Category Archives: Crime

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Killadelphia: The city is losing population, and not just to murder!

In news that should surprise exactly no one, Philadelphia is losing population, and it’s worse than every other city among the twenty most populous in the United States.

Most large U.S. cities reversed or slowed pandemic population drops. But not Philly.

New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday shows 19 of the 20 most populous American cities either gained residents or slowed pandemic-era population declines — Philly being the exception.

by Ximena Conde | Friday, May 19, 2023 | 5:24 AM EDT

Nineteen of the 20 most populous American cities reversed or slowed pandemic-era population declines — Philadelphia being the notable exception — data released by the U.S. Census Bureau Thursday shows.

Not to worry: the blurb means exclusive article for subscribers to The Philadelphia Inquirer, not The First Street Journal. As Robert Stacy McCain would put it, I read the Inquirer so that you don’t have to! 🙂

Does this spell a period of gloom for the city? Hard to say. Experts have consistently cautioned against reading too much into year-to-year population changes.

“One year of data is not a trend,” said Katie Martin, project director at Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia research and policy initiative.

What’s more, the census numbers only tell us the number of people arriving or leaving; they don’t tell us what’s driving the changes or if they’re permanent.

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted Americans to spend a lot more time at home and reevaluate their priorities, mulling whether it was better to live in cities or the suburbs. Trend stories emerged of Brooklynites moving to nearby cities like Philadelphia because of the bang for-your-buck housing prices. At the same time, other stories told of families retreating to the suburbs out of fear that packed city living brought about more risk of contagion and concerns over rising gun violence in major cities, including Philadelphia.

Let’s tell the truth here: the homicide numbers have been worse in Philadelphia than the other large cities, and Philly is the poorest city of over a million people in the US. And while reporter Ximena Conde said that there were 33,000 residents lost between July 2020 and July 2022, I’m a bit more of a numbers geek than she is, so I looked up the numbers from the Census Bureau’s website, and saw listed the official Census number from April 1, 2020, and population guesstimate for July 1, 2022: 1,603,799 and 1,567,258. That works out to a loss of 36,541 souls, or 2.28%.

And, Killadelphia being what it is, I also added up the homicides from April 1, 2020 through June 30, 2022. Between those dates, there were 403 of the total of 499 homicides in 2020, 562 in 2021, and 257 of the 516 in 2022. Of the 36,541 people lost in the city during those dates, 1,222, or 3.34%, were lost to being murdered.

Southern and Southwestern cities like Phoenix, San Antonio, and Jacksonville continued to experience population growth, which those regions were experiencing long before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago saw smaller population declines than the first pandemic year.

Does Miss Conde mean cities in mostly Republican governed states, with far fewer panicdemic[1]Panicdemic is not a typographical error, but reflects what is actually the case: governments and people reacting in mindless panic! restrictions? One point she did not mention is that foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia under Mayor Jim Kenney and Commissioner of Health Cheryl Bettigole kept COVID-19 restrictions, including indoor mask mandates, far longer than most cities, and the city’s teachers union — you know: the teachers who concealed a fellow teacher’s sexual abuse of a student for years — kept resisting reopening the public schools. Americans really don’t like authoritarian controls.

Of course, those Southern and Southwestern cities don’t have Pennsylvania winters, so I can’t blame Philly’s population loss solely on the city’s government and culture.

A lot of my Philadelphia friends are reacting positively to the Cherelle Parker Mullins having won the Democratic mayoral nomination: she’s at least somewhat moderate for a Democrat, and at least appears to be more active and energetic than outgoing Mr Kenney. Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw will almost certainly be not just toast, but toast which has fallen on the floor, buttered side down, once Mr Kenney’s term ends at the beginning of 2024, and that can only be good news for the seriously undermanned Philadelphia Police Department.  The city will still be afflicted with the George Soros-sponsored, police-hating defense lawyer now ensconced as District Attorney at least through 2025, but perhaps, just perhaps, Philly can become greater than what it has been.

Even the homicide rate, though far, far, far too high, appears to be coming down, though is still above the 2020 pace which resulted in 499 — or was it 502? — homicides.

There are a lot of reasons to appreciate Philly, for its architecture and its history. The restaurants are great, and nothing can top a hot, fresh Philadelphia pretzel. A lot of people like (ughhh!) Philly cheesesteaks, though I think that they’re vile. But the current culture of the city is terrible, and that has to be driving some people away. Yes, 1,222 of the people who ‘left’ the city did so because someone else killed them, but that still means that 35,319 souls left for other reasons.

