by Samantha Goldman
Philadelphia is the nation’s fifth largest city and has long been a poster child for the effects of mass incarceration. This is a city where 36,000 black men are missing from the city’s streets, families, schools, jobs, and where 394 officer-related shootings were reported in the span of six years. Where racist stop-and-frisk continues. It makes sense that there is palpable disgust over the racist thuggery of the police, the justice department and the apparatus of mass incarceration along with a profound desire for fundamental change. In a country run by a fascist regime that espouses a return to “law and order” (which is really just code for Black genocide) and an Attorney General who is committed to the expansion of mass warehousing of Black bodies; it makes sense that people are looking and hoping for heroes who will change it all.
The City of Philadelphia has gained national attention for its local primary elections because of Larry Krasner, the Democratic District Attorney Candidate. His campaign has gained national media attention and celebrity endorsements from John Legend to Susan Sarandon. George Soros has thrown in major bucks. His win last week in the Democratic Primary has been marked as a victory in the battle against, not just mass incarceration, but the Trump regime. This symbolizes a deep change in a city that has long held the legacy of Lynne Abraham (one of America’s deadliest District Attorneys) and Frank Rizzo (racist former Mayor of Philadelphia). In this largely Democratic city it is a pretty sure bet that come November Krasner, a criminal defense attorney who has defended Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, will be the leading prosecutor. His platform is unprecedented. So is the election of a criminal defense lawyer who never served as prosecutor a day in his life. One who has sued the police 75 times. Krasner promises: ending mass incarceration, no cash bail for nonviolent offenders, to expand diversion programs, and abstain from pursuing the death penalty or utilizing illegal searches. It is worth noting that all democratic candidates campaigned around reforming the criminal justice system and not one on a “tough on crime” platform.
Krasner has taken on the role of a messiah and Philadelphia is shining in the eyes of progressives. This victory is being hailed as the way forward for all cities. Local officials are being seen as key in the battles against Trump and against mass incarceration and some are even calling this a revolution. But in the age of the Trump/Pence regime, with the spectre of fascism no longer lurking but becoming more real each day—can and will a local District Attorney end mass incarceration? Drive this regime out? What really is needed?
Will he really be able to do what he is setting out to do? Can you really transform things from the inside out? John McNesby, head of Philly’s Police Union (which endorsed Trump) openly despises him and it isn’t completely out of the question that the union could fund and mobilize the opposition so effectively as to prevent him from winning the general election, through official or unofficial channels. But let’s say it’s settled and Krasner gets the job. Now he has to navigate a terrain where he is overseeing prosecutors and cops that he has been at war with for decades. Former ADAs have gone to task calling him dangerous. So now he is going to be their boss and be accepted while still maintaining an ‘end mass incarceration’ agenda? Without people to carry out his platform, nothing can be accomplished. He’s not going to singlehandedly make all this magic happen. Krasner will need to rely on others, including judges who ultimately make the decisions about bail. It’s simply not true that all these judges have crusading ideas about Black Lives Mattering or opposition towards private prisons. In his new position, Krasner will be forced to side with police, prosecutors, and judges. Imagine if he didn’t.
The thing about criminal justice reformers is that they are reformers, which means that they compromise, that they conciliate, that they try to make something bad a bit better while keeping it intact. He will be assuming the role of District Attorney tasked to prosecute in accordance with the law. Krasner is leaving behind defending those who dare to rise up against the crimes of this system and those who are vulnerable. He’s not going to be working to get everyone access to the best legal support while staying in office. Not because he is a bad guy but because that is not his job. His job will be to prosecute, to collaborate with police and to work within a system that is thoroughly rotten to its core. This is not about a few bad cops or a corrupt DA. He won’t be ridding the city of the conditions that force people into a life of crime, nor ending the criminalization of Black life. When people try to create “change from within” they end up being the ones that gets changed. That’s by design. Every positive reform that acts as a band-aid on the new Jim Crow comes at the expense of some other concession. But this reform will be a minority of the work that he does. What he will be doing will be putting more black men in jail because that is all their courts and judicial system are capable of. His participation in this will mean he will be unable to significantly rail against it. We have already seen him begin to repair his relationship with police, reifying their work and backstepping on his own supporters who condemn the role of the police.
How about if you still believe he will become the DA, do what he promises, and make a big difference for Philadelphia?
Let’s be clear: this city, no city, exists in a vacuum. Neither the city of Philadelphia nor Krasner are immune to the Trump/Pence regime. We are dealing with fascists. If anything undermines their agenda they eliminate it. They don’t compete with contesting ideas, they utilize brute force. This is a president who fired the head of the FBI on a whim to consolidate power, what makes you think he can’t find a way to get rid of a local DA?
Many people believe that cities and states can act autonomously from the federal government and can pick and choose what they adopt. For instance, they could take or leave mandatory minimums, stop and frisk, or the use of more militarized police. The truth is the federal government doesn’t just set the terms, they ultimately set the budget, they apply penalties and they take over. If you suspend reality in order to believe that he is able to avoid being affected by the federal government for the time being, you won’t be able to get rid of the real problem at a later date, you will become part of the problem.
Can we really be ok with waiting? Even if you are, can all of humanity? This thinking and plan of putting hope into saviors while waiting out Trump’s term is deadly. It is May and already we have seen disaster picking up steam by the hour. November is a long way away and a lot can happen between now and then. We’re not talking about just bad laws. This isn’t about a crazy orange manchild with little hands, puppets, or a keebler elf. This is fascism. It isn’t hyperbole to say that we can’t wait till 2018. We are living in extraordinary times and when this regime has nuclear weapons at their disposal nobody has the luxury to sit around and wait nor pour their energy into some permanant waiting period for something, anything not-fascist.
The question is: what will the world look like? What will be the state of humanity? Because Trump is not just more of the same. Without a major outpouring and mass refusal of this whole program, fascism isn’t just going to go away. There is such a strong desire to feel that we’re on the precipice of relief from this nightmare, with whispers of impeachment as though Christian Fascist Mike Pence will save us. Impeachment is far from inevitable and unless and until this regime is driven out by massive resistance, their fingers wrenched from the nuclear trigger and their program thoroughly repudiated, nothing good can come; nothing good will last.
It is right to take away from all this momentum around Krasner that this primary was a refusal of all this regime represents. It is wrong to take away that this is how democracy works for the people. People deeply want to say NO and want it to mean something. But this just isn’t it. This isn’t commensurate to their threats to set fire to the world. The crumbs they are offering aren’t worth the exchange. Yet it isn’t a time for despair. Because while we can’t look up on high for a savior we can look around us and see hope. While the hour is late, they haven’t consolidated their power quite yet and there are significant openings right now in the wake of Comey’s firing.
There is still a moment to wrap our arms around those who got caught up in or are getting caught up in local elections and pre-midterm fever and help them imagine what it would mean if they devoted their summer to driving out this regime NOW, pouring in all the energy, creativity, and resources to this. Not in November, not in 2018, and not in 2020…NOW.
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Samantha is a Philadelphia native who works with Refuse Fascism. She teaches in a Philadelphia Title 1 School and has served in Philadelphia public schools for the past eight years teaching and learning from many of those whose lives have been marred by mass incarceration or the early death of caregivers. She can be reached at [email protected]