Philly not a ‘crisis in crime?’

He is jovial, generous, and magical. But even Santa has his limitations.

Try as he might, Father Christmas just doesn’t have enough room in his gift bag to give Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner what he needs most: a whopping dose of reality.

Mr. Krasner, displaying an aloofness for the ages — and that’s really saying something in Philly — recently stated: “we don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence … and that is a category that includes gun violence.” He added: “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 — there isn’t. There is not a big spike in crime.”

Oh.

In other words, Philadelphia’s murders outranking both New York City (six times larger) and Los Angeles (twice as big) do not constitute a “crisis of violence?” (There have been a record 529 homicides so far this year — a 12 percent increase from 2020). And the huge number of shootings (a staggering 2,200) don’t add up to a crisis of “gun violence?” And the substantial robberies (2,213 — a 20 percent “spike,” including many in “safe” Center City), muggings, carjackings and assaults don’t equate to a “crisis of violence?”

Mr. D.A., if that’s not a “crisis of lawlessness,” we’d hate to see what is.

Justifiably, Mr. Krasner’s critics — including former Democratic Mayor Michael Nutter — pounced. At issue is Mr. Krasner’s progressive (and wellearned) reputation for coddling criminals, be that letting them off easy or not prosecuting at all. However — and this is a big however — while blaming Larry Krasner for Philadelphia’s crime epidemic fits nicely into self-serving political narratives, the truth is that such a mentality is off the mark.

Directly blaming Larry Krasner for Philly’s crime problem, as some are doing — including a Republican gubernatorial candidate who reportedly stated that the crime spike was “caused by him” — is as idiotic as it is unhelpful. Put another way, are 17year old murderers pulling the trigger because they think the D.A. is a pushover? And conversely, would they become model citizens if the District Attorney were tough? Sorry, but that’s not how it works in real life.

If we are to blame anyone for Mr. Krasner’s inability to recognize, let alone address, the crime crisis, it’s the people themselves. It was a no-brainer that Mr. Krasner would be reelected last month, for good reason: because that’s what Philadelphians do. Time and again, they return incompetent and misguided Democratic leaders to power. To think this year would be any different, despite the record-breaking crime waves of 2020 and 2021, was simply naïve.

Former Mayor Nutter penned an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer blasting Mr. Krasner.

First, the good: “Many of us respect the police, appreciate the good work of so many who risk their lives every day to deal with some of the most dangerous and difficult people in this city in a professional and sensitive manner.” That is extremely refreshing to hear from a prominent Democrat, since far too many mayors demonize the men and women in Blue, often using them as a scapegoat to deflect from their own failed policies.

But Mr. Nutter lost a measure of credibility by injecting race where it wasn’t warranted. He referred to Mr. Krasner’s shortcomings as the product of “white privilege” and “white wokeness,” and spoke primarily of “Black and brown” victims, rather than simply criticizing Mr. Krasner himself and leaving color out of the equation. More than anything, race as the default go-to is what’s dividing America, and it unfortunately tainted what should have been a colorblind message.

The bigger questions for Mayor Nutter are … why now? What took so long to publicly berate Mr. Krasner and criticize his policies, since he’s been doing the same thing for four years? Sure, better late than never, but at the risk of appearing negative, so what? The time to come forward and make waves was May and November, before the people voted. Ditto for all of the other political heavyweights who could have possibly affected the outcome by pleading for their followers to do the smart thing and elect someone else. But that didn’t happen.

You reap what you sow, and Philadelphians planted the seeds that will yield more of the same, guaranteeing that Philly will continue to wear the most misplaced moniker of all: City of Brotherly Love.