Under D.A. Krasner, Murders Up 79%; Gun Convictions Down 45%

D.A. Krasner fakes some tears for Murder Victim No. 498

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

In 2017, the year before District Attorney Larry Krasner took office, the city had 315 murders.

As of last night, the city had 499 murders, one short of the all-time record of 500, set back in 1990, at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic.

If Philadelphia continues on its current record pace, the city will finish this year with 563 murders, a 79% increase since Larry Krasner has been D.A.

And yet, according to Larry Krasner, the outrageous rise in the murder rate isn't his fault. In an interview with a trio of regular apologists at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Krasner blamed the rising murder rate on the backlog in the courts, due to the pandemic. He also blamed the Police Department, for failing to solve most of the murders. 

Krasner has previously blamed the city's gun violence epidemic on the pandemic, poverty, the city's failing schools, as well as systemic racism. The one person Larry Krasner never blames is Larry Krasner.

Yet, according to statistics kept by the D.A.'s office, the conviction rate for prosecuting gun crimes in the D.A.'s office has dropped from 64% in 2017, the last year Seth Williams was D.A., all the way down to 35% this year under Progressive Larry Krasner, a decrease of 45%

Meanwhile, according to the D.A.'s own statistics, the number of gun crime cases withdrawn or dismissed by the D.A.'s office has more than doubled, rising from 27% in 2017, the last year Seth Williams was D.A., all the way up to 61% this year under Progressive Larry Krasner.

Those stats that I just cited would lead a reasonable person to conclude that the one public official most responsible for the rising tide of gun violence and the epic murder rate in Philadelphia is District Attorney Larry Krasner.

But the media in this town, led by The Philadelphia Inquirer, continue to treat the record amount of dead bodies as a murder mystery.

It's no mystery -- as Philadelphia gets ready to rack up its 500th murder, and set a new all-time record for murders, the simple truth is that Larry Krasner has blood on his hands.

We've already mentioned the drastic drop in the D.A.'s conviction rate for prosecuting gun crimes, and the drastic rise in the number of gun crime cases withdrawn or dismissed by the D.A.'s office.

That means more armed and dangerous criminals out on the streets, ready to commit more crimes.

It's also well known that the D.A.'s office under Larry Krasner routinely gives out light sentences to the overwhelming majority of criminals caught committing gun crimes, sentences in county jails that are well below state sentencing guidelines that would put criminals behind bars for years in state prisons.

It's also well known that Larry Krasner's stable of prosecutors is inexperienced, inept, poorly trained and downright incompetent. They can't win trials, so they spend most of their time negotiating sweetheart plea bargains, where the accused criminal either gets a light sentence or walks. 

Why is Krasner's staff so bad? Because as soon as he took over, Krasner fired 31 of the most experienced prosecutors in the D.A.'s office. And then Krasner replaced them with kids fresh out of law school or former public defenders and social justice warriors who don't know their ass from their elbow when it comes to prosecuting crime. 

Then let's add to this toxic mix the rampant anecdotal evidence of the horrific crimes committed during the past four years by the armed and dangerous criminals that Larry Krasner routinely lets out of jail.

Here's just a few examples that I've listed in detail, along with other atrocities committed by the D.A., on a separate webpage on ralphcipriano.com that's dubbed "Toxic Justice:"

-- Hassan Elliott, an armed and dangerous gang member and convicted drug dealer, who walked out of prison a free man after the D.A. gave him a sweetheart sentence on a gun pinch, and then  the D.A. looked the other way on three alleged parole violations for Elliott. Elliott proceeded to shoot and kill Corporal James O'Connor, who was trying to serve him with an arrest warrant for murder. 

-- Razique Bumpas, whom, after the D.A.'s office failed to approve two arrest warrants for, shot and killed Ishan Charmidah Rahman, a 39 year-old pregnant woman; her unborn baby also died.

-- Josephus Davis, a two-time convicted robber who was arrested again for an alleged carjacking and an aggravated assault, has his bail lowered in the two new cases from a total of $300,000 all the way down to $32,000, so his family had to plunk down only $3,200 to spring him out of jail. Davis proceeded to shoot and kill Millan Loncar, a recent Temple grad who was out walking his dog. 

-- Taray Herring, a convicted sex offender with a dozen arrests on his rap sheet whom Krasner let out of jail because the D.A. was afraid he'd catch Covid, allegedly killed, hacked up and dismembered the body of Peter Gerold, 70, a licensed masseuse.

-- Tyree Miles, whom the D.A. dismissed a total of a dozen charges against on three different occasions, after he was accused of first attacking his girlfriend, then the cops, and finally his mother, brother and other relatives. Miles was finally charged with involuntary manslaughter, after his 10 year-old niece shot herself to death with her uncle's gun, a weapon that Miles had illegally and carelessly stored at her house. 