References

References
↑1 Panicdemic is not a typographical error, but reflects what is actually the case: governments and people reacting in mindless panic!
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Darwin Award winner recaptured in Philadelphia

We have previously noted the jailbreak of Nasir Grant, 24, and Ameen Hurst, 18, from Philadelphia’s Industrial Correctional Center, and how other people are now facing charges for aiding them. Mr Grant, who was not previously facing charges which would have kept him locked up for life, was recaptured by federal marshals just a few miles from the jail, and now Mr Hurst, who was looking at life in prison, is back behind bars:

The second man who escaped from a Philadelphia jail last week was captured Wednesday morning, police say

Ameen Hurst was arrested by U.S. Marshals on the 6100 block of Washington Avenue in West Philadelphia, Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said.

by Chris Palmer | Wednesday, May 17, 2023

The second of two men who escaped from a city jail last week was captured in West Philadelphia on Wednesday morning, police said, ending a 10-day search for a murder suspect whose unprecedented breakout had become an ongoing concern for law enforcement.

Ameen Hurst, 18, accused of committing four homicides as well as other crimes, was arrested by U.S. Marshals on the 6100 block of Washington Avenue, Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said on Twitter.

Well, at least Mr Hurst was further away from the jail than was Mr Grant when he was captured, but just how plain stupid do you have to be to have been hanging around the city in which you are being sought? Yeah, life would be tougher for someone like him in a place he didn’t know, but you’d think that he’d have headed for Baltimore or Tuscaloosa or a rural area in Mississippi, someplace to blend in and not really expected to be. And if it would have been tougher for him someplace with which he was unfamiliar, it probably wouldn’t be as tough as jail!

Of course, the same could be said about the people who, allegedly, helped the two goons escape in the first place: they are just plain stupid!

Further down:

Hurst is accused of killing four people and critically injuring two others in three separate shootings in less than three months. One of those homicides occurred near the front gates of another city jail: the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. Police say in March 2021, Hurst killed 20-year-old Rodney Hargrove an hour after Hargrove had been released from the facility, and while he was waiting outside for relatives to pick him up.

Authorities now believe the shooting was a case of mistaken identity. In an affidavit of probable cause for Hurst’s arrest, prosecutors said that while he was facing charges for an earlier murder, he essentially confessed to shooting Hargrove while talking to a relative on a recorded phone line.

Anyone who has ever watched a cop show on television knows that calls from prison can be recorded, yet Mr Hurst allegedly confessed to a murder on a recorded telephone call. Yeah, he’s just plain stupid. Unfortunately, his stupidity has (allegedly) sent four other men untimely to their eternal rewards.

And Hurst is accused of shooting four men sitting in a car on the 1400 block of North 76th Street in March 2021 — a crime police believe was tied to an ongoing feud between neighborhood groups. Naquan Smith, 24, and Tamir Brown, 17 were killed, and two others were seriously wounded.

And here we go again, with The Philadelphia Inquirer being too stupidly #woke to tell the truth! “(A)n ongoing feud between neighborhood groups”? Why can’t the Inky just use the work gangs, because everyone knows that’s what they are.

There’s more at the Inquirer’s original, with more details about Mr Hurst’s alleged crimes.

Who knows, the two escaped and recaptured criminals could have a dozen illegitimate spawn out in Philly’s rowhouse neighborhoods, and the three who helped them escape could have reproduced as well, but at least Mr Hurst seems to have removed himself from any further pollution of the gene pool.

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What about the right to a speedy trial?

The escape of Nasir Grant, 24, and Ameen Hurst, 18, from Philadelphia’s Industrial Correctional Center last Sunday has caused both concern and amusement in the City of Brotherly Love, concern that two dangerous men, especially Mr Hurst, charged with four homicides, were on the loose, and amusement that the seriously understaffed jail didn’t even know that the two men had bolted for three shifts.

Xianni Stallings booking photo, via Steve Keeley on Twitter. Click to enlarge.

Just a few days later, 21-year-old Xianni Stallings, who had been “released from jail earlier this year after charges connected to a stabbing she was accused of participating in fell apart due to a lack of evidence,” decided that she wanted to go back behind bars for allegedly helping Mr Hurst escape, and the expression on her face in her latest booking photo clearly shows an, “Oh, what the f(ornicate) have I done?” look.

Mr Grant, who was not facing charges that would have kept him locked up for the rest of his miserable life, was recaptured by federal marshals after just four days on the lam. He didn’t even ‘lam’ very far, as he was picked up in North Philly.

