Category Archives: Law

Posted on by

Killadelphia: “Justice” in Philadelphia

We have previously noted that The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote major stories on the murder of Samuel Sean Collington, a Temple University student approaching graduation. Mr Collington was a white victim, murdered by Latif Williams, a black 17-year-old, in a botched robbery. On December 2, 2021,the Inquirer published 14 photographs from a vigil for Mr Collington, along with another story about him. This was a big story in the City of Brotherly Love, in part because Mr Collington was an intern with the City Commissioners’ Office and knew the ‘right people’, and in part because it was yet another example of violence and lawlessness around the Temple University campus. When my daughters were considering to where they would go to college, I absolutely vetoed Temple, because I knew the neighborhood.

Well, more than two years after the murder, young Mr Williams has finally been convicted:

Man convicted in 2021 murder of Temple University student Samuel Collington

Latif Williams, 19, of Olney, was found guilty of third-degree murder, possession of an instrument of crime, and illegal possession of a firearm in connection with the killing.

by Nick Valada | Tuesday, February 20, 2024 | 6:06 PM EST | Updated: Wednesday, February 21, 2024 | 1:52 PM EST

Latif Williams, photo by, Philadelphia Police Department, via KYT-TV, Philadelphia.

A Philadelphia man was convicted Tuesday in the 2021 murder of 21-year-old Temple University student Samuel Collington.Latif Williams, 19, of Olney, was found guilty after a one-day bench trial of third-degree murder, possession of an instrument of crime, and illegal possession of a firearm.

A “bench trial” is one in which the defendant is tried by a judge, without a jury; both the prosecution and defendant must agree to that type of trial for it to proceed.

A native of Prospect Park, Delaware County, Collington was a senior at Temple studying political science at the time of his murder. He was shot outside his apartment on the 2200 block of North Park Avenue near Dauphin Street on Nov. 28, 2021, in what police said appeared to be a robbery and carjacking.

Collington was expected to graduate in spring 2022 from Temple’s College of Liberal Arts. At the time of his death, he had recently received a high score on the LSAT, planned to attend law school in the fall, and worked as a democracy fellow in the Office of the Philadelphia City Commissioners.

“The District Attorney’s Office is grateful for the conviction of Latif Williams for this outrageous crime, which not only deeply impacted Mr. Collington’s family and loved ones but affected the entire Temple University community,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said. “I again extend my deepest condolences for the terrible loss of a promising young man.”

The cited article continues to tell readers some details about the case, and the fact that young Mr Williams was under police investigation in connection with several armed robberies in the area and an August 2021 carjacking of an elderly man. Mr Williams will be formally sentenced in May, and is scheduled to be tried for the carjacking on the same day.

Patrick Link, Williams’ attorney, said Tuesday that the third-degree murder conviction for his client was the “appropriate verdict,” as Williams was initially charged with first- and second-degree murder, which would have brought harsher sentences. A first-degree murder conviction calls for a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Yeah, uh huh, right. What is “third-dgree murder” in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania Title 18 §2502. Murder.

  • (a) Murder of the first degree.–A criminal homicide constitutes murder of the first degree when it is committed by an intentional killing.
  • (b) Murder of the second degree.–A criminal homicide constitutes murder of the second degree when it is committed while defendant was engaged as a principal or an accomplice in the perpetration of a felony.
  • (c) Murder of the third degree.–All other kinds of murder shall be murder of the third degree. Murder of the third degree is a felony of the first degree.

Those are fairly simple definitions. Given that Mr Williams shot and killed Mr Collington while attempting to rob him, his crime would fit the definition of second-degree murder. Though not stated in the definition above, first-degree murder normally requires proof of premeditation, which would seem to rule it out in this case.

So, what are the penalties for murder in the Keystone State?

Pennsylvania Title 18 §1102.1. Sentence of persons under the age of 18 for murder, murder of an unborn child and murder of a law enforcement officer.

