Category: Philadelphia

Abraham’s Pilgrimage

Lynn Abraham, District Attorney for Philadelphia, has made a pilgrimage to Harrisburg to plead for more gun laws.

When challenged by Rep. John Pallone, a Democrat from a pro-gun district in southwestern Pennsylvania, Abraham said her testimony was not an “assault” on gun dealers or law abiding gun owners.

“My constituents are different. All I see is dead bodies and people who are quadriplegic.”

Her constituents are different.  It’s only a small percentage of her “constituents” that are causing a problem in Philadelphia.  The vast majority of people are law abiding.  If I lived in Philadelphia, where I might actually need a gun to protect myself, I’d be outraged that Lynn suggests I’m “different” and thus my rights may be curtailed at the whim of city government, while nothing is done about putting more police on patrol, or keeping criminals behind bars.  The City can’t protect it’s residents, and they would prefer its residents not be able to protect itself either.  If there’s a way out for Philadelphia’s political culture, I’m not seeing it.

Abraham said she took issue with two other gun violence bills under consideration today, one that would set bail at $50,000 for anyone displaying a firearm while committing an offense and another that would create a firearms bureau in the state Attorney General’s office and give that office the power the authority to investigate local firearms trafficking cases.

I might have a problem with the former too, depending on the definition of “display” and “offense”, but I find it interesting that when it comes to enforcing the laws the state already has, Abraham’s office gets territorial about having the state AG involved.  We can’t have that, now, can we?

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If You Can’t Beat It, Ban It

Philadelphia is looking to ban plastic bags, because they are environmentally unfriendly, and people litter.  But are they?  Paper production is not exactly green, and neither is recycling paper.  Both are pretty energy intensive process that are laden with hazardous chemicals.

Councilman Jim “F*** you” Kenney will also be touting a bill to ban Styrofoam food containers.    Again, it’s not like paper production is an environmentally friendly process.

Perhaps city council should consider a bill mandating that shoppers bring their own burlap sacks, and that diners eat everything they order.  That would be more environmentally friendly, but then again, why actually be environmentally friendly, when you can pass a bill that will make people think you are.   If there’s one thing the city politicians are good at, it’s offering the illusion of action.

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Buying a Beer in Pennsylvania

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a great editorial up on beer buying in Pennsylvania, for those of you who are unfamiliar with our arcane alcohol control laws:

It still makes little sense for the state to be in the liquor business, but the nearly $500 million in annual revenue generated by liquor sales and taxes is a powerful incentive to maintain the status quo.

Where does that leave consumers? Hoping for whatever customer-friendly upgrades to the state’s liquor-sale rules are possible, that’s where.

(Remember, it’s still against the law to zip over the bridge and bring back your favorite, reasonably priced tipple from New Jersey.)

Enter the Sheetz convenience-store chain, along with its years-long legal battle seeking the right to sell beer for take-out.

I am south of the Wawa/Sheetz line, but I wish Sheetz the best of luck with this case. Wawa is sure to take advantage of this as well, so a win for Sheetz is a win for everybody.

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Philadelphia Protests on Aug 28th

Eric has some pretty good coverage of how things went, including the Philadelphia media reaction.   I feel guilty letting Eric do all the hard work, but I was busy importing another evil baby killer into Pennsylvania from Idaho.

I have the FedEx tracking number.  My Citori is on its way from Reds!

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Philadelphia Prison Overcrowding

Apparently Philadelphia’s prisons are filling up.   I have to wonder about this:

The increase in prison population comes at a time when the city has had a spike in fatal violence. Experts say, however, that the rising inmate count has more to do with a long-term crackdown on drug offenders in the city and tougher prison sentences.

Some small relief may be on the way. State legislation has been devised to reduce overcrowding across Pennsylvania, and part of the change could send at least 700 Philadelphia inmates to state facilities.

Well, at least the state is pitching in to keep non-violent drug offenders off the street, you know.  It’s not like the city has a problem with violent offenders or anything.

The Goldkamp report also pointed out that 88 percent of inmates serving sentences were nonviolent offenders, mostly doing time for drug convictions. “When the role of drug offenders and nonviolent offenders is so pronounced, there is a sizable pool of offenders who could potentially be candidates for alternative sentencing options not now employed,” the report said.

This is more evidence that the war on drugs, which we will never win, as long as people want to do them, is something we ought to reconsider.  If the state is going to have to spend money here, I’d much prefer if it were to keep violent offenders off the street, rather than drug offenders.

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Castle Doctrine Could Help Cops Too

Most of the castle doctrine bills that have been worked through legislatures typically carry a provision to make someone who is involved in a self-defense shooting immune from civil suit from the attacker or his estate.  It’s always seems to me this would benefit police officers as well.

Wyatt Earp tells of a case where a police officer was involved in a self-defense shooting that was completely justified, and which the city is likely to settle instead of fight.   Yet the city politicians could be absolutely counted on to fight any kind of civil immunity for people involved in self-defense shootings, including police officers.

This is yet another example of the City of Philadelphia’s sick political culture, which does very little to empower police officers and citizens to fight crime, and does everything to empower the criminals.  Two things kill Philadelphia: taxes and crime.  There’s no indication that the cities leadership is interesting in tackling either.

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