By Tommy Nguyen
PITTSBURGH, PA – Instead of making progress in preventing violent crime in major cities, Pennsylvania’s GOP-controlled House continues its distraction to unseat Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, “a local official who was re-elected in a landslide last year,” the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette charged in an editorial this week.
Krasner, a progressive prosecutor, has been “impeached” by the Republicans and faces a possible trial and removal in early 2023.
“The unlawful impeachment drive against twice-elected Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has distracted the state from a real debate on preventing violent crime — a debate Philadelphia and Pittsburgh sorely need,” said the newspaper, adding Republicans should be “enacting sensible, commonsense regulations to stem the flood of guns.
“Instead, they are continuing a senseless and partisan effort to unseat a local official who was re-elected in a landslide last year. Articles of impeachment blame Mr. Krasner’s reform measures for a two-year spike in gun violence,” the editorial reported.
But, the editorial noted, “No evidence…links Mr. Krasner’s policies with an increase in homicides that is affecting major cities nationwide. This isn’t about crime and public safety. It’s about disenfranchising local voters and a misguided and simplistic effort to link the Democratic Party with violent crime.
“Mr. Krasner, who ran openly as a progressive prosecutor, has, among other things, reformed the cash bail system and run an aggressive Conviction Integrity Unit. Impeaching Mr. Krasner on policy grounds would set a horrible precedent…(if) the people of Philadelphia don’t like Mr. Krasner’s policies, they can vote him out,” according to the publication.
The editorial added, “Mr. Krasner correctly argued that Republican legislators have no legal grounds to oust an elected official who hasn’t been accused of an impeachable offense, meaning misconduct or corruption.”
The editorial maintained, “Only twice in the last 200 years has the House impeached an elected official — a State Supreme Court Justice in 1994 for improper influence by a political supporter, and a county judge in 1811 for imprisoning people for wearing hats in court.”
It’s “also legally questionable whether impeachment articles are binding on the newly elected General Assembly. Either way, the State Senate should wait until the courts determine whether the impeachment process itself was legal before proceeding with an ill-advised trial,” the editorial board wrote.
The piece noted that the “unabashed and unprecedented attack by the General Assembly on the right of local communities to govern themselves is not helping any community lower violent crime,” and, quoting an DA Office source, stated the impeachment is “sucking time and resources from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office,” calling the Krasner attack “politically motivated…not about crime.”
The editorial urged, “Members of the General Assembly who really want to reduce violent crime should drop this senseless and dangerous dog-and-pony show and figure out how they can help local communities, stop opposing reasonable regulations on guns and support adequate funding for public schools.”
