My Philly Daily On Crime Column: Ask Any Cop: What Do You Think Of District Attorney Larry Krasner?

Philly Daily posted my On Crime column today on what cops think of Philly’s DA.

You can read the column via the link below or the following text:

Paul Davis: Just ask cops what they think of Larry Krasner – Philly Daily

The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court ruled that Philly District Attorney Larry Kresner’s progressive campaign to overturn criminal convictions – as opposed to seeking convictions like a proper prosecutor – must now have oversight from the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office.

The ruling comes after the court discovered that Krasner’s DA Office (DAO) failed to properly investigate these cases, misled judges and misrepresented facts. Ralph Ciprano’s Big Trial pieces at Substack go into great detail about Krasner’s outrageous conduct.      

Ask any cop about Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and you are likely to get an earful about his progressive politics and law & order polices.

I reached out to one retired cop and asked retired Philadelphia Police Lieutenant Martin O’Donnell (seen in the above photo) if he, like most cops I know, dislikes Krasner and his policies?

O’Donnell: Dislike is a broad term and kind of benign. I don’t personally know our DA, but I dislike his cavalier attitude and his policies that, in my opinion, seemed more focused against law enforcement and police officers doing their job.

What do you think of Krasner’s progressive policies about prosecuting criminal suspects?

O’Donnell: The DAO is promoting Krasner’s personal agenda. The DA is supposed to represent ‘Blind Justice,’ but it is obvious that he shies away from actually prosecuting criminals. One feels that the victim of a crime is not who the DAO is championing. It takes very little time for the word to spread in criminal circles about the lack of or minimal prosecution. The champion of the victim has now become the champion of the criminal. I know the DAO floats numbers about the reduction in crime, but I wonder about that and how to interpret those statistics. The DA said he was going to reduce the prison population. Well, he did, but at what cost? History will be the judge of his progressive policies, and in the end, I don’t think history will look upon them favorably. 

What do you think of Krasner exonerating convicted murders?

O’Donnell: Again, the word on the street spreads quicker than the Internet. When the DAO has ‘110 prosecutorial concessions’ most involving murder convictions that should be a red flag. No police officer would want to send an innocent person to jail, however it is almost ironic that his office can find a technicality on any of these cases and then refused to try the case again.

Some have said that with Krasner as DA, there are two attorneys in court looking out for the accused, and no one looking out for the victim.

O’Donnell: Krasner worked for years suing the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times - let that sink in. You can’t go from spending most of your professional career suing the police and then the next day supporting them. In one case, in which a person was a victim of harassment and eventually a homicide, Krasner is quoted as saying, "I will acknowledge again that we could have done better with respect to ... the decisions that were made," he said.

I’m amazed that the DA gets off the hook with this, where an innocent young lady was murdered, simply by saying, “we could have done better…’ but police officers are held to some other higher standard. The obvious difference here is that he has the luxury of sitting in his office conferring with a room full of attorneys for days and then reviewing again what actions he is going to take. In the meantime, he has an opportunity to go home, eat dinner, relax, and go back to work again before he makes his final decision. He has chance for a ‘do over’ to dot his ‘I’s’ and cross his ‘T’s.’ A police officer in a violent, fluid situation has one chance, and no opportunity to talk it over, and no opportunity to go home. There are no ‘do overs’ on the street.

What do you think of Krasner’s campaign of prosecuting cops?

O’Donnell: Officers make a split-second decision based on what their minds are able to process in nano seconds. They are reviewing their training, the law, policy and emotions fast than most people sneeze. They process the totality of the event is in real time. I taught more than 5,000 officers at the Police Academy and never did I ever hear one of them say that they wanted to shoot someone today. Police officers are the last line of defense and that line is broadened with the help of the District Attorney’s Office. When that DAO gives up its support and intentionally prosecutes officers who are doing their job in the middle of a riot, car stop, meet the complaint or any one of a thousand interactions with the public, to promote their own agenda, that in itself emboldens the criminal and eviscerate  the authority of the police.

Paul Davis’s On Crime column appears here each week. He is also a contributor to Broad + Liberty and Counterterrorism magazine. He can be reached via pauldavisoncrime.com. 

Ask Any Cop: Philly DA Krasner Is Soft On Crime

Broad + Liberty ran my piece on Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (seen in the above photo). 

