D.A. Krasner On Record Gun Violence: 'Nothing To See Here'

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

On Sunday, Nov. 28th, Latif Williams was out on the 2200 block of North Park Avenue, just a few blocks from the Temple University campus, hunting for his next carjacking victim.

For 45 seconds on surveillance video, Williams, 17, of Olney, dressed in dark clothes, is seen scanning the street and shuffling back and forth. Then, he strides purposely to his right, and out of camera range.

At that moment on the same block, according to police, Samuel Collington, 21, of Prospect Park, just back from a Thanksgiving break with his family, was parking his mother's SUV. On the video, which lasts just over a minute, you hear off-camera a car door slam before Williams, according to police, attempted to carjack Collington.

But Collington fought back. Off camera, there's the sound of a gunshot and then Williams is seen hustling off, apparently trying to flee. That's when Collington ran after Williams, and is seen on camera jumping on Williams's back. Off camera, there's a scuffle, then, the sounds of three gunshots, followed by screams.

The cops say that Williams missed with his first two shots, but his second two shots struck Collington in the chest. Collington, scheduled to graduate in May and go on to law school, died two hours later.

The murder was preventable. Once again, the District Attorney's office under Larry Krasner repeatedly failed to protect the public from an armed and dangerous criminal. And when that sorry record was exposed, Krasner's office tried in vain to cover it up.

According to police, Williams, who began his criminal career at 13 by robbing a Temple student on campus of her cell phone, is a suspect in four other carjackings over a one-week period that were committed in the same vicinity.

Police previously arrested Williams four times in the past three years, including an Aug. 14th arrest for an armed carjacking.

But all four times, the D.A.'s office under Larry Krasner dropped all the charges and withdrew all four cases against Williams, so he could go right back out on the street and continue his life of crime. 

And when KYW news radio reporter Kristen Johanson asked Jane Roh, Krasner's spokesperson, about it, Roh lied to the reporter, claiming that all four cases had not been dismissed by the D.A.'s office, when in fact they had. 

Roh's attempt at a cover up didn't work. Johanson wrote that she was able to confirm "through multiple sources" that all four cases previously filed against Williams had indeed been withdrawn by prosecutors in Krasner's office. 

Johanson attempted to question Roh again, but according to the reporter, Roh "declined to comment further because Williams is a juvenile."

Here's the D.A.'s sorry record when it comes to prosecuting Latif Williams.

On July 20, 2019, police arrested Williams for selling drugs, but on Aug. 21, 2020, the D.A.'s office dismissed the charges.

 On May 31, 2020, the police arrested Williams and charged him with burglary, rioting and looting during the George Floyd riots. According to police, Williams kicked a police car window out and spit on cops. But on Sept. 18, 2020, the D.A.'s office dismissed those charges against Williams.

On Nov. 6, 2020,  the police arrested Williams again for selling drugs. But once again on Sept. 10, 2021, the D.A.'s office dismissed the charges. 

Finally, on Aug. 14th the police arrested Williams and charged him with eight crimes in connection with an armed carjacking, including aggravated assault, robbery, conspiracy and possession of an unlicensed gun. But on Sept. 30th, the D.A.'s office once again dismissed all eight charges.

At a press conference yesterday, D.A. Krasner continued the cover up of his office's sorry record when it comes to fighting crime by trying to convince reporters that while gun violence is up, other violent crime categories are down.

“We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence,” the district attorney insisted. “It’s important that we don’t let this become mushy and bleed into the notion that there is some kind of big spike in crime.”

When a reporter asked Krasner whether tourists should be fearful of coming to Philadelphia at a time when the city has already set a new all-time record for homicides with 521 murders, Krasner responded, “No, they should not."

“They should come into the city of Philadelphia, they should enjoy every wonderful thing this city offers, in terms of shopping, in terms of staying overnight, in terms of dining out, in terms of walking around with their kids, wearing their mittens, they should enjoy all of that.”

"But no, they should not be fearful about that," he said about the specter of violent crime, because, "This city welcomes them with open arms." 

Krasner wasn't talking about all the dangerous criminals that his office routinely lets out of jail, like Latif Williams, who are out on the streets of Philadelphia bearing arms. But Krasner did mention that tourists who dare to come to Philadelphia had better be careful. 

Just last month, a 29 year-old man from Lancaster County was shot and murdered at Christmas Village, an outdoor peddler's market at 15th and JFK. The alleged killer was a security guard hired by a firm that had a contract with the city to protect Christmas Village.

It's easy for Krasner to talk about not being afraid of gun violence because he's insulated from the consequences of his own deadly, soft-on-crime policies.

That's because the D.A. has his own security detail that consists of four full-time police officers armed with Glock 17s, and a couple of chauffeurs who drive Krasner around town in a couple of black Ford Explorer SUVs. 