-- Michael Banks, whom the D.A.'s office plea-bargained a felony gun charge against down to a misdemeanor, got involved in a neighborhood shoot out, and shot and killed Zamar Jones, a 7-year-old boy who was sitting out on his front porch, playing with his toy race car and scooter.

-- Adriano Coriano, whom the D.A.'s office had an arrest warrant for, for allegedly violating a protection order by repeatedly stalking, harassing and assaulting his ex-wife. While the D.A.'s office sat on that arrest warrant for six straight days, Coriano shot and killed his ex-wife, Gladys Coriano.

All of these murder victims died as a result of Larry Krasner's "progressive" policies. And this is just a few of Krasner's greatest hits. There are so many more.

With all that blood on his hands, the progressive Inquirer still refers to Krasner as "the reform-minded prosecutor" and routinely gives him a pass whenever they're discussing the record murder rate, and gun violence epidemic.

On Monday, the city racked up Murder No. 498, when Jessica Covington, a 32 year-old woman who was seven months pregnant, was shot in the head and stomach as she was unloading presents she had just received at a baby shower in her honor.

Both the mother and her unborn child were pronounced dead at the Einstein Medical Center.

This brings up another big problem with the murder epidemic in Philadelphia -- there are way more dead bodies than the cops admit to.

As of today, the official murder count stands at 499, one short of the record. But the city also has another 172 dead bodies on the books that the police refer to as "S jobs," for suspicious deaths still under investigation. 

That's a total of 671 dead bodies in one year. 

Keep in mind that as of Nov. 21st, New York City, which has more than five times the population of Philadelphia, had only 427 murders.

The way the cops record murders and "S jobs" comes across as strange to people both inside and outside the police department. 

For example, when Jessica Covington was murdered, her death was recorded as a homicide, but her unborn baby's death was recorded as an "S job."

A spokesperson for the police department did not respond to a request for information on why the murder of the unborn baby was recorded as a suspicious death, rather than a murder.

Who are the people who've been murdered this year? According to an ongoing audit by the city controller, of the 406 victims of fatal gun violence this year, 83% are black, 10% are Hispanic, and 7% are white.

As for a breakdown by sex, 88% are male, 12% are female. Regarding age, 54% are between 18 and 30; 31% are younger than 18; 27% are between 31 and 45.

Let's get back to the man most responsible for the gun violence epidemic in Philadelphia --- District Attorney Larry Krasner. At his weekly press conference, Krasner said the tragedy of the murder of the pregnant woman and her unborn baby made him "sick."

At the same press conference, Krasner, who is perhaps the worst actor as a politician that I've ever seen, did some play-acting, where he spoke in a shaky voice, paused for an uncomfortable amount of time, and then faked some phony, dry-eyed tears while describing the murder of Jessica Covington and her unborn baby. 

But today, when the mayor called a joint violence to address the gun violence epidemic, the police commissioner was there, as was the City Council president, several state legislators, as well as the acting U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia. 

But where was Krasner?

On a day when local, state and federal officials gathered to publicly discuss the city's gun violence epidemic, our progressive district attorney dissed them all by not even bothering to show up, and sending a corrupt office flunky to cover for him. 

According to the Rev. Greg Holston, a disbarred lawyer that Krasner hired as a senior advisor, our D.A. was "away," and that's why he was a no-show.

Just like he's been a no-show in the war on crime.

Because Progressive Larry has better things to do than hang out with his alleged "partners in law enforcement."

UPDATE: Shortly before 6 p.m., tonight Philadelphia hit 500 homicides. A 55 year-old black woman, was shot three times in the chest at 7th and Jackson Streets; she was pronounced dead shortly thereafter at Jefferson University Hospital.

Police said there's a warrant out for her estranged husband, whom the murder victim had recently obtained a protection order against.

Note: Ralph Cipriano of Big Trial is a guest today on the I Detective radio show hosted by former detective Chris DePerno that can be heard at 6 p.m. on KGRA Digital Broadcasting.

 Here's a link to listen to the show live, as  well as a link to the broadcast on youtube. 

Today's topic of discussion on I Detective -- Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. 

Editor's note on crime stats for homicides:

This story originally stated that Philadelphia's murder rate in 2017 was 286. That was the year-to-date number of homicides as of Nov. 23rd, and not the total figure for the entire year.

The total number of homicides for 2017 is listed at phillypolice.com as 315. While the estimated total of homicides on Nov. 23rd for this year was projected to be 563, that would amount to a 78.7% increase in homicides comparing 2017 to this year, and not a 95% increase as I originally stated, due to my faulty math.

I do apologize for the error.