  • (a) First degree murder.–A person who has been convicted after June 24, 2012, of a murder of the first degree, first degree murder of an unborn child or murder of a law enforcement officer of the first degree and who was under the age of 18 at the time of the commission of the offense shall be sentenced as follows:
    • (1) A person who at the time of the commission of the offense was 15 years of age or older shall be sentenced to a term of life imprisonment without parole, or a term of imprisonment, the minimum of which shall be at least 35 years to life.
    • (2) A person who at the time of the commission of the offense was under 15 years of age shall be sentenced to a term of life imprisonment without parole, or a term of imprisonment, the minimum of which shall be at least 25 years to life.
  • (b) Notice.–Reasonable notice to the defendant of the Commonwealth’s intention to seek a sentence of life imprisonment without parole under subsection (a) shall be provided after conviction and before sentencing.
  • (c) Second degree murder.–A person who has been convicted after June 24, 2012, of a murder of the second degree, second degree murder of an unborn child or murder of a law enforcement officer of the second degree and who was under the age of 18 at the time of the commission of the offense shall be sentenced as follows:
    • (1) A person who at the time of the commission of the offense was 15 years of age or older shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment the minimum of which shall be at least 30 years to life.
    • (2) A person who at the time of the commission of the offense was under 15 years of age shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment the minimum of which shall be at least 20 years to life.

You will note, however, that there is no specific sentence listed for third-degree murder, which is simply listed as a first-degree felony. That’s indicated below:

Pennsylvania Title 18 §1103. Sentence of imprisonment for felony.

  • Except as provided in 42 Pa.C.S. § 9714 (relating to sentences for second and subsequent offenses), a person who has been convicted of a felony may be sentenced to imprisonment as follows:
    • (1) In the case of a felony of the first degree, for a term which shall be fixed by the court at not more than 20 years.

There is, however, no minimum sentence specified, though normally the sentence range is ten-to-twenty years. A second-degree felony in the Keystone State has a maximum sentence of ten years in the state penitentiary.

Lori D. Esq, a former prosecutor, tweeted:

DAO did waiver trial in front of Okeefe who only convicted of 3rd degree murder. But apparently Okeefe always gives 3rd degree discount yet Larry has policy that DAO always agrees to waiver unless a cop is a defendant. What a disgrace.

“Okeefe” is Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Scott O’Keefe.

So, let’s look at what made Mr Link so happy. Under Title 18 §1102.1(c)(1), a juvenile defendant of Mr Williams’ age at the time of the murder would be sentenced to a minimum of 30 years, up to a life sentence, with the possibility of parole. But with the third-degree murder downgrade, Mr Williams faces no more than 20 years, which would see him released, at the latest, at age 37 — assuming no consecutive sentences are applied, and that Mr Williams receives credit for time served — while Mr Collington will still be stone-cold graveyard dead.

We won’t know Mr Williams’ sentence until May, but at this point I am reminded of a couple of OpEds that the Inquirer published, both of which told readers that teenagers’ brains weren’t fully developed, and that we should treat them leniently, to give them chances to reform. We can’t know if Judge O’Keefe read them or will be influenced by them, but one thing we do know is that justice has not been done here.
__________________________________
Also posted on American Free News Network. Check out American Free News Network for more well written and well reasoned conservative commentary.

Posted on by

More proof that The Philadelphia Inquirer and District Attorney Larry Krasner side with the thugs, not the police.

I have frequently referred to the District Attorney of Philadelphia as the “George Soros-sponsored, police-hating and criminal-loving Larry Krasner,” and he goes out of his way to prove me right. He loves to cut real criminals a break, and charge Philadelphia Police officers with crimes whenever he can. The incident was during the riots over the unfortunate death while being arrested of the methamphetamine-and-fentanyl-addled, previously convicted felon George Floyd in Minneapolis, when the Usual Suspects went wild in the City of Brotherly Love.

Ex-Philadelphia police inspector found not guilty of assaulting protester during 2020 racial justice demonstrations

Joseph Bologna was acquitted by a Philadelphia jury on charges of simple assault and possessing an instrument of a crime.

by Jesse Bunch | St Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2024 | 12:37 PM EST | Updated: 6:24 PM EST

Joseph Bologna, the former Philadelphia police inspector accused of assaulting a Temple University student with a baton during the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd, was not guilty of assault, a jury determined Wednesday.

