You in a heap o’ trouble, boy! Gangland killing over an Instagram post

Kaleem Naseer Roland, mugshot via Pottsville Mercury.

Our good friends at The Philadelphia Inquirer have been doing a series on criminal justice where juveniles are concerned. Part 1 was An outlier on juvenile incarceration, noting that Philly locks up juvies at a rate much higher than other cities, Part 2 is Reforms promised, then abandoned, Part 3 is Womb-to-prison pipeline, noting the not-surprising-at-all fact that kids who bounce around in foster care are far more likely to wind up in jail, and today’s Tracking Teens: Philly is monitoring more kids by GPS than ever.

Well, perhaps, just perhaps, kids in the Philly region really are more likely to be bad kids.

Teen charged with murder in death of Norristown man allegedly linked to a gang feud

Kaleem Naseer Roland is accused of gunning down Tahaj Andru “Pooh” Harrison on May 23. Two other suspects are being sought.

by Robert Moran | Wednesday, June 4, 2025 | 11:02 PM EDT

A teenager was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder in the Norristown shooting death of a 20-year-old man last month in what authorities said was an ongoing gang feud involving prior killings and anger over an Instagram post.

Kaleem Naseer Roland of Norristown, who turned 16 on Thursday, is accused of gunning down Tahaj Andru “Pooh” Harrison on the 600 block of Corson Street shortly before 9:45 p.m. on May 23, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said.

Steele also announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for 17-year-old Naseem Worrell of Norristown for first-degree murder in the death of Harrison, and the prosecutor was offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. A third alleged shooter remains unidentified.

Norristown police were alerted to gunfire in the area and found Harrison dead in the rear yard of his residence, where he staggered to before collapsing in front of his mother, detectives said.

No, of course the Inky didn’t include young Mr Roland’s mugshot, but I found it easily on the Pottstown Mercury.

The feud was “an ongoing gang feud involving prior killings and anger over an Instagram post”. And, if they are found guilty, young Mr Roland, and Mr Worrell, and apparently a third gang-banger, are going to spend a couple dozen years locked up — this is Norristown, not Philadelphia, so the city’s criminal-loving, police-hating District Attorney, Larry Krasner, can’t cut him a sweetheart deal — behind an Instagram post.

Neither life without parole nor the death penalty are options, because the accused are juveniles. But, whenever they get out, Tahaj Harrison will still be stone-cold graveyard dead.

There’s an apparent epidemic of just plain stupidity going around the greater Philadelphia area. What on God’s earth could have been so bad on Instagram that three teenagers thought it a wise idea to kill someone over it, thought that he needed killin’ so bad that they were willing to risk spending twenty or thirty or forty years in prison?

Who knows, perhaps drugs were involved, which compromised their reasoning, but stupidity is the base for using drugs in the first place.

So, he’s in a heap o’ trouble, if he’s one of the killers, because he’s just plain stupid.

Legally enforced helicopter parenting

It was thanks to a tweet from Daniel Pearson, the chief editorial writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer that I saw this story.

Parents are charged after their son, 7, is struck dead in a car accident

Jessica Ivey and Samuele Jenkins were charged two days after their son Legend died from injuries caused by being struck by a Jeep on May 27

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By Curtis Bunn | NBC News • Published June 4, 2025 • Updated on June 4, 2025 at 7:02 pm

The grieving parents of a 7-year-old child who died hours after being hit by a car were charged with involuntary manslaughter after allowing him and his brother, 10, to walk home unaccompanied by an adult from a nearby grocery store.

Jessica Ivey and Samuele Jenkins were charged two days after their son Legend died from injuries caused by being struck by a Jeep on May 27 in Gastonia, a rural town in North Carolina. The 76-year-old driver will not face any charges.

Gastonia may be described as “a rural town,” but it isn’t a tiny hamlet. The 2020 Census put the population at 80,411, and, with a rapidly growing Hispanic population — from 9.62% in 2010 to 12.65% in 2020 — who knows how many Hispanic immigrants chose to evade the census as President Trump wanted illegal immigrants to be identified but not counted as part of the population for congressional representation. The Census Bureau guesstimated the population to have increased to 85,535 as of July 1, 2024.

As I noted in my tweeted response to Mr Pearson, I walked a long way to and from school, including along the railroad tracks for part of the distance, from the 4th through 6th grades, but Mt Sterling, Kentucky, where I grew up, showed a population of just 5,370 in the 1960 census, which had declined to 5,083 by 1970.

