Philadelphia Police Officers and FOP members block District Attorney Larry Krasner from entering the hospital to meet with slain Police Corporal James O’Connor’s family, because it was the District Attorney who had not kept Cpl. O’Connor’s killer in jail when he could have.
I wrote, on May Day, that I would be “completely unsurprised if The Philadelphia Inquirer in general, and far-left columnist Will Bunch individually endorse(d)” the city’s George Soros-sponsored, police-hating and criminal-loving District Attorney, Larry Krasner, for re-nomination. Well, I am completely unsurprised!
Larry Krasner for Philadelphia district attorney | Endorsement
Krasner has shown signs that, while he remains a reformer intent on reducing incarcerations and bringing accountability to law enforcement, he has also moderated his perspective.
by The Editorial Board | Kentucky Derby Day, May 3, 2025 | 5:00 AM EDT
Across America — in Los Angeles, Oakland, Calif., San Francisco, Baltimore, Chicago’s Cook County, and other jurisdictions — reform-minded district attorneys have fallen out of fashion, many of them scapegoated as their policies meant to curb mass incarceration ran headlong into a rise of homicides and retail theft during the pandemic.
Yeah, well policies “meant to curb mass incarceration” leaving criminals out on the streets to commit more crimes would cause those “reform-minded district attorneys” being held responsible for increasing crime, but the Editorial Board called that being “scapegoated.”
In Philadelphia, however, one of the country’s original progressive prosecutors deserves a third term. Despite some missteps, Larry Krasner has earned the Editorial Board’s endorsement.
Given that there are no GOP opponents, the district attorney race will likely be decided in the Democratic primary.
In his two terms in office, Krasner, 64, has fought to hold law enforcement accountable, often attracting the ire of the Fraternal Order of Police and former prosecutors. Before Krasner, only two Philadelphia police officers had ever been convicted of killing someone on duty while in uniform.
Should I be surprised that the Editorial Board’s apparently first concern is putting police officers in jail, rather than the street criminals who’ve terrorized the City of Brotherly Love for so many years? The next two paragraphs in the editorial hammer on the same thing. What did the Board say about Mr Krasner and crime in Philly?
In his 2017 victory, Krasner was heavily focused on his plans to hold bad police officers accountable and change the culture of the office, and he had much less to say about his office’s role in reducing and preventing crime.
Speaking with this board, Krasner acknowledged that sometimes penalties need to be imposed for behaviors to change. Whether or not he understood that balance eight years ago matters much less than the fact that he clearly does now.
Does he? Or is it simply a slight change because his re-election campaign was approaching?
Even the Editorial Board has recognized Let ’em Loose Larry’s failures to prosecute certain crimes, particularly gun crimes, noting, on February 16, 2023, that the District Attorney “has questioned the efficacy of pursuing charges against those who are carrying guns without a permit,” but never critici9zing him for it, despite the Board’s often-expressed desire for stricter gun control laws.
The Editorial Board have long been interested in very strict law enforcement, or so I judge from their calls to recriminalize fare evasion on SEPTA, criticism of President Joe Biden’s pardon for his drug-addicted son, and their apoplectic scream about President Donald Trump’s pardon of the January 6th Capitol demonstrators, despite the fact that many (most?) of them had already completed their sentences, and thus had already been punished under the law. The pardon expunged their records, but it couldn’t give them their time in jail back.
Yet, when it comes to Larry Krasner’s lenient touch on crime, the Board hadn’t a single word to say in their endorsement!
Perhaps the Board’s primary reason was what they put at the end:
Another reason voters should opt for Krasner is the looming presence of President Donald Trump. While Dugan has made clear he has vastly different values than Trump, he also seems less likely to counter the White House as vigorously as Krasner. Not only has Krasner been vocal about his opposition to the president’s lawlessness, but he also sued Elon Musk over his $1 million voter sweepstakes during last year’s election.
“We got enough profiles and cowardice out there right now that we are going to need some fighters in every major city,” Krasner said about standing up to the Trump administration. “I am happy to volunteer to be a fighter in Philadelphia if I get another term.”
Voters should ensure they have Krasner fighting on their side.
Perhaps they meant only the voters in Philly, which former Vice President Kamala Harris Emhoff carried 568,571 (78.57%) to 144,311 (19.94%), but President Trump carried the Commonwealth as a whole 3,543,308 (50.37%) to 3,423,042 (48.66%).
Mr Krasner, with his 7½ years of non-prosecution or lenient plea bargain deals for street criminals in Philly, mused about filing state charges against the federally pardoned Capitol kerfufflers, so naturally the Editorial Board, who hate President Trump with a passion far exceeding that for criminal pedophiles, sexually-abusive public school teachers, or gang-banger murderers, must love that, but, realistically, what does a local District Attorney’s office have to do with the President of the United States? Perhaps they are hoping he can somehow bring charges against federal agents arresting illegal immigrants within the city, though he hasn’t been able to do so yet.
The job of the District Attorney is to prosecute and put away as many of the criminals in the city as the Philadelphia Police Department can catch. Mr Krasner signaled his disgust with doing that when he fired 31 of his office’s top prosecutors on his first day, as part of his ideological agenda, and much of the Philly DAO are now staffer by inexperienced lawyers.
As for the Editorial Board, they endorsed the candidate to enforce the law who wants absolutely nothing to do with enforcing the law, unless it’s against conservatives, police officers, and President Trump. Some might have thought that Mayor Cherelle Parker Mullins’ primary victory over two more liberal — one outright socialist and police-hater — candidates would have tempered the Board’s thinking, but if anyone thought that, he will be bitterly disappointed.