Mr. Seth Williams is a criminal. Moreover, when serving in the role of Philadelphia District Attorney, he was a predator. He understood his value, and exploited it and others seemingly without prejudice. By selling his power and access to the highest bidder, Mr. Williams acted with purpose and revealed himself to be of the same caliber as the serial wrongdoers that he, and the stained office he once worked in and led, sought to prosecute.
Though his ex-wife, and then the defense attorney, at sentencing tried to paint Mr. Williams as an imperfect man who made mistakes and deserves pity, the federal prosecutor appropriately stayed on message.
“We’re are not talking about a mistake,” Mr. Robert Zauzmer on Tuesday afternoon told Judge Paul Diamond. “He is a criminal,” Mr. Zauzmer said of Mr. Williams.
Not all crimes are made equal. And some perpetrators of crimes are themselves victims of circumstance. Mr. Williams, however, was not.
Mr. Williams, who will serve 60 months in a federal prison for pleading guilty to accepting a bribe, was a masterful manipulator whose schemes were exacerbated by his enablers. His crimes weren’t mistakes; they were the outcomes of evil intent.
If there was ever a man who didn’t deserve pity, it’s the greedy and duplicitous politician who became Philadelphia’s first African-American District Attorney and then later wiped his high-yellow ass with that legacy.
For some people, forgiveness is more about them than their transgressor. And so forgiving Mr. Williams, though I likely won’t ever do it, is palatable. But pitying him – a man so callous that he defrauded his mother, whored out his office and seriously pursued efforts to be re-elected to it – is inappropriate and dangerous. It sends the message that even the most horrid of victimizers deserve a space in your heart and mind.
A more appropriate way to deal with this level of betrayal, beyond forgiveness, is indifference. The voters of Philadelphia should unconcerned themselves with Mr. Williams’ consequences and instead focus on the individual who will replace him for a full term in January.
Indeed, there’s an election for a new District Attorney only two weeks away. Either Mr. Larry Krasner, a liberal Democrat and vocal Seth Williams critic who has a strong criminal justice reform platform, or Ms. Beth Grossman, a Republican endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police who worked under Mr. Williams and who has centered victims in her stump speeches, will be the successor.
The sentencing of Mr. Williams closed a chapter in Philadelphia’s history. And the election of his replacement will open a new one.
This election needs to be a moment of healing where the city sets a standard, and sends a message, for how its political institutions are to be treated by its public servants. Right now, the city’s voters need to be concerned with the future, not occupied by past bad actors.
Don’t pity Mr. Williams. Instead, pretend the criminal doesn’t exist and the future does. A new day for Philadelphia is deserved and overdue.
Thanks for reading! Until next time, I’m Flood the Drummer® and I’m Drumming for Justice!™
Photo courtesy of the author.