DV Journal

In recent months, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has claimed he has made repeated calls for enhanced forensic technologies to bolster the city’s police department amid a generational spike in gun crime, homicides, and carjackings.

However, Broad + Liberty filed a Right to Know Law request seeking all the correspondence in the past year Mr. Krasner has communicated those requests, either by email or regular mail.

There are no such documents.

Specifically, Broad + Liberty asked for: “A copy of any correspondence (physical, or email, including any attachments if email) between District Attorney Larry Krasner and any Pennsylvania State Representative, any Pennsylvania State Senator, or any member of the Philadelphia City Council as well as the Mayor, in which criminal forensic technologies are discussed as a subject matter. Please use a date range of Jan. 1, 2021, to and including Jan. 21, 2022.”

“The [district attorney’s office] was unable to locate records responsive to your request,” Krasner’s office said in reply.

As the homicide rate pushed towards an unprecedented annual record of 500 last November, Krasner leaned on this reasoning amid increased scrutiny.

For example, a video report from NBC10 in Philadelphia quoted Krasner saying, “One of the most important solutions to these issues is having a real forensic capacity; for this to be a city where you can take what you have at a crime scene, and you can move the question along quickly.”

The reporter closed by paraphrasing another Krasner assertion that Philadelphia is “decades behind other cities when it comes to forensics, a valuable tool he [Krasner] says could get criminals off the streets at a quicker pace.”

Twice in a newsletter, Krasner repeated his claim that the push for better, newer forensics was a campaign he had labored on for some time.

“In order to turn the tide on the wave of gun violence communities across the country are experiencing, we must stop doing things that have never worked and start innovating, including by relying on forensic science and technology to solve more cases,” he wrote in his November email newsletter, under the subject line “Justice Journal.”

“I will continue to call on city government and our partners in law enforcement to invest the tens of millions of dollars needed for modern technologies that could revolutionize our ability to solve more cases and get more shooters off the streets faster,” he wrote in January.

And in a press conference on January 11th, Krasner told members of the media that “we don’t have the forensics in the city of Philadelphia…it’s part of a bigger topic. You’ve heard me speak of it many times.”

Yet for all those claims, the Philadelphia D.A.’s office cannot produce a single email over a year-long period that shows Krasner advocating for forensic technologies with elected officials who could make such a request happen in reality.

A request for comment to the district attorney’s office to explain where Krasner has explained or described the city’s forensic needs was not returned.

Similarly, Broad + Liberty asked Mayor Kenney’s office if it could voluntarily produce any communications of the kind sought in the original open records request filed with Krasner’s office. The mayor’s office referred us to the district attorney’s office.

This week, Krasner once again reiterated his public calls for forensics technology, this time in the form of a multi-million dollar forensics lab. It remains to be seen whether his office will actually contact elected officials to make such a lab happen in Philadelphia.

This article first appeared in Broad and Liberty.

The death penalty for cop killers. Keep more accused violent felons in jail while they await trial. Let the governor  pick the Philly D.A.

These are some of the ideas to fight crime in Philadelphia GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McSwain pitched at a Tuesday press conference.

“I know that the law-abiding citizens of this neighborhood and throughout Philadelphia feel helpless right now,” McSwain said. “We go to work, raise our families, follow the law, and pay our taxes – only to see our streets get more dangerous, our businesses get robbed, our communities get vandalized, and our families living in fear from the criminals, drug dealers, and gangs who think they run these streets.

“I have a message for them. We run these streets. The good people, the law-abiding people, of Pennsylvania. And we are going to take them back.”

If elected, McSwain also promised to increase funding for local law enforcement and to “hunt down violent criminals by any means necessary, including the use of the State Police and the National Guard.”

He would create financial incentives to recruit new law enforcement officers and ensure financial security for current law enforcement families by giving them more pay and a secure retirement.

