Joe Khan in 2017, I actually did like that dude.

[huitrecouture]

"her research finds a link between the high numbers of shootings and heavy drug activity."

She's a real rocket scientist, that one.

That third paragraph's a doozy.

So she agrees with you also? Blame the gun then just buy them off the criminals. Yeah okay. Like Australia?