Philadelphia – Page 8 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Philly Doubles Down

Remember that guy who got harassed for OCing in Philadelphia (legally, with a permit)? It looks like the DA decided to go forward with charges against him, and the police showed up at his workplace with an arrest warrant. Charges are Disorderly Conduct, a third degree misdemeanor, and reckless endangerment, a second degree misdemeanor. One of the lawyers on PAFOA notes that this is probably a dirty trick to stave off the possibility of a civil suit.

Apparently in Philadelphia, laws and rights are optional if you’re City government.

Possibly as revenge for burning Atlanta, the rebs now own Tastykake. Great work Philadelphia! It won’t be too long before the North will have no hope of winning if the South does indeed rise again, because everything will be made there, and nothing here. I will definitely join the side with Tastykakes. Add this to my affection for Chick-fil-a, and they’d really have me over a barrel if they tore up all the railroads heading north.

Willow Grove JSB (Formerly Naval Air Station) Closes

A local aviation related story is that one of our historic military landmarks for the area has closed:

Seven military aircraft powered up their engines and taxied slowly along the runway, as if hesitant to leave the ground.

Yet one by one, the hulking C-130 turboprop, the nimble A-10 Thunderbolt, and an assortment of other helicopters and jet fighters took off – hurtling down the 8,000-foot stretch of pavement for what would ultimately be a one-way trip.

“Willow Grove, thanks for the 68 years of dedicated service,” a radio trafficker’s voice squawked as the last plane disappeared into a gray afternoon sky.

Then, the runway lights went dark.

Given that the entire history of modern aviation is only about a century old, Willow Grove has been around for most of it. I went to air shows there as a kid, and more recently, back when they were doing that. The Pentagon has wanted to close it for a while, but local Congress Critters always lobbied to keep it open. What will happen to the base is uncertain, but there’s been talk of using it as an alternate airport to take pressure off of Philadelphia International Airport, which is the 11th busiest airport in the world.

Philly Mayor and Police Chief Back Magazine Ban

Not really shocking. Neither of these two have ever met a gun control bill they didn’t like:

Ramsey, also president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said there’s “simply no legitimate reason not to have this ban in place.”

So are you going to take them away from your officers then Commissioner? I say lead by example. If there’s no legitimate reason to have one, your cops don’t need them either.

Civil Rights Lawsuit

Right here. Seeing someone with a gun is not even legal cause to stop someone in Pennsylvania, let alone draw a gun on them.

UPDATE: Listening to the whole video, and listening to the tone in the cop’s voice, I think that guy was actually close to being shot. Probably best to just keep quiet and be very compliant in that situation. The lawsuit can come later. I’m not sure whether it’s exceptionally brave, or exceptionally stupid to amp up a cop who has a gun drawn on you.

Quality Control, It’s Not Hard

Tasty Baking Company, which makes Tastykakes, is in serious financial trouble. They essentially face going out of business within the next few months, largely due to their management’s poor decision to stay in Philadelphia, and build a “green” bakery, which has not worked out very well for the company, even with a massive infusion of my tax dollars to save green jobs or some crap like that.

Just about every store around here has been having specials on Tastykakes, so we’ve been buying every once in a while. If my tax dollars are going to subsidize them, I might as well eat them. First thing I noticed they are cutting corners on quality control from when I was a kid. A little defect here, and little defect there, I can deal with. No longer. Today was the last straw.

For those of you who grew up or have lived in the Philadelphia area any length of time, you will be able to relate to my extreme angst that Tasty Baking Company sold me a Butterscotch Krimpet with one of the Krimpet’s only partially covered with butterscotch. Anyone growing up having to split a package of Krimpets with their sibling understands the kind of war this will bring about. Villages have been burned over less. We need a UN resolution that “authorizes all necessary means” to ensure this won’t happen again. Seriously Tasty Baking, if you’re going to take my tax dollars, don’t you dare short me on butterscotch!

Look Out Detroit

The Philadelphia metro area is hot your trail:

During the Revolutionary War Philadelphia served as one of Americaâ€™s first capital cities. These days, however, Philadelphia could be considered the capital of toxicity, since the city and its environs ranked No. 1 on our 2011 Most Toxic Cities list. One big reason: The sprawling Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), including parts of four states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and one county in Maryland), is pocked with more than 50 Superfund sites—areas no longer in use that contain hazardous waste.

I shouldn’t rag on this area too much though. Philadelphia is not prone to big booms, but it’s also not prone to big busts either. Housing prices here have been relatively stable, and we haven’t seen the inflation yet here that we’ve seen in other areas. Unemployment is still high but not as bad as it is in a lot of other areas. Pennsylvania’s government is better compared to that of New Jersey and New York’s.

Protesting Philly Gun Shop

Looks like Heeding God’s Call is now Neighborhood Partners to End Gun Violence. The MO of the group is the same, however: basically protest a gun shop to try to get them to sign some kind of code of conduct. Clearly they were emboldened when Colosimo’s gun shop folded. Every Philly gun shops is now, apparently, to blame for the violence in Philadelphia.

At Least It’s Not Gun Violence

Because according to our opponents, it’s not really as big a concern if it wasn’t a gun. Check out this story from the City of Brotherly Love, on what happened when a mother tried to take away her 16 year old son’s Playstation, “Kendall went into his sleeping mother’s bedroom, hit her 20 times with a claw hammer and ultimately killed her,” ultimately, they say, because the claw hammer didn’t quite finish the job so then, “he dragged her downstairs and tried to ‘cremate her’ in the kitchen oven. When that failed, he continued, he beat her in the head with a chair leg before dragging her body outside and hiding under debris in an alley behind the house.”

Thank God this juvenile did not have access to a firearm! Someone might have gotten hurt.

Ignoring the Problems

It’s somehow appropriate that the Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, was chosen to give the counterpoint to Chris Cox’s piece in US News. In his call for a magazine ban & “assault weapons” ban, he uses a Philly example to justify the bans.

Since May 2006, eight Philadelphia police officers have been killed in the line of duty, six by gunfire. One, Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, was felled by an assault weapon.

We’ve covered Liczbinski’s killers here before, and it’s time to hold Mayor Nutter accountable. Before becoming mayor, Nutter was part of the City Council since 1992. During the time he has been in office, these murderers were repeatedly put back out onto the streets even as they racked up an impressive 26 combined pages of criminal offenses, the most of which were Nolle Prossed. As shown in his criminal record, if the City of Philadelphia had put the trigger man behind bars for only the firearms charges, he never would have been on the streets to kill Liczbinski in the first place.

Of course, Nutter won’t answer for why Philadelphia keeps putting these killers back out on the street every single day under his leadership. Instead, he hopes some op-eds in favor of more gun control will keep his constituents from asking real questions about his record on crime.

Category: Philadelphia