Category: Philadelphia

John Street is out as Mayor of Philadelphia. Michael Nutter is in.  He started out pissing off the local FOP right before his inauguration.

 The Fraternal Order of Police is angered by Mayor-Elect Michael Nutter’s choice for his cabinet. His selection was a defense attorney for a man accused of killing a police officer.

Nutter’s appointment of Everett Gillison to Deputy Mayor of Public Safety is drawing the ire of the Philadelphia Police Department.

“It’s a mistake, I know our officers out there aren’t happy,” FOP President John McNesby said.

While working as a public defender, Gillison represented the man who shot and killed Officer Gary Skerski in 2006.

I’ll be honest, I’m going to stand with Nutter on this one.  Every man is entitled to a fair trial, and entitled to have the assistance of council in his defense.  There might be other reasons for not liking Gillison, but the fact that he did his duty as public defender is not among them.

Despite all the hewing and hawing that the city needs gun control in order to get control of its skyrocketing homicide rate, it is actually on par to drop 3% in 2007. That’s not to say there’s nothing to worry about; this is still way too high. But notice this:

And what does Mooney attribute this 3% drop to?

“I think with the difference this year; you have to give credit to increased community awareness and involvement in the violence.”

John Appledorn of Citizens Crime Commission whole-heartedly agrees:

“Basically what you have is that people are fed up. They are sick and tired of the criminals running this community. They’re getting away with murder, they are terrorizing people and they are going to make that phone call and get them off the street.”

Appledorn says the Citizens Crime Commission has helped police with tips on cases from graffiti to murder. That number is 215-546-TIPS.

So communities being more willing to work with police can make a difference? I’m shocked, really.

John Street, throughout his administration, refused to accept pay raises.  This was good, since he honestly didn’t deserve one.  Apparently Street thinks he was such a fantastic mayor, that he deserves his pay raises after all, and has decided to collect them from the city before leaving office.

We’ve been blogging about SWAT teams getting the wrong house a bit here lately.  In that case I was glad no one ended up dead.  I noticed a story today about a Philadelphia cop who got the wrong house, but he wasn’t serving a warrant, in fact, he was driving the get away car for a bunch of thugs looking to settle a score.  It would have been justice if these guys ended up taking a dirt nap.

Wyatt beat me to blogging about it.

Here’s a pretty good editorial talking bout Philadelphia’s problems, and unlike most of their politicians, looking for real solutions:

Access to family sustaining blue collar jobs is the first step toward economic empowerment for any community.  If the black and other minority populations of Philadelphia are shut out of such jobs they have little hope of improving their quality of life.  Such hopelessness is a breeding ground for despair and ultimately violence.  To overcome that two things must occur: Philadelphia’s unions must become more open and accessible to black members, and non-union shops – clearly most hospitable to minority employees – must be given a level playing field to compete for government contracts.

Racism in unions is one of those not talked about practices that’s gone on in the northeast for a long time.  Blacks and other minorities have been systematically kept out of many skilled trades, and it’s contributed a lot of the kinds of inner city poverty you see in the large northeastern cities.  It’s one thing that City Council actually deserves some credit for addressing.

CBS 3’s news anchor Alycia Lane, was arrested for assaulting a New York City police officer. According to John Lott, she was looking to get a little help from Fast Eddie. He was making excuses for her on sports talk 610 apparently. You know, whether a police officer is involved here or not, if someone calls you a name, and you haul off and hit the person, it’s still assault. There’s not really any excuse for that.

But yeah, Ed Rendell doesn’t like you having a gun to protect yourself. Think you can count on the governor to make excuses for you if you were to run afoul of all the new gun laws he wants? Doubt it.

Joey Vento, owner of Genos steaks, will go and face the PC police in Philadelphia city government today.

The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations will hold a public hearing Friday to address a controversial sign at the popular Geno’s Steaks that has gained national attention.

The hearing was scheduled after allegations were made accusing Geno’s Steaks of discrimination for posting a sign that reads: “This is America. When ordering speak English.”

Geno’s owner Joey Vento said it is “free speech.”

“Since we have a little problem in the country with the language, it is also telling people at Geno’s Steaks, all we speak is English,” Vento said.

I think it’s free speech too, and I’m pretty sure the guys that operate Pats and Genos treat everyone equally bad. It’s part of the experience.

“Individuals who operate in a place of public accommodation cannot post signage or express messages that might have the resulting affect of making any group, any ethnicity, and any national origin person feel unwelcome,” said Nick Taliaferro, Human Relations Commission.

Philadelphia wants ot be a speech-free zone, rather than a free-speech zone. I’m not surprised.

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh weighs in on the legal front.