Wimpy-Ass Mayor Kenney Finally Calls Out D.A. Krasner

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The progressive honeymoon at City Hall is suddenly over.

This afternoon, Mayor Jim "Sanctuary City Happy Dance" Kenney called out District Attorney Larry Krasner. At a press conference, Kenney declared that's it's about time the D.A., who typically coddles dangerous criminals before turning them loose, started enforcing gun laws in a city where 22 people were shot this weekend. In a city where five more people were shot today, including a one-year-old toddler.

Kenney spoke about "the other public health crisis" affecting the city besides the coronavirus; "and that's gun violence," he said.

"We are calling on the district attorney to vigorously enforce all firearms charges during this time of crisis," Kenney said. "It is imperative that he [Krasner] send a clear message that gun violence will not be taken lightly. This is a message the D.A. can reinforce in his office's handling of all such cases going forward. There needs to be some consequences for carrying an illegal gun in Philadelphia."

"We're all about criminal justice reform," Kenney said, throwing a bone to his fellow progressive, Krasner, whom for three years, he's been too timid to criticize.

Meanwhile, more people in Philadelphia have been getting shot or murdered than dying of the coronavirus. And in this "time of crisis," Kenney said, "If you're carrying a gun illegally you need to be locked up and kept there."

Imagine a city where a mayor has to call a press conference to inform the D.A. that he should be doing his job. That's where we are here in Philadelphia.

At the press conference, reporter Jeff Cole of Fox 29 immediately pounced. Cole asked Kenney if he meant that as the district attorney of Philadelphia, Krasner "is failing to do that," namely prosecuting gun violence.

"That's your words," Kenney replied.

No that's reality, Mr. Mayor.

The next astounding revelation: new Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, a recent Mayor Kenney appointee, stepped up to the podium and echoed Kenney.

"There has to be teeth, there has to be consequences" to illegally carrying a gun in the city, the police commissioner said. "We can't see a revolving door." Especially when there's been "a spike in shootings."

Somewhere, FOP President John McNesby was smiling. It was McNesby who has characterized Krasner's "reform" policies as revolving door justice. At the time, the FOP president was angrily reacting to the murder of Corporal James O'Connor by a dangerous and heavily armed suspect who should have been in jail, except that he got one break after another from "Let 'Em Loose Larry."

"His office is aware of our concerns," Kenney said about Krasner. "Something needs to be done differently in what we're doing. People do not believe that there is a consequence for carrying an illegal gun. And we need to change that mindset."

As for Krasner, he wasn't at the press conference and NBC 10 was told that Krasner was "not available" for an interview. The Great Emancipator, however, was busy doing what he does best -- emptying jails.

Just the day before, Krasner had gone on Twitter to announce: "No one empowered by the people gets to sit on the sidelines during this emergency. I'm joining [the ACLU of Pennsylvania] in calling on the PA Supreme Court to order county jails to reduce populations ASAP to help health officials control the spread of COV19."

Meanwhile, Jane Roh, Krasner's spokesperson who doesn't talk to this reporter, was busy in the bunker furiously typing another press release filled with lies and propaganda that she was hoping to foist off on others.

On Twitter, the reaction to Mayor Kenney coming out of the closet was shock.

"Mayor Kenney appears to have had enough of Krasner's soft-on-crime nonsense," U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain wrote.

"Just because [Kenney] has finally found his bully pulpit doesn't negate the years of hanging out with Meek Mill, pandering to those who conflate much-needed, post-sentencing criminal justice reform with dangerously lax charging & enforcement policies," wrote A. Benjamin Mannes.

At the Inquirer, where the mayor's remarks made a brief stir on breaking news before disappearing from the front page of inquirer.com, reporters and editors there were cowering like children who had just seen their parents fighting.

The progressive honeymoon at City Hall was indeed over. In its place, it's now the mayor and his new police commissioner vs. the soft-on-crime "hug a thug" D.A.

Maybe it was the corporal's murder, or maybe it was today's shooting of the toddler that finally got to Kenney. And finally gave him courage to confront Krasner over his disastrous policies that have turned Philadelphia into a place where gun violence is out of control and criminals are thriving, thanks to the lax policies of "Uncle Larry," a criminal's best friend.

Criticizing the D.A. is something that in the past the mayor has been afraid to do. Even though the people Kenney was elected to serve were suffering and dying.

Big Trial has previously reported how back in 2018, the mayor and 20 top police officials met with Krasner, trying to get him to start enforcing laws against drug possession, drug use and prostitution in Kensington, where the city had organized a task force to confront the opioid crisis, and was dealing with a new wave of human trafficking.

Behind closed doors, Kenney and the city's top cops pleaded with Krasner for help, but he refused to change his radical policies. Krasner also refused to lift a finger to help the task force fight the opioid crisis.

Instead, Krasner gave a speech, saying the federal government was responsible for introducing drugs into the country, and that the war on drugs had been a colossal failure. Krasner finished up by telling the cops and the mayor, hey, we're done here.

"I was stunned," recalled one official at the meeting. "He [Krasner] basically disrespected the mayor and every other person in the room."

"Krasner was completely dismissive of the entire room filled with experienced law enforcement personnel, as well as the mayor himself," the official marveled. He was also surprised by the mayor's deferential behavior.

"I didn't know that the mayor was afraid to attack the district attorney," he said. But even after the private spat, Kenney kept quiet and said nothing publicly about his differences with Krasner.

Until today.

As mayor, he's not exactly been a profile in courage. Kenney typically hides in City Hall. When the mayor gave his neighbors in South Philly exactly one week's notice before a proposed invasion by a so-called safe-injection site for junkies, Kenney was too afraid to show his face at a community meeting at St. Monica's that was called in protest. But Kenney found the time to barnstorm in New Hampshire, campaigning on behalf of Elizabeth Warren, his preferred presidential candidate.

But today, Kenney finally found the guts to confront the D.A. It's just a shame that it took him three years to do it. It's also kind of late for the family of Corporal O'Connor.

Most of the anger about the utter lawlessness that prevails in this town has rightly been directed at Krasner. But somehow, Kenney has so far escaped his share of the blame.

Some people, however, haven't let the mayor off the hook.

On the day Cpl. O'Connor was murdered, his daughter, Kelsey O'Connor, who serves in the Air Force, took to Twitter to quote a couple of speeches Kenney had given that day about her father.

"I am grief stricken to learn of the tragic death of Police Corporal James O'Connor . . . who had demonstrated the ultimate form of heroism," the mayor said.

The mayor had also asked all Philadelphians "to keep his [O'Connor's] family, and all members of the Philly Police Department, in your prayers."

On Twitter, the daughter of the fallen officer typed in capital letters her bitter reply to the mayor's hollow words:

"FUCK YOU," she wrote.