I don’t know if my mother knew I took the railroad tracks!

Down by the old lumber company off of Richmond Avenue, along the tracks, until I could walk up to the viaduct over the tracks onto South Bank Street, then right on Main Street, and left on North Maysville Street, all the way up to the now-gone Mt Sterling Elementary School.

Yes, I still remember those days.

The Food Lion store is two blocks away from their home. The parents said the children were with their mother when they asked to meet their father at the store, and she allowed them to leave, according to the Gaston Gazette. The brothers had to cross the busy, four-lane road, but attempted to go between crosswalks.

Two blocks.

My daughters walked three blocks from our home on Beach Road, a reasonably busy street, if nevertheless only two lanes, in Hampton, Virginia to Francis Asbury Elementary School, through my older daughter’s 5th grade year. At that point, we put them in parochial school, as the Hampton middle schools were disasters. This was the 1990s.

Witnesses told WSOC-TV Gastonia that Legend stepped into traffic as his older brother attempted to hold him back.

Jenkins said he was on the phone with his elder son when the younger child was hit.

“I heard my oldest son yell, ‘Legend, no!’ so I hung up and ran. I just ran to find them,” he told the local television station.

Two days later, Gastonia police arrested the parents, who are being held on $1.5 million bond.

“In such cases, adults must be held accountable for their responsibilities to ensure a safe environment for their children,” police said in a statement.

Perhaps a “safe environment for their children” would include the city not having busy, 45 MPH speed limit, four-lane roads in residential areas? Perhaps the city is at least partially at fault for not creating a “safe environment for children”?

Yup, that image to the left is a speed limit sign, via Google Maps, on West Hudson Boulevard, the street the boys were attempting to cross.

This is a tragedy, but it is one being compounded by the government. $1.5 million dollars bond, for two parents who have just lost their younger son.

Another Park Slope liberal cannot see what is right in front of her She is defending a people who would happily kill her

Jo-Ann Mort, from her website.

Jewish “Humanitarian leftist”, self-described co-founder of the Democratic Socialists of America, Jo-Ann Mort sees anti-Semitism in conservative policies, but can’t see that it permeates the Democratic Party and the ‘Palestinians’ she so wants to see free and independent.

You can oppose Israel’s policies without killing Jewish people

 

The majority of US Jews overwhelmingly oppose Netanyahu’s policies. But subtleties get lost and truly unleashed people react

by Jo-Ann Mort | Tuesday, June 3, 2025 | 3:00 PM EDT | Updated: 3:14 PM EDT

It happened again. The third time this year that Jewish people were attacked with murderous intent in a major US city under the guise of the assailant caring about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. It’s the second time that fires were set. The first happened when an attacker – a US citizen – broke into the official residence of Pennsylvania’s governor in Harrisburg, on the evening of Passover and set fire to the residence. The only thing that saved governor Josh Shapiro and his family was a quick response from security guards, leaving only some Passover Haggadahs, the text that charts Jewish hopes for freedom and liberation from one generation to the next, to burn on the tables still set from dinner.

About two weeks ago, there was the murder of two innocent Jewish Israeli embassy workers who were attending an event hosted by the The American Jewish Committee at the Jewish Museum in Washington DC on how to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza; these young people were chosen at random from a crowd apparently targeted intentionally since the murderer, again a US citizen, appeared to have wanted to hunt down and kill Jews in response to Israel – a sovereign country’s – military acts. Tellingly, the gunman had a brief association to the far-left Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL said in a statement that he is not a member and that his association with the group ended in 2017).

And now, again with the element of fire, we wait for word on the condition of at least 12 victims of a torching in broad daylight in downtown Boulder, Colorado, by an assailant named Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national, who yelled “Free Palestine” and scorched the skin of activists ranging from their 50s to the 80s who gathered peacefully in that square each week demanding one thing: bring the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas home.

Did you notice? The article’s subtitle tells us that “The majority of US Jews overwhelmingly oppose Netanyahu’s policies,” but in none of the three cases author Jo-Ann Mort noted was the assailant Jewish. And throughout the rest of her article, she cites not a single example of Jews doing this kind of stuff.

She did, however say:

I have said and written the same thing regarding Palestinian civilians being killed and will continue to write and protest any innocent civilians being killed. I also reject any attempts by any person or group or government to blame all Palestinians for Hamas’s actions.

