What Are These Guys Doing Out On The Street?

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

At 8 p.m. last night, a gunman opened fire on a crowd of men standing on the 4900 block of Frankford Avenue. One man was killed; six others were wounded.

All the victims were black males, but none were choir boys. Between them, the seven men had 51 prior arrests, including seven arrests for violations of the Uniform Firearms Act. As far as the shooter goes, nobody knows how many priors he's got, but hopefully, we'll find that out when he's in custody.

In the last two days, there have been 17 shootings in Philadelphia, resulting in one murder, and many more victims in critical condition. The city is now up to 371 homicides, which puts us on a pace for 435 to 460 for the year. Meanwhile, in New York City, which has more than five times the population of Philadelphia, as of Oct. 4th, there were only 346 murders.

Why are there so many murders in Philadelphia? The simple answer is that there are far too many dangerous guys who belong in jail, but instead are out on the streets of Philadelphia, shooting each other on a nightly basis. And who's responsible for emptying the city's jails? Anecdotal evidence, like what happened last night on Frankford Avenue, as well as a recent study, point to the one guy who's responsible for all this mayhem: District Attorney Larry Krasner.

A study published in July by the pro-cop Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund  found that so-called social justice prosecutors like Krasner in six cities "have failed to successfully prosecute offenders, dropping or losing more cases than their predecessors," according to a foreword written by former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III.

"Vigorously and diligently pursuing law-breakers made our communities safer," Meese wrote about the not-so distant past when district attorneys existed to put criminals in jail.

"Violent criminals who prey on innocents do not deserve to be coddled," Meese said in a direct rebuke of Krasner and his ilk. "Prosecutors who fail to hold them [criminals] accountable are derelict in their duty to justice."

Meese was hoping the study would "serve as a wake-up call to our elected leaders, law enforcement officers, and the media that leftist ideas of social justice and true criminal justice are not compatible." 

"The duty of every prosecutor is to serve the public's interest, not their own," Meese wrote. "Ideological crusades have no place in the court of law, and criminal conduct cannot be sanctioned on personal whims."

Amen.

Meese was talking about Larry Krasner. The study looked at Krasner's first two years in office, 2018 and 2019, and compared them with the record of the D.A.'s office from 2014 to 2018. Most of that time Rufus Seth Williams was D.A., until 2017, when he went to jail for political corruption, and was replaced by interim D.A. Kelley Hodge. 

The study results are a disaster for Krasner.

The Legal Defense Fund study found that in the D.A.'s office under Williams and Hodge, 48.6% of all felony cases ended in guilty verdicts or pleas. Meanwhile, Krasner's record of guilty verdicts or pleas in all felony cases was 35.5%, a 27% percent decrease.

Under Williams and Hodge, 51.4% of all felony cases were dropped, lost or diverted, while Krasner's record was 64.5%, a 26% increase.

In cases involving aggravated assault with a gun, the D.A.'s office under Williams and Hodge got guilty verdicts or guilty pleas in those cases 48.0% of the time. Meanwhile, the conviction rate of the D.A.'s office under Krasner's regime was 36.7%, a decrease of 30%.

Regarding dropped lost or diverted cases involving aggravated assault with a gun, the rate in the D.A.'s office under Williams and Hodge was 52.0%. By contrast, Krasner's rate of dropped, lost or diverted cases of aggravated assault with a gun was a whopping 63.3%, a 22% increase.

Regarding drug sales, the D.A.'s office under Williams and Hodge got guilty verdicts or guilty pleas at a 66.4% clip. But under Krasner, the conviction rate for drug sale cases fell to 44.5%, a 33% decrease.

When it came to dropped, lost or diverted cases of drug sales, the D.A.'s office under Williams and Hodge had a 33.6% rate; the record for Krasner's office was 44.5%, a huge 65% increase.

In Philadelphia, Larry Krasner has basically legalized drugs. And drug dealers, who are typically armed, and have plenty of cash to pay for low bail, are the guys shooting it out on the streets every night for supremacy of the flourishing local drug trade.

Which brings us to Larry Krasner's failing grade for prosecuting gun crimes.

Regarding illegal firearm possession cases, the D.A.'s office under Williams and Hodge got guilty verdicts or pleas at a 66.5% rate. Under Krasner, the conviction rate in the D.A.'s office fell to 52.6%, a 21% decrease. 