“The governor should have the responsibility to appoint the chief law enforcement officer of the largest – and now, the deadliest – city in our Commonwealth. That is how we will rid the city of (DA) Larry Krasner.”

Krasner’s spokesperson did not respond to a request to comment.

McSwain promised to  “stop rioting, looting, sanctuary cities, heroin injection sites, as well as Joe Biden’s ridiculous plan for crack pipe giveaways.”

During the George Floyd riots in Philadelphia in the summer of 2020, when he was the U.S. Attorney, McSwain enforced the law.

“If you start a riot, if you torch a police car, if you push an old lady to the ground, if you loot a business or burn down a building or blow up a coffee shop or an ATM, guess what? You’re going to jail.”

He detailed the case of Lore-Elisabeth Blumenthal, 34, “who proudly threw a Molotov cocktail into a police car in broad daylight right in front of City Hall and people on the far left, people who sure do not want me to be governor, they said this lady was an asset to her community. There were people actually lobbying our office lobbying me lobbying the judge to take it easy on this woman. They didn’t want her to be punished. They called her ‘a dedicated community activist.’ Well, not on my watch.”

Blumenthal, 34, awaits trial.

“Now Larry Krasner and (Attorney General) Josh Shapiro, they wouldn’t have done that,” said McSwain. “They would have given her a medal. As governor, I will demand on a daily basis, that the mayor, the district attorney, the attorney general…do their jobs. And when they don’t I will force them to by using all the power of the governor’s office.”

Ann Marie Muldoon

McSwain spoke at a press conference at Avenue Chiropractic in the Mayfair section of Philadelphia, where owner Ann Marie Muldoon said the neighborhood has changed for the worse since Krasner took office.

As a healthcare professional who knew “throughout this pandemic I could keep my patients safe inside but I could not keep them safe outside,” Muldoon said. “I can disinfect what’s in there but we need somebody to disinfect what’s out here.”

When she was growing up the neighborhood was like “Mayberry” and she is amazed there was a recent carjacking. Now her friends and her mother request that she text them when she gets home every night.

“Every day my patients are packing up and moving to the outskirts of Philadelphia,” said Muldoon. “I’m just going to tell you, it’s not going to stop there. How long can we keep running? If you think it’s not going to reach there in a few years, you’re wrong…Once they evacuate Philadelphia, they will move to the suburbs. There are better cars there.  There are better goods there.”

“Today I stand in front of you as a broken-hearted Philly girl,” she said. “Everybody has one ultimate goal at the end of the day. And that’s to get home to their family safely.”

Patty-Pat Kazlowski came to the press conference to thank McSwain for stopping a drug injection site from coming to her Port Richmond neighborhood.

Former Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega, Krasner’s opponent in the 2021 primary, also attended the press conference. Asked afterward if he supported McSwain, Vega said that he was just gathering information and is not sure yet who he will support for governor.

The Delaware Valley Journal asked McSwain whether his proposal would take away the judges’ priority to set bail or decide to hold someone without bail.

“We’re seeing the same people commit the same crimes over and over again. The way you stop that is, the first time they’re arrested they stay in prison until they’re tried and they’re convicted and they’re sentenced,” McSwain said, adding: “What I’m saying is we could have bail reform, a legislative reform that would require pretrial detention. You would take that discretion away from judges.”

Another reporter asked about allowing voters in the rest of the state to impose their will on Philadelphia residents by voting for a constitutional amendment to allow the governor to appoint the Philadelphia DA.

“I think the vast majority of Philadelphians are very upset at the public safety crisis they’re going through right now,” said McSwain, noting that Krasner was elected “by a very small slice of the electorate. About 15 percent of the city approved of Krasner, 85 percent don’t approve.”

Asked about legislation to give the attorney general concurrent jurisdiction in Philadelphia, McSwain said that Shapiro had ignored it when it was previously the law.

