Before Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner took office in 2018, the last time a city police officer was convicted for an on-duty killing was during Jimmy Carter's presidency in 1978. Before that, the only other conviction of a Philly officer for wrongfully killing someone took place in 1870, when Ulysses S. Grant was president, the Trace reports. Krasner has obtained as many convictions in his seventh year in office: Most recently, he won the city’s first-ever murder conviction against an officer who killed a 12-year-old boy while on duty. Edsaul Mendoza fatally shot Thomas Siderio in March 2022; he pleaded guilty to third-degree murder on April 18. “I am proud of the fact that we try to get it right every day, and we do not accept or recognize a caste system where the life of any particular person is more important than the life of any other person,” Krasner said. “I find that repugnant.” Krasner, who was reelected in 2021 with 71.8 percent of the vote, declined to say if he will seek a third term next year.
As Krasner fulfills his campaign promise to arrest cops who break the law, his critics say that he is so soft on crime that he’s contributing to the city’s gun violence crisis. At the same time, they contend, he is hampering the Police Department’s ability to find enough recruits to fill 1,000 open officer positions. Krasner has been subjected to a steady stream of criticism from those who accuse him of behaving more like a defense attorney than a prosecutor. Last week, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee traveled to Philadelphia to hold a field hearing on violent crime. Republican lawmakers, joined with crime victims to attack Krasner. Last year, he survived being removed from office after a court ruled that his impeachment by the Republican-led state House of Representatives did not pass legal muster. Before Krasner took office, the two Philadelphia officers convicted for on-duty slayings were Marcus Giardino, who pleaded guilty in 1978 to involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting a 19-year-old Black man in the back during a traffic stop; and John Whiteside, who was convicted of manslaughter for the 1870 shooting of Henry Truman. That slaying, the nation’s first on record of a free, unarmed Black man killed by police, was commemorated by members of the Congressional Black Caucus who wore “1870” lapel pins to President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address.
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