And, as a Big Trial study has previously shown, even when Krasner convicts somebody for a gun crime, or gets them to plead guilty, almost 50% walk out of jail immediately. And EVERY criminal who pleads guilty or is convicted of a gun crime gets a sentence well below state sentencing guidelines for gun crimes from their "Uncle Larry" in the D.A.'s office.

When it came to dropped, lost or diverted illegal firearms cases, the D.A.'s office under Williams and Hodge had a 33.5% rate. But under Krasner, that futility rate in the D.A.'s office rose to 47.4%, a 42% increase.

Have you got all this? Our last D.A., Rufus Seth Williams, took bribes and kickbacks, sold his office, stole from his mother, and became the first D.A. in the city's history to land in jail. But as low as that bar was, Larry Krasner is setting a new standard for futility, with his drastically reduced conviction rate, and highly increased rate of dropping, losing or diverting other criminal cases.

The inescapable result of Krasner's Progressive policies -- more criminals are out on the streets, shooting each other.

Regarding the latest shootout on Frankford Avenue, the murder victim was Ammon Hargrove, 29. Police said Hargrove had five prior arrests, including busts for theft and narcotics, and one just last week for carrying an illegal gun. Of course, he immediately made bail.

Hargrove was taken to Temple University Hospital for multiple gunshot wounds, and was pronounced dead at 8:10 p.m. 

Five of the other six shooting victims were hospitalized. 

Video recovered from the scene showed a shooter walking past the group as they were engaged in casual conversation. Then the shooter stopped at the corner, turned and started firing. A second shooter emerged from the driver's seat of a silver four-door Ford Focus Sedan parked on Frankford Avenue, and returned the fire. He chased the first shooter down the street, before jumping in his car and fleeing the scene.

Police recovered 48 spent casings on the block, all 9 mm bullets. The cops also reported that four victims who were armed did not have permits to carry guns. 

The other shooting victims were identified as Qadir Wilson, 25, who had five prior arrests, including three busts for narcotics and one arrest for illegally carrying a gun. Wilson was reported in critical condition.

Another shooting victim, Laquan Hayes, 27, who appeared to be the principal target of the gunman, according to the cops, had 11 prior arrests. They include two arrests for aggravated assaults, one arrest for a stolen auto, two arrests for thefts, one arrest for escape, and four VUFA arrests, the most recent of which was on Aug. 29th for carrying an unlicensed firearm, and carrying a firearm in public. 

Hayes' bail the was set at $25,000, meaning he had to put down 10 percent, or only $2,500, to get out of jail the same day he was arrested. He was reported in stable condition. 

Michael Davis, 28, another shooting victim, had five prior arrests for narcotics; he was reported in stable condition. 

Darrell Bell, 27, has 16 prior arrests, including seven for aggravated assault, one for terroristic threats, one for strangulation, and three VUFA arrests. He was reported in stable condition.

DeVaught Hart, 29, has five priors, including four narcotics arrests, and one VUFA arrest. He was reported in stable condition.

Khalil Clownery, 28, had four priors; according to police records, he was not hospitalized.

When Fox 29 was doing a story on the Frankford Avenue shooting, they asked District Attorney Larry Krasner why so many guys are getting shot in Philadelphia.

According to Krasner, it was all a big mystery. 

"I wish I could tell you that we have an answer," Krasner told the TV station. "The only answer I have is that the Philadelphia Police Department and the District Attorney's Office and all other law enforcement have to be on the same page and have to work together to see what we can do in this terrible crisis."

As a public service, Big Trial is going to explain how all law enforcement agencies can work together to solve the crisis of gun violence in record speed. It's a three-step solution that's so simple, yet it's so far eluded all the hand-wringing politicians at City Hall, who hold all those worthless forums on gun violence, and the determined social justice warriors at the Inquirer, who are always covering for Krasner.

Step one: have the feds arrest Larry Krasner for obstruction of justice, corruption, theft of honest services, and whatever else they can think of.

Step two: put Krasner in one of the many empty jail cells that we have in Philadelphia. 

Step three: find a district attorney who will actually enforce the law, and go back to putting violent and dangerous criminals in jail, where they belong. 

Boom, crisis over, and law and order, as well as peace on the streets, is immediately restored in Philadelphia.