Larry Krasner Isn't Sweating Attacks From Trump's Goons Following Police Shooting

Not even 24 hours after 34-year-old Maurice Hill allegedly shot six Philadelphia cops, U.S. Attorney William McSwain took a cue from his boss and his boss’s boss and let out a long screed against a local official who’s supposedly to blame. His target was Philly’s reformist district attorney, Larry Krasner.

“There is a new culture of disrespect for law enforcement in this City that is promoted and championed by District Attorney Larry Krasner – and I am fed up with it,” McSwain said up in a statement, citing chants of “Fuck the police” (it was actually “fuck the FOP,” as in the Fraternal Order of Police) at Krasner’s victory party when he won the Democratic nomination for DA back in 2017. “This vile rhetoric puts our police in danger. It disgraces the Office of the District Attorney. And it harms the good people in the City of Philadelphia and rewards the wicked.”

In a statement, Krasner told Splinter via a spokesperson that McSwain was using the incident for his own political gain.

“The U.S Attorney is not a political elected office,” Krasner said. “I’m surprised that William McSwain would seek to detract from the great collaborative work of law enforcement last night — for which bipartisan leaders in City Hall just minutes ago had nothing but praise, and rightly so — for his own political agenda and personal gain.”

“I will not be part of a distraction from the serious work before law enforcement in Philadelphia, which is to fully investigate this assault on our police officers and neighbors, and to bring the perpetrators—and any co-perpetrators—to justice,” Krasner added.

Krasner has often been at odds with the cops due to his desire to throw fewer people in jail and hold police accountable, but in this incident, it’s been hard to find areas of disagreement. Krasner, along with Philadelphia police chief Richard Ross, reportedly spoke to Hill personally via phone during the incident in an attempt to get him to stand down. When Hill ultimately did surrender, Krasner credited “brilliant policing” with the result, and told CNN that “this man should not have been on the streets.”

Leave it to the Trump administration, though, to never let a good crisis go to waste.