Jamar Patterson, now 40, was up for a job in 2022 as an unarmed security guard.
But the offer was rescinded when he informed his prospective employer, Allied Universal, of a previous drug conviction from when he was 19, despitehaving a clean record since 2005.
Similarly, Abron Ash, 49, lost his job after his employer, McGinn Security, learned of his conviction on three misdemeanors related to a fight in 2006.
Both lost their jobs because of a Pennsylvania law that applies to people who have been convicted of certain crimes, banning them for lifefrom working as private unarmed security guards.
Last week, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ruled that the state’s PrivateDetective Act is unconstitutional.
The ruling was the result of a 2023 civil suit Patterson and Ash filed against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and District Attorney Larry Krasner, whose office enforces the Private Detective Act in Philadelphia. They asked the court to block enforcement of the law.
Krasner said in a statement Friday that he agrees with the court’s decision and will not appeal it.
“The Private Detective Act’s extreme, irrebuttable lifetime ban on employment in private security swept too broadly constitutionally,” Krasner said. “The ruling will now open doors for qualified Philadelphians who were previously barred from entering the security industry due to old or irrelevant convictions, giving more individuals the right to work and earn a living.”
It’s unclear whether the Philadelphia court’s ruling would eventually apply statewide.
As of now, the decision prevents enforcement of the law in Philadelphia, say attorneys for the plaintiffs. The two men filed the suit with the help of the Public Interest Law Center and Community Legal Services (CLS) of Philadelphia.
“I’m very excited to hear the news that I was a part of making change. It’s almost like making history — I guess it is history in Philadelphia,“ Patterson said in a statement. ”And I’m looking forward to the case becoming a part of a statewide solution.”
Patterson’s attorneys also say more effort is likely needed to extend the ruling to the rest of the state.
Pennsylvania’s lifetime ban, however, is among the most restrictive.
The recent ruling means Philadelphia employers can no longer deny people jobs as unarmed private security guards because of old, minor, and “irrelevant” convictions, according to the Public Interest Law Center and CLS.
“We have had hundreds of clients over the years who have come to Community Legal Services because they are interested in working in the security field but have been unable to do so because of old and irrelevant convictions,” said Jamie Gullen, a managing attorney at CLS.
Gullen said the court’s decision “will open the door to opportunity for hard-working, qualified Philadelphians.”
Ben Geffen, senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, said evidence showed that the law is, “over broad, unconstitutional, and does not further public safety.”
The Private Detective Act was passed in 1953 and includes a long list of minor offenses, including many misdemeanors, that bar workers from employment in the security and protection industry for life. The convictions include simple drug possession, pickpocketing, and a catchall category of “any offense involving moral turpitude.”
Because of those broad prohibitions, most security employers will not hire workers with any kind of conviction history, attorneys for the CLS and Public Interest Law Center said.
Security jobs can be vital for some workers because they don’t often require a college degree and offer better wages than other entry-level work. The median annual income for a security guard is $31,470, or about $15 per hour. That’s double Pennsylvania’s $7.25 per hour minimum wage.
Kiminori Nakamura, Ph.D., filed a report to the court on behalf of Patterson and Ash noting that the risk of recidivism for individuals with criminal history seeking such jobs is relatively low.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include a statement from District Attorney Larry Krasner.
All charges were dropped against Leonard Hill, a prominent personal injury attorney accused of aggravated assault and related crimes for shooting and injuring a man during an altercation outside a Center City cigar bar in 2023.
Prosecutors dropped the charges Friday morning shortly before Hill, 56, was set to go to a bench trial before Common Pleas Judge J. Scott O’Keefe.
In addition to aggravated assault, Hill will not face charges of possessing an instrument of a crime, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, and tampering with evidence.
Aggravated assault, a felony and the most serious of those offenses, carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Hill’s attorney, Fortunato N. Perri, declined to comment on the decision.
Last year, in a highly unusual move in an aggravated assault case, the District Attorney’s Office offered to admit Hill to the diversion program instead of going to trial.
Had Hill participated, his case would have been expunged after completing a period of probation and community service, surrendering the legally owned firearm police recovered from his Bala Cynwyd home, and donating $25,000 to an anti-violence group.
District Attorney Larry Krasner said in an interview at the time that request was “specifically my decision.” The district attorney called information about the case, some of it revealed after Hill’s arrest, both unique and highly unusual, though he declined to elaborate.
A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office declined to comment Friday.
After prosecutors sought diversion last February, Municipal Court Judge William Austin Meehan Jr.denied prosecutors’ request.
The judge said Hill’s case was not appropriate for diversion, which is typically reserved for cases involving relatively minor offenses, and urged prosecutors to resolve the case through different means.
It’s rare for those accused of shootings to be offered diversion, otherwise known as the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition. Several nonfatal shooting cases have ended with diversion since 2011: participants usually include those charged with nonviolent offenses such as DUIs, petty theft, or drug possession.
Attorneys for Hill — whose billboards advertising his legal servicesfeature prominently on Philadelphia’s freeway system — maintained their client acted in self-defense when firing twice at a man outside the Ashton Cigar Bar on the 1500 block of Walnut Street.
The episode began when Hill and a bar manager tried to separate a woman and another man she said was intoxicated and accosting her, according to court documents.
