Wonderful news. Hope Kim Foxx is next.
The Pennsylvania House impeached Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, as Republican legislators push to remove the twice-elected prosecutor whose progressive policies they blame for fueling record levels of violent crime in the city.

The Republican-led House impeached Mr. Krasner, a Democrat, Wednesday by a vote of 107 to 85. The next step will be a trial in the GOP-led state Senate. Conviction and removal from office would require a two-thirds majority. It is unclear when a trial might be held.



Mr. Krasner says House Republicans mischaracterized his record. When GOP members introduced two articles of impeachment last month, he called the move devastating to democracy, adding that “it shows how far toward fascism the Republican party is creeping.” Lawmakers on the House floor Wednesday added five more articles of impeachment.

First elected in 2017, Mr. Krasner is one of several progressive prosecutors who have taken office around the U.S. in recent years. They have pursued goals such as diverting nonviolent drug offenders to treatment instead of jail, sparing juveniles from being tried as adults and devoting resources to scrutinizing old cases in search of wrongful prosecutions and imprisonments. Mr. Krasner overwhelmingly won a second four-year term last year.

Philadelphia, like many major cities, has struggled with a surge of violent crime since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Homicides in Philadelphia hit a record 562 last year, after rising for years, from 277 in 2016. So far this year, the city has recorded 459 homicides, 5% fewer than at this point last year, police department statistics show.

The two original impeachment articles from last month don’t allege any violations of law, but rather misbehavior in office, a phrase given in the state’s Constitution as grounds for impeachment. One article claims Mr. Krasner’s policies have substantially contributed to the increase in crime in Philadelphia, and undermined public confidence in the criminal justice system.

Another article says he obstructed efforts of a special GOP-led House committee formed in June to investigate Philadelphia crime. The House later voted to hold Mr. Krasner in contempt for not complying with a committee subpoena. A lawyer for Mr. Krasner’s office labeled the subpoena unlawful, saying it sought secret grand-jury records, violated the separation of powers and interfered with local democratic rule.

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted 14-8 along party lines to send the impeachment matter to the 203-member House.

The articles added Wednesday contain claims that Mr. Krasner and his office have misled judges in certain cases, as well as victims of crime. One of them alleges that Mr. Krasner directed that crimes including prostitution, theft and drug-related offenses “would no longer be prosecuted and were therefore de facto legal.”

State Rep. Martina White, a Philadelphia Republican who is the prime sponsor of the impeachment articles, said Mr. Krasner has endangered city residents.

“I just want to make sure that the citizens of Philadelphia have an opportunity to live their life the way that we all deserve to be able to live,” she said Tuesday. “Not having to worry about walking out your front door and getting carjacked, not having to worry about sending your kids to school.”

Democratic state Rep. Mike Zabel, who represents a Philadelphia suburb and sits on the Judiciary Committee, said the impeachment effort was “a weaponization of our state Constitution for partisan political purposes.”

“Today’s resolution threatens to set a terrible, terrible precedent that could set Pennsylvania down a very dark and dangerous path—impeachment of a local official because a legislative majority doesn’t like that official’s policies,” he said during Tuesday’s committee hearing.

Last month, the special House committee released a report critical of Mr. Krasner’s tenure. It said 65% of violent crime cases to date in 2022 had been withdrawn by his office or dismissed by courts. It also said cases involving certain gun-related charges had been withdrawn by the DA’s Office at roughly double the statewide average in 2019 and 2020. The report didn’t recommend impeachment.

On Tuesday, Mr. Krasner’s office posted a detailed rebuttal to the GOP criticism. It said 83% of trial-ready fatal shooting cases end in conviction, as do 87% of all trial-ready homicides. When the office declines or downgrades charges, the office said, it is nearly always because of new information or evidence that police or prosecutors didn’t initially have.

