The District Attorney of Philadelphia County, Seth Williams, is a black man. Last year, he personally hired young Kevin Harden, also black, as an Assistant District Attorney. This, despite Harden having been arrested several times, shot several times, and then in 2007 having appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 to criticize "snitching", i.e., coming forward as a witness.
Here's Harden in 2007
ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
Aired October 11, 2007 - 22:00 Â ET
COOPER: "Stop Snitchin'" is a tag line that's become code on the streets. And it's putting law enforcement at a disadvantage.
Homicides are on the rise, but the number of cases closed has been decreasing. As of last month, just 58 percent of this year's homicides have been solved, according to local news reports.
Here at a Southwest Philly barber shop, most of the men we asked said they would not cooperate with police if they had information.
KEVIN HARDEN, PHILADELPHIA RESIDENT: The cops can't take care of me. I snitch on that man, and somebody come after my family. Then everybody going to be dead. You saw what I'm saying? So it ain't even no point you going there. The streets can handle themselves. Survival of the fittest. That's the philosophy of the streets that I grew up on.
COOPER: Kevin Harden says it's a problem that's been woven into his social fabric of his neighborhood.
HARDEN: This the problem people don't understand about Philly. Everybody is amidst (ph) in this. Everybody got a son, or a daughter, or a sister or a cousin that is the murderer, was the murderer, was the drug dealer, is the drug dealer. So I understand the problem. I understand what the epidemic is. I realize. That's a whole other social structure going on with our people. This thing didn't develop over years and years and years.
COOPER: Even when you're the victim.
HARDEN: Look, it's a realistic thing, like I didn't go to court when I got shot.
Why would DA Williams even consider hiring this guy? Well, Kevin Harden is also black.
But who's getting forced out at the DA's office? Not Harden, of course. Another prosecutor, one MK Feeney, who took a peek at Harden's expunged record. An ally of Feeney's was demoted, according to the Philadelphia Daily News.
A.D.A. who resigned snooped on fellow prosecutor, sources say By MENSAH M. DEAN, Phillynews.com, June 30, 2011A veteran Philadelphia homicide prosecutor who was forced to resign last week was asked to leave because she accessed the expunged arrest record of a young prosecutor whom District Attorney Seth Williams personally hired in October.[More]
I'm shocked to see who's defending Harden:
OK, so, to recap, with some speculation thrown in: the black DA, in an act of racial nepotism, hires a black attorney who, by his own statements, holds views directly contrary to law and order. But it's how they do it in the 'hood, so, hey, it's just being realistic, right? Except when those in charge of law and order take an entirely different view of what's traditionally been law and order, you get societal breakdown.
Then, when other prosecutors — who are probably white — have an objection, it's they who get fired. The Philadelphia DA's office becomes a racial war zone, with the blacks in power elbowing out the whites — or at least those who dare to speak up.
Something tells me that in the absence of a Department of Justice investigation (can you imagine Eric Holder taking this one on?), a private lawsuit would shake out a lot of information.