And now a second person has been charged with helping Messrs Grant and Hurst escape:

Suspect in fatal beating at Pat’s Steaks allegedly helped inmates escape prison

Jose Alberto Flores-Huerta is expected to be charged with crimes including conspiracy and escape, police said.

by Chris Palmer | Friday, May 12, 2023 | 5:38 PM EDT

José Alberto Flores-Huerta, via Metro Philadelphia. Click to enlarge.

A 35-year-old man jailed on murder charges is expected to face new charges for serving as a lookout for the two men who escaped from a Philadelphia jail this week, authorities said Friday.Jose Alberto Flores-Huerta — incarcerated for allegedly participating in a fatal beating outside Pat’s King of Steaks in 2021 — is expected to be charged with crimes including conspiracy and escape, the Police Department said in a statement.

Police declined to provide additional details about Flores-Huerta’s alleged role in the breakout. He is the second person in two days to be accused of helping Nasir Grant, 24, and Ameen Hurst, 18, break out of the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on Sunday. The pair sneaked out through a hole in a chain-link fence, police said.

The announcement of the impending charges came just hours after Grant was captured in North Philadelphia on Thursday night by U.S. Marshals while disguised in women’s clothing. Grant was arraigned on a new count of escape Friday morning, and bail was set at $10 million.

There’s more at the original, and at least from the story, and the charges he faces, it would seem that Mr Flores-Huerta isn’t necessarily a great guy. But a few paragraphs further down, I found this:

Flores-Huerta, of South Philadelphia, has been jailed since 2021, when he was charged with taking part in the fatal beating of Isidro Cortes outside Pat’s Steaks in South Philadelphia. Authorities said Flores-Huerta and several other men also assaulted Cortes’ father and another man during the brawl, which followed a CONCACAF Champions League soccer game in Chester between the Philadelphia Union and Club América, a team from Mexico City.

At a preliminary hearing last year, Flores-Huerta’s lawyer contended that two other men — who have not been caught — were primarily responsible for striking Isidro Cortes. But a judge was not persuaded, and she ordered Flores-Huerta held for trial on counts including murder, conspiracy, and aggravated assault. He was denied bail, and a trial is scheduled for the fall.

Why, exactly, is Mr Flores-Huerta scheduled for trial two years after he was arrested? What about his right to a reasonably speedy trial? Did the prosecution, which apparently presented enough evidence that the judge ordered the suspect held without bail, delay proceedings, of was it the defense? What if, after he is finally tried, Mr Flores-Huerta is acquitted? If that is the case, he will have spent two years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit!

This is one of the travesties which has occurred in this country as a result of the COVID-19 panicdemic: the judicial system pretty much ground to a halt, and prisoners all across the United States were held in legal limbo, and some of them in jail, because trials were so greatly delayed, and it seems as though nobody cared.

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Killadelphia: How do you define a “mass shooting?”

On May 7th, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Helen Ubiñas suggested that our definition of what constitutes a “mass shooting” needs to be changed.

The Inquirer defines a mass shooting as one that occurs in public and kills three or more people.

The FBI classifies mass shootings as four or more deaths in a single incident.

Meanwhile, Congress has used the definition of three or more, and the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks mass shootings, defines them as any incident in which four or more people are injured or killed, a classification also used by some national media outlets. (I often wonder why any shooting with more than one victim isn’t considered a mass shooting, but that may be a column for another day.)

Well, this isn’t a mass shooting under the Inquirer’s definition, bit I’m pretty sure that, if it was, there’d be a mass shooting in Philly almost every day of the year.

Quadruple shooting in East Germantown kills 17-year-old boy, wounds 2 other teens and a 7-year-old

Three people were injured and one was killed in the shooting.

by Jason Laughlin and Beatrice Forman | Thursday, May 11, 2023 |7:49 PM EDT

A shooting in East Germantown killed one teenager and injured three other youths, including a 7-year-old child, on Thursday night, the Philadelphia Police Department said.

Police said they received a report of the shooting on the 5900 block of North 21st Street shortly before 6 p.m. A 17-year-old boy who was shot in the face was transported to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The other three victims — ages 7, 15, and 16 — were also transported there, where police said they are all in stable condition.

The 7-year-old was shot once in the upper thigh. The 15-year-old boy was shot twice in the head and twice in the back. The 16-year-old boy was also shot once, in the right shoulder.