The confrontation spilled outside, where Hill and the man began to argue. Hill drew a firearm and fired once during the argument, the court documents said. Hill fired again as the man ran away, striking the 38-year-old in the calf.
Hill left the scene and changed his clothes before returning, and did not tell officers who responded to the bar that he had fired shots, according to the documents. Investigators recovered video of the shooting and interviewed the bar manager, who identified Hill as the shooter but said he had fired in self-defense.
Perri, Hill’s attorney, later said the man who Hill shot had been wielding a knife — a detail not included in his arrest paperwork — and said his client made a “split-second decision” to defend himself and others in a dangerous situation.
Prosecutors’ decision to offer Hill diversion last year did not come without criticism.
Keisha Hudson, head of the Defender Association of Philadelphia, told the Inquirer in February 2025 that she could not recall a single instance in which one of the organization’s clients was offered diversion after shooting someone.
She said the case’s handling was emblematic of a justice system that treats poor defendants and those with money differently. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Staff writer Ellie Rushing contributed to this article.
In the everyday chaos that characterizes President Donald Trump’s America, the news cycle changes faster than most of us can keep up with it.
But can we please pause for a moment and consider the gravity ofwhat happened to Nekima Levy Armstrong at the hands of the U.S. government? She led a group of activists who interrupted a worship service in Minnesota on Jan. 18. The demonstrators went to Cities Church in St. Paul to stage a protest in support of immigrant rights.
The choice of venue was very much intentional: One of the leaders at the church is an administrator at a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. Four days later, Levy Armstrong, a half dozen other protesters, and two journalists were arrested.
Afterward, while she was still in custody, Trump administration officials released an AI-manipulated image of her on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, on accounts for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the White House.
The doctored image shows Levy Armstrong (no relation) with her mouth open as if she’s sobbing hysterically. Her face also appears to have been darkened. The photo caption reads: “ARRESTED far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong for orchestrating church riots in Minnesota.”
It wasn’t a riot. Nor was she crying. But all that is beside the point. The Trump administration officials wanted to make her look bad, even if it meant reshaping reality to do so. What’s especially concerning is the dishonest way it went about it. According to photos and video of her arrest, Levy Armstrong maintained a mostly impassive expression on her face throughout the ordeal.
On Jan. 22, the White House posted an AI-altered image of Nikema Levy Armstrong on the White House’s official X feed. The altered image makes Levy Armstrong appear as crying, the original image shows no such emotion.
A lot of people might see the digitally altered image of her sobbing and assume that because it was posted on a verified social media channel from the highest levels of government, it is an accurate representation of what happened — when it’s anything but.
A New York Times analysis concluded that the photo had been manipulated — something the White House admits to doing, and is unrepentant about. The manipulated photo is a meme, according toWhite House spokesperson Kaelan Dorr, who doubled down on X, saying, in part: “Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue.”
No one should be surprised at that reaction, considering how many questionable AI images Trump has shared. (And, although it wasn’t artificial intelligence, don’t get me started on his racist post about the Obamas earlier this month.)
He once posted an AI video of himself — with a crown on his head — flying a plane that dumps feces onto “No Kings” protesters. It was even more disturbing when he released a deepfake video of former President Barack Obama, who seems to live rent-free inside Trump’s head, being arrested in the Oval Office.
Imagine the uproar if another president had done such a thing. Many people have normalized this kind of corrosive behavior so much that Teflon Don usually gets off with a shrug. But those of us who care about accountability have to keep calling him out.
Dirty politics are one thing, but when Trump administration officials manipulated the photo of Levy Armstrong, a private citizen, it made my blood boil. It’s another reminder that there’s no bottom with Trump when it comes to how low he will go, and that’s really scary.
I recently had a chance to speak with Levy Armstrong, and can report that, despite the administration’s efforts, she is unbowed and unbroken.
She called the government’s use of the fake image “horrifying and deeply disturbing,” and insists “I was cool, calm, and collected” during the arrest.
“I guess because they didn’t see me broken, they needed to manufacture an image of me broken,” Levy Armstrong told me.
“This is not unlike what has happened historically to Black people with all of the Sambo imagery and the mammy imagery that’s out there, with exaggerated features and darkened skin,” she said. “That’s the same thing that I went through, and that’s what they did to me. Not to mention making me look hysterical.”
She added that “I felt caricaturized, just like our people have been during slavery and Jim Crow.”
While I had her on the phone, I also asked Levy Armstrong about the arrest of former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who covered the protest she organized.
Journalist Don Lemon speaks to the media outside the U.S. District Courthouse in St. Paul, Minn., on Feb. 13.
Levy Armstrong disputes MAGA claims that Lemon was a participant in the demonstration, as opposed to being an observer. Levy Armstrong told me, “I just think it’s foolishness that they would try to rope him in as a protest organizer.”
“He’s not an activist. He’s not an organizer,” she pointed out. “He’s not a protester whatsoever.”
The former law professor said that referring to Lemon as an organizer was an excuse to attack him, as well as Georgia Fort, an Emmy Award-winning independent Black journalist based in Minnesota, who also faces federal charges after covering the protest.
Minnesota-based independent journalist Georgia Fort speaks to reporters and supporters outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul, Minn., on Feb. 17, after pleading not guilty over her alleged role in a protest that disrupted a Sunday service at a Southern Baptist church in St. Paul.
