'He's Anti-Law Enforcement': Head Of Philly's Police Union Expresses Concern Over DA's Race
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The leader of Philadelphia's police union is concerned after Tuesday night's election victory by long-time civil rights attorney Larry Krasner, who is the Democratic nominee for district attorney.
"He's anti-law enforcement," said Philadelphia FOP President John McNesby. "He's sent that message for years."
McNesby says electing Krasner as the DA's Democratic ticket is bad for law enforcement.
"He made us a point during his campaign that he was anti-FOP and anti-John McNesby for whatever reason," McNesby said. "He has to uphold the law, whether he likes it or whether he doesn't like it. No matter what his personal beliefs are."
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Krasner, however, says he is actually a big fan of law enforcement.
"I'm not an enormous fan of people who make apologies for unconstitutional police abuse and corruption," Krasner said, "but I'm an enormous fan of people in law enforcement who keep their obligation to uphold the constitution and seek justice."
Following Krasner's victory speech, supporters began shouting anti-FOP chants.
"They can't even act right at a victory party. They are bottom feeders," McNesby said. "The bottom line is they are the rebel rousers, they are the profession protestors, they're the people he represented for all these years."
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Krasner took his own shot at McNesby and FOP officials.
"They are not the commissioner, they are not the brass, they're not the rank-and-file, they're not in the chain of command," he said. "They're not even police in the sense of being in active duty. I mean, these folks are not in active duty."
McNesby stopped short of saying the union would back lone Republican candidate Beth Grossman.
"We have not done that yet," he said. "We are going to wait and see what happens in the next few weeks."
But McNesby says despite opposite views, he welcomes discussions with Krasner. He says the union is a group of professionals who will try to work with anyone in office.
"Am I optimistic? No," McNesby said. "If he's elected, we will work with anyone, you know, we follow a process and we'll make sure we are very successful at what we do at different places, so we will wait and see what happens."
Krasner says he'd be happy to meet with the FOP.
