Philadelphia – Page 14 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Defining Trespassing Down

If the Inquirer’s editorial board had their way, we’d call tresspassing overstaying your welcome:

The members of Heeding God’s Call also intend to bring their message to the pulpits of legislators’ home congregations. They hope that building grassroots support across the state will change some minds in Harrisburg.

The dozen activists who are scheduled to go on trial today may have overstayed their welcome at a gun shop. But their movement is decidedly welcome in this city and state.

What kind of people are these folks, who can’t get what they want from the legislature, so they go and disrupt a man’s business and try to destroy his livelihood.Â How is Colosimo’s to blame if a gun that was sold from his stop later turns up in a crime?Â Is a Ford dealer responsible for cars that later end up in a drunk driving accident?

Colosimo’s is a scapegoat — a convienent way for the powers that be who run Philadelphia keep deflecting blame for the fact that they are unwilling to remove criminals.Â The Philadelphia Inquirer is apparently only too happy to help.

How Things Roll in Philly

I’m very intrigued by this post by Wyatt, about turning a criminal over to the feds for prosecution on guns charges (felon-in-possession), something we know that the City of Philadelphia often will not do:

Anyway, the AUSA wanted to take over the case and try him federally. He even asked my permission – which made me laugh a little – because he said a lot of Philly detectives resent it when the feds take over their jobs. I told him that I couldnâ€™t care less about that or the court overtime, because putting a thug like this behind bars for some real time was much more important. In Philly, this guy would have received probation or something equally ludicrous. The feds expect him to serve between 7 and 20 years if convicted. Nice!

Emphasis mine.Â So petty territorial issues are more important than public safety in the City of Brotherly Love?Â Wonderful.Â I’m glad Wyatt’s experience with the AUSA was positive, and if we had more detectives in that city with his attitude, we might be able to get some of these folks behind bars where they belong.

I’ll be honest, as a libertarian, I’m skeptical of federal authority to control possession of guns, even by felons, but I’m also skeptical of a city justice system that just refuses to enforce the state laws that are supposed to take care of this problem.Â As long as the herpes theory of the commerce clause is law, it seems to be that the primary goal should be getting dangerous people off the streets.

Almost Right

I am sympathetic to this article, which points out the problem in Philadelphia has to do with abysmal enforcement gun laws against actual criminals.Â This is true.Â The cop killers in Philadelphia were let go without even being charged with gun crimes they were arrested for.

Despite what we endlessly hear – that guns have one purpose, to kill people – Judge Shreeves-Johns didn’t see it that way. She threw out the most serious charges, leaving Floyd with a mess of misdemeanors, but only a single second-degree felony count for gun possession.

Here’s a felon who shouldn’t have a gun in his hand under any circumstances, he’s on a public street, he fires three times, and gets 11 1/2 to 23 months, which is more like a time-out than a serious sentence. The judge also ordered anger-management treatment and drug and alcohol counseling for Floyd.

Is that enough?

No, it’s not.Â I agree with this.Â But here’s where you go to far:

That’s a mistake. If we’re serious about guns, that law must be expanded. If you use or carry a gun when committing a crime – shoplifting bras, writing graffiti, tipping over cows – you must get five years before the other offenses are added on.

No, sorry, I should not get five years because I was speeding while lawfully carrying a firearm.Â People like Stu Bykofsky get what the real problem is, but they also need to get that there are lawful ways people can carry guns in this Commonwealth for the legitimate reason of self-defense.Â I have no problem with enhanced sentencing for criminals who misuse guns to further a criminal act, like robbery, selling crack on the street corner, assault, or other violent acts.Â But some kid in Lancaster shouldn’t get a five year felony rap because he tipped some cows with dad’s pistol in the glove box.Â Let’s not get ridiculous here.Â We can solve the actual problem without getting nuts.

How Well do the Lost-and-Stolen Laws Work?

In a run up to a memorial event for fallen police officers, reporters watching Harrisburg are waiting to see if Fast Eddie decides to use his speech to honor the officers or use their deaths to push for his gun ban agenda. But in an interesting side note to one of the articles pondering Rendell’s plans, the columnist actually inquired as to the success of Philadelphia’s last gun control stunt – lost-and-stolen reporting.

Philadelphia’s nine month-old lost-and-stolen law, for example, remains under legal appeal that could take another year or two.

Everett Gillison, deputy mayor for public safety, tells me that while 152 guns have been reported lost or stolen since the city law took effect in July, not one has been recovered. Not one.

Not a single result has come from their illegal law that flies in the face of state preemption.

Anti-Gun “Debate” for Philly District Attorney

Last night, CeasefirePA held its heavily promoted forum for District Attorney candidates in Philadelphia. I intended to send Bitter to cover it, but we both forgot about it. It may be for the best since it was described by the Inquirer as “sparsely attended” and questions were only allowed from journalists and anti-gun activists who had to recount the loss of their family members in “heartbreaking detail.” If Bitter had been there, she probably would have been considered an anti-gunner, and she would not have been able to ask any questions. Even the paper called the event “unusual…political theater.”

There are a few points worth highlighting from the report. One is that two of the Democratic candidates seems to realize that there’s a problem beyond blaming guns for Philadelphia’s problems.