I’ve covered many protests throughout my journalism career, and find what happened particularly upsetting. Republicans talk a good game about upholding the Constitution, but the arrests were clearly an attempt to keep journalists from exercising their First Amendment right to freedom of the press.
Meanwhile, no arrests have been made in the fatal shootings by Border Patrol and ICE, respectively, last month of Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse, or Renee Good, a mother of three.
But Levy Armstrong has been charged for her role in a disruptive but peaceful protest inside a church during which no one was physically harmed. (And, yes, although they are rare, demonstrations in churches happen. During the civil rights movement, demonstrators would hold “kneel-ins” to protest segregated churches in the Jim Crow South.)
An ordained minister, Levy Armstrong told me she draws strength from such icons of the civil rights movementas Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., all of whom had suffered the indignity of being arrested while fighting for their basic human rights.
“Everybody needs to wake up,” she said. “This is not just about immigration. This is about our constitutional rights. This is about our democracy. This is about our freedoms.”
Freedoms we stand to lose if we allow the Trump administration to try and silence us the way it has attempted to do with Lemon, Fort, and Levy Armstrong, among so many others.
Levy Armstrong has nothing but praise for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who is vocal about prosecuting ICE agents who run afoul of the law. Her suggestion for concerned Philadelphians? “Get some whistles,” she said. “Get some people organized. Hold your elected leaders accountable.”
The Upper Darby Township Council passed a resolution Wednesday to restrict cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to growing concerns about the agency’s activities in the diverse township.
The 11-member council, made up entirely of Democrats, voted unanimously to pass a resolution saying the town will not use its resources to assist ICE with non-criminal immigration enforcement. But the largely symbolic resolution nearly mirrors the municipality’s existing guidelines, leading to criticism that it does not go far enough.
The resolution’s passage comes after Parady La, an Upper Darby resident struggling with addiction, died last month in a hospital while in ICE’s custody. It also follows the chaotic scenes in Minneapolis, where federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti last month as President Donald Trump’s administration targeted the city with a massive immigration enforcement operation.
Those events have fueled anxiety in Upper Darby, where nearly a quarter of the population is foreign-born, compared with 15% in Philadelphia. Armed ICE agents wearing masks have become a familiar sight in the township, prompting residents to question why their community is suddenly under pressure, including high school students who held a walkout earlier this month.
Council President Marion Minick called the resolutiona chance to show immigrants in the community “they are not alone.”
“We can demonstrate through our votes and through our voices that Upper Darby Council will do everything within our legislative power to shield our residents and their families from this climate of intimidation,” he said.
The council’s resolution comes as localgovernmentsacross the country and in the Philadelphia area try to curb ICE’s impact on their residents. Last month, Haverford passed a similar measure and Bucks County ended its agreement with the agency that allowed sheriff’s deputies to act as immigration enforcement.
Council member Kyle McIntyre, a progressive community organizer who began his term last month, emphasized that the resolution is “just the start.”
“There is so much more than we can do, and we will be doing, and I make that solemn promise to the community right now,” he said before the vote.
“If we don’t do more, hold us accountable,” he added.
Kyle McIntyre, an Upper Darby Township council member, listens to residents’ comments during a township meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at the Upper Darby Municipal Building in Upper Darby, Pa.
Township solicitor Mike Clarke said that police will cooperate with ICE if the agency has a criminal warrant signed by a judge.
“Local law enforcement is not supposed to be in the immigration enforcement business, and essentially that’s what this resolution is saying … but if it’s a criminal warrant, they will be involved,” Clarke said.
A list of frequently asked questions about ICE on the township’s website already stated that Upper Darby does not participate in civil immigration enforcement or ask residents their immigration status, though it does cooperate with lawfully issued criminal warrants and court orders. Township spokesperson Rob Ellis confirmed that the resolution reaffirms the town’s existing internal policy.
The lack of cooperation seems to be going both ways.
Upper Darby Mayor Ed Brown said earlier this month that ICE would no longer communicate with local police to tell them when agents are operating in the township, calling the change “scary.” ICE did not immediately respond to a request for clarity on Thursday.
Some residents at the meeting expressed concern about the reaffirmed policy getting in the way of public safety, and McIntyre later said the policy ensures anyone in Upper Darby can feel comfortable reporting crimes to the police. He said “anybody that commits a crime in Upper Darby Township will be held accountable,” regardless of immigration status.
Jennifer Hallam, who said she has worked with immigrants in Upper Darby for almost a decade, urged the council to postpone its vote and instead pursue legislation that has more teeth.
“The current resolution really just preserves the status quo,” she said.
She called for a resolution that would restrict ICE from municipal property without judicial warrants, prohibit the collection and sharing of immigration status among municipal employees, and prohibit ICE from wearing masks. Philadelphia lawmakers are attempting to ban ICE from wearing masks, though experts are split on whether the measure would be legally sound.
McIntyre said in an interview that Wednesday’s resolution puts the council’s values down on paper and provides clarity to the community, but he acknowledged that a resolution is not enforceable.
A death in ICE custody close to home
The community has been grappling with the death of La, a 46-year-old Cambodian immigrant and Upper Darby resident who, according to his widow, Meghan Morgan, struggled with addiction. La came the United States in 1981 as a refugee around the age of 2. He became a lawful permanent resident a year later but lost his legal status after committing a series of crimes over two decades, ICE said.