The Philadelphia jury found Bologna, 57, not guilty of simple assault and possessing an instrument of crime, reaching the decision in about 30 minutes.

In roughly half an hour, huh? That tells us that the jury, which had to be unanimous, had no hesitation at all, that whatever case he believed he had, Mr Krasner and his minions came nowhere close to convincing the jurors.

Bologna’s defense lawyer Fortunato N. Perri Jr. told the jury during closing arguments that his client’s life had been a “nightmare” during the 3½ years since he was arrested for his actions, which took place during the June 1 melee on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City.

The Philadelphia Police Department faced heavy scrutiny over its use of force during that summer’s protests over racial injustice and police brutality. That includes Bologna, who was accused by multiple people of using excessive force during demonstrations.

Really? Accused by whom? The police-hating demonstrators themselves?

Of course, The Philadelphia Inquirer went all-in on screaming, “Police brutality,” like a typical villain, caricatured lawyer, or street preacher in a police show like Blue Bloods!

City settles three civil rights suits against former police Inspector Joseph Bologna for $267,500

“It makes you wonder what they were thinking out there,” one attorney said. “It was a police brutality protest, and you respond to it with the sort of thing that’s being protested?”

by William Bender | Friday, December 23, 2022 | 5:00 AM EST

In the spring of 2020, as civil unrest erupted across the country following the murder of George Floyd, video clips that circulated on social media showed how a volatile situation could explode into chaos when Philadelphia Police Inspector Joseph Bologna got involved.

I do not like using photos from the Inquirer, but this article demands it, under Fair Use guidelines. I included it to show the caption that the newspaper used:

Joseph Bologna, then an inspector with the Philadelphia Police Department, repeatedly appeared in videos during the spring of 2020, escalating already volatile confrontations with protesters. Three lawsuits against him were settled this year.

Inflammatory much? Back to the body of the article:

At 10th and Market Streets, for example, a young woman appeared to tap Bologna’s bicycle tire with her foot as they passed each other while crossing the street. Bologna, then the operations commander for the department’s patrol bureau, reacted violently. He threw his bike, lunged at her, and tackled her to the ground.

Also see: Don Surber, “Let newspapers die; They dropped objectivity and with it credibility long ago“

That, in turn, set off a wave of pushing, shoving, and cursing between protesters and police officers.

In other videos, Bologna was seen wielding his collapsible metal baton like a hammer in search of a nail.

Really? Did Mr Krasner or his minions fail to present these videos to the jury trying him, or did that jury not see what reporter William Bender tell readers that they showed?

No responsible editor of a (purportedly) unbiased media source would ever have allowed an article written in that manner to be published, not as news, under which it was listed.

Mr Bologna had the charges against him dismissed by Municipal Court Judge Henry Lewandowski III, in January of 2021, when he ruled that the prosecution had not presented sufficient evidence to establish that Inspector Bologna’s use of his baton against Evan Gorski — captured on video — amounted to a crime.

Mr Krasner’s reaction? He refiled the charges against Mr Bologna the following month, saying, “Philadelphians demand evenhanded justice and we are trying our very best to give them exactly that.” Of course, the DA had dismissed the arresting charges against Mr Gorski, showing you that the District Attorney was not being evenhanded, but a partisan favoring the protesters.

Back to the first article cited:

District Attorney Larry Krasner, when asked about Bologna’s acquittal during an unrelated news conference, said that he had no criticism of the jury’s decision, but that his office was “obviously hoping for a different verdict.”

“I know that the culture in the system, the culture in society, tends to give every benefit of the doubt to law enforcement who are charged with crimes,” Krasner said. “We accept this outcome. I am proud of the fact that our investigations unit worked so hard to try to get justice in ways that my predecessors never even tried.”

