Chuck Peruto: That Lying Coward Larry Krasner Won't Debate Me

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Chuck Peruto says that Larry Krasner refuses to debate him.

Why won't Krasner debate his Republican opponent before the Nov. 2nd election for D.A.?

"He's a coward," Peruto said. But in February, when he first got into the race, Peruto says, he predicted that Krasner wouldn't debate him one-on-one.

Why not? Because "I would slaughter him," Peruto said last week. "He [Krasner] needs to come down from his ivory tower and answer questions  that deal with public safety that the public has a right to know about."

It's a sad situation here in the cradle of democracy, where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by a nearly 7-1 margin, and general elections are as meaningless as the ones held in Putin's Russia.

On top of the lopsided voter registration problem, there's the issue of money. Krasner has raised $1.3 million in campaign cash, although the city's top law enforcement officer did it by trampling on  Philadelphia's campaign finance laws.

Peruto, another defense lawyer who wants to be D.A., says he has no money. And, he concedes, he has no chance of raising any before the election. 

After Carlos Vega got trounced by a 65% to 35% margin in the May 18th Democratic primary, Peruto says, the state and national Republican party have shown no interest in investing any money in a Peruto campaign for D.A. 

"They believe I'm a bad investment because I have no shot," Peruto said of his fellow Republicans. "They've abandoned Philadelphia." So, the candidate says, he's going to spend $80,000 of his own money on some last-minute campaign ads. 

Peruto may not have many registered voters behind him, or money. But one thing Peruto does have is the gift of gab.

He's as colorful as Krasner is drab. 

Charismatic, as opposed to being a stiff.

Entertaining, instead of being smug and arrogant.

Like our current vanilla-white D.A. who has successfully passed himself off as the great white savior. At a time when, as a direct result of Krasner's soft-on-crime policies, black and brown Philadelphians are being shot and killed in record numbers.

So in an interview last week, Peruto characteristically came out shooting from the hip as he attacked Krasner, Mayor Kenney and other progressive Democrats who make it a regular practice to cover for Krasner. 

Like J. Shane Creamer, the executive director of the city's Board of Ethics.

It was Creamer who looked the other way the past two years as Krasner's favorite PAC, the Real Justice PAC of San Francisco, poured $1.3 million into Krasner's campaign coffers, at a time when the city's annual limit on donations from a PAC was $12,600.

Public officials such as Creamer, or Attorney General Josh Shapiro, for that matter, are all card-carrying "progressive Democrats," Peruto said. And progressive Democrats do not investigate, or even dare to criticize fellow progressive Democrats.

As a result, "Nothing's gonna happen to him [Krasner]," Peruto said. "He's immune from prosecution, while he's committing crimes."

Why should people vote for Peruto as D.A.?

"I want to represent the citizens," Peruto says. "He [Krasner] wants to represent the defendants."

As D.A., Peruto says, Krasner has poured the resources of his office into "defending and representing criminals because he [Krasner] thinks he ran for public defender."

What does Krasner have to say in rebuttal?

As usual, as he has for the past 24 straight months, Krasner and his official spokespersons were stonewalling when Big Trial sought comment.

Krasner, besides being a coward, Peruto says, is running on an "absolutely false record." 

"He claims he has an 85% conviction rate on gun crimes, when, by his own stats of cases that he took in, he had a 36% conviction rate in his first year," Peruto said.

And of course, under Uncle Larry, every criminal gets a break. Instead of being sentenced to 7 1/2 to 15 years for crimes such as robbery with a gun, Peruto says, criminals who plead guilty to that crime are getting sentences from Krasner's office that amount to serving "a matter of months" in jail.

"This is an experiment that has failed," Peruto said of Krasner's progressive revolution to reform the criminal justice system by emptying the city's jails. "So how long are you going to take this experiment before you shelve it?"

Why is Peruto willing to spend $80,000 of his own money on campaign ads?

"I look at it as an investment," Peruto said. He's a property owner in the city, he says, and "property values will instantly skyrocket once Kenney and Krasner are replaced."

Oh yes, Mayor Kenney; Peruto has no time for him. Even though the mayor has of late, through an official spokesperson, been daring enough to snipe at Krasner.

"Kenney didn't start criticizing Krasner until his own future is at stake," Peruto said. 

"I don't give a fuck" about Kenney, Peruto says, adding, "You can quote me. I think he [Kenney] has turned his back on the people who put him in there."

Everybody in South Philadelphia agrees.

What does Peruto have to say to black and brown voters who are suffering the most when it comes to a record epidemic of gun violence?

"You're getting used," Peruto said.

For starters, "they're paying with blood," Peruto says about the record numbers of shootings and murders. 

As of Aug. 29th, the city's official body count stood at 355, an 18% increase over last year. At this rate, Philadelphia will set an all-time record with 588 murders. The former record was 500, set back in 1990, at the height of crack cocaine epidemic.

Out of the 305 murders so far this year that were the victims of fatal gunshots, according to the city controller's office, 1,310, or 85% of those victims were black, and another 126, or 8% of those victims were Hispanic.

On top of the bloodshed, Peruto says, the minority population is paying an economic price for crime.

"They're never gonna create wealth," Peruto said, because of the drastic effect that record crime has in lowering property values. 

Peruto says the one question he's tired of hearing on the campaign trail is, does he have any plans to expand the Conviction Integrity Unit?

"I am running for District Attorney; the initials are D.A.," he said. "I am not running for Public Defender, the initials of which are P.D."

But if somebody comes to him with a case of injustice, Peruto says, he'd be happy to "take a look" at it.

Out on the campaign trail, Peruto says, he feels like he's up against two opponents -- the D.A. and his favorite newspaper, the relentlessly pro-Krasner Philadelphia Inquirer.

Peruto trashed the Inquirer as Krasner's "co-conspirator" in turning the city into a lawless shooting gallery.

"Krasner has the Inquirer in his back pocket," Peruto said. "Especially Samantha Melamed," whose pro-Krasner stories, Peruto said, are always "100% against the police and 100% pro-Krasner."

During the primary campaign, Peruto did engage in a three-way candidates forum with Vega and Krasner that was sponsored by the Philadelphia Bar Association.

At that forum, Peruto said, Vega "played defense." If Peruto does get a chance to debate Krasner, he said, "it would be 100% offense."

Ok, so on the issue of a debate, the candidates for D.A. have spoken.

Chuck Peruto is ready to go, while Larry Krasner is content to hide, and coast to victory.

But are the rest of us going to stand for it?

In the middle of a record epidemic of gun violence, are we going to crown Krasner D.A. again without demanding that he at least have to debate his opponent?

Are we going to behave like subjects in Putin's Russia?

As they continue to feed us a steady diet of pro-Krasner propaganda, Samantha Melamed and her comrades at the Inquirer are counting on it.