ICE said agents arrested La outside his home last month before he received treatment for severe withdrawal in a Philadelphia detention center. He was admitted to the hospital in critical condition, where his condition worsened and he died, the agency said.
Morgan and La’s daughter Jazmine La said they believe he was not given proper medical treatment and the Pennsylvania ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request surrounding his detention and death.
McIntyre last month called on Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner to investigate La’s death.
Rouse said at the time that Delaware County law enforcement was not involved or aware of La’s detainment when it happened, and that his office would investigate it. He said Thursday that surveillance footage showed La was detained “without violence” but that his death in Philadelphia should be addressed by “investigating authorities” in the city.
Krasner’s office declined to comment, saying it was a federal matter.
Staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday dismissed rumors that he may challenge Mayor Cherelle L. Parker when she will face reelection next year, and he said in a statement that he is focused on his job as the city’s top prosecutor.
Krasner, who last year won his third term as district attorney and has cultivated a national brand,told The Inquirer that talk he might challenge the incumbent divides the city’s leadership.
His statement came after the news website Axios Philly reported that some political insiders were floating Krasner’s name as a potential mayoral contender.
“Especially in these times, all Philadelphia residents need to stand together and work together for Philly,” Krasner said. “Not sure whose agenda this narrative serves, but there’s nothing new about insiders stirring things up to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.”
Talk of Parker facing a potential primary challenge ramped up in recent days after the mayor’s political action committee filed a campaign finance report showing she had raised $1.7 million last year, a striking sum for a sitting mayor two years out from a reelection bid.
In this 2024 file photo, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is flanked by Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and District Attorney Larry Krasner during a news conference.
The fundraising report fueled speculation among the city’s political class that Parker, a centrist Democrat who is backed by much of the party establishment, may be expecting a challenge in the primary.
Krasner, 64, is the most prominent progressive in the city. He won reelection last year in landslide fashion, and he has positioned himself as the city’s most vocal Trump opponent, often drawing comparisons between the federal government and 20th-century fascism.
And several past district attorneys have run for mayor, including Ed Rendell, who went on to serve two terms in City Hall and then was elected governor of Pennsylvania.
But for Krasner, any run at Parker would be tricky.
Krasner, who is white, has been successful in electoral politics in large part because of support from the city’s significant bloc of Black voters, politicians, and clergy. Those groups are also key to the base of support that has backed Parker, who comes from a long line of Black politicians hailing from the city’s Northwest.
Allies of the district attorney say a better fit — if he decided to seek higher office — could be running for a federal seat.
Political observers have suggested a handful of Democrats, including Krasner, could run for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. John Fetterman. The Democratic senator, who will be up for reelection in 2028, has an independent streak and has angered many in the party for at times siding with Republicans.
Several other Democrats have been floated as potential contenders for the seat, including U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle, of Philadelphia, and Chris Deluzio, whose Western Pennsylvania district includes Allegheny County. Some have also speculated that former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, also of Western Pennsylvania, could run.
Philadelphia’s bombastic district attorney, Larry Krasner, is no stranger to opposition from within his own party, but the anger directed at him last week after he said ICE agents are “wannabe Nazis” was more pronounced than usual.
After making the comparison, Krasner faced a wave of criticism, including from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, who called the comments “abhorrent” and said the rhetoric doesn’t help “bring down the temperature.”
But the progressive district attorney said Monday that he would not back down, saying “these are people who have taken their moves from a Nazi playbook and a fascist playbook.”
“Governor Shapiro is not meeting the moment,” Krasner said in an interview. “The moment requires that we call a subgroup of people within federal law enforcement — who are killing innocent people, physically assaulting innocent people, threatening and punishing the use of video — what they are. … Just say it. Don’t be a wimp.”
Krasner pointed to a speech by Rabbi Joachim Prinz at the March on Washington in 1963: “Bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful, and the most tragic problem is silence.”
In invoking that speech, Krasner said: “A reminder, Mr. Governor: Silence equals death.”
Krasner’s defense came after days of criticism from across the political spectrum, ranging from the White House press secretary to Democratic members of Congress. And it punctuated a yearslong history of conflict with Shapiro.
The governor and Philadelphia’s top law enforcement official have feuded politically,sparred in court, and disagreed on policy. In 2019 — when lawyers from Krasner’s office decamped to work for then-Attorney General Shapiro — DA’s office staffers referred to Shapiro’s office as “Paraguay,” a reference to the country where Nazis took refuge after the war.
Last week, during a news conference about proposed restrictions on immigration enforcement in Philadelphia, the district attorney said he would “hunt down” and prosecute U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who commit crimes in the city.
“There will be accountability now. There will be accountability in the future. There will be accountability after [Trump] is out of office,” Krasner said. “If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities.”
During an interview Thursday on Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier, Shapiro was asked about Krasner’s comparison of ICE agents to Nazis and called the comments “unacceptable.”
“It is abhorrent and it is wrong, period, hard stop, end of sentence,” Shapiro said.
Several other Democrats in political and media circles weighed in. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has at times sided with Trump on immigration matters, appeared on Fox News and said he “strongly” condemned Krasner’s language.
He said that “members of ICE are not Nazis.”