In other words, the DA and his minions went after Mr Bologna as hard as they could, including the refiling of dismissed charges, yet they were unable to come up with anything sufficient, in a case which lasted barely a day in the courtroom, to persuade even a single juror to even push deliberations beyond the bare minimum. How could the super-duper legal eagles in the District Attorney’s office not know that they really had no case?

After the trial, Gorski said that although he understood the jury’s decision based off of admissible evidence, he was “ultimately disappointed” with the outcome.

Gorski said he would still like an apology from Bologna, but his expectations are low after he didn’t receive one during his civil lawsuit against the city that settled for $175,000 in 2022.

Not only does Mr Gorski not deserve an apology, he ought to get a hearty, “F(ornicate) you!” from Mr Bologna, and the rest of the Philadelphia Police Department.

“A jury of Joe Bologna’s peers listened intently to the evidence presented at trial and rendered a fair and just verdict,” Roosevelt Poplar, the police union’s president, said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

Asked whether Bologna would try to get back his job with the Philadelphia Police Department, Perri said his client would “look at all his options.” Later in the day, the FOP confirmed that it would begin the process of getting Bologna reinstated.

“Hopefully, he gets back to work,” Perri said.

The average Chief Inspector salary in Philadelphia, PA is $97,661 as of January 26, 2024, but the salary range typically falls between $81,643 and $116,751. Former Inspector Bologna should receive 3½ years of back pay, and restoration of all pensions and benefits. And he should be restored to his position with the Department.

Posted on by

In which Corey Jackson tells us that non-white ethnic groups just aren’t equal to white Americans

Assemblyman Corey Jackson, from his official biography page, and is a public document.

California state Assemblyman Corey A Jackson is not someone you would ordinarily think believed that non-white persons simply aren’t equal with whites, but darned if that isn’t exactly what he believed. Elected in 2022 to represent the 60th Assembly District, his main concern seems to be race. He was aghast, appalled, and definitely clutching his pearls when the Supreme Court ruled that yes, discrimination on the basis of race was unconstitutional in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, as well as the 2020 rejection of the Pyrite State’s Proposition 16, by the huge margin of 57.2% to 42.8%, which sought to overturn the 1996 state constitutional amendment which banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin and ethnicity as a factor in public university admissions and other state programs.

Think about that: in the ‘bluest’ of our blue states, an attempt to reinstate racial preferences, in which the proponents outspent the opposition by roughly 14-to-1, the attempt was defeated by a landslide margin. Continue reading →

Posted on by

Is justice in Philadelphia a matter of the color of your skin?

We reported, on October 5th, on the charges against Cody Monroe Heron, 26, the (alleged) numbskull who road raged against a delivery driver, who jumped on the trunk of her car, stomped out the rear window, showering kids in the back seat with shattered safety glass. Steve Keeley of Fox 29 News reported that the police-hating, George Soros-sponsored District Attorney, Larry Krasner asked for a whopping $5,000,000 bail to be set for Mr Heron, which certainly seemed excessive for the charges he faced. We pointed out that Mr Heron was a man of relatively modest, working class means, and that a $5,000,000 bail was likely impossible for him to meet.

The judge reduced Mr Krasner’s request, setting Mr Heron’s bail at $2,500,000.

As it turned out, Mr Heron was unable to meet that amount either. We then reported, on October 16th, that Mr Heron’s attorney sought a bail reduction for his client, but that, instead, Common Pleas Court Judge Vincent Furling instead increased his bail amount to $4,000,000. If Mr Heron was unable to make the $2,500,000 bail, raising it to $4,000,000 seemed to me to be an obvious attempt to keep Mr Heron, who is accused of serious crimes, but nevertheless has a clean previous record, locked up before his trial. The evidence against Mr Heron is pretty convincing, but he is, nevertheless, innocent until proven guilty.

And so we come to Michael Henry. Mr Henry has, allegedly, been a not-very-nice young man! Continue reading →

Posted on by

Killadelphia To me, it's simple: no one who is guilty of murder should ever see the light of day again as a free man.

