eye on the news
Death and De-Prosecution in Philadelphia The city’s district attorney won’t fight crime even as the body count rises.
Public safety
Politics and law
In 2017, Philadelphians elected “progressive prosecutor” Larry Krasner as district attorney. Since taking office, Krasner has pursued a policy of de-prosecution the decision not to prosecute certain crimes regardless of whether they actually took place as homicides have spiked. While Philadelphia experienced de-prosecution and rising homicides leading up to Krasner’s election, both trends have accelerated dramatically under his leadership. That he now faces a serious primary challenge in his quest for reelection should come as no surprise.
LaTonya Myers (Credit: Yoni Brook)
LaTonya “T.” Myers, Activist and Bail Navigator, Defender Association
Formerly incarcerated person-turned-activist and the first-ever Bail Navigator for the Defender Association of Philadelphia, a position to help those arrested navigate the bail review system.
Prior to joining the Defender Association, Myers’s life was upended while she sat in jail saddled with a $1,500 bail that she couldn’t afford to pay. She’d been in and out of the system for much of her life, but the issue of unaffordable bail and pretrial incarceration turned her onto activism.
Gave out what she called the Probation Awards, a ceremony recognizing people “doing their best to do good, but living under constant threat of incarceration.”
Bird Song of the Day
#COVID19
At reader request, I’ve added this daily chart from 91-DIVOC. The data is the Johns Hopkins CSSE data. Here is the site.
I feel I’m engaging in a macabre form of tape-watching. All the charts are becoming dull approaching nominal, if you accept the “new normal” of cases, for example.
“Many police officers spurn coronavirus vaccines as departments hold off on mandates” [WaPo]. “Police officers were among the first front-line workers to gain priority access to coronavirus vaccines. But their vaccination rates are lower than or about the same as those of the general public, according to data made available by some of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies. The reluctance of police to get the shots threatens not just their own health, but also the safety of people they’re responsible for guarding, monitoring and patrolling, experts say. At the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, just 39 percent of employees have g
A picture showing the wall of remembrance for fallen police officers being covered up inside the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office conference room has sparked outrage. The Fraternal Order of Police president says it smears the memories and legacies of fallen officers. Philly DA Larry Krasner called the criticism a political attack however and said he was legally required to cover.
WHYY
By
Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
The second-in-command at the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office is leaving the embattled agency a week after PlanPhilly reported that the office issued an illegal six-year contract to online auction company Bid4Assets under his watch.
Office spokesperson Theresa Lundy confirmed that Undersheriff Curtis Douglas, chief legal advisor to Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, has announced his retirement, effective imminently.
Lundy painted the move as the end to a long career in government that included prior stints at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office and the city’s U.S. Attorney.
“Undersheriff Douglass [sic] is currently retiring from decades of public service!” wrote Lundy, in an email. “This is great news.”