NBC Channel 10 stated that the 7-year-old was not part of the group, but struck by a stray bullet.

That’s all the Inquirer had, one boy killed, and three others, at least two of whom were male, wounded.

In the meantime, Philly Crime Update tweeted, at 7:59 PM EDT, “🚨TRIPLE SHOOTING at 4800 Tackawanna St. possibly a 4th victim at Einstein stand by”.

The 4800 block of Tackawanna Street, in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, is a mix of older rowhomes and some housing project looking multi-family buildings. The 5900 block of North 21st Street consists of older rowhomes, some of which have been updated and flipped.

Now why aren’t these mass shootings? They aren’t not mass killings, but seven, and possibly eight, people were shot, and I have to wonder: how many of the victims were deliberately targeted? According to the Philadelphia Shootings Victims Dashboard, there have been 603 shootings in the City of Brotherly Love through May 8th, 118 of them fatal. May 8th was the 128th day of the year, and if fewer people have been killed this year than last, that’s still 4.71 people shot per day in Philly.

At least the way I would count it, that’s a mass shooting every day, but let’s tell the truth here: since the vast majority of the victims are black, and the vast majority of the shooters are also black, it’s way, way, way too politically incorrect to call that carnage a mass shooting.

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Killadelphia: Campaign canvassers for Helen Gym Flaherty prove the futility of gun control laws

As we noted on Tuesday, two ‘progressive’ campaign canvassers in Philadelphia, both carrying concealed weapons, got into a shootout on Monday. The Philadelphia Inquirer had more on the story late on Tuesday:

Family mourns loss of canvasser, as gun violence intersects with a common campaign practice

The shooting, which remained under investigation, underscored the relevance of the most important issue in the election: the city’s ongoing gun violence crisis.

by Jesse Bunch, Sean Collins Walsh, and Ellie Rushing | Tuesday, May 9, 2023 | 9:41 PM EDT

Eddie Brokenbough was struggling to make ends meet.

The 46-year-old, whom relatives described as a dedicated father of 10, experienced difficulties finding a good-paying job because, like many Philadelphians, he had a criminal record.

To supplement his income as a construction flagger, Brokenbough sometimes worked as a political canvasser, knocking on doors for organizations trying to get out the vote.

On Monday, Brokenbough was fatally shot while canvassing for the progressive group One PA by another canvasser from the same organization after the two men had an altercation.

The previous Inquirer story reported that Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom, the head of the Police Department’s homicide unit, said that the two men “had always had a beef” with each other, though what that “beef” was about has not been reported.

The shooting also underscored the relevance of the most important issue in the election: the city’s ongoing gun violence crisis. Both men involved were armed, police said, and the shooter, 22, told investigators he was acting in self-defense.

The unnamed 22-year-old shooter, with whom Mr Brokenbough apparently had an ongoing dispute, was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, and claimed that he only fired in self-defense after Mr Brokenbough drew his weapon first.

Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore stated that all of the interviews have been submitted to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, and that office said the incident was still under investigation. Thus far, no charges have been filed, and the shooter has been released. He had a permit to carry, so there is no gun charge against him.

But next comes the real beef — pun most definitely intended — of the story:

One PA said guns are not permitted in its offices or during canvassing, and it has temporarily suspended its canvassing efforts.

Brokenbough was prohibited from legally carrying a firearm because of an earlier conviction on charges of aggravated assault and illegal gun possession, after he shot a man in the arm for speaking to his girlfriend in 2012, according to court records.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 11 ½ to 23 months in prison, plus five years’ probation. His conviction prohibits him from possessing a gun.

So, what happened? Mr Brokenbaugh, a previously convicted criminal with an illegal gun conviction in the past, was legally barred from owning a firearm, but did so anyway. One PA, a ‘progressive’ organization, prohibits its employees and contract canvassers, yet both of the campaign workers were carrying firearms. In a setting in which neither man, at least before they ran into each other, should have had any need to be armed, and one of which was committing a felony by carrying a weapon, both were.

Mr Brokenbough knew that he was breaking the law, and chose to do so anyway. The unnamed 22-year-old, who wasn’t breaking the law, was still violating the rules of the organization which hired him.

So, if both the convicted felon, and the law-abiding citizen, were violating the rules, why would anyone believe that passing more gun control laws would stop anyone who wanted to own and carry a firearm? And remember: these weren’t evil reich-wing Republicans here, but men working for a hard-left, socialist organization, canvassing for Helen Gym Flaherty!

