Impeach Larry Krasner!

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

A trio of Republicans in the Pennsylvania state House of Representatives today announced their intention to launch a bipartisan drive to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.

In targeting Krasner, who just won reelection to a second four-year term last November, the Republican trio cited "the absolute and willful dereliction of duty that we have seen" from the Philly D.A.

That's how state Rep. Josh Kail, a Republican from Beaver and Washington counties described it. "Lives have lost, property has been destroyed and families have been crushed," Kail said. "Enough is enough."

Torren Ecker, a Republican from Adams and Cumberland counties, said today's announcement was arrived after "careful thought and deliberation."

At the podium, Ecker cited a written statement issued by Krasner's office from six months ago: "We do not believe that arresting people and convicting them for illegal gun possession is a viable strategy to reduce shootings." 

"Since that time," Ecker said, "nearly 950 Pennsylvanians have been injured or killed as a result of gun violence in Philadelphia," including 220 murders.

Shootings are up 8 percent in Philadelphia, Ecker said, and there's been a 56% increase in robberies with a gun.

"It's widespread lawlessness in the city of Philadelphia," Ecker said. He said that recent shootings on South Street, where three people were killed and 11 more injured, was the latest in a series of crimes that show that "time and again under Krasner's leadership," the D.A.'s office "has ignored the laws of the Commonwealth and put the lives of Pennsylvanians at risk."

"Businesses are shutting their doors, people are fleeing the city and victims are being silenced," he said.

That's for sure. In the four years that Krasner has served as D.A., the murder rate in Philadelphia has jumped from 315 in 2017, the year before Krasner took office, to an all-time record of 562 murders last year, a 78% increase.

Non-fatal shootings are also up during Krasner's tenure; from 1,028 in 2017, the year before Krasner took office, to 1,846 in 2021, a 79% increase.

Tim O’Neal, a Republican from Washington County, cited the recall election in San Francisco, where he said, residents stood up "against a radical district attorney who refused to enforce the laws, which led to crime violence and unchecked degradation of the city."

"The voters got rid of District Attorney Chesa Boudin," O'Neal said. "Well, guess what? Larry Krasner is the original Chesa Boudin."

And Krasner as D.A. has adopted a "radical prosecutorial agenda that has resulted in skyrocketing crime and lawlessness," O'Neal said. If those policies were "too radical for San Franciso, they're certainly too radical for Philadelphia."

"Pennsylvania deserves better than Larry Krasner," O'Neal said. "It's time for him to go."

At a press conference today in Philadelphia, Krasner was announcing that he was seeking to arrest Joshua Marcias, the founder of Vets for Trump, for contempt of court. 

During the press conference, when Krasner was asked about impeachment, the D.A. used incendiary rhetoric to try and turn a political battle into a race war.

In Krasner's fevered mind, he's the great white savior standing up against angry white supremacists, for for the benefit of downtrodden minorities who can't succeed without his enlightened help. 

"When you stand up for black and brown votes in the city of Philadelphia there are going to be legislators who are almost exclusively members of a political party that is very close to the people we are going after now," Kasner said, who are going to oppose you.

Krasner suggested that suburban Republicans, such as the trio of legislators who launched the impeachment drive against him, have an "economic incentive" to oppose him because the D.A.'s "reforms" have meant "fewer people from Philly in their jails."

Pouring more gasoline on the topic, Krasner charged that Republicans who were disappointed about his win at the polls saw the black and brown people who voted for him as "just three-fifths of a vote."

Krasner was referring to the Three-Fifths Compromise of the 1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention that agreed to count slaves as three-fifths of a vote. 

Memo to suburban Republicans -- this is a hissing viper you're coming after, a habitual liar who hides behind the city's Black Clergy. While he's passing out money to any politician dumb enough and greedy enough to publicly support him, as long as they're willing to sell out their own communities. 

You'd best come prepared to take him out. 

Back in Harrisburg, state Republicans have set up a website, stopkrasner.com, to create a place for crime victims to tell their stories and for people to share information about why the Philly D.A. should be impeached.

This isn't the first time Republican legislators in Harrisburg have proposed impeaching Krasner.

Back in January, state Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, another Republican from Bellefonte, PA, sent a letter to a trio of Republican  leaders in the state House, saying that in order to stem the tide of violence in Philadelphia, it was necessary to impeach Krasner and remove him from office.

Corman, who was running at the time for governor, told talk show host Dom Giordano that, "Ultimately, it's their [the House of Representatives'] decision file articles of impeachment."

"I think this crisis has reached such a level that it deserves this response," Corman said. 

It took five months, and the primaries to be over, but the House has finally spoken. 

It would take a simple majority vote in the state House to launch the impeachment. A trial would be held in the state Senate, where it would take a two-thirds majority vote to get rid of Krasner. 

At today's press conference in Harrisburg, a reporter asked Rep. O'Neal if he was trying to undo the will of Philadelphia voters simply because he didn't like the way Krasner was running the D.A.'s office.

"This isn't about whether or not I like the way he's doing his job," O'Neal responded. "He in his own admission is willfully refusing to enforce the law that he's constitutionally mandated to enforce."

"This is not about whether or not I like him," O'Neal repeated. "This is about the fact that he is willfully failing to do his job. And the remedy according to the Pennsylvania constitution is for the House to impeach . . . this is the remedy and we intend to proceed with it."

"This is something that we have been working on for some time," Kail said. "There will be broad support for this measure for this action that's been taken."

"We believe were going to see across the entire Commonwealth, across party lines, support for this action."

Note to suburban Republicans -- if you get rid of our D.A., can you come back soon for our mayor?