A post of mine that will piss off a lot of people

My good friend Chaya Raichik — OK, OK, she has no idea who I am, bit I follow her on Twitter, posted:

Ryan Evans was charged with assault to r*pe a child in 2021. He was let free and sentenced to house arrest, awaiting trial. 3 months ago a judge loosened his curfew.

Now he was arrested again for luring a 5-year-old child behind a restroom and attempting to r*pe him.

Why does our justice system let violent child pr*dat*rs back onto the street to continue t*rr*rizing communities?

Naturally, the responses to Miss Raichik were almost uniformly supportive, but mine was different, and I would imagine it will be unpopular. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution specified that the accused have a right to a reasonable bail amount, meaning a bail that they can reasonably make, while the Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a speedy trial.

Mr Evans was charged with horribly serious crimes, crimes which, to me, merit life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted, but that’s the point: he has not actually been convicted of anything yet. The judge in his previous case granted him bail, which he made, but put him on house arrest, complete with the requirement to wear a GPS ankle monitor. I can see the merit in that, but Mr Evena has been awaiting trial for three years now. Continue reading

Pennsylvanians are incensed that Larry Krasner will not seek the death penalty for a cop killer But the truth is that, even if sentenced to death, the killer would never be executed

It should not have been a surprise to anyone. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, upon the election of the George Soros-sponsored, police-hating, and criminal-excusing defense attorney Larry Krasner to become District Attorney of the City of Brotherly Love, said, “It’s time to end the death penalty…mass incarceration … cash bail.” He has also stated that he has been opposed to capital punishment since 1984.

Why, then, is anyone acting shocked that Mr Krasner and his minions are not going to go for a death sentence against Miles Pfeffer, the teenaged punk who murdered Temple University Police Officer Christopher Fitzgerald? Continue reading

Sometimes you just have to be an [insert slang term for the rectum here] to do things right.

My good friends at The Philadelphia Inquirer have, as we have previously noted, been giving OpEd and other space to those criticizing Mayor Cherelle Parker Mullins’ harder line on the open-air drug markets and junkies sleeping on the streets in Kensington.

Well, here they go again!

Drug deaths and overdoses plague Philly jails, raising concerns about plans to step up Kensington arrests

Since 2018, 25 people have died drug-related deaths in Philly jails, where drugs are widely accessible. As the city plans to arrest more drug users in Kensington, that has compounded safety concerns.

Continue reading

What about the right to a speedy trial?

George Aldridge, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

On August 28, 2023, we noted the case of George Wayne Aldridge, previously accused of three sexual assaults in Lexington then being charged in a cold case from Louisville as well. Our August story concerned his bail reduction from $150,000 to $50,000.

The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution specifies that “Excessive bail shall not be required, but Mr Aldridge was unable to make the reduced bail amount, either. And that brings us to the present. From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Lexington survivor terrified, ‘disgusted’ that alleged ‘serial rapist’ could be released

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Philly advocates for prostitutes want the johns arrested, but not the hookers

It has always struck me as odd that something which is completely legal to do for free can be illegal to do for money, but such is prostitution and the buying of sex. But an OpEd in Tuesday’s Philadelphia Inquirer raised a point that I suspect the authors didn’t realize:

Want to eradicate the sex trade in Kensington, Mayor Parker? Arrest the people buying sex.

Traffickers and sex buyers perpetuate sexual exploitation and keep the commercial sex trade alive. Philadelphia police should arrest them instead of those who are already exploited. 

by Shea Rhodes, Mary DeFusco, and Ann Marie Jones | Tuesday, June 18, 2024 | 5:00 AM EDT

As experts in sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, and systems of prostitution, we disagree with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s recent decision to empower the Philadelphia police to make arrests for prostitution in Kensington.

People in prostitution should not be arrested or charged with prostitution offenses. The practice of prosecuting people in prostitution perpetuates a harmful ideology that they are criminals, rather than people who are being exploited.

Traffickers and sex buyers perpetuate sexual exploitation and keep the commercial sex trade alive. Police should arrest them instead.

Parker’s decision will also create additional barriers for victims attempting to exit “the life” of sexual exploitation. Criminal convictions serve as an additional hurdle for survivors to seek meaningful employment, housing opportunities, immigration opportunities, federal student loans, and more.

Continue reading

If it looks like a coverup, and smells like a coverup, . . . .

As we have previously reported, Robert Davis, 20, the killer of Josh Kruger, was expected to plead guilty in exchange for a 15-to-30-year prison sentence. Yesterday, he did just that:

Man sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison for murder of Josh Kruger

Robert Davis, 20, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and related offenses, and was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.

by Robert Moran | Monday, June 10, 2024 | 8:55 PM EDT

A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison for the October fatal shooting of local journalist and advocate Josh Kruger, court records show.

The negotiated guilty plea for third-degree murder and related offenses was expected from Robert Davis, who killed the 39-year-old Kruger on Oct. 2. Continue reading

The inclusion of bias in news articles is subtle, but you have to be aware of it

This site has expressed some amusement at The Philadelphia Inquirer referring to gangs as “street groups.” It began when we were reliably informed by The Philadelphia Inquirer that there are no gangs in the city, just “cliques of young men affiliated with certain neighborhoods and families,” who sometimes had “beefs” with other cliques, so we must replace the term “gang-bangers” with “cliques of young men” or “clique beefers”. District Attorney Larry Krasner and his office seem to prefer the term “rival street groups“. Continue reading

Maybe not that much of a heap o’ trouble for five Philly ‘teens’

The WordPress software that this site uses has an interesting feature when it comes to generating the url code for the headlines, one that enables a sequential series. And thus the working headline for this article is “You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!”, which I have used several times in the past. The screen is showing me that this would be the 22nd article using that title. Due to the way the software works, as long as I post it under that headline, the url remains the same, even if I change the headline subsequently, which is why there are some headlines “You in a heap o’ trouble, girl!” that have the boy in the url. 🙂

And so it is with this one, because I wonder just how big that heap o’ trouble is for five juvenile delinquents in the City of Brotherly Love. Continue reading