[This is the third in a series of articles on the dark money behind urban decay in the United States. Mr. Nelles will next explore the challenges facing Chicago under State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.]

Philadelphia has long been a quintessential American city, with its deep historic roots, an amazing food scene that stretches from fine dining to “street meats,” and an extremely rabid sports fan base. Sadly, there is a cancer growing in Philadelphia — a cancer that was easy to predict and diagnose, and also easy to cure if only the patient was willing.

Like many cities undergoing urban decay in the 21st century, Philadelphia is led by a leftist mayor, Jim Kenney , who has accomplished little other than a soda tax and has become visibly disinterested in his job as he enters the last year of his tenure.

Philadelphia would be in bad enough shape with just Kenney. However, when you add the progressive district attorney Larry Krasner to the mix, Philadelphia's situation becomes even more dire. Krasner was elected district attorney of Philadelphia in 2017. He ran on a platform of progressive criminal justice reform, vowing to “reduce incarnation rates in Philadelphia by ending criminal charges for marijuana possessions, ending cash bail for those facing misdemeanors and/or nonviolent felonies, and calling for more police accountability.”

Unsurprisingly, George Soros is a big supporter of and major contributor to Krasner, funneling nearly $1.7 million to Krasner’s first campaign, per PBS. Krasner did not disappoint Soros during his first term, allowing violent crime and drug use in the city to explode.

Through Sept. 20, 2022, overall violent crime was up 7% from the year before, property crimes were up more than 30%, with commercial burglaries up 50%, according to Axios . More troubling, shootings in Philadelphia increased by 3%, and robberies in which perpetrators used guns were up 60% during the same time frame.

Another report found that 2,273 people were shot in “ Philadelphia last year (2022), slightly less than in 2021, but well above 2019 before the pandemic.” According to the Philadelphia’s Office of the District Attorney , victims and arrestees for shootings tend to be male, people of color, 18-35 years old, and have a prior criminal history.

While Krasner blames soft gun laws for the surge in violence, he also chooses not to enforce gun laws that are currently on the books, specifically those laws pertaining to the illegal possession of a firearm. He’s claimed that “the focus on illegal gun possession, at least in cases involving nonviolent offenders with no felony convictions, was about singling out people of color.” He continued, “We do not believe that arresting people and convicting them for illegal gun possession is a viable strategy to reduce shooting.”

Krasner should do some research. The majority of crimes committed with a gun were committed with one that was not legally purchased by the criminal. A study in Pittsburgh , for example, showed that 80% of people illegally carrying guns were prohibited from possessing guns in the first place, meaning they had prior convictions that prohibited them from owning a gun.

In 2021, Philadelphia police made arrests for carrying an illegal gun at a “pace nearly three times that of 2017,” according to police data . People accused of illegally carrying guns have seen their chances of getting convicted in court plunge from 63% in 2017 (the year Krasner was elected as DA) to 49% two years later.”

Krasner’s focus on the failure of removing illegal guns from circulation to reduce gun violence misses the point. He should instead focus on removing the criminal who possesses an illegal gun from the street, thereby removing the possibility of that person committing yet another gun crime.

Jim Nelles is a supply chain consultant based in Chicago. He has served as a chief procurement officer, chief supply chain officer, and chief operations officer for multiple companies.