“What it’s going to take,” [Dan McCaffery] said, “is someone with enough balls – excuse my language – to stand up to” soft judges. “If I have to go to war with the judiciary, I will.” …

[Brian] Grady said the most dangerous criminals needed to be incarcerated for decades. He faulted a system in which assistant district attorneys prepared hard to win trials, then fell down on the job in the sentencing phase.
“Sentencing is not a day off for the A.D.A.,” he said. “Sentencing day is a day of reckoning.”

Those statements may well have come with plenty of anti-gun rhetoric, but there’s not much in the way of pro-gun choices. Proving once again that the Second Amendment isn’t a matter of partisan politics, the only Republican candidate used the event as an opportunity to push “laser branding” for tracing guns. But the award for the most creative statement goes to Democrat Michael Turner who wants to frame the fight for Philly to end preemption and disregard state gun laws as a “civil rights” debate. Using the term “civil rights” to trample civil rights, that’s a funny one.

Philadelphia Politicians At It Again

The state representatives that represent the City of Philadelphia are introducing three bills in Harrisburg:

The first bill would make it illegal for anyone charged with a felony, but not yet convicted, to buy, transfer, sell, or possess a firearm.

The second would prohibit anyone convicted of a felony drug offense as a juvenile from buying or owning a gun as an adult.

The third bill would require a mandatory one-year sentence for carrying a gun without a license. It was first introduced in 2007, but failed to move out of committee.

The first one is a non-starter.Â We don’t limit constitutional rights based on mere accusation of a crime.Â There is not enough due process here.

The second I’d be more amiable to, if I thought it would actually do anything to reduce crime for those intent on committing them.Â Just because a gun control law might be constitutional doesn’t mean it will work. And just because we pass something, doesn’t mean it will be enforced, which brings me to three.

Three is a no go because the city refuses to use the laws it already has.Â We’ve clearly documented on this blog the City’s utter failure to prosecute criminals who carry firearms illegally.

Enforce the laws you already have before you ask for more.Â I am not in favor of giving Philadelphia more laws it won’t use against criminals.Â If the problem is judges, city politicians need to campaign to get new ones.Â The answer is not to continually blame Harrisburg.Â Pennsylvania has expanded its gun control laws significantly in the past several decades, and the city has refused to use any of them to actually go after criminals.Â I think that’s a big deal, and it’s not being talked about, but it’s the the first conversation that should be had before new laws are discussed.Â Philly politicians keep saying the Commonwealth’s gun control laws are inadqueate.Â How would they know if they won’t use them?

Sad Day for My Alma Mater

Drexel’s President has died.Â Â This isn’t a good day for the school.Â Papadakis took over when I was a Junior, and in the intervening years turned the school from a regional engineering school into a nationally recognized university.Â Drexel added a medical school and law school under his watch.Â What he did with the school was incredible, and I suspect he’s irreplaceable.

Hey Mayor Nutter

If you’re looking to balance the city’s budget on the back of the City’s police officers, why don’t you take a look at your narcotics division and start looking to make cuts there.Â I have no patience for this kind of crap.Â Nothing undermines the rule of law more than when police pretend they are not subject to it themselves.

It’s equally outrageous that the city is taking the position that small ziplock bags are drug paraphernalia.Â That the city’s narcotics unit is even wasting time on this small time crap is nuts, to say the least.Â But hey, I suppose shop owners don’t shoot at the police, unlike the real bad guys.

If the state has any sense at all it’ll change its drug paraphenelia laws to deal with this.Â Selling plastic bags should not, in any sane system of justice, be a crime.

The Real Tea Party Protest

Due to an apparently large amount of confusion between various factions of the Philadelphia area conservative movement, the “Tea Party” protest that was held yesterday was not the actual event, sort of.Â Bitter and I headed down to Independence Mall this afternoon, figuring if this event wasn’t happening, we could always get some lunch.Â Well, it was happening.Â See photos below.Â Commentary is in the photos if you click on them.

After everything was over, we went for some lunch and walked around Old City a bit.Â This even could have been much larger and better if accommodations could have been worked out between different groups.Â It is, I hope, not a bad omen for the future of the GOP in the Philadelphia area, that they are unable to successfully organize something like this.

Philadelphia “Tea Party” Protest

Bitter reports back that the tea party is over, and only about 50 people showed up on Independence Mall.Â This is disappointing, but probably due to the fact that the organizations that were organizing the protest could not agree on a time, with some saying it was today at noon, and others saying it was tomorrow at noon.

The important thing is, the crowd booed Senator Specter when his name was mentioned.Â One of the speakers was Devon Generally, who is a dark horse challenger to Specter in GOP primary.Â Bitter reports that he’s a remarkably good off the cuff speaker, saying, “After he wrapped up his campaign-type speech and the camera packed up, he returned to the mic and just started talking.Â People started walking up to listen.Â Folks on the benches nearby really perked up.Â He made the small crowd chuckle a few times.Â During this time, the one news crew that bothered to show came back and started filming again.”

Bitter said that he really put an emphasis on no longer just being right, but organizing.Â We shouldn’t leave organizing to the professional community organizers of the left.Â Even though he is a dark horse candidate, maybe we can see more of Mr. Generally in Philadelphia’s future.