You can read the piece via the below link or the below text:

Paul Davis: Ask any cop — Larry Krasner is soft on crime (broadandliberty.com)

"Is Larry Krasner a prosecutor or a social worker?” a disgruntled, veteran police officer asked me. “Is he a law enforcement officer or a political activist?”

The cop, one of many police officers who often contact me to vent, was upset about the District Attorney’s Violence Prevention Grant Initiative, which is Krasner’s response to gun violence and murder in Philadelphia. Earlier this month, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced the reopening of applications for grants. 

“Instead of giving tax money to former gangbangers, con artists and well-meaning but ineffective community groups, the DA should use that money to hire more prosecutors. Experienced and talented prosecutors, not like the group of rank amateurs and social workers he has now,” the cop said.    

On March 6th, Krasner’s office put out a press release that announced that the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office Community Engagement Team were re-opening the application process for the DA’s Violence Prevention Grant Initiative, “as the city heads toward the Spring and Summer months of 2023 — a time of year in which gun violence, and the tragedy that accompanies this public health and safety problem, typically increases.”

According to the press release, the Philadelphia Foundation, in partnership with the District Attorney’s office, has awarded nearly one million dollars in violence prevention funding to dozens of local community-based 501(c)(3) organizations since May 2021. The foundation intends to award $250,000 in additional grant funding during this latest round.

“Tackling our city’s gun violence crisis requires the use of all the tools in our toolkit: vigorous enforcement and prosecution of those who are driving the violence in our communities; expanded forensic science in order to strengthen investigations and prosecutions; and prevention,” Krasner stated. “My office is thrilled to continue awarding grants to properly vetted groups who are providing the supports necessary to address the root causes of violent crime.”

“Vigorous enforcement and prosecution, my foot,” the cop said, referring to the DA’s the press release. “Ask any cop, and they will tell you that Krasner is soft on crime. We arrest the bad guys, and the DA won’t prosecute them or cuts a sweet-heart deal for them. 

“Any cop will tell you, Krasner favors the crooks over cops. That’s why we have a high murder rate and so much gun violence in Philly. But he sure likes handing out tax dollars to community activist groups like most white, guilty, liberal politicians.”

As for the DA properly vetting the groups getting the generous grants, the officer scoffed and questioned the $392,000 given to the “Guns Down Gloves Up” youth boxing program. 

“This do-gooder group, formed by a police captain no less, is now under investigation for fraud. I think most of these community groups should be investigated thoroughly. Are they on the up and up, and do they actually prevent gun violence?”

As a former amateur boxer who began training in the ring as a pre-teen at the South Philadelphia Boy’s Club in the mid-1960s, I thought that the Guns Down Gloves up was one group that might be worthwhile. But according to the Philadelphia Inquirer in January, the city suspended the lucrative grant to Guns Down Gloves Up and eight Philadelphia police officers have been placed on restricted duty and had their firearms taken away.

And according to the Inquirer, the FBI is investigating the program after the newspaper reported that the police officers had improperly received tens of thousands of dollars in city antiviolence grant money. The police officer who founded the program, former 22nd District Captain Nashid Akil, was reportedly transferred due to chronic absenteeism. 

The Inquirer reported that the grant for Guns Down Gloves Up, awarded in December 2021 to Epiphany Fellowship Church and Villanova University, is the subject of several investigations. As the Inquirer noted, Guns Down Gloves Up was one of 31 programs that collectively received $13.5 million in what the city called Community Expansion Grants. It’s a part of a $155 million city effort to counter a historic surge in gun violence.

The Inquirer also reported that Captain Akil described the program as his, even though city employees are not eligible for city grants. Nearly $76,000 went to Akil and nine other Philadelphia Police Department staffers, according to financial records obtained by the Inquirer. The grant application specified Akil would not be paid.

The grant to Guns Down Gloves Up was suspended by the city in November, as the program was being investigated by the Philadelphia Police Department and the Office of the Inspector General.

“Some of these community groups do good work, I’m sure. But you know the best way to prevent violence in Philly?” the officer said to me. “Lock up the bad guys, prosecute them, put their butts in prison, and get them off the street.”

Paul Davis is a Philadelphia writer who covers crime.