2 More Cops Shot Tonight In Philly
But not seriously injured thank god.
“Go after illegal gun dealers,” Mayor Street said. I’m no fan of the mayor, but he’s speaking live right now and he’s the only one I’ve heard tonight differentiating between “the flow of guns” (media) and “the flow of illegal guns” (Street).
That’s a crucial difference, but one that’s being lost in the media frenzy after the sixth Philly cop shot in 3 weeks (1 died).
I would bet anything that all these shootings did not involve legally purchased and possessed guns – yet it’s much easier to go after law abiding citizens and gun dealers than it is the thugs in the Hood dealing illegal guns to felons.
Unfortunately the Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson didn’t note the difference even as he stood next to Street. NBC 10 quotes him as complaining ” the availability of guns is “out of hand here in the City of Philadelphia,” adding the gun laws “the softest … in the entire nation.” Johnson likes to blame others for the city’s deterioration under his and his buddy’s watch, but he really likes to blame guns and gun owners. As best as I can tell he can’t differentiate between a felon and a law abiding citizen when it comes to guns. That goes over well with the gun control crowd, especially those who live in the burbs and don’t have to cross the city line. However it doesn’t explain why cops are getting shot now and not when Timoney and Rindell were in office. After all, guns just didn’t suddenly appear in Philly after Street was elected in 2000, and the gun laws haven’t changed either.
Incoming Mayor Michael Nutter plans to stop the violence using “stop, question and frisk” tactics by the police. Needless to say this is riling some so-called “civil liberties groups,” including the Police Commissioner who said last May that he wouldn’t enforce the policy if Nutter instituted it.
I’ve lived in the area for 10 years and have watched it deteriorate since Rendell left and Street replaced him, and Johnson replaced John Timoney who’s now cleaning up Miami (and raising hell doing it). Under Rendell and Timoney the city was thriving with a declining homicide rate. Since Street and Johnson took office, it’s been a slow slide back into the 70’s, a time of high crime, a spiking homicide rate and an era when cops were running scared, outgunned by the criminals in the street, their hands tied by the “civil liberties groups.”
Nutter calls the city a “filthy mess.” I think he’s letting the city off too easy.
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[...] I don’t belong to the NRA, and I have written positively about the new Philadelphia mayor. But this lack of insight at a time when Philadelphia is in the [...]
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