Hamas live in Gaza, Hamas govern Gaza, completely before October 7th, and as much as it is governed today, and all of Hamas’ support, in food, in supplies, in military preparations, and operationally, come from the ‘civilians’ in Gaza. The ‘civilians’ knew where all of the tunnel entrances were, the ‘civilians’ helped conceal and hold the hostages, and the ‘civilians’ know, and knew, where the hostages were held.

The German civilians were not all Nazis, with only roughly 10% becoming Nazi party members, though civilian support was higher than that. The Nazis maxed out at 37% of the vote in free elections. But German civilians were very much part of Germany’s war efforts, providing the men and war materiel needed for the Wehrmacht. The German people never abandoned Adolf Hitler; there were no uprisings against the Führer and the Nazi government, and the Germans resisted the Allied invasion right up until Hitler killed himself. And while the Allies mostly confined their bombing efforts to military targets and infrastructure, you can’t bomb a war materiel plant without killing the people who worked therein, or the people, whether plant workers or not, who lived reasonably close to the plant. The Allies couldn’t attack the supply centers and production which provided food and fuel to the military without taking food and fuel from civilians as well. We did what was necessary to win the war!

Israel has been doing what is necessary for them to win the war.

Also, perhaps it needs to be said here and time again: I fully support, and have spent my life fighting for, freedom and self-determination for the Palestinian people, acknowledging the rights of two people to one plot of land).

Does Miss Mort not realize what she has said? She has expressed the very Westernized view that the Palestinians would be happy and satisfied if only, only! the wicked Israeli government would withdraw from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and let the Palestinians have their own nation. Perhaps there are some Palestinians who would be satisfied with that, but Hamas have been telling her, telling everyone, that such is not their goal, that their goal is to irradicate the state of Israel and impose an Islamic government “from the River to the Sea.” Yet, like so many Western civilization liberals, she simply cannot bring herself to believe what the Palestinians themselves have been telling her. She tells us even more:

I write this as someone whose entire life has been lived on the left, as a prominent activist and one who continues to believe in my gut in the values of a humanitarian left.

And therein lays the problem: the author simply cannot wrap her head around the fact that not all people have those same values. Hamas are not part of the “humanitarian left,”[1]The notion that anyone can call herself “humanitarian” and still support pre-natal infanticide, as Miss Mort does, is astounding. but a group that any part of the “humanitarian left” ought to see as wholly evil. Hamas have massacred civilians, used deliberate rape as a weapon of terror and revenge, kidnapped the innocent and used them as weapons. Women are second-class citizens, and anyone who is not sexually normal is subject to abuse, beatings, and even death.

Naturally, as a member of the “humanitarian left,” a Park Slope liberal, she went ahead and attacked President Trump, the father of a highly-trusted Jewish (convert) daughter, and father-in-law to a Jewish man he has previously used to negotiate the Abrahamic Accords, as cynically using anti-Semitism, even as he removed the restrictions on American weapons sold to Israel that were imposed by his predecessor. There has been no greater friend to Israel in our contemporary politics than Mr Trump. But, of course, her paradigm is so thoroughly restricted that she cannot see or believe anything outside of it.

While there are a few, with the emphasis on “few,” anti-Semites, they have been far more heavily concentrated on the political left in the United States, but the “humanitarian left” author doesn’t want to see that, doesn’t want to see what is right in front of her.

References

References
1 The notion that anyone can call herself “humanitarian” and still support pre-natal infanticide, as Miss Mort does, is astounding.

World War III Watch: Britain goes all out neocon

Prussian Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke the Elder wrote, “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength,” which is frequently bastardized as “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” I’m old enough to remember when debates in the United States were all about matching the Soviets in warheads, weapons, and delivery systems. The impetus was less deterrence than it was being able to fight the USSR on the European battlefield. It all made sense, if you thought a nuclear war was a winnable thing. It was as though we could actually plan out a war that included using nuclear weapons, and somehow emerge victorious.

We have used nuclear weapons in war, and emerged victorious, but that is because the enemy didn’t have them, and because his plan to knock out the American fleet at Pearl Harbor did not survive first contact with the enemy. Yes, the Japanese attack sank four battleships and seriously damaged four more, also sinking or damaging three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and a minelayer. There were no aircraft carriers in port, and the wrath of our country was raised, and our industrial might undamaged.

