Clown Show: Krasner Claims He's Not Responsible For Crime Surge

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

In court, District Attorney Larry Krasner is staging a clown show by claiming that he's not responsible for a record upsurge in gun violence and murders.

Krasner also claims that a March 30th Philadelphia Inquirer story that cited crime stats to report the obvious -- that police were making gun arrests at a record rate, but that convictions under the corrupt and incompetent regime of D.A. Krasner had taken a tumble -- was "inaccurate in several respects."

Krasner made his laughable claims on July 6th in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court when he and his lawyers filed 47 pages of denials in a formal response to allegations made in the case of Carlos Vega Esq. vs. Shaun King, Real Justice PAC and Lawrence Krasner for DA. 

Vega, who lost to Krasner in the May 17th Democratic primary for D.A., subsequently sued the D.A. and his political bedfellows Shaun King, the Real Justice PAC, and Krasner's campaign committee, for repeatedly libeling him on the campaign trail. In the lawsuit, Vega's lawyers have also charged the D.A. and his political cronies with conspiracy, money laundering and political payoffs.

Regarding the record upsurge in gun violence and murder, the D.A. has blamed nearly everything under the sun, but has never once looked in the mirror. Instead of acknowledging the obvious, that his progressive polices are fueling the upsurge in violent crime, Krasner has blamed judges for tossing more cases; cops for not digging up enough evidence; and witnesses for not showing up in court to testify against armed and dangerous defendants. 

Casting a wider net, Krasner has also blamed the upsurge in gun violence on vast societal forces, such as the pandemic, poverty, bad schools, drugs, a lack of jobs, as well as systemic racism. But it was a surprise in court to see Krasner turn on his loyal apologists at The Philadelphia Inquirer.

In his lawsuit, five straight times, in paragraphs No. 48 through 52, Vega referred to the March 30th Inquirer story to back up his claims that Krasner was doing a lousy job of fighting crime. 

And five straight times in his formal responses to Vega's claims made in paragraphs 48 through 52, Krasner defended himself by stating that the Inquirer story "was inaccurate in several respects."

But in his responses to Vega's charges, Krasner never once specified what was inaccurate about the Inquirer story. 

Krasner probably took issue with the crime stats reported by the Inquirer because he is famous for cooking up his own crime stats. But seeing the Inquirer's progressive hero, Larry Krasner, piss on the social justice warriors at his favorite newspaper was like watching a guy kick his loyal pet dog.

The headline of the March 30th Inquirer story was, "Philly gun arrests are on a record pace, but convictions drop under DA Krasner."

The story says:

In 2021, police are making arrests for carrying an illegal gun on a pace nearly three times that of 2017, according to an Inquirer analysis of police data and eight years of court dockets.

"If the current pace continues, police will make more than 3,000 arrests this year for illegal gun possession — by far the most on record.

Meanwhile, people accused of illegally carrying guns have seen their chances of getting convicted in court plunge from 63% in 2017 to just 49% two years later.

Put plainly, people accused of carrying illegal guns in recent years have had better than a coin flip’s chance of beating their case in court.

In dumping on the Inky, Krasner is looking a gift horse in the mouth. On Big Trial, I have previously pointed out that in theMay 30th Inquirer story, the newspaper did Krasner a favor by letting him make one excuse after another for his failure to protect public safety by prosecuting people caught with illegal guns.

The headline of my critique of the Inky story: "With Inky's Help, D.A. Krasner Keeps Lying About Gun Crimes."

In the Inquirer story, after they let Krasner blame judges, cops and witnesses for the upsurge in gun violence, then they let Professor Krasner pontificate about "long-standing structural problems that drive people toward picking up a gun."

Such as the pandemic, poverty, bad schools, unemployment, drugs, and systemic racism. And not once, while he was making all those excuses, did the Inquirer ever challenge our buffoon of a D.A. about the blood on his own hands.

Hey Mr. D.A., your progressive office is filled with incompetent and poorly trained bleeding heart former public defenders. And stats show they're letting hundreds of armed and dangerous criminals out of jail by either bungling their cases or giving everybody lenient sentences.

And that doesn't have an effect on the crime rate? It's like somebody arguing against the law of gravity. But in his responses to the Vega lawsuit, Krasner insists he has nothing to do with surging gun violence.

"The Krasner Campaign denies Mr. Vega’s false and misleading suggestion that the increase in crime in Philadelphia is causally related to Mr. Krasner’s progressive policies and is 'unprecedented,'" Kasner and his lawyers wrote.

"The increase in gun violence and homicides began in 2015, three years before Mr. Krasner was sworn in as the District Attorney while Mr. Vega was still a homicide prosecutor in a 'win at all costs' and 'mass incarceration' oriented homicide unit," Krasner and his lawyers wrote. 

Sadly, for Krasner, his assertion about an increase in gun violence and homicides beginning in 2015, three years before he took office, simply isn't true.

According to the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting at the Community College of Philadelphia, the annual number of shootings are as follows:

-- in 2015, there were 1,006 nonfatal shootings and 229 fatal shootings.

-- in 2016, there were 1,040 nonfatal shootings and 237 fatal shootings.

-- in 2017,  however, there was a slight dip with 961 nonfatal shootings, but an uptick in murders by gunshot, with 261 fatal shootings.

Then Larry Krasner took office in January, 2018, and launched his progressive revolution to reform the criminal justice system. And here's what happened with the crime stats on shootings:

-- in 2018, nonfatal shootings jumped to 1,134, with 295 fatal shootings.

-- in 2019, nonfatal shootings went up slightly to 1,163, as did fatal shootings, with 303.

-- in 2020, there was a significant boost in nonfatal shootings, with 1,819, a 56% increase, and 414 fatal shootings, a 37% increase.

This year, with five and half months to go, we already have 955 nonfatal shootings and 259 fatal shootings. But in his answers to Vega's to the allegations in Vega's libel suit, Krasner continued to duck any responsibility for the upsurge in shootings and murders.

"Indeed, significant spikes in gun violence and homicides occurred during prior administrations," Krasner and his lawyers wrote. "More recently, gun violence has increased across the country during the pandemic, both in cities with traditional District Attorneys and in cities with progressive District Attorneys such as Mr. Krasner."

"A criminologist interviewed by the New York Times stated that it is “impossible” to substantiate the claim that Mr. Krasner’s policies had led to more gun crime," Krasner and his lawyers wrote. 

Meanwhile, the number of murders in Philadelphia committed by guns, knives or whatever, is now at 299 as of last night, a 33% increase over last year's near-record of 499 murders. [The old record is 500, set in 1990].

At this pace, the city will set a new record this year with 663 murders. 

And amazingly, according to D.A. Krasner, everybody is to blame except D. A. Krasner. 

Honestly, how can anyone take this clown seriously?