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“Progressive” campaign workers, both packing heat, get into a shootout in Philly Nope, they weren't evil, reich-wing Republicans.

Screen capture from OnePA website, taken at 10:20 AM EDT on May 9, 2023. Click to enlarge.

When people tell you who they are, believe them!

What does OnePA support? They support depriving property owners of their rights by opposing eviction for non-payment of rent. They are, simply put, socialists and a group opposed to law enforcement. And naturally, they support Helen Gym Flaherty!

A Philly campaign worker for a progressive political group fatally shot another canvasser in East Germantown, police say

Both men were canvassing for the city’s upcoming primary election on behalf of OnePA. Police said it was not immediately clear what sparked the shooting.

by Sean Collins Walsh, Chris Palmer, and Ellie Rushing | Monday, May 8, 2023 | 9:44 PM EDT

A 46-year-old man was fatally shot on Monday afternoon in East Germantown while canvassing for the city’s upcoming mayoral primary, police said, in an incident that stemmed from a dispute with a 22-year-old man, who was also canvassing on behalf of OnePA, a progressive-leaning political group.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the 22-year-old to shoot the older man, and police declined to identify either of them.

The tragedy on the campaign trail came one week before high-stakes mayoral and City Council elections that have been defined by debates about public-safety issues amid the city’s ongoing gun violence crisis.

OnePA Executive Director Steve Paul said members of the group were “heartbroken, and our condolences and sympathy are with their family.”

At this point in the article, an advertisement appears, something that stops a lot of readers.

“Today, a One PA team member tragically lost their life,” Paul said in a statement. “We are mourning this senseless loss and continuing to gather the facts and investigate what happened.”

Paul previously worked in the Council office of Helen Gym, who is now a mayoral candidate running in the May 16 primary with the backing of OnePA and other progressive organizations. The group is also canvassing on behalf of Council candidates Seth Oberman-Anderson, Rue Landau, Amanda McIllmurray, Isaiah Thomas, and Erika Almirón.

So, it took Inquirer reporters Sean Collins Walsh, Chris Palmer, and Ellie Rushing six paragraphs to let readers know that the canvassers were canvassing for Helen Gym Flaherty. If a reader’s only news source was the Inky — mine isn’t — wouldn’t he wonder for whom OnePA was canvassing? I sure hope his attention span was long enough to get past the first advertisement!

The 22-year-old — who was in legal possession of his handgun — remained on the scene afterward the shooting and was taken to the homicide unit to be questioned by detectives, according to Chief Inspector Scott Small. The 22-year-old’s car was also still on the street after the crime, Small said, and OnePA pamphlets could be seen in its passenger seat.

Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore said the victim and the man accused of shooting him knew each other and began arguing after they “happened upon each other” on the 2000 block of Church Lane[1]At or near the intersection with Lambert Street, near the Church Lane Food Market, a bodega. around 4 p.m. Vanore was not certain what the argument was about, but said detectives were investigating the possibility that it related to an existing dispute.

Staff Inspector Ernest Ransom, the head of the Police Department’s homicide unit, said that the two men “had always had a beef,” and that when they crossed paths on the street, the 46-year-old pulled out a gun — which was not registered to him — and the 22-year-old then pulled his firearm, shooting the older man once in the armpit.

The shooter claimed that he was acting in self-defense, but the important part to note is that both men were packing heat, one of them illegally, while canvassing, in broad daylight, for Mrs Flaherty. No wonder the guy carrying illegally was part of OnePA, ’cause he certainly seems to support the voting ‘rights’ of felons.

The candidate, of course, prefers sending “non-police mental health mobile crisis units” to reduce the city’s “gun violence” crisis, but perhaps there were no social workers in the canvassing crews.

Mrs Flaherty expressed sorrow, but made it clear that the shooter and his victim were not part of her official campaign.

In a statement issued Monday night, Gym said she was “devastated to hear about the tragic death of a canvasser today.”

“My thoughts are with the family of the victim, the One PA community, and everyone impacted by this irrevocable loss,” Gym said. “Though the canvasser was not part of our campaign, this loss is deeply felt by all of us.”

If Mrs Flaherty, who promises to “Get illegal guns off our streets,” and to “Provide interventions to stop those in the path of violence,” had anything to say about people canvassing for her carrying guns, the Inquirer never mentioned it.

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↑1 At or near the intersection with Lambert Street, near the Church Lane Food Market, a bodega.
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Helping without helping

I guess that I was wrong . . . sort of.

