FOP Lodge 5 President, John McNesby discussed the decision by district attorney Larry Krasner to indict Philadelphia police officer, Ryan Pownall, with murder from a 2017 shooting of a black man on TalkRadio 1210 WPHT with Dom Giordano.

“After everybody investigated this case and saw nothing wrong, they took it up to [Attorney General] Josh Shapiro at the state and they looked it every which way. They saw no manslaughter, no involuntarily manslaughter [and] no murder [and] brought it back. “

McNesby continued, “We have a District Attorney who is anti-law enforcement, who takes a look at it and all of a sudden steers the Grand Jury in the way he wanted to. That being said, we have to stand by Ryan Pownall and his family.”

McNesby went on to tell Giordano that with the current policies inside the Philadelphia district attorney office, it’s more becoming like that of a public defenders office than a prosecuting office.

“It’s starting to ring some truth out there amongst the criminals that they aren’t going to be arrested. We’re not going to be arrested; if we are we’re going to get a great deal and we don’t have to hire an attorney. The DA’s office has essentially become a public defenders office.”

McNesby is now seeing a low morale amongst the police community, “ We have a police commissioner who is trying to keep everything together and he’s held accountable for things that are out of his hands. He’s trying to do everything possible to curtail crime and we’re doing the job, cops are out there doing the job. Morale is in the toilet, especially after seeing this.”

McNesby is confident that after the legal process Pownall will be cleared and back working in the city as a Philadelphia police officer.

“I’m very, very confident that we’re going to prevail in the long run and that Ryan will once against be a Philadelphia police officer. Until then, it doesn’t help his family that has to put food on the table [and] it doesn’t help the officers who work with him that are shrugging their shoulders at this point.”

Pownall turned himself this morning and the charge of murder and is being held without bail.