AP News, January 5th, 2007
Mayor John Street escalated an exchange of insults with the district attorney, blaming her criticism of his anti-crime leadership on a "little temper tantrum" over budget cuts.
Lynne M. Abraham attacked Street in the last week, pleading that he "do something!" to deal with violence that resulted in 406 homicides in the city last year, the most since 1997.
"You know, stop switching around and changing programs and not having the courage to call up the district attorney and say, 'Lynne, what do you think we ought to do?'" she said at a Dec. 30 news conference. "He's the only mayor in Philadelphia history who hasn't called the district attorney up and said, 'Lynne, we have a crime problem. Let's you and the police department and us sit down and come up with a plan.' Not our mayor."
Abraham's remarks came after the Street administration said her office could face a 2.5 percent budget cut, a reduction Abraham said would mean cutting a dozen prosecutors.
Street, who has supported fellow Democrat Abraham's re-election campaigns, said Abraham's office, like many other departments, needs to manage its finances responsibly.
"We have involved Lynne Abraham in a huge part of our antiviolence efforts. She has only chosen to get ugly now because of her budget," Street said Thursday. "It's really unfortunate that she would seek to trivialize a serious problem we are having in this city and this country."
Abraham's spokeswoman, Cathie Abookire, reiterated that budget cuts would mean fewer prosecutors.
She also said characterizing Abraham's criticism as a "temper tantrum" was a "condescending, arrogant put-down" that "someone would only use in reference to a woman."
The ongoing spat could draw even more attention to the city's violent crime, which is expected to be a major issue in the 2007 mayoral campaign. Street is limited to two terms and will leave office next January.