“I have no reason to believe he is going to do anything with it now,” said McSwain. “That is him choosing his own political career over protecting the law-abiding citizens of Philadelphia because he doesn’t want to get cross-wise with the radical left of his party.”

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Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, a Republican candidate for governor, continued to make the case that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner should be impeached, taking his quest into Krasner’s backyard with a Philadelphia press conference with the police.

Corman was joined by Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5 President John McNesby, Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Roosevelt Poplar, and Pennsylvania State Troopers Association President David Kennedy.

Philadelphia set an all-time record for homicides last year with more than 550 people killed in the city. It is on pace to surpass that in 2022, said Corman in a press release. Although police made the highest number of arrests last year for violent gun crimes since 2015, more violent gun cases were dismissed every year Larry Krasner has been in office. Since 2015, just 21 percent of shootings in the city have led to criminal charges. In January 2022 alone, there were 100 carjackings in the city.

“Philadelphians are experiencing an unprecedented crisis of violence. It was surprising to hear District Attorney Krasner finally admit as much last week,” Corman said. “Krasner sits in his corner office working on his book or planning his next reality show. He’s never taken responsibility for the failure of his social policies that have led directly to the deaths of hundreds of Philadelphians and devastated their families. That’s why it’s time to impeach Larry Krasner.

“I want to thank law enforcement leaders for joining me in this important effort,” Corman added. “Our police have been working tirelessly to protect their fellow citizens. We have laws on the books to put the bad guys away. It’s clear Larry Krasner won’t use them, so it’s time to remove him so we can get back to making Philadelphia a safe city again.”

Corman, of Bellefonte, is one of a crowded field of Republican hopefuls trying to gain the GOP primary voters’ nod.

Krasner’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday. However, previously, a spokesman called Corman’s call for impeachment and removal of the district attorney “a stunt.”

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When the news broke last week that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring from the Supreme Court, I reminded my radio listeners that the progressive group Demand Justice had Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on their shortlist of people they would like to see on the Supreme Court.

For the record, I wholly support the nomination of Krasner because he would be rejected, and the spectacle of his testimony would help to get him impeached from his current office and further shine a light on all the current George Soros-supported district attorneys that are enabling an out-of-control crime surge.

The impeachment of Krasner has been a centerpiece of my thinking since Pennsylvania Senate President Jake Corman broke the news on my show that he wrote an open letter to the Republican leaders in the state House of Representatives calling upon them to start the impeachment process against Krasner for his refusal to enforce the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

That announcement has triggered tremendous support from my listeners, but a number of tense interviews with Republican elected officials who are dreaming up all kinds of reasons why they won’t proceed with holding Krasner accountable. People like State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who is also a candidate for governor. He went on Newsmax to say it would be wrong to try to impeach Krasner because Krasner recently won re-election with 70 percent of the vote in Philadelphia.

Well, Alvin Bragg, the recently-elected district attorney of Manhattan who won 83 percent of the vote, was confronted in a public meeting by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. Word was leaked from the meeting that Hochul would remove Bragg from office if he continued his promise to not prosecute or fully prosecute violent crimes. Therefore, since we have no impeachment process in Philadelphia, we need state officials to hold Krasner accountable.

Republicans have also told me they have given Attorney General Josh Shapiro concurrent power to Krasner to prosecute crimes that Krasner will not prosecute. I believe that is an attempt to damage Shapiro’s run for governor. They have to know Shapiro has not challenged Krasner yet and will continue to dodge using this power.

Republican leaders have also told me Corman and the state Senate already have the power to remove Krasner from office, and they don’t want any proceedings to start in the House of Representatives. I think they are wrong. In order for any impeachment proceedings to not be perceived as wholly political, it is important that Krasner be given every chance to defend himself by receiving full hearings in the House, followed by an impeachment vote in the House, followed by a trial in the Senate.