I had said, on Twitter, that The Philadelphia Inquirer would not publish the photos of two escaped criminals, one of whom was accused of murder, even though the other media in the City of Brotherly Love did. After all, publishing their mugshots might help in apprehending them, and, of course, since the suspects are both black, publishing their photos would be raaaacist. Much of the professional media in the city have criticized Fox29’s Steve Keeley for his crime coverage, for that very reason. Cherri Gregg of WHYY, the Philadelphia affiliate of National Public Radio, wrote:

I rarely speak badly of news outlets — BUT Steve Keeley FOX 29’s coverage of crime — definitely makes me cringe. Crime coverage can be very harmful and scares people.

I have been working with my fellow Board Members at Law & Justice Journalism Project to train journalists to do better. Our crime coverage must be community centered — otherwise it can be harmful, sensationalized and disproportionate to what is really happening. AND who gets harmed?? Black and brown people… Black communities and Black men.

Shockingly enough, the Inquirer did cover the story, and I am amused:

Two men, including one charged with 4 murders, escaped from a Philly jail, police say

The escape happened around 8 p.m. Sunday night but was not made public until Monday evening.

by Samantha Melamed | Monday, May 8, 2023 | 8:48 PM EDT

Two men escaped from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on Sunday at 8:30 p.m., but their absence was not noticed until Monday afternoon, Prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney said at a news conference Monday evening.

One, Ameen Hurst, 18, was charged with four homicides, including the killing of Rodney Hargrove, who had just been released from a Philadelphia jail when he was gunned down on prison grounds in 2021.

The other, 24-year-old Nasir Grant, faces drug and gun charges.

“The goal right now is to make sure these two individuals are apprehended and brought back into custody,” Carney said, adding that both U.S. Marshals and the Philadelphia Police have joined that effort.

Deputy Commissioner Frank Vanore of the Philadelphia Police Department described Hurst as “a very dangerous individual,” and said, “We are looking for the public’s help to get him back.”

I’m sorry, but this is just rolling on the floor funny. The jail, the Philadelphia Police, and U.S. Marshalls are all seeking these suspects, one of whom is described as extremely dangerous, and the “anti-racist news organization” that the Inquirer promised to be published a picture which showed enough to the suspects for readers to tell that they are both black, but not detailed enough to help readers really identify them if they passed them on the streets.

You can click on the screen captured image I took from the Inky’s article to enlarge it, but even full-sized, the photos won’t really help. At least as of the writing of this article, at 8:53 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 9th, the newspaper has not included photos large enough to readers to be able to identify the escapees.

The escape occurred less than a week after the correctional officers’ union, Local 159 of AFSCME District Council 33, entered a vote of no confidence in Carney’s leadership. They said she had failed to adequately respond to a staffing crisis that has risen to more than 800 vacancies, or 40% short of a full complement.

The prisons have been subject to a monitor appointed by a federal judge since last year, in response to a class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane and unconstitutional prison conditions.

I’ll admit it: I can’t imagine why anyone would want to be a prison guard. But, when I consider that the city’s Police Department is over 500 officers understaffed, and non-uniformed city staffing is also under authorized strength, perhaps, just perhaps, it’s time to entartain the possibility that the City of Philadelphia is a crappy place to work, period.

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Hold them accountable! The good old boys’ network strikes again

I have frequently called out The Philadelphia Inquirer for poor reporting, so it is only fair when I note when they do good journalism.

The quiet handling of rape allegations at two Philly health institutions

How Jefferson and Rothman dealt with an alleged sexual assault involving an orthopedic surgeon and a medical resident.

by Wendy Ruderman | Monday, May 8, 2023

It was almost midnight and Jessica Phillips, a doctor training in orthopedic surgery, was one of the few guests remaining at a pool party that surgeon John Abraham hosted each summer for Thomas Jefferson University medical residents at his nine-bedroom Main Line home.

Phillips sat in an Adirondack-style chair by a stone fire pit with Abraham, a (Thomas) Jefferson (University) professor and division chief at the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute, a private practice whose physicians work at the university’s hospitals.

The band had packed up, and caterers had cleared the wine glasses and plates smeared with cocktail sauce. Abraham handed her a lit Cuban cigar. She later remembered being so drunk she dropped it on her pants.

The medical resident remembered little else afterward. In flashes, while in and out of consciousness, she recalled Abraham on top of her on the ornate rug in his library. She awoke in his bedroom naked and bruised, she later told multiple investigators.

