Krasner ADA Posts 'F--k The Cops' On Instagram

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

She's an assistant district attorney who works for D.A. Larry Krasner.

Yesterday, at 8:56 p.m., while Philadelphia was under siege, the ADA put out an Instagram post of a Philly cop in Center City standing next to a graffiti scrawl that said, "FUCK THE COPS." The message was sent out under the hashtags "#justiceforgeorgefloyd, #nojusticenopeace" and "#blacklivesmatter."

The ADA's name is Sonam Vachhani, and she's been working for the D.A.'s office since  May of 2017. She's currently assigned to the D.A.'s charging unit. That's the group of ADAs who decide whether to charge suspects with crimes, like the alleged protesters who were arrested yesterday for looting and pillaging  in Center City.

Vachhani did not respond to a request for comment. Her boss, D.A. Krasner and Jane Roh, his alleged spokesperson, also did not respond to requests for comment.

On Twitter, Stinky Feat, a frequent Krasner critic, was calling for Vachhani's head.

"Does anyone see anything abhorrent about an ACTIVE ADA posting this on Instagram?" Stinky Feat fumed on Twitter. "If this doesn't cause outrage, I don't know what would! TERMINATE HER NOW"

But going on social media to rip perceived political opponents and agitate for radical causes is a tradition in Krasner's D.A.'s office, as Jane Roh can testify.

Last October, Roh went on Twitter to mock protesters because of their race. The protesters were carrying "Dump Krasner" signs at a rally in support of Maureen Faulkner, the wife of slain Police Officer Danny Faulkner.

"There's something about this picture can't qwhite put my finger on it . . ." Roh tweeted about the protesters.

Roh's tweet, the D.A.'s office subsequently declared in a legal brief, was "not authorized by the District Attorney or any of the prosecutors involved in this case."

"The D.A. spoke with the communications director about the matter and the communications director was provided written notice that her tweet violated the office's media policy." That's according to the D.A.'s brief that was filed in court in the most recent ongoing appeal in the 40-year-old Faulkner murder case.

But neither Roh Nor Krasner responded today to a question about whether Vachhani's post violated the D.A.'s media policy.

According to sources, Vachhani was told to take a couple of days off.

While we're talking about Krasner's charging unit, of which Sonam "FUCK THE COPS" Vachhani is a current member, everybody in Philadelphia should be concerned about how Larry Krasner is going to handle the people the cops arrested yesterday for the riots.

The cops arrested 140 persons including 48 that were charged with burglary and/or looting; 2 for alleged assaults on police officers, 3 for firearms violations, 2 for theft, 11 for failure to disperse, and 74 people for violating an emergency curfew imposed by the mayor.

"These numbers are expected to increase, as some arrestees still await processing," wrote Staff Inspector Sekou Kinebrew, commanding officer of the Philadelphia Police Department's Office of Public Affairs & Media Relations.

The question is, will the D.A.'s office under Krasner give everybody a pass? Judging from Krasner's history as a lawyer for radical causes, it's consistent with what he's advocated for in the past.

Twenty years ago, Krasner was a "movement attorney" and legal strategist for a legal collective that defended protesters who disrupted the Republican National Convention, and staged demonstrations calling for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the convicted killer of Police Officer Danny Faulkner.

In a supplemental petition filed Nov. 22nd in state Supreme Court, Faulkner's lawyers, who were fighting to disqualify Krasner as a prosecutor, detail Krasner's work as a "movement attorney" and "strategist" representing "advocates for Mummia's exoneration and freedom."

The legal collective that Krasner was working for 20 years ago was set up by the National Lawyers Guild that since 1998, has listed Mumia as member of their governing board, referring to him as a  "jailhouse lawyer and VP Emeritus."

In their legal battle to disqualify Krasner as the prosecutor in the Mumia case, Faulkner's lawyers highlight Krasner's work on behalf of  protesters at the 2000 Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia. The protests included "A day of resistance to the Death Penalty and the Execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal."

During the protests, some 400 people were arrested for allegedly assaulting police, obstructing roadways and committing numerous acts of vandalism.

According to an R2K press release at the time, the protesters at the convention were out advocating on behalf of "FREEDOM OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS" as well as to "ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY, ABOLISH THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, STOP POLICE TERROR" and "END THE CORPORATE WAR ON THE POOR."

Kris Hermes, a former NLG vice president, wrote a book in 2015 about the protests at the Convention entitled "Crashing the Party," thanked Krasner for representing Caleb Arnold and Danielle Redden, as they protested the "prison industrial complex."

Krasner subsequently hired Arnold as an assistant district attorney who heads the D.A.'s Immigration Rights Unit.

And now it falls to Krasner to decide the fate of the "protesters" who were arrested for allegedly rioting and looting and assaulting police officers.

While the city was under siege yesterday,  the mayor and the police commissioner, the city council president, and many other state and local elected officials were seen on TV at a press conference.

But Larry Krasner was invisible. He was no doubt celebrating privately somewhere as police cars went up in flames, cops were under siege, and Krasner's radical comrades were out looting the city with impunity.

It's everything that for the past 20 years Krasner's radical heart has been pining for.