Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Philly DA Enjoyed European Excursion as Homicides Spiked
freebeacon ^ | April 26, 2021 | Collin Anderson

Posted on 04/27/2021 10:40:32 AM PDT by MarvinStinson

Dark money group spent thousands to send Larry Krasner to Germany, Portugal amid deadly year

As Philadelphia's top law enforcement officer spent two weeks on a jaunt through Europe financed by a liberal dark money group, the city witnessed 3 murders, 30 rapes, 63 armed robberies, and 120 assaults with a firearm.

Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner traveled to Germany and Portugal in May 2019, a year in which his city experienced a 12-year high in homicides. Liberal dark money group Fair and Just Prosecution footed the bill for Krasner and other attendees to learn from the European countries how to ease up on crime.

In Germany, the country's "open" prison system—in which inmates are allowed to come and go on a daily basis—served as an "innovative" example of a "compassionate" and "equitable" justice system for the United States to replicate. Portugal's decision to decriminalize all drugs, meanwhile, was championed by Fair and Just Prosecution as a life-saving policy American prosecutors could "bring back … to their communities" in an attempt to "reimagine" American policing.

Progressive St. Louis circuit attorney Kim Gardner also attended the trip. She later faced criticism after sources in her office said she was "unreachable" while abroad, leading to a delay in decision-making. Krasner's office did not return a request for comment on how the trip affected the attorney's day-to-day work. Gun-possession conviction rates plummeted to just 49 percent in 2019, down 14 points from 2017, the year before Krasner took office.

The European excursion appears to have influenced Krasner's approach to criminal justice. Just months after returning to the United States, his office instituted a policy to drop all drug-possession charges if the perpetrator participates in a "treatment" program. But Krasner does not require such programs to be court-monitored, and his office does not follow up to ensure that the perpetrator completes the program before dropping charges. Twenty-twenty marked Philadelphia's deadliest year for overdoses on record.

Financial disclosures show that Krasner took at least 15 trips paid for by outside entities from March 2018 to October 2019, keeping him away from his office for a total of 57 days at a cost of nearly $16,000. Hundreds of violent crimes—including three murders—occurred while Krasner traveled through Germany and Portugal from May 6 to May 19, 2019, according to data released by the Philadelphia Police Department.

Fair and Just Prosecution sponsored the travel on at least seven occasions, which saw them cover nearly $9,800 in Krasner's expenses. Prior to Krasner's arrival in Germany, the group praised the European nation for going to "great lengths to come to terms with its troubling past" in the "wake of Nazism and the Holocaust." On the other hand, Fair and Just Prosecution argued that the United States has insufficiently addressed "its own record of human rights violations," including "decades of racially-biased policing and criminal justice decision-making."

Fair and Just Prosecution also urged attendees to "transform our justice system" to better reflect Germany, where the "vast majority of sanctions imposed" are "fines" or "education or disciplinary measures." Comparing crime problems in Germany and the United States, however, is "inapt," Manhattan Institute senior fellow Rafael Mangual told the Washington Free Beacon. He noted that a small handful of neighborhoods in Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, and St. Louis combined to account for 13.6 percent of the homicides seen in all of Germany in 2018 while housing just 0.5 percent of the European nation's population.

"There's a huge difference between our two countries, specifically with respect to the rate of serious violent crime, which is the sort of crime that generally leads to long terms of imprisonment here in the United States," Mangual said. "We're talking about a very, very different type of crime problem on a very, very different scale."

According to Fair and Just Prosecution's website, the group is a "fiscally-sponsored project of The Tides Center," a liberal dark money behemoth that has funneled nearly $170 million in taxpayer funds to left-wing groups. Fair and Just Prosecution, like all of the Tides Center's fiscal entities, does not file independent tax returns or disclose donors.

The trips are not the first time Krasner has benefited from liberal outside money. Billionaire megadonor George Soros poured nearly $1.7 million into a political action committee supporting Krasner in 2017. The progressive prosecutor has also received thousands of dollars from Hollywood celebrity John Legend, who headlined a fundraiser with Krasner just hours after eight people were shot in broad daylight in Philadelphia.

Krasner is facing a contentious reelection battle as local police groups spearhead an effort to oppose his progressive reforms, which they say are driving Philadelphia's ongoing crime spike. Krasner will square off against Democratic challenger Carlos Vega—who is backed by the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police—in the city's May primary.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: krasner

1 posted on 04/27/2021 10:40:32 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: MarvinStinson

Germany? Was it Octoberfest?


2 posted on 04/27/2021 10:43:11 AM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MarvinStinson

Philadelphia district attorney, Soros puppet Larry Krasner.

3 posted on 04/27/2021 10:43:28 AM PDT by MarvinStinson ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MarvinStinson

Financial disclosures show that Krasner took at least 15 trips paid for by outside entities from March 2018 to October 2019, keeping him away from his office for a total of 57 days


4 posted on 04/27/2021 10:44:58 AM PDT by MarvinStinson ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: MarvinStinson
In Germany, the country's "open" prison system—in which inmates are allowed to come and go on a daily basis

Applies only to select cases that are deemed no immediate threat to the public. (Doesn't always work out that way, though...)

5 posted on 04/27/2021 10:46:26 AM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MarvinStinson
Progressive St. Louis circuit attorney Kim Gardner also attended the trip. She later faced criticism after sources in her office said she was "unreachable" while abroad, leading to a delay in decision-making. Krasner's office did not return a request for comment on how the trip affected the attorney's day-to-day work. Gun-possession conviction rates plummeted to just 49 percent in 2019, down 14 points from 2017, the year before Krasner took office.

Isn't Gardner the driving force behind charging the couple who brandished guns in their own yard to defend against a mob that invaded their gated community?

6 posted on 04/27/2021 10:49:40 AM PDT by MortMan (Shouldn't "palindrome" read the same forward and backward?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Moltke

Fair and Just Prosecution sponsored the travel on at least seven occasions, which saw them cover nearly $9,800 in Krasner’s expenses.

Prior to Krasner’s arrival in Germany, the group praised the European nation for going to “great lengths to come to terms with its troubling past” in the “wake of Nazism and the Holocaust.”

On the other hand, Fair and Just Prosecution argued that the United States has insufficiently addressed “its own record of human rights violations,” including “decades of racially-biased policing and criminal justice decision-making.”


7 posted on 04/27/2021 10:49:50 AM PDT by MarvinStinson ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: fatima; Fresh Wind; st.eqed; xsmommy; House Atreides; Nowhere Man; PaulZe; brityank; Physicist; ...

Pennsylvania Ping!

Please ping me with articles of interest.

FReepmail me to be added to the list.

8 posted on 04/27/2021 11:05:25 AM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MarvinStinson

Honestly, it’s OK. Krasner’s not there to prevent homicides he’s there to release the perps after they’ve committed them.


9 posted on 04/27/2021 12:06:47 PM PDT by Renkluaf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MarvinStinson

You would think that he would have gone on an African excursion, not a European excursion.


10 posted on 04/27/2021 12:16:29 PM PDT by euram
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MarvinStinson

All I see in that picture is a three dollar bill.


11 posted on 04/27/2021 1:56:48 PM PDT by simpson96
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: monkeyshine

These people don’t even care how corrupt they look. They have total disdain for the public.


12 posted on 04/27/2021 2:37:10 PM PDT by dljordan (Slouching towards Woketopia)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Renkluaf

Spit-take! I’m sending you the bill for a new monitor!


13 posted on 04/27/2021 2:55:11 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: dljordan

Is it that obvious? Maybe they should tone it down just a little ;-)


14 posted on 04/27/2021 2:55:39 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson