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Philadelphia’s Democratic primary for District Attorney has become bitter due to Mister Softee, a soft-serve ice cream truck company, and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.
Last Friday, The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) parked a Mister Softee truck outside the office of District Attorney Larry Krasner to show he is “soft” on crime. The union passed out free soft-serve ice cream cones and asked people to support Krasner’s opponent and longtime prosecutor Carlos Vega.
The move offended Ben Cohen, a Krasner supporter and one half of the most iconic tag team in frozen desserts, Ben& Jerry’s. Cohen quickly clapped back, blasting the FOP as out of control and calling Mister Softee fake ice cream.
Philadelphia’s gun violence epidemic took center stage during a heated, wide-ranging debate between the two Democrats running to become the city’s next district attorney.
More than 6,200 Republicans have switched political parties in Philadelphia this year, much larger than usual. An NBC10 analysis of where those voters live gives some credence to the city police union’s claims that those new Democrats did so to vote in the May 18 primary for district attorney.
Urban progressivism is on the ballot in Pennsylvania’s biggest cities, where the May 18 primary will measure Democratic voters’ satisfaction with ideological governance.
Seeking a third term as mayor, Pittsburgh’s Bill Peduto could lose reelection for not going far enough as a self-described progressive – particularly on public-safety issues. In Philadelphia, District Attorney Larry Krasner may lose a second term for going
too far as a progressive prosecutor amid surging violent crime. The primary, which essentially determines November’s victors in both one-party cities, is “really a test of where Democratic voters are right now,” said Christopher Borick, director of Muhlenberg College’s Institute of Public Opinion.
Could this state commission help weed out bad cops? David Gambacorta, William Bender, Liz Navratil, The Philadelphia Inquirer
When Michael Rosfeld, a rookie East Pittsburgh police officer, shot and killed an unarmed teenager named Antwon Rose II in June 2018, some Pennsylvania lawmakers started kicking around the idea of improving training and hiring standards for cops across the state.
Several months before Rosfeld was hired in East Pittsburgh, he’d resigned from a university policing job after being notified that he was going to be fired. That a troubled cop could so easily get another law enforcement job and then take someone’s life seemed to make the case that the state needed to have a better way of regulating its police forces, which number more than 1,000.