Far-Left District Attorneys Have Unleashed Murder In Cities Like Philadelphia

Even before COVID or BLM riots, crime rates began to rise under leftist district attorneys who refuse to put criminals in jail.

We still debate the reasons that crime fell in the 1990s. Better policing? Longer jail sentences? An aging population? Removal of lead from the atmosphere? They all may have played a role, along with other factors we are probably missing.

That debate is now academic. Crime has been rising for several years now. The new concern is why, and how we can get it to stop. Again, there are many factors, but the rise of leftist prosecutors who are soft on crime must be at the head of the list.

In my hometown of Philadelphia, crime as a general matter has been getting worse for years, and there are statistics to prove it. Philadelphia, like many big American cities, is experiencing more violent crime than at any point in its history.

Murder rates are a good proxy for violent crime generally, not only because it is the most horrific crime, but because it is harder to obscure statistically. Whether the authorities want to report it or not, whether or not the police get called, it is hard to hide the fact that someone was killed. Looking at that statistic gives us a fair impression of the level of violence in the city more generally.

The trend is discouraging, to say the least. In 2021, Philadelphia shattered the previous record in murders, which was 500 in 1990. As of December 31, a total of 559 people have lost their lives this year in the City of Brotherly Love. After some of the safest years in decades, the murder rate has climbed steeply since 2016. This year now has more than double the murders of just five years ago.

Other crimes are up, too. Carjackings were nearly unknown in the city just a few years ago. They exploded in 2020 and are up another 80 percent this year, according to Philly police. Earlier this month a member of Congress, Mary Gay Scanlon, was carjacked in broad daylight in South Philadelphia. People who don’t live in Philadelphia will say that it was always unsafe, but this level of crime, this type of brazen lawlessness, just did not happen until recently.

What’s changed? Why now? Why here? Some national trends play into it. Crime is up everywhere, and local politicians would like to...

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