The impeachment vote comes as partisan control of the House hangs in the balance after last week’s elections. Democrats won 101 seats and Republicans won 100, but two others are too close to call, according to the Associated Press. Republican candidates have narrow leads in both races.


link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/p...29?mod=hp_lead_pos12

I'd rather not read through all of that. What does the impeachment mean? Can he be removed, or is this just a moral judgement?

quote:

The next step will be a trial in the GOP-led state Senate. Conviction and removal from office would require a two-thirds majority. It is unclear when a trial might be held.

Who knows if that'll actually happen before end of the current Legislative session.

I will defer to our resident attorneys on that issue, but take it to read as more than a moral judgement and an intial step in a rather long process to remove him from office.

^^^As the OP, did YOU read the article? 'Conviction and removal from office' is right there in it!

Reread my response above yours and please explain your out of line and rude retort.

Shall we settle this by a duel, then?

Yes!!! Swords or pistols??
Please let it be swords!
That’s so uncommon these days.

quote:

Originally posted by ss9961:
Yes!!! Swords or pistols??
Please let it be swords!
That’s so uncommon these days.

Which is worse; slashes or thrusts?

Can't we just all get along....this just leads to more doom and gloom !

quote:

Originally posted by Genorogers:
Can't we just all get along....this just leads to more doom and gloom !

Nah, a duel is always fun.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
...but take it to read as more than a moral judgement and an intial step in a rather long process to remove him from office.

The entire Trump's 2nd impeachment, from impeachment to trial to acquittal, lasted exactly 1 month. So, if there is a will, there is a way. It doesn't have to be a long process.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Reread my response above yours and please explain your out of line and rude retort.

Well, first and foremost, Impeachment isn't a moral judgement, OR a rather long process, unless it's done to accomplish EXACTLY that. And Attorney opinions aren't any more valid on the subject than any layperson even remotely familiar with the Impeachment process anyway, especially since we all witnessed TWO of them during Trump's Presidency! If anything, someone knowledgeable of the current make-up of the GOP-led Senate in PA, as well as their political will to convict Krasner 'might' provide some valid insight, I guess, but that wasn't the question. Can he be removed...Yes!

As far as your view that I was out of line and rude in my retort, we'll have to disagree...My interpretation of your 'response' initially led me to believe you hadn't actually read the entire article, hence the 'tone' of my post, though admittedly I was also having difficulty following the anfractuous logic of your reply to what seemed a very straightforward question.

Honestly though, escalating from a duel to employing a Rocket Launcher to settle a misunderstanding over words is a little excessive...

quote:

anfractuous logic

^^^^^^^
Really? Stand on a chair and deliver your response it would be more fitting.

It was Duran Duran's third album. Let's move on

^^^^^^^^^^
That was funny. I thought it was Santana

I live in PA but thankful I don't live in Philadelphia but I sincerely hope Krasner is thrown out of office because he is the absolute worse DA imaginable and crime including murder and carjacking has exploded under his watch because he refuses to prosecute criminals. He did however go after a Philadelphia cop involved in a shooting, charged the cop with murder and was rebuked by the trail judge because he deliberately mismanaged the grand jury. Hopefully Republicans have the courage to actually remove Krasner from office. Anybody be it democrat or republican that cares about the safety and well being of the citizens of Philadelphia should vote to impeach Krasner

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:
Anybody be it democrat or republican that cares about the safety and well being of the citizens of Philadelphia should vote to impeach Krasner

I disagree. He won re-election last year by a sizeable margin, after four years of delivering exactly what he promised in his first campaign. He's giving the citizens of Philadelphia precisely what a majority of them want, as expressed by their votes.

This is a problem for the Philadelphia voters to fix, not the state legislature.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
...When GOP members introduced two articles of impeachment last month, he called the move devastating to democracy, adding that “it shows how far toward fascism the Republican party is creeping.”...

And I bet these same Democrats were having impeachment parties when Trump was impeached. Fooking hypocrites.

I hope he stays in.

As you vote you get what you deserve.

Let them burn it to the ground.