In Abraham’s recollection, Phillips pulled him on top of her on the library floor, court records show, while his judgment was impaired by alcohol. Nonetheless, in a text message sent to his boss after the party, Abraham acknowledged it was “unethical” to have sex with a medical resident.

It’s a very long story, and there’s a lot of he said/she said in it. Both physicians were intoxicated, both married, though Dr Abraham, then 43-years-old, was going through a divorce, and neither was really capable of consent. As her supervisor, Dr Abraham was contractually barred from a sexual relationship with a subordinate. An investigation resulted in no criminal charges. This is being made public because both Dr Abraham and Dr Phillips are suing.

The events of the June 2018 party spurred three separate investigations and three lawsuits – all now rolling back the confidentiality that usually cloaks how major institutions handle sexual misconduct claims. The cases chronicle sex, power and money in the male-dominated world of orthopedic surgery.

Both Phillips and Abraham say they were victims. They blame Jefferson and Rothman for protecting their institutional interests despite federal regulations that are supposed to ensure sexual assault cases are dealt with fairly.

Ahhh, yes, “protecting their institutional interests”. That’s what “institutions” do!

Jefferson used the threat of federal reporting requirements to force Abraham out of its hospitals while evading formal reports that would let other institutions know what happened.

Then Jefferson’s and Rothman’s leadership brokered a deal that avoided a sexual misconduct hearing and ultimately closed an investigation opened under the federal Title IX law prohibiting sex-based discrimination.

Rothman’s all-male board of directors decided not to fire Abraham. Instead, they restricted him from working in Jefferson’s hospitals or interacting with Jefferson residents. Eventually, they moved him to a hospital network not affiliated with Jefferson in New Jersey.

I remember when then-District Attorney Seth Williams went hard after Monsignor William Lynn, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s supervisor of priest assignments, who was convicted on one of two counts of child endangerment for “knowingly placing minors in danger when he reassigned troubled priests to parishes where they would have access to children.” Msgr Lynn wound up serving almost three years of his three-to-six year sentence, when his conviction was overturned, twice actually, for Mr Williams and Judge Teresa Sarmina misapplying the law.

So, with all of this, why isn’t current Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner going after Thomas Jefferson University and the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute for doing what is a very similar thing? According to the Inquirer, Rothman basically moved Dr Abraham to someplace where his conduct wasn’t widely known, and to a hospital network outside of their control . . . and their liability.

Amid investigations by the university and Rothman, Abraham said, a Jefferson top doctor offered him a deal in a private conversation: Take a voluntary leave, and we won’t report the alleged sexual misconduct.

Congress generally expects health institutions employing doctors accused of wrongdoing to file a report into the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), a federal tracking system.

Hospitals must query the data bank before credentialing a newly hired doctor to ensure that the person hasn’t gotten into trouble elsewhere. Data bank reports also go to state licensing boards.

In court depositions, Abraham recalled getting a phone call from Edmund Pribitkin, chief physician and executive vice president of Jefferson Health, telling him that he had to take an immediate leave of absence from Jefferson.

If he didn’t do as told, Pribitkin said, the sexual assault allegations would go before the hospital’s medical executive committee and they’d likely have to report him to the NPDB, according to Abraham.

So, Rothman essentially blackmailed Dr Abraham into taking an immediate leave, by saying that the Institute would commit a crime by not reporting the sexual assault allegations. Perhaps it’s not just the District Attorney who needs to look into this, but the United States Attorney as well, given that this is an allegation of violation of federal law.

There’s a lot more information at the Inky’s original, and it’s not limited to subscribers, though if you access more than a few articles a month, the paywall does come down.

As a Mass-every-Sunday Catholic, I was very disappointed with the allegations against Msgr Lynn. At most, I saw what he was alleged to have done as a crime by Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, but when this became a criminal case, the Cardinal, by then retired, 88-years-old, and suffering from cancer and dementia, couldn’t be tried. Early in the trial, Judge Sarmina ruled that Cardinal Bevilacqua was able and competent to give testimony as a witness in the case, but just two days after her ruling, the Cardinal died in his sleep. But while Mr Williams and Judge Sarmina misapplied the law as it stood, which resulted in an unfair, and eventually reversed, conviction, the point that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia shuffled around offending priests to keep them from being defrocked or, worse, charged, tried, and convicted in sexual abuse cases was a valid one. Supervisory officials such as then Pennsylvania State University President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley, and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz, who was responsible for oversight of the campus police department, were all held accountable for covering up former Assistant Football Coach Jerry Sandusky’s rape of a young boy, though they were incarcerated for just a couple of months each.