On Thursday, October 12th, Philadelphia Police Officers Richard Mendez, 50, and Raul Ortiz, 60, were when the officers attempted to stop a gang of goons from attempting to break in and steal a car in a parking garage at the Philadelphia International Airport. Officer Mendez was killed, and Officer Ortiz wounded. The officers returned fire, and one of ths suspects was wounded. Teenager Jesus Herman Madera Duran was wounded, and his accomplices threw him in the back of their Dodge Durango — which was reported stolen a weak earlier — and dumped him on the floor of a parking garage at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and then fled. Young Mr Duran, of Camden, New Jersey, was pronounced dead at CHOP. Continue reading →

Posted on by

Trial by public opinion.

We reported, on October 5th, on the charges against Cody Monroe Heron, the (alleged) numbskull who road raged against a delivery driver, who jumped on the trunk of her car, stomped out the rear window, showering kids in the back seat with shattered safety glass.

Philadelphia police have charged a Frankford man in the viral Center City motorcyclist assault

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday afternoon they had charged Cody Monroe Heron with aggravated assault and possession of an instrument of crime.

by Beatrice Forman and Rodrigo Torrejón | Wednesday, October 4, 2023 | 8:16 AM EDT | Updated: 4:20 PM EDT

Philadelphia authorities say a 26-year-old man who stomped on and shattered the windshield of a woman’s car while her two children were in the back seat in a now-viral Center City assault has been charged with aggravated assault after he was arrested Tuesday night.

Police have charged Cody Monroe Heron, of the 4500 block of East Stiles Street in Frankford, for destroying the back windshield of a car being driven by a woman making deliveries for Uber Eats, with her girlfriend and their two children in tow, near City Hall on Sunday night. He also allegedly pointed a handgun at her and headbutted her with his motorcycle helmet.

With what is Mr Heron charged? As reported by Fox29’s Steve Keeley, the most serious of the charges are three counts of aggravated assault under Pennsylvania Title 18 §2702. No one was actually injured, but under section (a)(9),

attempts to cause or intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causes serious bodily injury to a child less than 13 years of age, by a person 18 years of age or older.

could be classified as a first-degree felony under section (b). Sentencing guidelines would normally be between ten and twenty years in the state penitentiary, along with a fine of up to $25,000.

Mr Keeley reported, District Attorney Krasner requested that bail for Mr Heron be set at $5,000,000, though the judge cut that in half, to $2,500,000.

The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

We also researched Mr Heron’s street, noting that his apparent living situation did not seem to be the type which would support being able to make such a huge bail amount, though whether he had family who could help with that was undisclosed. In the end, Mr Heron was not able to make bail, and requested a reduction in the amount:

Bail hiked to $4 million for motorcyclist accused of stomping out a mother’s car windshield in viral Center City incident

An attorney for Cody Heron requested a bail reduction in the viral assault case. Instead, the judge raised it by 60%.

by Max Marin | Monday, October 16, 2023

A Philadelphia judge on Monday raised the bail of a man who police say stomped out the windshield of a car occupied by two women and two young children in Center City earlier this month.

Common Pleas Court Judge Vincent W. Furlong raised the bail of Cody M. Heron, 26, of Frankford, from $2.5 million to $4 million and cleared the way for the case against him on assault and reckless endangerment charges to move to trial.

Authorities say Heron was near City Hall on the evening of Oct. 1 with a crowd of ATV, dirt bike and motorcycle riders, when he dismounted his bike and stomped out the rear window of a burgundy Ford Fusion before pulling a gun on the driver and then head-butting her with his bike helmet. The scene, which was captured by a tourist riding a nearby double-decker bus, garnered millions of views on social media.

The driver, Nicki Bullock, 23, got out of her car and confronted the motorcyclist, who then pointed a handgun in her face. Ignoring the threat, Bullock fought back, at one point pushing the motorcyclist off his bike before he fled the scene.

