Twenty-two-year-old Philadelphia college student William J. Schmidt should still be alive today. The Penn State University senior was brutally murdered on Saturday night when two black men approached him to steal his cellphone. Video from a house security camera in South Philadelphia showed Schmidt approach the thieves, asking for his phone back. Seconds later, off camera, a gunshot could be heard. Schmidt was discovered by police lying in the street a few minutes later and was pronounced dead after being transported to a local hospital.
Given this tragedy that has made national news headlines, one would expect Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to make public comments about it. Yet, that has not been the case. Krasner, who has frequently commented on violence in other cities, has spent more time this week disparaging Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) politics than commenting about a murder victim in his own city. Krasner, who has never seen a camera he hasn’t liked when it comes to threatening and demonizing ICE officers, vilifying Republicans, or calling President Donald Trump and his supporters “fascists,” has been rather quiet about Schmidt’s murder.
And when he did speak, he made rather smug comments about the shooting, offering little sympathy, arrogantly telling reporters when discussing the case that “Crime is going to continue in human existence.”
“The real question is, how do you manage it?” Krasner said. “Are you managing crime, reducing it? Reducing victimizations?”
That’s pathetic talk from a cowardly aristocrat who hides behind performative press conferences, shaking fists, threatening law enforcement officers, but meekly remarking about a murder victim, without any strong assertions of bringing the alleged assailants to justice. Krasner threatened to arrest ICE officers, scolded Homeland Security officials, and criticized and sued Elon Musk. He said nothing in a similar vein, with the same kind of vigor, about the two suspects currently roaming freely in Philadelphia who allegedly murdered Schmidt.
In addition to the arrogance of his remarks, Krasner’s tepid response struck a markedly different, less confident, less assertive, and less aggressive tone than his earlier declarations and threats this year, when he warned that he would arrest federal law enforcement officers enforcing federal immigration laws. For example, contrast his remarks about ICE and illegal immigration enforcement from the winter to his comments this week about someone who was actually the victim of a crime and murdered in Philadelphia.
“This is a small bunch of wannabe Nazis, that’s what they are, in a country of 350 million,” Krasner said about ICE officers. “We outnumber them, and as long as we stick to our values, protect our rights, make it very clear that homicide is not OK just because you are a federal law officer, if we do that, this will end differently.”
“There will be accountability now, there will be accountability in the future, there will be accountability after Trump is out of office,” Krasner said. “If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities, we will find you, we will achieve justice, and we will do so under the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”
For Krasner, when it comes to bringing murderers to justice, he’s an arrogant dove, offering philosophical narratives about crime in human civilization. He offers no solace, no mention of accountability, and no bold declarations about bringing criminals to justice. Yet, when it comes to ICE officers, people who protect the innocent from violent criminals, Krasner showed more resolve, aggression, and determination to target them than the violent murderers who killed Schmidt.
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This is your modern Democratic Party. This is your contemporary left-wing radical politician. Leftists such as Krasner exhibit gutless nonchalance when it comes to protecting the population from violent criminals who wreak havoc on communities and harm innocent people, yet become the boldest warriors of law and order when it comes to “hunting” federal law officers. It’s indicative of why there are so many criminal issues running rampant in this country. It’s reflective of the corrosive brainwashing prevalent in today’s Democrats and the voters who elect them to office.
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Schmidt’s death is an unquestionable tragedy. All victims who are senselessly murdered throughout the country are. Frequently, it’s politicians and left-wing radicals such as Krasner who create the conditions through criminal justice policies that allow violent criminals to flourish. Perhaps if Krasner were more concerned with the actual violent threats, if he exhibited the same vigor, aggression, and assertiveness against the violent criminal class in his city instead of launching rogue, unhinged, performative radical illegal immigration ideological crusades against ICE officers, Schmidt would be alive today.
Krasner represents everything wrong with Democratic politicians in power in the country today. They are dangerous. Their policies lead to conditions for violence to flourish and innocent people to suffer. Their desire to protect the criminal class and show mercy to evil doers represents a cruel threat and endangerment to the innocent.