Republican Chuck Peruto brought his campaign for district attorney to Monday night’s Take Back Your Neighborhood meeting at Max Myers Playground.
The longtime defense attorney is challenging Democratic DA Larry Krasner in the Nov. 2 election.
Peruto distributed campaign literature and T-shirts and discussed his campaign. His flier proclaimed, “Please vote Republican just this once, as this is truly a matter of life and death!”
Take Back Your Neighborhood also invited Krasner, but said he did not respond. Peruto is disappointed that Krasner has refused to debate him and urged everyone to call the DA’s office at 215-686-8000 to ask the incumbent why he won’t square off with his challenger.
Peruto, 66, who has spent 42 years as a lawyer, blames the high violent crime rate in Philadelphia and other cities on their district attorneys whose campaigns have been bankrolled by George Soros. He also faults them for not prosecuting looters, labeling retail theft “Christmas shoplifting,” adding that some crooks return to the store to get cash back on the stolen goods.
Peruto said it “turns my stomach” when some people charged in shootings receive probation. Police academy applications are low, he noted.
“These cops are frustrated beyond belief,” he said, contending that the city needs 1,350 more officers.
Peruto believes every officer should have a taser. He favors the death penalty for depraved kiilings in which the murderer cannot be reformed. Krasner opposes the death penalty, and his opponent blamed “bleeding-heart liberals,” Gov. Tom Wolf and judges for allowing killers to avoid the ultimate penalty.
“Nobody’s gonna die from the death penalty,” he said.
Peruto wants his three grandchildren to grow up knowing their grandfather reversed the violent crime spike in the city.
“Philadelphia is going down faster than a sliding board,” he said.
If elected, Peruto said he will hire street-smart prosecutors graduating from local law schools who know neighborhoods and how to pick a jury.
“You want the Northeast Philly jurors,” he said.
As for illegal immigrants, Peruto said he will call Immigration and Customs Enforcement on any of them who commit murder, rape, robbery, arson or burglary. And if Mayor Jim Kenney objects?
“I will arrest the mayor for obstruction of justice,” he said.
In office, Peruto will assign more assistant district attorneys to gun violence crimes and make more use of informants and witness protection. He’d use black prosecutors in some cases where there is a black defendant. He wouldn’t use resources to look back at old cases, instead allowing the Innocence Project and public defenders to bring him information.
Peruto has raised $85,000 and is using some of his own money. He also has a couple dozen volunteers. The Republican believes his approach to the office should earn him 100 percent of the black vote.
In other news from the meeting:
• Mark Mroz, the community relations officer in the 2nd Police District, spoke of a shooting on the 6400 block of Eastwood St., Sunday night’s confiscation of an unlicensed gun and drugs in a car on the 1500 block of Hellerman St. that had been disregarding stop signs and red lights and a 16-year-old boy being shot in Summerdale following a dispute earlier that day at Fels High School. The gunman in the Summerdale case has been arrested.
Mroz cautioned people to lock their car doors to prevent thefts.
To follow gun and drug arrests and other crime news, Mroz told Twitter users to follow the 2nd district @PPD02Dist. ••