The last argument I’ve heard by elected officials on my show is that no Democrat in the Senate would vote to impeach, giving the body the necessary two-thirds of votes needed to remove Krasner from office. First, Corman told me last week he had been approached by two Philadelphia Democrat House members who said if articles of impeachment are presented, they would vote to impeach Krasner. Corman also noted several relatively moderate Democrat senators would be under pressure from their constituents to vote to remove Krasner if he testified and his record was fully publicized across the state.

I’m convinced that within the next few weeks, articles of impeachment against Krasner will be offered in the House of Representatives. When that happens, it will be time to force Krasner to explain how his non-enforcement of the law and the resulting carnage in Philadelphia is not impeachable.

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I used to believe in Larry Krasner. But after two and one-half years working for him, I left the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office disillusioned with his cavalier attitude toward prosecuting violent crime. Larry threw out the book on prosecution, but never bothered to read it. Now we are seeing the results of his go-it-alone strategy, which has led to a series of self-created crises impacting Philadelphians every day.

Seventy-five percent of all line prosecutors have departed on Larry’s watch—including over 30 percent of lawyers he hand-selected. These mass departures have hurt case outcomes because it takes time to understand the evidence and to build a working relationship with those involved—victims, witnesses, police, and defense attorneys.

Indeed, the data prove those departures have inhibited the office’s ability to effectively prosecute crime in the midst of record-breaking murders, shootings, and gun-related violence. In 2021, the office charged 6,491 “violent offenses.” Over 70 percent of those cases were dropped. One out of every four gun-involved murders was withdrawn, 40 percent of non-fatal shootings were dismissed, over 50 percent of attempted murders were tossed, and 60 percent of robberies with a deadly weapon were discharged. Thousands of victims went to the DA’s office seeking justice. Few received it.

Mass incarceration has given way to mass abdication.

To be clear: This is not a condemnation of a modern model of prosecution or the diligent line attorneys who remain. These holdouts struggle because Larry’s mission appears to embrace zero accountability—unless the accused is a police officer. In every instance where a cop is arrested, the case is referred to a dedicated, specialized unit, generally with a press release to match. If you happen to be the victim of crime and the accused is not a cop, however, no such luck.

These results are unsurprising. Once elected, Larry spent countless weeks on a nationwide tour disparaging law enforcement and the many dedicated prosecutors (including myself) who worked at the office before he graced us with his presence. He promised us safer streets because he was going to remake the “grade-B office” into an A+ team.

To do so, Larry openly admitted he was shunning local law schools and sought outsiders to join his own version of the “Serial” Podcast. In reality, his hires—many of whom I worked alongside—were stunned to learn they would be going to court five days a week and meeting with countless victims severely affected by violent crime. Being a prosecutor is difficult enough if you know the job; it is impossible if the sitting District Attorney sold you a false bill of goods.

Now, as reported by The Inquirer and The Legal Intelligencer, the office is suffering from a mass exodus. Line prosecutors are leaving in record numbers because our repeated requests to the administration—for more support staff, better technology, comprehensive training, and a focus on victim and witness outreach—go unanswered. And Larry’s recent moves inspire little confidence that things will change.

Specifically, he promoted a new chief of staff; unsurprisingly, it is someone who has never tried a case on behalf of the commonwealth. The new lateral hiring committee is composed entirely of people who have never prosecuted a case at the trial level. To this day he ignores the basic needs of prosecutors willing to try serious, violent cases. We are all now reaping what Larry has sowed.

In 2017, before Larry took office, there were 315 homicides, and 1,270 people shot in Philadelphia. Of those, 115 were children, 16 of whom died. Each and every year under Larry’s leadership those numbers have ballooned. People have gotten the message: The District Attorney has chosen to absent himself from the process.

Last year, 1,846 Philadelphians felt the burn of a bullet tearing through their flesh, and 562 people lost their lives on Larry’s watch. That included 231 children, 31 of whom died. Those numbers likely undercount the total, but it also omits the scores of mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends, relatives, and neighbors forced to pray at the side of a hospital bed or, worse still, visit at a cold granite memorial where their child, brother, sister, friend, or classmate used to be.