Now, with Donald Trump having won the 2024 election, and his great reticence to get involved in the Russo-Ukrainian War, our European allies in NATO are revisiting notions of, as Major Kong put it, “Nuclear combat, toe-to-toe with the Russkies.”

Dropping tactical nuclear weapons was a major strategic error. We must correct it

Continue reading

The activists can’t just leave decent things alone

Pope Leo XIV blesses riders at the beginning of the Giro d’Italia, June 1, 2025. Screen capture by D R Pico.

The Giro d’Italia cycling race included the Vatican for the first time, in the neutralized start of the grand tour race for the first time in history, in the 21st and final stage. Pope Leo XIV blessed the riders at the start of the race.

Pope Leo blesses cyclists as Giro d’Italia hits Vatican Gardens

by Associated Press | Sunday, June 1, 2025

Pope Leo XIV offered his blessing to the 159 cyclists competing in the Giro d’Italia on Sunday, as the final stage of the iconic three-week race began with a historic ride through the serene Vatican Gardens behind St. Peter’s Basilica.

Upon entering Vatican grounds, overall leader Simon Yates and the classification frontrunners dismounted to personally greet the pontiff, who was presented with a symbolic pink jersey – the emblem of the race leader.

“You are role models for young people across the globe,” Pope Leo told the peloton. “May God bless you all on this final leg of the Giro d’Italia. Congratulations, and know that you are always welcome here in the Vatican, embraced by the church, which reflects God’s love for all people.”

There’s more at the original, and it’s wholly apolitical.

Our family watch European bike races. Our younger daughter is an absolute fanatic, and knows everything there is to know about the competitors, while I am more interested in the scenery. And the scenery was completely messed up in this year’s Giro by the awful and ubiquitous ‘Palestinian’ flags and stupid ‘Free Gaza’ bovine feces painted on the roads throughout by stupid activists.

The ‘Palestinian’ supporters ruin everything.

The Trump effect is doing some good things

We do not allow those under 18 to vote. We do not allow those under 18 to drink alcohol. We do not allow those under 18 to enlist in the military. In most states, those under 18 cannot legally consent to sexual intercourse. But, to our friends on the left, those under 18 ought to be able to consent to physical castration, plastic surgery, and life altering, physically irreversible surgical procedures. President Trump is trying to put a stop to that.

Penn ceases gender-affirming surgery for patients under age 19

The move comes after an executive order from President Donald Trump that directed agencies to cease grants and other funding that could be used for gender-affirming care.

Continue reading

Killadelphia: While you can try to educate the ignorant, you just can’t fix stupid.

By the numbers, homicides are significantly down in the City of Brotherly Love, but as much as the total number of crimes reported are down, we have to remember: the only acceptable amount of crime is zero.

With reports like this, it’s hard to believe the number of homicides is down:

Ballistics tests show five guns were fired in Lemon Hill shooting that struck 11 people, police say

Philly police now believe five guns were fired in the shooting in Fairmount Park on Memorial Day.

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Do you need the government to manage you? Apparently Wrongthink™ is a serious problem, and conservatives need to be watched

We reported, last Friday, on Catherine Herridge’s report of the Biden Administration’s efforts to label those who disagreed with COVID-19 vaccine mandates as “Domestic Violent Extremists”:

The Biden Administration labeled Americans who opposed the COVID-19 vaccination and mask mandates as “Domestic Violent Extremists,” or DVEs, according to newly declassified intelligence records obtained by Public @shellenberger @galexybrane and Catherine Herridge Reports. The designation created an “articulable purpose” for FBI or other government agents to open an “assessment” of individuals, which is often the first step toward a formal investigation, said a former FBI agent. Continue reading

World War III Watch: It could still happen if people get stupid

It was only a couple of days ago that the democratic West was buoyed by Ukraine’s deep strikes into Russia. From The Washington Post:

Ukraine’s drones disrupt Russia with airport closures, internet blackouts

As Ukrainian drones strike deep into Russian territory, they are disrupting day-to-day life and reminding Russians that the war is not confined to the trenches.

by Mary Ilyushina | Memorial Day, May 26, 2025

Large-scale Ukrainian drone attacks have rattled multiple Russian regions for the third consecutive day, grounding flights, disrupting internet access and stretching the country’s air defense systems thin. Continue reading