Two more officers have been shot in the City of Philadelphia. Michael Nutter can’t take over fast enough. Anything, anything has to be better than John Street, and what the city has turned into under his watch.
Category: Philadelphia
John Street Named Adjunct Professor
Apparently soon (but not soon enough) to be former Mayor of Philadelphia, John Street, is going to be teaching a course on urban politics at Temple University. Wyatt has some pretty amusing thoughts on what the topics of his classes might be.
Apprehended
Looks like they caught Officer Chuck Cassidy’s killer:
Two days after the shooting, John Lewis had the audacity to appear in court for an unrelated drug possession case. Knowing full well that he just murdered a police officer, Lewis still appeared in court, surrounded by fellow officers. We did not know at the time that he was Chuck’s killer.
Chuck’s service weapon was recovered yesterday in his Lewis’ cousin’s residence on Fairhill Street. During his questioning, the cousin admitted he helped get Lewis flee the city by driving him to a bus station, and Lewis escaped to Miami, Florida.
I’m hoping the cousin is facing charges as well. I can’t believe he was stupid/arrogant enough to appear in court after the shooting.
Suspect in Philly Cop Killing Identified
Looks like the Philadelphia Police have a suspect.
Philadelphia’s Solution
So how does Philadelphia respond to a spate of officer shootings? Tougher laws against criminals? More police officers on the streets? No. This is how they respond.
Don’t get me wrong, for former criminals that really do want to start a new life, I think they need to be able to get jobs. But this is not a crime control measure, it’s a feel good measure. Until Philadelphia gets serious about crime control, rather than just feeling good that something is being done, nothing is ever going to change.
More on Philadelphia Police Casualties
Eric has a quite excellent post about the recent spate of police officer shootings in the City of Philadelphia:
What is happening with guns in the City of Brotherly Love? Philadelphia may be the City of Brotherly Love, but it’s also the City of Mumia abu Jamal, hardly known for what Mayor Street calls “respect for authority.” Yet he is considered a hero by many, and that makes me wonder under what standard police shooters are to be condemned.
I think the gun control mindset is inextricably related to the view that criminals should not be locked up.
And the view that locking them up makes no difference.
So I’d like to pose a counter-question:
Do you think letting people out is making a difference?
Read the whole thing. As Eric updated on his post, Officer Cassidy died as a result of his wound. Again, if you’d like to donate to the memorial fund for his family:
The Charles Cassidy Family Memorial Trust Fund
901 Arch Street
Philadelphia PA, 19107
I will be sending along a donation as soon as I find my damned checkbook.
Philly Media
I’ve documented many instances of the Philadephia media being vile, but this is a whole new low. There’s very little that’s worse these days than the local television news programs, especially in this town.
UPDATE: The officer involved in that shooting didn’t make it.
UPDATE: Wyatt is asking folks to link this:
Members of the Philadelphia Police Department’s 35th District have established a trust fund for the family of Police Officer Chuck Cassidy, who was killed in the line of duty on Thursday, November 1, 2007 .
Anyone wishing to make a donation can do so in the following ways:
By mailing a check payable to:
The Charles Cassidy Family Memorial Trust Fund
901 Arch Street
Philadelphia PA, 19107
Donations can be made in person as well. Click on the link for details.
Not Impressed
I’m not impressed that Michael Nutter is playing up the race issue within the Philadelphia Police Department. I have been holding out hope that Nutter will be a better leader for the city than the city’s current iPhone loving Corrupter-in-Chief. I’m getting less optimistic. It seems to me Nutty Nutter should heed the advice offered by one of Wyatt’s instructors:
“You’re not white. You’re not black. From here on out, you’re blue.”
The city’s problems aren’t going to get solved by making race an issue, which is part of the city’s problems to begin with.
Foie Gras Bans in Philadelphia
I’m really happy to see with the city murder rate soaring above 300, with the police department in disarray, and with officers getting shot in the face by the scum of humanity, that City Council feels they absolutely have to tackle the problem of Foie Gras being eaten in the City of Brotherly Love. I’m so happy to see that the city’s political leadership has its priorities in order:
Foie gras (pronounced “fwah GRAH”) is the engorged liver of a duck or goose force-fed by a process called gavage. To animal-rights activists, including the Philadelphia group Hugs for Puppies, gavage is cruel.
If you want to be taken seriously as an advocacy group, don’t call yourself “Hugs for Puppies”. Calling yourself that really makes me want to go hang out with Glenn Reynolds and blend a few into smoothies.
Hat tip to West, By God
Changing Arguments
Clayton Cramer talks about some important development in how the Philadelphia political class is talking about the gun issue. They admit at least one thing:
“This society has chosen to live with guns,†Dr. William Schwab was saying in July, as he stood before a roomful of reporters in a Penn Law classroom. “There are over 220 million guns in circulation in the United States of America. There is nothing that’s going to take those guns away.â€
We have to live with guns. You can’t un-invent technology. No attempt to do that has ever succeeded.  Now the bad:
“There’s kind of two different models,†he said. The first is “the idea of a ‘take-away’ model, where the more guns seized, the less guns are carried. But I think what’s really working is a ‘keep-away’ model. That is, if you are deterred from carrying your gun into an area where police might take it away from you, you don’t want lose it, even for the week or two it takes to replace it, because somebody might hear that the cops took your gun, and they might come after you because you’re unarmed.â€
The political class in Philadelphia needs to remember that they live in a state where 600,000 people are licensed to carry a firearm lawfully concealed on their person.  The City of Philadelphia issues 32,000 of these licenses. There are more legal firearms on the streets of Philadelphia in the hands of law-abiding citizens then there are police officers patrolling the city streets.
“Stop and Frisk” is basically having police officers apply what’s called a “Terry Stop”, named after Terry v. Ohio. Terry’s standard in “reasonable suspicion” that a crime is being committed, and that the person is armed. This is much more lax standard than probable cause required for, say, a search of a vehicle, though Terry Stops can be used for a traffic incident as well.
It’s worthwhile for City leaders to realize there is a standard with Terry, and that they may not just randomly stop and search people. I have no problem, in theory, though I do have some specific problems with Terry, with police being able to do a limited unintrusive search to check for weapons on a suspect that’s been seized because of probable cause about a crime committed.
What I fear is that the City will use this as a pretext for harassing people who are lawfully carrying firearms.