Philly furor/
The US attorney in Philadelphia is blaming the city’s left-leaning new district attorney for the jeering mob that taunted cops during a standoff with a gunman that left six officers injured Wednesday.
DA Larry Krasner has championed a “new culture of disrespect for law enforcement” that led to the furious anti-cop outbursts, top federal prosecutor William M. McSwain said Thursday.
“The vile rhetoric puts our police in danger,” McSwain wrote in a statement to the press.
“It disgraces the Office of the District Attorney. And it harms the good people in the City of Philadelphia and rewards the wicked.”
The federal prosecutor’s criticism came as Philadelphia Police Chief Richard Ross told reporters that the weapons used by shooting suspect Maurice Hill were a handgun and a military-style AR-15.
“What I witnessed last night was true heroism by the Philadelphia police,” McSwain wrote.
“But the crisis was precipitated by a stunning disrespect for law enforcement — a disrespect so flagrant and so reckless that the suspect immediately opened fire on every single officer within shooting distance.”
The unruly, cop-hating crowd had converged at the home of Hill, 36, as cops attempted to serve a drug warrant.
They jeered the officers during the nearly eight-hour standoff and shootout.
By the time Hill surrendered, six cops has been wounded.
“Only by the grace of God did they survive,” McSwain wrote. The disrespect began a year and a half ago at Krasner’s victory party, which featured “chants of ‘f--k the police” and “No good cops in a racist system,” McSwain wrote.
Since then, law enforcement has endured “the worst kinds of slander,” McSwain wrote, including Krasner — a longtime civil-rights lawyer — calling cops “racist” and “corrupt” and comparing them to Nazi “war criminals.”
Krasner did not immediately offer a response to the criticism.
The former defense attorney ran for office last year on a platform of criminal-justice reform.
Since he took office in January, he has caused controversy with actions such as dropping the DA office’s opposition to giving infamous convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal a new appeals hearing.
Also on Thursday, a report said that Hill spoke to Krasner and Police Commissioner Ross by phone while he was barricaded inside the house.
“He was concerned he was going to be killed if he came out,” Krasner told WHYY’s “Fresh Air” show, describing Hill’s side of the bizarre conversation.
The unusual conference call among Hill, Ross and Krasner was patched together by Hill’s defense lawyer, Krasner said Thursday.