Murder rates skyrocketed in cities with Soros-funded DAs

FPI / February 23, 2021

Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and St. Louis all had either record homicide rates or huge increases in murders in 2020.

Along with skyrocketing rates of violent crimes, those cities share something else in common — their progressive district attorneys were all elected with the help of millions of dollars in contributions from leftist billionaire George Soros.

In Philadelphia, where District Attorney Larry Krasner has refused to prosecute certain crimes, 499 homicides were recorded last year, a 40 percent increase from 2019.

"It made 2020 the most violent year for the city in the past 30 years," James Varney noted in a report for The Washington Times earlier this month.

In a 2017 campaign video, Krasner said “policing and prosecution are both systematically racist,” and he called poverty and crime consequences of “mass incarceration.”

Soros dumped $1.7 million into Krasner's campaign. At his primary election night victory party, Krasner smiled while his supporters chanted, “No good cops in a racist system!” and “f— the FOP!” (Fraternal Order of Police). Within days of taking office, Krasner fired 31 veteran prosecutors and sent memos ordering his staff to decline various drug and prostitution charges.

Current and former police in Philadelphia have formed the Protect Our Police PAC, which launched a “FireKrasner.com” webpage last month.

“District Attorney Larry Krasner has been a deadly disaster for Philadelphia,” the website declares. “His prosecutorial philosophy and radical policies have directly caused murder, violence and mayhem on the streets of Philadelphia, and many innocent victims have paid the ultimate price since he took office in 2018.”

In Chicago, 774 people were murdered in 2020, a 50 percent increase from 2019.

Chicago routinely tops the annual crime statistics for the number of homicides committed within its boundaries.

"But rather than implementing policies to combat violent crime there, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is contributing to it by enacting her 'progressive; agenda that, truthfully, can be more aptly described as lawlessness," The Heritage Foundation noted in a Nov. 3, 2020 analysis.

In 2016, Foxx became the first Soros-backed rogue DA candidate to win. The Washington Post said that, at that time, Soros had “plunked $300,000 into a [political action committee] created to elect Kim Foxx.”

Up for re-election in 2020, Foxx was again the beneficiary of Soros’s largesse, as he pumped at least $2 million into the Illinois Justice & Safety PAC to help her get re-elected.

In Los Angeles, 349 murders were reported in 2020, 100 more than in 2019.

South Los Angeles had 59 shooting victims in the first two weeks of 2021, compared to seven the previous year, according to LA Police Chief Michel Moore.

George Gascon was elected thanks in large part to the $2 million in funds from Soros.

Assistant district attorneys have accused Gascon of handcuffing them in court.

A lawsuit filed in state court on Dec. 30 says Gascon prohibited deputy district attorneys from following state law regarding as many as seven sentence enhancements such as the “three strikes law” that adds more prison time for repeat offenders.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson noted that Gascon "has promised to stop seeking enhancements in every case that comes before his office. In a functioning society, prosecutors are allowed, if they wish, to seek longer prison terms for criminals who, for example, inflict great bodily harm on their victims or carry out gang assassinations in public."

Carlson continued: "Gascon is getting rid of those additional penalties, along with cash bail and the death penalty. Why is he doing this? Because George Gascon, like the billionaires who made his current job possible, is far enough removed from the consequences of crime that he can identify with the criminals rather than with their many victims."

In St. Louis, a record 262 homicides were reported last year. That’s a homicide rate of 87 per 100,000 residents.

Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner was re-elected in November after receiving $116,000 from a Soros-backed PAC.

In September, the Missouri Senate passed legislation giving the Missouri attorney general the power to intervene in city murder cases if more than 90 days have passed since the crime or if the chief law enforcement officer sends the AG a request.

The measure, which creates a "concurrent jurisdiction" between the Missouri attorney general and St. Louis circuit attorney, was first raised as a request by Gov. Mike Parson, who in August urged the legislature to address Gardner's "disturbing trend of not going after murderers, which deprives victims of justice."

Free Press International