House Republicans blast Larry Krasner’s ‘soft-on-crime’ approach

House Republicans excoriated Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner at a hearing in Philadelphia on Friday, saying his “soft-on-crime” approach has emboldened criminals and turned the city into one of “lawlessness.”

Those comments, at a field hearing of a House Judiciary subcommittee, marked the latest GOP attack against the Democratic district attorney.

The hourslong hearing at the William J. Green Jr. Federal building was convened to highlight what congressional Republicans decried as crime resulting from Krasner’s progressive policies that focus on reform instead of prosecuting criminals.

Family members of victims of gun violence, including the parents of slain Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald and the widow of slain Philadelphia Police Cpl. James O’Connor IV, were invited to speak and were critical of the DA’s policies as well. The judiciary committee also invited a former Philadelphia police officer, a leader of the state GOP effort to impeach Krasner, and local gun control and health experts to testify.

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said Krasner had presided over historic levels of homicide in the city — including its peak in 2021 — and said the DA’s policies had contributed to that. He also noted a rise in carjackings and retail theft.

“Manhattan, Chicago, Washington, and Philadelphia have violent crime problems,” said Jordan. “But this is not the only thing they have in common. They all have soft-on-crime prosecutors who favor the criminals over the victims and their families. Since the current district attorney for Philadelphia, Larry Krasner, began his tenure in 2018, violent crime, particularly homicides, have increased.”

“Simply put, District Attorney Larry Krasner is failing to prosecute criminals,” he added.

Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Mary Gay Scanlon called the hearing a “cynical political circus” and “political theater” and criticized their Republican colleagues for not enacting stricter gun control laws that they said would help with the gun violence crisis in Philadelphia and cities across the country.

Families of victims of homicides lambasted Krasner at the hearing. O’Connor’s wife, Terri, said her husband, who was killed while serving a warrant for a man wanted in a 2019 homicide, might still be alive if Krasner had been tougher on the alleged shooter, who was also a suspect in that homicide.

“He was supposed to come home to me in the morning,” Terri O’Connor said of her husband. “He did his job and if you did your job and kept criminals behind bars where they’re supposed to be, maybe he’d still be here.”

Fitzgerald’s father, Joel Fitzgerald Sr., said Krasner’s unwillingness to prosecute criminals more harshly allowed for many to be released prematurely and reoffend.

“He is part of the problem,” he said of the DA. “He opens the door. He creates the recidivist opportunities to attack Philadelphians.”

Krasner, for his part, has defended his tenure as the city’s top prosecutor, citing an overall decrease in violent crime in recent years.

There were 89 homicides as of Friday, down 35% from the same day last year, when there were 137, according to police data. In 2023, there were 410 homicides, a drastic decrease from 2022′s 514 recorded homicides and 2021′s historic high of 562.

Krasner, who was not invited to the subcommittee hearing, held a news conference in advance of the gathering and invited city and state officials, along with families of crime victims to praise his tenure and criticize congressional Republicans for using crime in Philadelphia as a “political football.”

On Friday, Krasner denounced the hearing as a farce, full of “misinformation”

“What we are witnessing here is essentially a war on the truth,” he said at a Friday afternoon news conference. “For those of you who saw it, did you hear data? If you did, was it a lot? Or was it just a little? And was it even accurate?”

The Friday event was the latest in a series of hearings in cities led by Democratic officials whose policies congressional Republicans have blamed for those cities’ high crime rates.