“That’s gross,” Fetterman said. “Do not compare anyone to Nazis. Don’t use that kind of rhetoric. That can incite violence.”
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Democrat who represents parts of Western Pennsylvania, in an interview with the Washington Examiner contrasted his own approach with Krasner’s, saying: “I reserve throwing the phrase Nazis at actual Nazis. I don’t just throw that around.”
And State Rep. Manuel Guzman Jr., a Democrat who represents a significant Latino population in Berks County, wrote on social media Friday: “I really, really want Krasner to chill tf out.”
“I get it. We want to protect our immigrant community,” Guzman wrote, “but I question if constantly poking the bear is the right strategy. At the end of the day it’s my community that is under siege.”
And U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican who represents parts of Northeast Pennsylvania, appeared on Newsmax and called Krasner a “psychopath with a badge.”
Meuser — who considered challenging Shapiro for governor with Trump’s backing but ultimately decided not to run — also on social media decried “the Left’s silence and, in many cases, encouragement of this rhetoric.”
Krasner doubled down. In an interview on CNN on Thursday, he criticized Fetterman as “not a real Democrat” and also said, “There are some people who are all in on the fascist takeover of this country who do not like the comparison to Nazi Germany.”
He said that when he promised to “hunt down” federal agents who kill someone in his jurisdiction, he was attempting to make a point that there is no statute of limitations on homicide.
The interviewer, Kaitlan Collins, asked Krasner whether he could have made that point without comparing agents to Nazis.
“Why would I do that?” Krasner responded. “They’re taking almost everything they do out of the Nazi playbook.”
Video of the Jan. 19 incident between 22-year-old Paulina Reyes and 22-year-old Francis Scales quickly went viral on social media, garnering millions of views and spurring reactions from right-leaning influencers and Elon Musk.
During the confrontation, Reyes — whose internship with WHYY had ended before the incident — accused Scales of being a “fascist” and a “racist” for posting content online she viewed as insulting to Muslims and people of color.
Attorney General Dave Sunday, in announcing Thursday that his office’s mass transit prosecutor would oversee the case, said “violence will not be tolerated as a means to conduct political debate, protest, or exhibit differences.
“This type of violence is senseless, as we have an individual facing criminal charges over political disagreement,” the attorney general said in a statement.
In addition to simple assault, Reyes is charged with possessing an instrument of a crime, a misdemeanor. She also faces charges of harassment and disorderly conduct, which are summary offenses.
Reyes was arraigned Thursday morning and released without having to to post bail.
The mass transit prosecutor for Philadelphia, Michael Untermeyer, worked with SEPTA police to bringthe charges, according to Sunday.
It has drawn criticism from District Attorney Larry Krasner, who last year challenged the law that created the post, saying it was unconstitutional, unfairly singled out Philadelphia, and stripped his office of authority.
A spokesperson for Krasner did not immediately return a request for comment on the special prosecutor’s decision.
Footage of the South Philadelphia incident ricocheted across conservative media, and some influencers had accused Reyes of being an “Antifa agitator” and called for her arrest. Musk’s comments on X, suggesting Reyes had “violence issues,” generated hundreds of thousands of views alone.
Reyes told The Inquirer in an earlier interview that she had been defending herself against Scales, who was filming her,and that resorting to pepper spray was “not something I wanted to do.”
She said she has since received death and rape threats for her role in the confrontation. She did not return a request for comment Thursday.
Reyes and Scales knew each other from attending the Community College of Philadelphia, where Reyes is still a student.
Videos on Scales’ social media page, Surge Philly, show the commentator interviewing attendees at protests, asking them questions about charged topics such as immigration enforcement. He has also been a vocal critic of Krasner.
Scales said Reyes’ pepper spray got in his face and eyes, and Sunday, the attorney general, said Reyes also punched the man. A friend who was with Scales filmed the incident. Scales, too, filmed Reyes, saying he did so for his own safety.
Scales said in a statement that he was grateful for the attorney general’s decision to bring charges, and that he hoped that would deter others from similar actions.
“No one has the right to physically attack another person because of different opinions,” Scales said.
District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday announced the formation of a new coalition of progressive prosecutors committed to charging federal agents who violate state laws.
Krasner joined eight other prosecutors from U.S. cities to create the Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach, a legal fund that local prosecutors can tap if they pursue charges against federal agents.
The move places Krasner at the center of a growing national clash between Democrats and the Trump administration over federal immigration enforcement and whether local law enforcement can — or should — charge federal agents for actions they take while carrying out official duties.
It is also the latest instance in which Krasner, one of the nation’s most prominent progressive prosecutors, has positioned himself as Philadelphia’s most vocal critic of President Donald Trump. He has made opposing the president core to his political identity for a decade, and he said often as he was running for reelection last year that he sees himself as much as a “democracy advocate” as a prosecutor.
Krasner has used provocative rhetoric to describe the president and his allies, often comparing their agenda to World War II-era fascism. During a news conference Tuesday, he said federal immigration-enforcement agencies are made up of “a small bunch of wannabe Nazis.”
The coalition announced Wednesday includes prosecutors from Minneapolis; Tucson, Ariz.; and several cities in Texas and Virginia. It was formed to amass resources after two shootings of U.S. citizens by federal law enforcement officials in Minnesota this month.
