The Latest
The latest about Larry Krasner's campaign for progressive reform in Philadelphia
BRIAN HICKEY – PHILLY VOICE
For the first time in my 17 years as a Philadelphian, I found myself unsure about my vote in an important municipal election. ... This column’s coming from the perspective of a citizen trying to figure out who’d be the best choice and – in the spirit of a nation now led by a reality-show hack who got his jollies from firing people — it didn’t take very long to eliminate a few from contention.
MICHAEL COARD, ESQ. – THE PHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE
In a previous column about District Attorney candidate Larry Krasner, I quoted the following line from Jay-Z on his What More Can I Say song where he rhymed, “I’m everywhere. You ain’t never there.” He must have been rapping about Krasner compared to all the other candidates.
I guess the members of the editorial board of my beloved Philadelphia Tribune never heard that song before. And I guess they never heard about Krasner’s 30 years of experience always being everywhere as a civil rights lawyer, criminal defense attorney, and community anti-crime activist fighting for Black folks, poor folks, and all victimized and oppressed folks.
THE NATION
Ending mass incarceration begins at home, says Larry Krasner, a longtime civil rights attorney and leading candidate for Philadelphia District Attorney. Harsh sentencing laws passed by Congress and state legislatures set the stage for mass incarceration, and police make arrests on the streets. But it is prosecutors who decide who to charge, what to charge them with, and, in a system that often resolves cases with guilty pleas, what sentences to seek.
“The truth is that the most important thing that a district attorney can do is exercise that 700-pound hammer that is discretion,” says Krasner, who announced his candidacy surrounded by a crowd of activists that included many former clients. “As Nancy Reagan would say, ‘just say no.’”
He’s right.
MOTHER JONES
Civil rights attorney Larry Krasner has spent his career standing up to cops. A former public defender who's no stranger to pro bono work, he's defended Black Lives Matter protesters, ACT UP alums, the Arch Street United Methodist Church pastors, Grannies for Peace, and Occupy Philly activists.
So he hardly seems like someone who'd want to assume the mantle of one of America's top prosecutor jobs—for one thing, Krasner has no formal political experience. But as he watched the usual suspects throwing their hats in the ring for Philadelphia's 2017 district attorney's race, the 56-year-old felt like it was time to try and change things from within.
WHYY NEWSWORKS
Civil rights attorney Larry Krasner has picked up two more endorsements in his campaign to replace the indicted Seth Williams as Philadelphia's next district attorney. Add that to the $1.4 million independent advertising and field campaign showered on him by billionaire George Soros — and Krasner is looking more like the one to beat in Tuesday's Democratic primary.
Krasner got the backing of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity and state Sen. Vincent Hughes of West Philadelphia Thursday.
Those two endorsements, following the support he's received from influential Northwest Philadelphia Democrats two weeks ago, make it easy to overlook the nod he got Wednesday from a construction union, the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters.
Hughes said he looked the seven candidate field over and made his pick.
"It's not a knock on anyone else," Hughes said. "Thirty years of fighting for civil rights cannot be ignored. You can't just kick that to the curb."
THE HUFFINGTON POST
I met Larry Krasner in the early 1990s when I was fighting for the lives of friends and family living with AIDS who were being demonized and left for dead. Without hesitation, Larry stood by me and fellow members of ACT UP Philadelphia, representing us at no cost when we were arrested for using civil disobedience to save people’s lives.
Larry believed with strong conviction that we had the right to protest and demand action.
The next time I would have the fortune of working with Larry Krasner was in 2000, during the Republican National Convention. At that time, members of ACT UP joined thousands of others to protest mass incarceration, the death penalty and police brutality in the US.
WHYY NEWSWORKS
On May 16, Philadelphians will effectively elect a new district attorney, and the candidates have different positions on an important issue: whether to pursue the death penalty.
Much has been written about the DA candidates’ statements on capital punishment, yet important distinctions have not been consistently highlighted, making it harder to discern shifting rhetoric. At times, coverage has been blatantly wrong, reporting that “All … are opponents of the death penalty.”
Philadelphia is going to have an extremely important election next week. On May 16th, Philadelphia voters will get to elect their next district attorney. ...The district attorney is the most powerful person in the criminal justice system. Philadelphia is lucky to be in a race that is generally progressive, and has been touted as such. However, that does not mean that there are no differences between the candidates on important issues such as the death penalty or stop-and-frisk.
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Larry Krasner took a deep breath and paused before answering the question. How was he different from the six other progressive-leaning Democrats running for District Attorney?
“There are words and then there are things not made of air,” Krasner told the crowd at the Arch Street Methodist church in response recently. He then took aim at the other candidates, five who have worked in the District Attorney’s office and a sixth who was a judge for 21 years.
“All these other candidates have been a part of the problem,” he said. “They have done nothing to change the problem, but now all the sudden in this race, when the popular view on criminal justice has shifted...they’re the biggest reformers you’ve ever seen.”