It's a security detail that costs the taxpayers at least $350,000 a year.

So Krasner is safe. But it isn't the same story for the rest of us. In contrast to what Krasner had to say about violent crime, police stats show:

-- Homicides are up 13% from 455 last year to 521 this year.

-- Gunpoint robberies, which includes carjackings, are up 25%, from 1,689 last year at this time to 2,102 this year. 

-- Theft of motor vehicle tags are up 26% from 1,442 last year to 1,810 this year.

-- Theft from persons are up 13%, from 319 last year to 359 this year.

-- Theft from autos are up 8%, from 9,907 last year to 10,703 this year.

-- Retail thefts are up 22%, from 7,131 last year to 8,695 this year.

-- Auto thefts are up 16%, from 9,065 last year to 10,532 this year.

-- Shooting incidents are up 5%, from 3,686 last year to 3,882 this year.

-- Shooting victims are up 3%, from 2,100 last year to 2,161 this year.

But according to Larry Krasner, “We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence.” 

At Monday's press conference, as he habitually does, Krasner blamed the increase in violent crime on poverty, the pandemic, the lockdown, as well as the police, for not solving enough gun crimes.

But Krasner never blames himself or the D.A.'s office for the surge in violent crime. But the D.A.'s own statistics, posted on the office's website, show what a horrible job they're doing.

For example, as of Dec. 7th, according to the D.A.'s owns stats, the D.A.'s office has disposed of 5,543 cases identified as "violent crimes," which includes homicides, assaults, robberies, rapes and sexual assaults.

Out of those 5,543 cases, a total of 4,283 cases -- 77% of all violent crime cases -- did not end in convictions. 

Out of that total of 5,543 cases, that includes 4,043 cases, or a whopping 72.9%, that were either dismissed or withdrawn by the D.A.'s office, and another 100 cases were diverted.

Of the total of 5,543 cases, only 208 defendants, or a paltry 3.7%, were found guilty at trial, while a total of 1,040, or 18.7% of the defendants pleaded guilty.

Regarding gun possession cases, so far this year, out of a total of 1,258 cases, a total of 799 cases, or 63.5%, did not end in convictions.

That includes 757 gun cases, or a whopping 60%, that were either dismissed or withdrawn by the D.A.'s office, along with 16 cases that were diverted, and 26 other defendants who were found not guilty at trial. Out of 1,258 gun cases, only 25 defendants, or a paltry 1.9%, were found guilty at trial, while a total 428, or 34%, pleaded guilty.

Dismissed/Withdrawn, etc = 757

Dive

To cap off a disastrous press conference yesterday, rather than let sleeping lap dogs lie, Krasner decided to attack the reporters who showed up to listen to his drivel.

The same press corps that he's had in his back pocket for the past four years.

According to Krasner, it's the media that's to blame for peddling the fake news that in Philadelphia there's a big surge in violent crime.

“I understand that there is a long tradition in journalism of reporting around terrible crimes and, frankly, selling newspapers off of it, selling clicks, selling newspaper coverage,” Krasner said. “But we all have to resort to the truth. We all have to know what we’re talking about.”

Wrong move, Larry. Judging from a couple of outbreaks in the media, perhaps the tide of public opinion is finally turning against Krasner.

Today, the Legal Intelligencer reported that over the past year, more than 130 lawyers and staff members have left the district attorney's office, citing poor training and unbearable pressure on the job, as well as mismanagement by Krasner and his top commanders.

"Since Krasner took office in 2018, many senior staff have either resigned or been fired, creating an office disproportionately filled with inexperienced prosecutors," the Legal reported. 

Some of the escapees from Krasner's lunatic asylum described working under heavy caseloads, resulting in emotional breakdowns, such as crying and puking.

“We had no idea what we were doing," one former assistant district attorney told the Legal. "Really just fumbling around in the dark with these really important cases.”

From many angles, Larry Krasner has been an unmitigated disaster as D.A. Especially for the minority community, as some people are starting to realize. 

Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter weighed in today with a blistering op-ed in the Inquirer, blasting Krasner for making “some of the worst, most ignorant, and most insulting comments I have ever heard spoken by an elected official.”

And for the first time in memory, a prominent black leader finally attacked the great white savior, as Krasner typically presents himself, for being insufferably smug, arrogant and condescending.

"It takes a certain audacity of ignorance and white privilege to say that right now," Nutter wrote about Krasner's declaration that “We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence” here in Philadelphia.

"I have to wonder what kind of messed-up world of white wokeness Krasner is living in," Nutter  wrote, "to have so little regard for human lives lost, many of them black and brown, while he advances his own national profile as a progressive district attorney.”