Renee Good, 37, was shot and killed in her car by an ICE officer on Jan. 7 as she appeared to attempt to drive away during a confrontation with agents. The FBI said it would not investigate her killing.
People visit a memorial for Alex Pretti at the scene in Minneapolis where the 37-year-old was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol officer.
Then, on Saturday, Alex Pretti, 37, was killed after similarly confronting agents on a Minneapolis street. Video of the shooting, which contradicted federal officials’ accounts, appeared to show Border Patrol agents disarming Pretti, who was carrying a legally owned handgun in a holster. They then shot him multiple times. Federal authorities have attempted to block local law enforcement from investigating the shooting.
Krasner said that, despite Vice President JD Vance’s recent statement that ICE officers had “absolute immunity” — an assertion the Philadelphia DA called “complete nonsense” — prosecutors in FAFO are prepared to bring charges including murder, obstructing the administration of justice, tampering with evidence, assault, and perjury against agents who commit similar acts in their cities.
“There is a sliver of immunity that is not going to save people who disarm a suspect and then repeatedly shoot him in the back from facing criminal charges,” Krasner said during a virtual news conference Wednesday. “There is a sliver of immunity that is not going to save people who are shooting young mothers with no criminal record and no weapon in the side or back of the head when it’s very clear the circumstances didn’t require any of that, that it was not reasonable.”
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner attends an event at Independence National Historical Park on Dec. 21, 2025.
How will FAFO work?
The coalition has created a website, federaloverreach.org, and is soliciting donations.
Prosecutors who spoke during the news conference said those donations would be toward a legal fund that would allow prosecutors to hire outside litigators, experts, and forensic investigators as they pursue high-profile cases against federal agents.
“This will function as a common fund,” said Ramin Fatehi, the top prosecutor in Norfolk, Va., “where those of us who find ourselves in the tragic but necessary position of having to indict a federal law enforcement officer will be able to bring on the firepower necessary to make sure that the federal government doesn’t roll us simply through greater resources.”
The money raised through the organization will not go to the individual prosecutors or their political campaigns, they said Wednesday.
Scott Goodstein, a spokesperson for the coalition, said the money will be held by a “nonpartisan, nonprofit entity that is to be stood up in the coming days.” He said the prosecutors are “still working through” how the fund will be structured.
Krasner said it would operate similarly to how district attorneys offices receive grant funding for certain initiatives.
Most legal defense funds are nonprofit organizations that can receive tax-deductible donations. Those groups are barred from engaging in certain political activities, such as explicitly endorsing or opposing candidates for office.
Goodstein said the group is also being assisted in its fundraising efforts by Defiance.org, a national clearinghouse for anti-Trump activism. One of that group’s founders is Miles Taylor, a former national security official who, during the first Trump administration, wrote under a pseudonym about being part of the “resistance.”
Demonstrators from No ICE Philly gathered to protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, office at 8th and Cherry Streets, on Jan. 20.
‘Who benefits?’
In forming the coalition, Krasner inserted himself into a national controversy that other city leaders have tried to avoid.
His approach is starkly different from that of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, a centrist Democrat who has largely avoided criticizing Trump. She says she is focused on her own agenda, and has not weighed in on the president’s deportation campaign.
Members of the mayor’s administration say they believe her restraint has kept the city safe. While Philadelphia has policies in place that prohibit local officials from some forms of cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, the Trump administration has not targeted the city with surges of ICE agents as it has in other jurisdictions — such as Chicago and Los Angeles — where Democratic leaders have been more outspoken.
Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel have at times been frustrated with Krasner’s rhetoric, according to a source familiar with their thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel speaking ahead of a July 2024 press conference.
That was especially true this month when Krasner hosted a news conference alongside Sheriff Rochelle Bilal. The pair made national headlines after Krasner threatened to prosecute federal agents — something he has vowed to do several times — and Bilal called ICE a “fake” law enforcement agency.
Bethel later released a statement to distance the Police Department from the Sheriff’s Office, saying Bilal’s deputies do not conduct criminal investigations or direct municipal policing.
The police commissioner recently alluded to Parker’s strategy of avoiding confrontation with the federal government, saying in an interview on the podcast City Cast Philly that the mayor has given the Police Department instruction to “stay focused on the work.”
“It is not trying to, at times, potentially draw folks to the city,” Bethel said. “Who benefits from that? Who benefits when you’re putting out things and trying to… poke the bear?”
As for Krasner’s latest strategy, the DA said he has received “zero indication or communication from the mayor or the police commissioner that they’re in a different place.”
“I feel pretty confident that our mayor and our police commissioner, who are doing a heck of a lot of things right,” he said, “will step up as needed to make sure that this country is not invaded by a bunch of people behaving like the Gestapo.”
In Harrisburg, a top Democrat floated making Pennsylvania a so-called sanctuary state to protect undocumented immigrants.
And in Washington, senators faced mounting pressure to hold up funding for the Department of Homeland Security, an effort that could result in a government shutdown by the end of the week.
Across the nation, lawmakers are fielding calls to rein in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after President Donald Trump’s administration surged forces into Minneapolis as part of his aggressive nationwide deportation campaign. Frustration with the agency reached new heights Saturday after agents fatally shot protester Alex Pretti, the second killing of a U.S. citizen there this month.