I suspect Larry’s response will be the same as before. First, he will say there’s no crime problem. Then he’ll claim his statements were taken out of context. Or if violent crime is a problem, it’s someone else’s fault, like the legislature or the NRA. When all else fails, he’ll throw up his hands and say it is part of a national trend.

All is not lost, however. Larry can acknowledge these legitimate concerns and strive toward a solution. He must because thousands of lives—and the quality of life for over a million and a half Philadelphians—hang in the balance.

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It’s been a great first year writing a column for this new and much needed media outlet. Most of my columns have been about alerting readers to any number of negative things happening across the Delaware Valley. I thought for the last column of the year, I’d give you some rays of life that I see developing in our area. I’m not talking about the bright sunshine of an 80-degree day on a Wildwood beach but some hopeful bits of sunshine that might brighten up in 2022.

The best example of this is the recent pushback against Larry Krasner for his attempts recently to minimize the violence and chaos that have overrun Philadelphia. On my radio show I was joined by former District Attorney Seth Williams, former Governor Ed Rendell, and former Mayor Michael Nutter. All three were personally offended by Krasner and Nutter was particularly offended by Krasner posturing as the Great White Hope in Black and Brown communities.

Williams made the case that Krasner’s pride and ideology were blocking Philadelphia from implementing the strategies that the City of Chester is using to significantly lower violent crime, particularly homicides. Essentially, law enforcement is targeting those in Chester who are most likely to be carrying illegal guns and commit a murder. They tell these people that they will help them get a job and an education but if they are caught with a gun, they will get the most severe penalty. Krasner will not sign off on a plan like Chester’s. These results in Chester demand that we use them to turn up the heat on Krasner.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is running for governor as a Democrat who wants to use every means to turn around homicide rates in Philadelphia. He is great at posing in this role, but he refuses to call out Krasner. I’m hoping that a strong field of Republican candidates will be able to use this dilemma to defeat Shapiro in what I view is the most important race in America. The reason is that which ever party wins will control the election infrastructure for the big presidential race in 2024.

A big ray of light in 2021 came through the person of Clarice Schillinger who organized thousands of parents into a group Back to School Pa. that fought to stop shutdowns of schools. She then went on to quarterback the winning of 133 school board seats in Pennsylvania in the most recent election cycle. Watch for her as a force in Pennsylvania politics in an even bigger way in 2022.

In New Jersey newly elected state Senator Ed Durr was Gloucester County will be a big force in New Jersey politics. I’ve interviewed him twice and he has a tremendous sense of the hope he represents for people who have suffered under extremely progressive rule in New Jersey. He knows that those progressive elements will do anything to snuff out this hope and he is positioning himself already for his next race in a few years. Of course, he’ll stay grounded by still driving a furniture truck as his day job.

Maybe the most hopeful signal for the next year is that Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has been stopped from continuing his one-man rule of Pennsylvania that unnecessarily shut down schools and businesses. Many school districts across the area have decided to empower parents to make the choice about whether or not to have their kids wear masks while in school.

I am very hopeful that 2022 will be a good year that will see better safety and prosperity for everyone across the Delaware Valley.

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Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said at a Monday press conference that the city is not in a crime crisis and people should not be fearful. The comments, which came days after Philadelphia broke its all-time murder record, have sparked heated condemnation, especially from prominent black Philadelphians.

During a back-and-forth with reporters about the city’s crime level, Krasner said, “There is not a big spike in crime. That is not true. There is also not a big spike in violent crime, either.”

Krasner noted that, according to police statistics, crimes falling into the “violent” category are down 3 percent compared to 2020 even while gun violence is up.

“It is actually striking that gun violence is so high,” Krasner said. “And yet, we don’t see violence as a general category that includes it going so high. We see it remaining at relatively normal levels, actually going down last year in many areas.”

