There’s this thing that progressive criminal reform activists do that they just can’t not do. Deny body counts. Shoplifting stats can be argued, but you can’t make dead bodies disappear. And in Philadelphia, there are more dead bodies than there have been in years, 521 at the moment.

But other crimes are down? But there are still dead bodies. Philly DA Larry Krasner made the mistake, even if with the best of intentions, of denying the dead bodies.

There is no crisis of crime and residents and tourists should feel safe in Philadelphia. That’s what District Attorney Larry Krasner said Monday to help calm any concerns about the rising gun violence and a recent attack inside the Fashion District Philadelphia.

Much like the hysterical and false belief that cops are slaughtering thousands, tens of thousands, of unarmed innocent black people in the streets, neither residents nor tourists are being gunned down en masse in center city Philadelphia. But these words, directed at soothing fears of people shopping, strolling, taking in the rich history of Philly, smacked of denying the dead bodies.

Former mayor Michael Nutter blew his lid over Krasner’s assertion that there was no “crisis of crime.”

It takes a certain audacity of ignorance and white privilege to say that right now. As of Monday night, 521 people, souls, spirits have been vanquished, eliminated, murdered in our City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, the most since 1960.

I have to wonder what kind of messed up world of white wokeness Krasner is living in to have so little regard for human lives lost, many of them black and brown, while he advances his own national profile as a progressive district attorney.

Krasner’s attempt to calm fears could have been expressed better. In the scheme of crime, the likelihood of being the victim of gun violence remains negligible. But it’s also true that the increase in murders and shooting is huge and significant. Nutter, however, seizes upon Krasner’s words, that there is no “crisis of crime,” as an attack on the privileged world of white wokeness and its lack of real world concern for black victims.

I’d like to ask Krasner: How many more black and brown people, and others, would have to be gunned down in our streets daily to meet your definition of a “crisis”? How many more children and teens have to die in record numbers to capture your attention and be considered a “crisis”? How many more moms, dads, spouses and friends need to shed tears over the loss of a loved one for you to call it a “crisis”?

Words matter. Words impact, and trigger, and hurt. Words mean something from elected officials. Krasner should publicly apologize to the 521 families of dead victims and the thousands of those maimed by gun wounds this year. He has ignored the pain of the living and insulted the memory of the dead.

There is a problem of gun violence, and “crisis” seems to be a pretty fair word to describe it. But Krasner didn’t cause the problem, and to twist this to suggest that he doesn’t care about the pain, living and dead, is disingenuous. There is no evidence to suggest that any of the reforms Krasner has put into place gave rise to this increase in gun violence, and it’s happening in city’s across the country where there’s no Larry Krasner to blame. Why it’s happening is unknown, just as it was unknown why crime, and murders, fell to new lows. There are plenty of theories, and people rush to take credit or deflect blame, but the claims all fail under scrutiny.

In the immediate context, Krasner was trying to assuage fear of crime so that people wouldn’t run from Philly as if it were Murder City. In the longer term context, the syllogism* kicks in, and we either over-react or do something simplistic, dangerous and damaging. After all, if there’s a crisis, we have to stop it because it’s a crisis.

At the same time, police are seizing upon reforms such as the reduction or elimination of cash bail, lower or alternative sentences or the release of wrongfully convicted defendants as the cause for this murder “spree.” To be fair, Krasner has a vested interest in fighting these challenges to reform, the logical fallacy that correlation does not imply causation. Yes, these reforms are happening. Yes, simultaneously there is a substantial spike in the murder rate and gun violence. No, that does not mean the former caused the latter. Krasner knows all too well how this blame game is played, whipping up hysteria and then taking it out on the wrong people, imposing the wrong fixes.

Is it white privilege to try to prevent hysteria from driving change? Maybe it is, if Nutter is to be believed, as dead bodies, maimed bodies, shouldn’t and can’t be ignored. Each one is a human life. Each one matters. Denying it’s a crisis may be somewhat understandable in the immediate and longer term, but it is a crisis for the victims of gun violence and those who live in fear of it. And it is too easy, and exceptionally unhelpful, to claim there’s no crisis happening and no cause for hysteria.

And Nutter is right, even if the target of this particular attack, Larry Krasner, isn’t the person he should be outraged about, that “white wokeness” denial about the impact of violence on black people to blunt the hysteria and bolster support for reform is part of the problem. Defund police? Abolish prisons? Pretend there is no such thing as bad dudes, but just a bunch of Jean Valjeans looting TVs and Air Jordans so their babies don’t starve? These aren’t Krasner’s positions, and they reflect the worst of “white wokeness” fantasy fixes.

Larry Krasner’s choice of words left much to be desired, and he conceded his words were “inarticulate.” But Krasner isn’t the problem. He’s not the posterboy for white wokeness denial or simplistic solutions. And nothing useful comes from hysteria, so as much as Nutter’s grievance isn’t wrong, it fails to advance any useful strategy by blaming Krasner’s poor choice of words.

*The Syllogism, for those who might still be unfamiliar:

Something must be done
This is something
This must be done