Democrats nationwide slammed ICE and called on Trump to pull the forces out of Minnesota. Sen. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has at times sided with Trump on immigration matters, said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem should be fired.
Anti-ICE activists demonstrate outside U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s Philadelphia office on Monday, calling for an end to federal immigration enforcement policies.
A growing number of Republicans have also signaled their discomfort with the Minneapolis operation, including Trump allies who called on members of the administration to testify before Congress. Sen. Dave McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican, has called for an independent investigation into Pretti’s killing.
Trump, for his part, showed some willingness to change course, sending border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to meet with Democratic leaders there. The president on Tuesday called Pretti’s death a “very sad situation.”
Rue Landau shown here during a press conference at City Hall to announce a package of bills aimed at pushing back against ICE enforcement in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
However, a chorus of Democrats and activists said Tuesday that the agency needs to change its tactics and be held accountable for missteps. And local leaders said they are laying out plans in case a surge of immigration enforcement comes to Philadelphia, home to an estimated 76,000 undocumented immigrants.
“We have spent hours and hours and hours doing tabletop exercises to prepare for it,” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said during a Monday night interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Philadelphia officials said the best way they can prepare is by limiting the city’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
City Councilmember Kendra Brooks, of the progressive Working Families Party, and Councilmember Rue Landau, a Democrat, were joined by dozens of activists and other elected officials during a news conference Tuesday to unveil a package of legislation aimed at codifying into law the city’s existing “sanctuary city” practices.
Those policies, which are currently executive orders, bar city officials from holding undocumented immigrants in custody at ICE’s request without a judicial warrant.
Landau and Brooks’ legislative package, expected to be introduced in Council on Thursday, goes further, preventing ICE agents from wearing masks, using city-owned property for staging raids, or accessing city databases.
Erika Guadalupe Núñez, executive director of immigrant advocacy organization Juntos, said the legislation “goes beyond just ‘We don’t collaborate.’”
Juntos gets regular calls about ICE staging operations at public locations in and around Philadelphia, and people have been worried, despite official assurances, whether personal information held by the city will be secure from government prying.
“We deserve a city that has elected leadership that’s willing to step forward with clear and stronger protections,” Núñez said.
A protester speaks to a Minnesota State Patrol officer near the site of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.
If the legislation is approved, Philadelphia would have some of the most stringent protections for immigrants in the country.
Oregon has especially strong restrictions against cooperation with federal immigration authorities, including barring local law enforcement from detaining people or collecting information on a person’s immigration status without a judicial warrant.
In Illinois, local officers “may not participate, support, or assist in any capacity with an immigration agent’s enforcement operations.” They are also barred from granting immigration agents access to electronic databases or to anyone in custody.
California, New York, Colorado, Vermont — and individual jurisdictions in those states — also provide strong protections for immigrants.
In New Jersey, Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who was sworn in last week, has kept the state’s sanctuary directive in place as lawmakers seek to expand and codify the policy into law. Legislators came close in the final days of former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, but he killed a related bill that had won approval in Trenton, saying he worried that enacting a law that included changes to the state’s current policy would invite new lawsuits.
Meanwhile, some conservatives say bolstering sanctuary policies risks community safety.
“If an illegal immigrant breaks the law, they should be dealt with and handed over to federal law enforcement, not be released back into our neighborhoods to terrorize more victims and commit more crime,” said James Markley, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Republican Party.
He added: “Sanctuary policies don’t protect communities, they endanger all of us by shielding criminals from accountability for their crimes.”
Democrats are taking varying approaches
The widespread outrage over ICE’s tactics in Minneapolis has exposed sharp divisions in elected Democrats’ responses.
“There will be accountability now. There will be accountability in the future. There will be accountability after [Trump] is out of office,” Krasner said Tuesday. “If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities.”
District Attorney Larry Krasner speaks during a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday to announce a package of bills aimed at pushing back against ICE enforcement in Philadelphia.
Somewhere in the middle is State Sen. Sharif Street, a Philadelphia Democrat and former head of the state party who is running for Congress.
Street does not have Krasner’s bombast, but this week he announced plans to introduce legislation to prevent state dollars from funding federal immigration enforcement. The bill has less of a chance of becoming law in Pennsylvania’s divided state legislature than similar measures would in Philadelphia, where City Council is controlled by a supermajority of Democrats.
“Who knows the amount of money that the state could incur because of Trump’s reckless immigration policies?” Street said in an interview Tuesday. “I don’t think state taxpayers should be paying for Donald Trump’s racist, reckless policies.”
The mayor’s critics have said her approach is not responsive to the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic residents.
“To the people of Philadelphia, I want to say: I hear you. You want ICE out of our city, and you want your local government to take action,” Brooks, the Council member, said Tuesday. “Some people believe that silence is the best policy when dealing with a bully, but that’s never been an option for me.”
Kendra Brooks shown here during a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday to announce a package of bills aimed at pushing back against ICE enforcement in Philadelphia.
Others say Parker’s conflict-averse strategy is appropriate.
“All of us have different roles to play,” Street said. “The mayor has to manage the city. She’s got to command law enforcement forces. … As a state legislator, we make policy.”
Rafael Mangual, a fellow who studies urban crime and justice at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute in New York City, said legislative efforts to erect barriers between federal and local law enforcement could backfire.
