Inquirer Lap Dogs Give D.A. A Pass As City Hits 470 Murders

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

On Sunday, five Philadelphia Inquirer reporters devoted a total of 3,568 words to the topic of the city's epidemic of unsolved shootings and murders. 

But not once during that long, dull and entirely predictable story, did anybody at the Inquirer attempt to hold District Attorney Larry Krasner accountable for his culpability in the ongoing carnage. 

As documented on Big Trial, Krasner's permissive policies are responsible for putting more armed and dangerous criminals back on the streets, where they commit more crimes, including shootings and murders. It's no coincidence that Krasner's third year in office coincides with the highest number of shootings ever in Philadelphia, and the highest number of murders in 30 years.

According to the Inquirer, however, the issue of whether Krasner's progressive policies are responsible for escalating gun violence is just a she-said, he-said political debate that pits Krasner against a few outspoken police commanders, who've been complaining on social media that they keep arresting the same criminals for illegally carrying guns, and Krasner keeps turning them loose. 

Only Krasner, however, got to give a BS speech in the Inquirer that absolved him of any responsibility for escalating gun violence. Meanwhile, the Inquirer muzzled Krasner's critics and settled the debate over Krasner's culpability by dismissing the arguments raised by the two police commanders as "sniping."

It's what we've come to expect from the newspaper that might as well change its name to the Daily Democrat, because's it's a forum where no public criticism of Progressive Democratic leaders is allowed, unless somebody from the outside is writing an free op-ed. The bottom line: the Inquirer continues to lead the official cover up to protect the D.A. from the logical fallout, and political consequences of his disastrous policies.

Over in Russia, a couple of guerrilla news operations are risking their lives by writing exposés about the escapades of two of Vladimir Putin's secret daughters, as well as his former son-in-law who's the son of a billionaire Putin pal. 

But here in Philadelphia, none of the journalistic lap dogs at the Inquirer will ever take a risk by growling, much less taking a bite out of Mayor Kenney, D.A. Krasner, or Danielle Outlaw, our rookie police commissioner.

The Inky opus was a classic Sunday deep-dive by our paper of record into an issue of public concern. Back when I worked at the newspaper, these stories always read like they were written by committee, because they were.

Typically, a few commanding editors dispatched an army of reporters into the field to dig up statistics, beat the bushes, interview the usual suspects, and then come back with the raw materials for a long, dull thumb-sucker, to be written by a bunch of editors

It was the editors' job to collectively drain the life out of every story, make sure it contained as few surprises as possible, and wound up agreeing with the conventional wisdom. 

"As Shootings Surge, A lack of Justice," the headline said. The story followed a time-worn journalistic formula, opening with an anecdotal lead about the grieving mother of a son who was the victim of an unsolved murder.

Then we got hit with the stats: since 2015, there have been nearly 8,500 shootings where people were wounded and/or killed in Philadelphia. Just 21% of those shooting crimes led to criminal charges. And only 9% of those cases ended in a conviction, or just one out of every 11 cases.

This year, there's been a record number of shootings, the newspaper reported, and only one in six cases have ended with a suspect in custody. Meanwhile, the number of unsolved shooting cases this year is 40% higher than in 2015, the newspaper reported. 

Of course, since this was an Inquirer story there had to be a racial angle. Since 2015, the newspaper reported, almost 2,700 young black men were wounded in shootings, but only 6% of those cases wound up with the conviction of a suspect. 

Meanwhile, "white men of the same age were three times as likely to see their shooters convicted," the newspaper reported. Left unsaid was the fact that the vast majority of shooting crimes are committed by young black men, against other young black men.

Next, the newspaper quoted Police Commissioner Outlaw as making the obvious point that the criminal element has become "more emboldened" to commit more crimes. 

Ya think? 

The newspaper noted that some police commanders had complained that some repeat offenders routinely get low bail or shorter sentences for gun crimes, but when given the chance, Outlaw wasn't going to join the ranks of Krasner's public critics. 

Instead, in the news columns of the Inquirer, Outlaw covered for Krasner, and stabbed her own troops in the back. She did it by saying that the cops bore the primary responsibility to get suspected shooters off the streets, which is exactly what they've been doing. In that same story, the Inquirer reported that compared to 2015, the police this year have nearly doubled the arrests for illegal gun possession.

But by refusing to criticize the D.A. for his obvious failures, Outlaw chose to join the official cover up, and give Krasner another pass.

Then, the newspaper of record gave Krasner a platform to give a BS speech about the root causes of gun crimes, which of course in Krasner's view, are always historical and societal, and have absolutely nothing to do with him. 

“Government in Philadelphia has chronically failed at efforts to bring big reductions in shootings and homicides by gun,” Professor Krasner began his lecture to the newspaper.

 “When you get basically mostly young men … thinking in a way that’s rather immature, with a sense of desperation, hopelessness, and the clear notion for many of them that they won’t live to be 30 — when you have that going on, in a vacuum of accountability, it is a problem.”

Note how in Krasner's world, the immature young men who commit crimes out of "desperation, hopelessness, and the clear notion .  . . that they won't live to be 30" are totally absolved from taking any personal responsibility for their own actions. Such as shooting and killing each other.

As Krasner would say, "It is a problem," 

Another problem is the paper of record, whose primary responsibility is to hold public officials accountable, allowing the highest law enforcement official in the city, the D.A., to BS his way out of taking any responsibility for the logical consequences of his own insane policies. By allowing Krasner to give an unchallenged BS speech that was more appropriate for a sociology class. 

As Krasner would say, it's a "vacuum of accountability."

So here in Philadelphia, we have the failures of the media covering up for the failures of our public officials. All because they all belong to the same club of social justice warriors. 

Meanwhile, as a direct result of the D.A.'s progressive policies, more and more people are bleeding and dying every day out in the streets. While Professor Krasner drones on with another sociology lecture, and the toothless lap dogs at the Inquirer continue dozing.