Soft-on-crime Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner (D.), who is overseeing a murder wave in the city, said his office will find out whether violent looters who were caught on video are "fundamentally law-abiding people."
"We'll look carefully to see whether this is a one-off situation and they're fundamentally law-abiding people, hold them accountable one way," Krasner told Fox 29 on Saturday, "or whether they are criminals and they are all about taking advantage of some sort of unrest for their own benefit, and they will be prosecuted another way."
Looters late last month hit stores throughout Philadelphia, which "stretched the resources of the Philadelphia Police Department" to the limit, according to Fox 29. The lootings came as Philadelphia faces an unprecedented crime spike under Krasner.
Krasner, who in 2017 received millions of dollars from left-wing megadonor George Soros, campaigned as a progressive prosecutor who would overhaul Philadelphia's criminal justice system. During the 2020 George Floyd riots, he called for "policing" to be "defunded in favor of things that work better." Since then, murders throughout the city have skyrocketed to their highest numbers in decades, with more than 500 Philadelphians killed last year, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The Pennsylvania legislature in 2022 moved to impeach Krasner, saying he "failed to prosecute violent offenders, withheld relevant facts in cases, and violated victims' rights," the Free Beacon reported. The move failed after a Democratic judge intervened to halt proceedings.
While Krasner this week said he would "very, very vigorously" prosecute a motorcyclist whom cameras caught stomping in the back window of a car, he has not abandoned his "criminal justice reform" priorities.
"We're going to prosecute people in an even-handed way," Krasner said on Saturday. "We are not going to let any judge who thinks there is a caste system, and some people get better treatment than others. We are not going to let any judge disturb the peace of this city."