The Inquirer’s story is the first step, and now law enforcement needs to look into this case. Yeah, there are some wealthy and powerful interests involved here, people able to pay for major league legal help, but the potential prosecution has plenty of money as well. Hold them accountable, and maybe some other good old boys network will think twice before covering up things.

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‘Decarceration’ is deadly to black Americans The problem is not mass incarceration; the problem is that not enough people are incarcerated, for not a long enough time.

It was two months ago that Congress, which is normally hands off but does have jurisdiction over the District of Columbia, rejected the city’s attempt to overhaul its criminal law, an attempt which would have reduced or eliminated mandatory minimums.

Crime has increased in our nation’s capital, increased dramatically this year. The chart at the right is from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department, and was current as of 12:00 AM EDT on Friday, May 5th. You’d think that the residents of the District would want safer streets, but the far-left leadership apparently do not.

Well, the city’s retiring police chief has spoken out:

In D.C., many killers were previously jailed. We deserve better.

by Colbert I King, Washington Post Columnist | Friday, May 5, 2023 | 3:24 PM EDT

The average person arrested for homicide has been arrested 11 times previously, said D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III during a March news conference on D.C. crime with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D). Contee’s widely publicized statement drew a comment from Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-Ga.), an outspoken opponent of the D.C. Council criminal code reform bill that Congress recently rejected. Carter said the chief’s statement “means that before someone commits the horrible act of ending an innocent life, they’ve already left — at least — 11 other victims in their wake.”

D.C. police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck told me this week that Contee’s statement was based on data in the department’s records management system. Asked for clarification on the meaning of the number, Sternbeck said, “The 11 prior arrests include various crimes, and not just homicide offenses.” Contee, who is retiring in June, added another dimension to the arrest data. He said during the news conference that “the average homicide victim … also has been arrested 10 or 11 times prior to them being a homicide victim.”

Is anyone really surprised by that? While the numbers may vary from city-to-city — and many of my reports deal with Philadelphia — the trend is the same, bad guys killing other bad guys.

A December 2021 analysis of shootings and homicides in the District, conducted by the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, sheds some light on both the scope of gun violence and Contee’s observations regarding D.C. arrest histories.

The NICJR report aggregates what is anecdotally known or suspected. It found that across homicides and shootings, victims and suspects are demographically similar — about 96 percent of those in both categories in homicides and nonfatal shootings were Black, while about 65 percent were between the ages of 18 and 34. Roughly 90 percent were male.

In addition, and to underscore Contee’s statements, approximately 86 percent of homicide victims and suspects were previously known to the criminal justice system. About 46 percent had been incarcerated, according to the report.

So, if both killers and victims are very likely to have been, to use the euphemism, “previously known to the criminal justice system,” wouldn’t one very powerful way to reduce homicides be to prosecute them seriously, and incarcerate them to the maximum allowed under the law, because criminals, and apparently their victims as well, aren’t out on the streets and able to kill or be killed.

If you decide to do a Google search for mass incarceration, you’ll get “About 24,400,000 results”, and at least the first one shown are all lathered up about the horrors of mass incarceration. The Sentencing Project tell us:

Fifty years ago, the United States embarked on a path of mass incarceration that has led to a staggering increase in the prison population. Today, almost 2 million individuals – disproportionately Black Americans – are incarcerated in our nation’s prisons and jails. The prison population has grown 500% since 1973, the year America began to sharply increase its prison population.

But when the statistics given above noted that 96% of the murders and shootings in Washington, DC, had both perpetrator and victim being black, in a city where only 43% of the population are black, the notion that incarcerated prisoners are “disproportionately black Americans” seems kind of silly; incarceration depends on who actually commits crimes, not on their percentage of the population.

Nor is Washington somehow different. While few police departments report racial breakdowns on a daily basis, the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department does, and in a city in which 44.8% of the population are black, 87.8% of murder victims so far this year have been black, and 35 out of 38 identified suspects, 92.1%, were also black.

Yet the ‘decarceration‘ movement is all about the fact that so many black Americans are in jail, ‘disproportionately’ to their percentage of the population, but seemingly far less disproportionately to the who are committing crimes.

Simply put, the decarceration movement is all about getting more black Americans murdered! Oh, the #woke and #BlackLivesMatter activists might not realize it — or admit it if they do — but that’s what the statistics show.

The problem is not mass incarceration; the problem is that not enough people are incarcerated, for not a long enough time.
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