‘Where Lawlessness Reigns’: How A Weak On Crime D.A. Has Left A City At The Mercy Of Criminals

Last weekend three were killed and 11 injured in a Saturday-night gunfight on one of Philadelphia’s busiest nightlife streets. Now, the truth is no longer something that can be spun or ignored: Philadelphia is one of America’s most dangerous big cities. While many outside the area bemoan the recent rise in violent crime, it’s nothing new to the Philadelphians who’ve been forced to endure it for the last half decade, despite bearing the highest individual tax burden in the United States.

But with national attention comes questions about whether such violence could have been prevented, and if not, what leaders are doing to address the issue and stop the carnage on our streets. In Philadelphia, these questions rarely get answered – based on the political unwillingness to enforce the law by a district attorney, mayor, and police commissioner who are in lock-step with “woke” ideologies and involved in corruption scandals.

This raises the question: if an elected official will not enforce the law, and people are dying as a result, who has the oversight responsibility to step up and hold them accountable? Unfortunately, at the state level in Pennsylvania, that responsibility falls on Attorney General Josh Shapiro, currently the Democratic nominee for governor.

The incident at hand

Last Saturday night, June 4, three people were killed and 11 others wounded. According to police, several suspects fired at each other through a large crowd of nightlife patrons on the 300 block of South Street in Philadelphia. Police have identified the three victims killed, and said the 11 wounded ranged from ages 17 to 69 years old. So far, two suspects are in custody and police are currently seeking a third.

After news of the incident broke, discussions erupted on social media with questions about where the police were, given the fact that this is such a busy section of the city. But as videos of the incident emerged showing flashing red and blue lights highlighting the area moments before the shooting started, it became clear that there was indeed a robust police presence – but that did nothing to prevent the incident.

As more videos started to emerge on Twitter, it also became clear that the police were on the scene as the street was awash with disorderly conduct, physical assaults, and other unlawful behavior that went without interdiction leading up to the shooting.

More alarmingly, a video interview from local station Fox 29 shows moments after the shooting where police officers were attempting a “scoop and run” procedure to transport one of the victims to the hospital. As bystander Eric Walsh observed, the police cruiser was blocked by the unruly crowd chanting “F—k the Police” as the victim lay dying in the back of their cruiser.

In Philadelphia, this horrific event is just another example of the pattern of violent crime that has gotten worse every year since the 2017 election of District Attorney Larry Krasner. Krasner is quite possibly the most famed member of the Soros-backed progressive prosecutor movement. His election was a benchmark in political talking points from New York to California, claiming policing is systemically racist and that we must drastically reduce the charges and pre-trial detention requests filed by prosecutors for those arrested.

To exacerbate the problem, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney has imitated the progressive talking points of the District Attorney, instead of using his bully pulpit to speak for the victims of his city’s tens of thousands of violent crimes. Instead of advocating for the proven public safety tactics used by the nation’s fourth largest police department, Kenney replaced his original police commissioner – an African American and 26-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police – with Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw, whose largest command was less than one regional division in her new department.

The results illustrate a clear correlation between the controversial policies of a woke mayor, an unqualified police commissioner, and a district attorney violating his oath of office by refusing to effectively prosecute violent crime.

“Our leaders’ reticence to engage in proven strategies stems from the realization that when we implement deterrence efforts in the places where they are most needed, they are not racially equitable…but that doesn’t change the fact that these measures work,” Said Temple University Criminology Professor Jerry Radcliffe in an Op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Black and brown Philadelphians shouldn’t be made to feel like they are over-policed. Equally though, they shouldn’t be made to feel less safe than white residents. But that is exactly what is happening: More than 90% of people shot so far this year are Black or Hispanic, and it is their communities who are bearing the brunt of our failure to find a balanced approach to gun violence.”

Predictably, Philadelphia Mayor Kenney’s response was to blame the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania legislature, which recently reaffirmed a 1994 law preventing Philadelphia from passing the same types of unconstitutional municipal

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases