Nearly half of the individuals booked on charges stemming from their alleged participation in Philadelphia’s Tuesday night looting spree were allowed to walk free on zero bail within 24 hours of their arrest, police records show.
Police arrested 52 individuals after at least 100 rioters descended on downtown Philadelphia, looting 28 stores including Apple and Lululemon, WIO News, a local news network, reported. Police allowed 14 of the 30 people charged to walk free because of the city’s zero-bail policy for certain crimes, according to records from the Pennsylvania Judicial System.
“Our administration will continue to work with our public safety partners to increase officer presence and ensure the safety of all our residents and businesses,” Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. “To anyone planning to participate in criminal activity, please know: there will be consequences.”
Mob Looting Philadelphia Stores pic.twitter.com/CV6fuNQtQL
— CT (@jehovahrappha) September 27, 2023
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner eliminated cash bail for certain crimes in 2018 shortly after his initial election, NBC10 Philadelphia reported. Krasner has since advocated to completely remove the city’s bail system and vowed to continue reducing the number of offenses that would receive cash bail when he ran for re-election in 2022, his campaign website shows.
“The cash ball system is rife with injustice and exacerbates socio-economic and racial inequalities, disproportionately penalizing the poor and people of color,” a document published by Krasner’s office in 2018 claimed. “[Reforms] represent a decisive step toward ending the use of cash bail and making the pretrial system more just.”
Although the policy allows for “discretion,” it removed cash bail for offenses including retail theft, trespassing, some types of burglary, “theft by unlawful taking” and resisting arrest. All of the alleged participants in the Tuesday riots who were released on zero bail had received charges for at least one of those five crimes, according to police data.
State legislators attempted to impeach the district attorney, whose 2018 campaign was backed by a PAC that received $1.45 million from George Soros, in 2022 because of the rampant crime in the city that they claimed had resulted from his soft-on-crime approach. Krasner also came under fire after he promoted public pools at a press conference as a way to fight violence even as 10 people were shot the same day he spoke with the media.
Retail theft in Philadelphia has increased 32.78% since September 2022 and total property crime has increased 21.21% over the same time period, data from the city’s police department showed.
Krasner, Kenney and the Philadelphia Police Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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