However, after several days of negative press, Krasner sought to walk back his earlier comments and issued a statement Thursday, in part blaming the media for the kerfuffle.

“I know that some inarticulate things I said earlier this week have offended people,” said Krasner. “The message conveyed through media sound bites is not at all what I meant. Complete answers based on data aimed at solutions to gun violence will be edited down to sound bites. It’s my job to make sure even those sound bites are careful. As someone whose strong support is owed in part to the fact that I don’t communicate or make decisions like a career politician, it is my obligation to do better.”

A review of the police data does show rapes are down by 11 percent and assaults are down by 7 percent. FBI data reveals those drops to be the continuation of a years-long downward trend — rape has declined since 2013 and assault has head downward since 2018 after being flat since 2014.

Police data show, on the other hand, that murders are up 13 percent compared to this time last year, and robberies involving guns are up about 24 percent — both continuing notable spikes in recent years. Meanwhile, data from the DA’s office does not show a corresponding increase in prosecutions or convictions in either category.

In fact, the total number of cases in all categories dismissed or withdrawn by the DA’s office has spiked from 50 percent in 2015 to 73 percent this year, meaning nearly three out of four cases handled by Krasner’s office are not fully prosecuted.

This trend is even more pronounced when looking at violent crimes. Dismissed or withdrawn homicide cases have nearly tripled compared to 2015. Dismissed or withdrawn non-fatal shooting cases have sextupled compared to 2015. And dismissed or withdrawn gun robbery case data reveal a downward cliff in prosecution since Krasner took office.

Total gun robbery cases handled by the DA’s office have dropped 50 percent, from the 700s in 2015 to 2018 to a mere 366 this year. Of this total, the number of dismissed or withdrawn gun robbery cases has only dropped 19 percent compared to 2015. Meaning, while fewer cases are handled a higher percentage of those fewer cases end up not fully prosecuted.

Yet, Krasner has stood firm against mounting accusations that the city is letting criminals go free, including by one man who went on a 26-day hunger strike to protest what he sees as a government that has “given up.”

“We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness,” Krasner said.

But some people from the suburbs are reluctant to chance shopping, going out to eat or to the theater in the city nowadays. Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale and Republican candidate for governor, says the violence is keeping people from visiting the city.

“Philadelphia’s culture of violence is certainly deterring people from flowing into the city,” said Gale. “Suburban families and tourists have little interest in becoming a statistic.”

Gail Hardie Ford,  who lives in Upper Providence, told Delaware Valley Journal, “I worked in the city for years. Between violence and draconian Covid mandates, I no longer wish to visit.”

Lynn Brown, a Cheltenham resident, was planning to go shopping at the Christmas Village in Love Park this weekend but after hearing reports about increasing crime she is uncertain.

“I still haven’t made up my mind,” said Brown. “I want to but somebody else at work said something (about the crime). I’m still on the fence.”

“DA Larry Krasner is living in another world if he thinks that after a record 521 homicides this year, people should feel safe in Philadelphia,” said Jabari Jones, president of the West Philadelphia Corridor Collaborative, an association of businesses in West Philadelphia.

“Businesses in high crime neighborhoods typically shut down before nightfall, foregoing thousands of dollars in daily revenue because of crime. It also affects businesses being able to hire, especially those that rely on a younger workforce, because they have trouble convincing parents of young people that it’s safe to work there.”

Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter wrote an editorial for The Philadelphia Inquirer also condemning Krasner’s comments.

“I have to wonder what kind of messed up world of White wokeness Krasner is living in to have so little regard for human lives lost, many of them Black and brown, while he advances his own national profile as a progressive district attorney.”

Krasner noted during the Monday press conference that his office is actively pursuing so-called “straw purchases” of guns to combat the rise of gun violence.

