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With more than 1,100 people shot and 260 homicides in Philadelphia, District Attorney Larry Krasner points to the pandemic, poverty and systematic racism as reasons for the spike.
“The big long-term issues are the ones that are most daunting. This is a city that has an outsized police department and yet it has chronically high levels of violence,” Krasner said.
Philadelphia now has the second-highest homicide rate in the nation.
He was pressed about whether his leadership as the city’s top prosecutor creates a sense of “lawlessness” — something both U.S. Attorney William McSwain and the police union have criticized him for.
“This is nothing but the kind of code words that Lee Atwater and Richard Nixon and Donald Trump with his divisive and racist rhetoric have been planning to use all along,” Krasner responded.
He also points to the president as the origin.
“It is nothing but a deliberate effort to use these code words to excite (Trump’s) base, which includes a bunch of hate groups,” he added.
Krasner testified in City Council’s emergency gun violence hearings and defended his office, saying they are charging crimes appropriately.