Philadelphia has been observing an uptick in violence over the last several months that continued this weekend. Over a 48 hour time period, police say that 28 were shot – five fatally – in 19 incidents across the city. The violent Father’s Day weekend marked the deadliest stretch of violence in Philadelphia since 2015.
At a press conference in the aftermath of a graduation party shooting that left six wounded and one dead, Philadelphia Police Commissioner speculated that criminals may not be fearing consequences for carrying illegal guns. Ross stated that the Philadelphia Police Department have nearly doubled the number of gun arrests since 2019. Yet still, shootings are on the rise.
Speaking on the increased arrests, Ross believes that “some of these guys think they’ve figured something out, relative to consequences or lack thereof”. He then added “there are many people who will disregard the law because they’re not worried about it. Not because we’re not arresting them; we have to see why these people are carrying them in the fashion that they are”.
When asked if he was insinuating that DA Larry Krasner was being too lenient on gun cases, the commissioner did not give a definitive answer. He said he did not know how many gun cases were not being followed up properly and didn’t blame any one individual. According to Ross, the Police Department was studying all aspects of gun cases in search of trends.
Ross also stated that “We want to make sure that we are all working together, and that there are no unintentional consequences or policies or other things that we’re trying to do in this city that may impact us negatively”.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Larry Krasner’s office did not respond to comment on the commissioner’s remarks. Krasner’s office did, however, call the violence “tragic” and “alarming” in a statement on Twitter early Monday morning. He then managed to somehow blame legal gun owners and the NRA even though the crisis is being driven by illegal guns and criminals who don’t fear consequences, according to the police.
Krasner – who took money from George Soros – has been criticized for his politicization of law enforcement and soft crime policies. Critics have described him as “pro criminal”. Krasner made a career off of suing the Police Department and his office has filed charges against eight city officers for six alleged on-duty incidents. Krasner has also been criticized for his framing of crime, typically for making criminals sound like victims of circumstance.
2018 marked the deadliest year of violence in a decade for Philadelphia and things are only getting worse.
Krasner’s methods have been criticized as being similar to the “Ferguson effect” in which police draw back after being heavily criticized. The same thing happened in Baltimore and in both cities, the murder rate sky-rocketed. Police are increasingly unable to do their jobs in fear of prosecution from the likes of Krasner. As a result, the murder rate is exploding as Krasner makes political jabs. Like most modern leftists, it’s all about the image and less about results.