“It’s people who are able to buy guns legally purchasing those guns and then turning around and selling them to those who cannot buy them, to people who have felonies or who otherwise are not permitted,” he said.

This focus on guns seems to be supported by other city and state Democratic leaders.

Gov. Tom Wolf recently vetoed a bill that would have allowed citizens who want to legally carry a gun to do so without seeking government approval first.

“I support many public policy proposals that would help solve this urgent issue [gun violence], including safe storage legislation, extreme risk protection orders, enhanced reporting requirements for lost or stolen guns, and closing gaps in the background check system,” Wolf said in a news release on the veto.

On Nov. 24, the day the city hit 500 murders, Mayor Jim Kenney put much of the blame on the state General Assembly for not allowing the city to pass its own gun control legislation.

“There are people making money selling these guns, making these guns and the legislature, not the people behind me, don’t care,” Kenney said. “They don’t care how many people get killed.”

But Jason Gottesman, press secretary to the Republican state House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, disagrees with that accusation.

“While the Philadelphia Mayor and District Attorney claim the state has not provided the tools necessary to enforce firearm violations and illegal sales in the city, the opposite has been true and Act 58 of 2019 is a perfect example of the work we have done,” Gottesman said in an email announcing an effort by Rep. Martina White (R – Philadelphia) and Craig Williams (R- Delaware/Chester) to reauthorize that act.

Act 58 gave the state Attorney General the authority to prosecute gun law violations, including illegal sales and straw purchases in Philadelphia.

“This move was necessary because it was clear that the District Attorney and Mayor of Philadelphia have no interest in prosecuting gun crimes,” said Gottesman.

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Mr. Krasner’s recent comments and lack of acknowledgment that we have a gun violence crisis are outrageous. We do have a gun violence crisis, and it is one of the root causes of inequity in our city and in our nation. The question is how to fix it. Having a district attorney who does not see or believe what is in front of him is a major part of the problem.

There are many solutions, but they all require working with faith, neighborhood, and union leaders as well as with the police commissioner and the families of victims. As a leader, not recognizing a problem does not make it go away. It just makes the problem worse.

Gun violence is not just about the homicide numbers, but also about all the shooting victims, their families, neighbors, and our city. We want to live in a city where we can say hello to a stranger and look them in the eye without fear of being shot for no reason. We want to live in a city where you can honk your car horn without fear of being murdered at the next traffic stop due to road rage. Enough is enough. Gun violence affects us all.

I have written in the past about the impact of gun violence on emergency care providers and caregivers with suggestions for how to move forward. What I do know from speaking with officers in the Emergency Department is that they feel demoralized and unsupported by our DA. They have a “why bother” attitude that permeates down from a leader who leans more toward anarchy than law and order. We need laws and nonviolence in our society so we all can live life in “…pursuit of Happiness,” but we cannot do that unless we all feel safe.

As I have stated in the past, we can do better policing with less aggressive and invasive tactics, with more funding, more training, (especially in de-escalation) for our police workers, not less. We need social workers integrated into community policing efforts. We need better access to substance use disorder resources; we need housing first options where people with psychiatric and substance use issues can get the help they need. We need to share and allocate mental health resources across counties, not restrict care to a county and make our crisis a “city” problem instead of a state and regional problem. And yes, we need to end our Jim Crow-era drug laws, so we stop incarcerating people with addiction and instead focus our law enforcement efforts on decreasing violent crimes like gun violence, theft, rape, and murder. Using drugs is one thing. Stealing someone else’s property, and/or destroying the quality of life of a neighborhood is a completely different issue. They should not be equated.

We need to invest in our city’s safety and start acting like our children’s future depends on it. We need to ensure that tourists feel safe visiting our great city. We need to ensure that our schools are safe for both our teachers and students. We need to rebuild the relationship between police in Black and Brown communities. All of it starts with not having a DA who is blind and tone-deaf to the very real problems facing our neighborhoods and our city.

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