“If you don’t engage at all, and you do something that seems to actively frustrate the federal government,” Mangual said, “that would seem to be an invitation for the federal government to prioritize a city like Philadelphia.”
Staff writers Alfred Lubrano, Aliya Schneider, and Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.
In the most-watched race for Congress in Philadelphia in more than a decade, State Rep. Chris Rabb has cast himself as the unabashed anti-establishment leftist. He’s refusing donations from corporations, calls the war in Gaza a genocide, and wants to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But despite announcing his campaign more than six months ago, he had yet to amass support from much of the city’s progressive flank, leading observers to wonder if he would be able to tap into the movement’s network of donors and volunteers.
It appears they’re coming around.
Rabb this week has won an endorsement from One PA, a progressive political group that’s aligned with labor and most of the city’s left-leaning elected officials. That comes after the environmental justice group Sunrise Movement said it, too, would back Rabb.
“This is a moment when democracy is at stake,” said Steve Paul, One PA’s executive director. “If there was any moment for the style of leadership that Chris [Rabb] brings to the table, it’s this moment.”
Rabb said he’s “energized” by the endorsement and what it means for the campaign.
“Our movement is growing every single day,” he said.
The questions now are whether some of the city’s most prominent progressive elected officials will lend their endorsements to Rabb, and if deep-pocketed national organizations will spend money to back him.
For example, Justice Democrats, a progressive political action committee, said it’s “very closely looking at this district.” And the Working Families Party, the labor-aligned third party that supports progressives across the nation, has endorsed candidates in four other congressional races with competitive primaries — but not yet in Philadelphia’s. The group previously spent millions to boost candidates in the region.
The primary election — the marquee race in deep-blue Philadelphia — isn’t until May. But some on the left say the movement should have already coalesced around Rabb.
“We will probably regret it in the end, because this is a seat we should win,” said one leader of a progressive organization in the city who requested anonymity to speak freely about the political dynamic.
Rabb is seen as something of a lone operator with his own political apparatus. He didn’t come up through the newer progressive organizations that have run their own candidates for office in the city. Rather, he won a seat in the state House for the first time a decade ago when he toppled an establishment-backed Democrat.
State Rep. Chris Rabb at a forum hosted by the 9th Ward Democratic Committee on Dec. 4, 2025. He is a Democratic candidate running to represent Philadelphia’s Third Congressional District.
Some of the city’s progressive leaders say they expect to back Rabb but that they were waiting to see how the field shaped up.
Last year, there were efforts to recruit other left-leaning candidates to run, including City Councilmember Kendra Brooks of the Working Families Party, and State Rep. Rick Krajewski, according to three sources with knowledge of the efforts who spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve relationships. Both decided against running.
Brooks — who emerged as a face of the Working Families Party six years ago after she became the first third-party candidate to win a seat on Council in 100 years — is likely to back whomever the organization endorses. The group is still in the midst of its endorsement process.
“We’re confident that we will land on a progressive who will fight for working people, not billionaire donors, big corporations, or special interests,” WFP spokesperson Nick Gavio said.
Krajewski, who represents parts of West Philadelphia, has also not endorsed a candidate but he said he will. Rabb, according to Krajewski, has the qualities necessary to be a member of Congress during “a pivotal moment for our country.”
“The question is: Do we allow the fascists and the ruling class to double down on this insanity that they’re pushing? Or do we use this opportunity to agitate and say a different world is possible?” Krajewski said. “That’s what I want from my member of Congress. Chris [Rabb] has demonstrated that he’s clear about that.”
Pennsylvania State Rep. Rick Krajewski making statements at a news conference and rally by University of Pennsylvania graduate students. Grad students held the event to call for a strike vote against the university at corner of South 34th and Walnut Streets on Nov. 3, 2025.
Meanwhile, other candidates in the wide-open Democratic primary have tried to pick off progressive support.
State Sen. Sharif Street, the former chair of the state Democratic Party, is seen as the establishment’s pick for the seat. But he also has alliances with some of the city’s most progressive leaders.
That includes a decades-long relationship with Councilmember Rue Landau, who often votes with Council’s progressive bloc and is the first openly LGBTQ person ever elected to Council. Two sources familiar with Landau’s thinking said she is strongly considering endorsing Street.
Street has also worked closely on criminal justice reform matters with District Attorney Larry Krasner, perhaps the city’s most prominent elected progressive. He inherited some of Krasner’s political staff to manage his campaign.
However, several other candidates in the congressional race could be in the running for backing from Krasner, who recently won his third term in office in landslide fashion. Rabb, Street, and State Rep. Morgan Cephas previously endorsed Krasner for reelection.
State Rep. Chris Rabb (left), Helen Gym (center), and District Attorney Larry Krasner attend the election results watch party for Working Families Party candidates Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O’Rourke in North Philadelphia on Nov. 5, 2019.
The crowded field may also mean that some elected officials choose not to get involved.
State Rep. Tarik Khan, a Democrat and nurse practitioner who has been backed by progressive organizations, said he has relationships with several leading candidates. That includes his colleagues in Harrisburg, as well as Ala Stanford, a surgeon. She and Khan were both prominent vaccine advocates during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s a lot of good choices in this race,” Khan said. “I’m probably just going to let the process play out.”