If the police correctly identified the assailant — the crime was captured on a now-viral video, and his attorney has as much as conceded that his client was correctly identified — Mr Heron is both stupid and violent, and if convicted, deserves to go to prison for a long, long time. But, at least thus far, Mr Heron has been convicted of nothing, and he is legally innocent until proven guilty.

Mr Heron’s next court appearance, his formal arraignment, is scheduled for Monday, October 30th. That means, unless there is a surprise development, that Mr Heron will have spent four weeks in jail for the crime of which he has been accused, but has not actually been either tried or convicted. He couldn’t make the $2,500,000 bail, yet Judge Furlong increased the bail amount anyway, in an obvious attempt to keep Mr Heron behind bars, despite the Eighth Amendment and despite Mr Heron not having been convicted of any crime. Judge Furlong is, in effect, punishing Mr Heron in advance.

Yes, the crime was a blatant one, and it was caught on video, but it is also true that no one was injured. People were outraged by it, but public outrage is no excuse for denying Mr Heron, about whom no media reports have painted as a flight risk, the reasonable bail required by the Bill of Rights.

Posted on by

How many people knew about Josh Kruger’s (alleged) activities?

We have previously noted the perhaps-not-so-surprising developments in the murder of Josh Kruger, something of a minor celebrity in the City of Brotherly Love. Mr Kruger was shot at his residence in the Point Breeze neighborhood, and the alleged killer’s family have made the claim that Mr Kruger had a sexual relationship with the shooter when the shooter was only 15 years old. Continue reading →

Posted on by

Larry Krasner and the equal application of the law

The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifies:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Larry Krasner, the George Soros-sponsored, police hating defense lawyer who is currently serving as Philadelphia’s District Attorney says, in his brief Twitter bio, that he “fights for equal justice for the great people of Philadelphia. A fair and effective criminal justice system makes us safer.” Remember that: Mr Krasner is telling us that he seeks fairness. Continue reading →

Posted on by

The Islamic Terrorists are still a threat Philly teenager arrested for trying to produce terrorist bombs, in contact with Syrian terrorist group.

One would think that a 17-year-old being arrested in the City of Brotherly Love for attempting to make bombs for terrorist use would make the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer’s website, but if one thought that, one would be wrong. At least as of 9:48 AM EDT on Tuesday, August 15th, it just wasn’t there. Readers had to look on the newspaper’s specific crime page to find the story . . . if they even knew that the crime page existed.

For those who get and read the print edition? Middle of page B-1!

Philadelphia teen accused of buying and testing bomb-making materials in support of foreign terror group

Authorities did not release the 17-year-old’s name, citing his status as a juvenile but said they would seek to try him as an adult.

by Jeremy Roebuck and Chris Palmer | Monday, August 14, 2023 | 5:46 PM EDT

A 17-year-old from West Philadelphia has been charged with buying and testing bomb-making materials in support of a foreign terrorist group, state and federal authorities announced Monday.

The teen, whom prosecutors declined to name because he is a juvenile, was arrested Friday at his home in the Wynnefield section of the city, said Jacqueline Maguire, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia office.

Investigators say he’d purchased materials including chemicals, wiring, and tactical equipment associated with improvised explosive devices and conducted “generalized research” on potential targets. The teen had also been “taking steps to travel overseas for the purpose of joining or supporting terrorist activity,” Maguire said, though she declined to offer specifics.

The teen faces state felony charges including possessing weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy, arson, and causing or risking a catastrophe — the most serious of which carry prison terms of up to 20 years. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said his office was required by law to charge the teen in juvenile court, but that prosecutors would seek to move his case into the adult system.

There’s more at the original.

Perhaps I am not the smartest person in the room — well, I am at the moment, since, as I type this, I’m the only person in the room! 🙂 — but one talent I have is noticing things. At least in the Microsoft Edge browser that I use, when you hold the cursor over the page tab, it gives you the original page title, which in this instance was “Philly teen accused of building bombs in support of Syrian terror group”, something a bit more specific than the article headline now, “Philadelphia teen accused of buying and testing bomb-making materials in support of foreign terror group,” and the print edition’s “Teen accused of testing bomb parts for terrorism.” Note that, in the headlines used, the newspaper I have frequently called The Philadelphia Enquirer[1]RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I thought it very apt. reduced specificity so readers wouldn’t automatically think Muslim terrorists. But once you start reading the names mentioned in the article, you’ll know.

