“Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between,” political strategist James Carville once said. This quote usually irritates the good citizens of Pittsburgh, who dislike being put in the same category as what they view as the trash-talking, Eagles-loving, cheese-steak-eating barbarians from the east; they identify with the more midwestern flavor of their Steel City. They would especially dislike such comparisons now, with Philadelphia devolving into a morass of urban violence stoked by the progressive policies of its top officials. But what if Pittsburgh is heading in the same direction?
Philadelphia voters elected a progressive mayor, Jim Kenney, who spends more time on woke policies than on making sure that the trash gets picked up and the police are adequately staffed. The Philadelphia city council passes ordinances that make it harder for police to do their jobs, like prohibiting cops from engaging in traffic stops in the name of “equity.” And Philadelphia has elected and reelected a district attorney, Larry Krasner, who is known around the nation for refusing to prosecute criminals, even stating that it is counterproductive to prosecute felons in possession of firearms. The results were predictable. Philadelphia is now experiencing scenes of urban violence like the Wild West shootout on tourist-heavy South Street on a recent weekend that saw three people killed and many more injured. And people and businesses are leaving the city, with a net loss of 25,000 citizens for Philadelphia in one year, as businesses blame weak law enforcement policies for emboldening violent criminals.
As for Pittsburgh, the Steel City recently elected Mayor Ed Gainey, who took office in 2022. Gainey is a self-styled progressive, promising to “de-militarize” the police, ban no-knock search warrants, prohibit solitary confinement in the Allegheny County jail even for violent criminals, and replace the police with civilians to deal with mental health and drug issues. In short, he is the western Pennsylvania version of Jim Kenney.
The Pittsburgh city council also seems to be imitating its eastern cousins. The council is considering a bill to make it harder for Pittsburgh police to engage in Terry stops, the long established U.S. Supreme Court rule that permits a police officer to stop-and-frisk a suspect if there is reasonable suspicion of criminal activity – if a suspect is casing a store, for example, or engaging in apparent drug dealing. City council members claim that the bill is necessary to prevent racial profiling, ignoring any consideration of the Court precedent or the effect of this move on underlying rates of criminal offending.
The crime spike in Pittsburgh also has been paralleling the violence in Philadelphia. In April, two people were killed and eight wounded in a chaotic shooting scene with hundreds of attendees at a Pittsburgh party in the early-morning hours on Easter Sunday. In May, a one-year-old child was killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Pittsburgh. And, in an eerie coincidence, on the same weekend that saw a mass shooting on Philadelphia’s South Street, there was mayhem on Pittsburgh’s South Side as crowds wrecked businesses and two people were shot, including a store employee hit by a stray bullet. This follows an earlier incident in May where three people were shot near the same location on the South Side. Unwilling to deal with such violence, a business on the South Side already has announced that it is closing down.
In 2021, Philadelphia set its new all-time record for homicides, with 562 murders. Pittsburgh might be headed in the same direction. A woke mayor, an obstructive city council, and spiking violence even in once-safe social spots are common elements for both cities.
But there is one major difference between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Philadelphia’s district attorney is Larry Krasner, one of the most progressive chief prosecutors in the U.S. He revels in not prosecuting crimes and not locking up criminals. Prior to becoming DA, Krasner was a criminal defense and civil rights lawyer known for battling with the police. His data dashboard shows that he currently is dismissing far more criminal cases than achieving convictions.
By contrast, the district attorney for Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, is Stephen Zappala, who has served in this position since 1998. He is no progressive and comes from a long-time, traditional Democratic family. In 2019, he defeated a progressive challenger in the Democratic primary, a challenger backed by the same organizations and voters who propelled Pittsburgh’s current mayor and city council to their seats. Zappala is crusty and grumpy, and no shining political star – but he is unlikely to embrace the decarceration and de-prosecution policies of progressive prosecutors like Krasner in Philadelphia, Kim Foxx in Chicago, and Marilyn Mosby in Baltimore, who have led their cities into historic crises of violence. As it stands, Zappala may be the sole factor preventing Pittsburgh from joining the fate of these cities.
Zappala, should he choose to run again, would face another election in 2023. He may be looking at the same dilemma confronted by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance in 2021. As Manhattan’s voters became more progressive, Vance had to decide whether to adopt progressive law enforcement strategies that he knew to be unsafe but that would assure his reelection – or retire. He chose to retire. Manhattan elected progressive district attorney Alvin Bragg to take over the office in 2022, and violence spiked in the wake of Bragg’s victory. Zappala, and Pittsburgh itself, may face a similar choice in the near future.
Is Pittsburgh poised to become the western Pennsylvania version of Philadelphia? The answer to that question may lie with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office, which stands as the city’s last “Steel Curtain” of defense.
Tom Hogan has served as a federal prosecutor, local prosecutor, and elected district attorney. He currently is in private practice.