The forces of the status continue to try to take Larry Krasner down. They have tried to strip him of power, they tried to defeat him electorally only to see him win with more than 60 percent of the vote; now they are going to try to impeach him in Pennsylvania but Krasner continues to fight back.
On Friday, he joined fellow reform DA Parisa Dehghani-Tafti from Arlington County in a campaign event for Pamela Price, who is going to the general election after she finished first with 43 percent of the vote in Alameda County.
Here is part of the text of what he said:
“Pamela Price is a great candidate who needs to get elected and she needs to do it for Oakland, but she needs to do to do it for California because people don’t get this.
“What is going on is that progressive candidates win. When they’re running for DA, they win and they win and they win and they win reelection. And when it’s a normal election cycle and because we are also very, very good at that, much better, frankly, than the Republican party or the Democratic Party, because we are talking about something people actually want, because we are so good at that, the enemies of criminal justice reform, and yes, believe it or not, they’re mostly Republican, have a new strategy.
“They always do. They’re pretty good at their strategy. And the new strategy is recalls. It is term limits. It is what they’re doing to Parisa and what they’re trying to do to me, it is things like impeachment. It is all of this undemocratic stuff you do in between elections because you cannot win elections—more specifically before George Floyd, 10% of all Americans lived in a jurisdiction that had selected a progressive prosecutor like Pamela Price. After George Floyd, 20.1% of all Americans, 75 million people had selected, elected and reelected. In many cases, a progressive prosecutor.
“They couldn’t beat us. They don’t know how to beat us. So they came up with recalls. Why? Because it’s a very, very low turnout situation. It’s a situation where a whole lot of money makes a difference. They came up with this stuff and they’re doing it to me and they’re doing it to Parisa.
“I cannot imagine a more potent national message than you screwed over Chesa Boudin in San Francisco, but you just lost to Pamela Price in Oakland. And you also lost to my friend, Diana Becton in Contra Costa County.
“And you also lost to the most progressive attorney general candidate in California. This narrative is important. The press does not represent all of this stuff fairly. Pamela is more than qualified. She’s more than capable. She is almost a perfect candidate. She tried mightily to get elected four years ago, did her best, did not succeed, which is what usually happens with candidates. But this time, when you want to claim victory in San Francisco, there’s no victory for you, the national trend continues. And we know that because of what happened in Oakland.
“So yes, it is time to get out your wallets. Yes, it is time to get out your Rolodex. I can say that because I’m 61. Yes, it’s time to get out all of your social media friends. Yes. It’s time to get out everything you got and make sure Pamela gets elected.
“She’s looking good, but she looks a lot better after Election Day. It’s time to do that. And that will not only be a wonderful thing for Oakland. It will, it will be a wonderful thing for democracy and the United States and an even more wonderful thing at a time when conservatives have stolen the Supreme Court and, make no mistake, they have lied, they have cheated consistently ever since Bush v. Gore to steal the Supreme Court. And the only answer that we have, the only answer that we have is going to be to save democracy and to move through legislatures for the next couple of decades to get this done.
“There will be no better answer after Dodd, after the elimination of Roe v. Wade than to have progressive prosecutors who are saying, no, I’m not going to prosecute that 10-year-old, who got raped, for seeking an abortion, nor am I going to prosecute the doctor.
“You go and do your thing, mini legislature, that was not elected and that was stolen. You go and do your thing in the Supreme Court because the people know what they want and what they want is Pamela Price and progressive prosecutors. And Parisa Dehghani-Tafti and they got it. And you’re about to get this, which is we’re going to use discretion not to do unjust things to people just because you stole the Supreme Court.
“This is really important. It’s really important. I know you’re talking about restorative justice and that’s being nice to people and I totally support that. I’ve known Sujatha (Baliga) since she was in law school. I’m talking about being mean to people who hate, and we have to also be mean to people who hate in order to do justice.”