The unusual url for the article is https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-terrorism-qawi-abdul-rahman-katibat-al-tawhid-wal-jihad-20230814.html. Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad is a Syrian group, designated by the State Department as “a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order 13224”, so the Inquirer reporters had to have known

So, who is the 17-year-old suspect? His name was not released, because he is a juvenile, though District Attorney Larry Krasner has said that he will move to have the charges brought in adult court.

(S)ources familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the arrest occurred on the 5900 block of Woodbine Avenue at the home of Qawi Abdul-Rahman, a Philadelphia defense attorney who unsuccessfully ran in this year’s Democratic primary for Common Pleas Court judge.

Mr Abdul-Rahman has been publicly reprimanded by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The Inquirer reported last March that challenges to Mr Abdul-Rahman’s candidacy had been filed, and when it was reported that Philadelphia Undersheriff Tariq El-Shabazz had been representing criminal defendants, in an apparent violation of regulations, and someone who ran unsuccessfully for District Attorney in 2017, the newspaper stated:

In January 2022, El-Shabazz entered an appearance in another gun case being prosecuted by the Philly DA’s Office. In December, a new lawyer took over the case, Qawi Abdul-Rahman. Abdul-Rahman’s law office address and phone number are the same as El-Shabazz’s.

While the newspaper did not state or imply that the suspect is Mr Abdul-Rahman’s son, Philadelphia Magazine reporter Victor Fiorillo, who is certainly no evil reich-wing conservative, wrote:

Several sources have alleged that the person arrested is the son of Abdul-Rahman. On Monday, just after the press conference, I asked Abdul-Rahman via text if the person arrested is, indeed, his son. He called me right away. “You wanna find out what I’m really about?” he told me. “Text or call me one more time, and you’ll find out what I’m really about.”

While Mr Fiorillo wasn’t quite able to give us Mr Abdul-Rahman’s voice inflection, that sure sounds like a warning!

Back to the Inquirer. After investigating contacts the suspect made with terrorist groups, more was discovered:

But the investigation into the teen entered a new phase over the past several weeks after he began amassing equipment including tactical gear, wiring, chemicals, and devices often used as detonators, Maguire said.

FBI agents surveilled him as he bought materials to make homemade bombs on Aug. 7, and on Aug. 8, U.S. Customs and Border Protection “provided records revealing 14 international shipments of military and tactical gear” to his house, prosecutors said in a statement. They added that he’d also taken steps toward assembling them into explosives and testing them in recent weeks.

“These purchases quickly escalated this case into a threat and a priority for our office,” Maguire said. “This was now a situation where we believe public safety was at risk.”

As agents descended on his home Friday, they found what Maguire described as a “significant number” of firearms but no completed bombs in the house. She declined to elaborate on whom those guns belonged to or where they were stored.

Let’s be clear here: if the suspect, who might be the elder Mr Abdul-Rahman’s son, but was, at any rate, living in his house, received “14 international shipments of military and tactical gear” to his house, those shipments were received at the elder Mr Abdul-Rahman’s house! Mr Abdul-Rahman is an attorney, and had to know that receiving such shipments was probably illegal.

Did the elder Mr Abdul-Rahman know that there were a “significant number” of firearms in his home?

If the juvenile suspect is Mr Abdul-Rahman’s son, it’s hardly a surprise that a father would be protective of his son. But as an attorney, he must also be aware of the limitations involved in that, and the fact that the evidence recovered was recovered in his own home. Was he stupid? Was he clueless? Was he ignorant of what someone living in his own home was doing?

There’s more to be learned, and revealed in this case, but one thing is clear: Islamist terrorism isn’t somehow restricted to the Middle East!

References

References
↑1 RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but, reminiscent of the National Enquirer as it is, I thought it very apt.