Tag Archives: #Culture

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What did we achieve?

Captain Harry Wales in Afghanistan.

There was little choice for the United States to go into Afghanistan following the September 11th attacks. There were 2,459 American military deaths, along with 20,769 Americans wounded. Along with that were 1,822 civilian contractors and 18 Central Intelligence Agency operatives killed in the two months short of twenty years we were there. 457 British soldiers were killed there, and another 2,209 wounded seriously enough to be admitted to field hospitals.

Even His Royal Highness, Prince Henry of Wales, before he went bat guano insane over Meghan Markle, served in Afghanistan, as an Apache helicopter pilot.

Al Qaeda was routed reasonably quickly, although Osama bin Laden wasn’t killed until May 2, 2011, at a compound hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. His successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, lasted until July 31, 2022, after the United States had evacuated troops from the country, by an American drone strike at a villa in Kabul that he used.

Al Qaeda Is Back—and Thriving—in Afghanistan

The architects of 9/11 are profiting from gold and gem mines in the Taliban-led country.

By Lynne O’Donnell, a columnist at Foreign Policy and an Australian journalist and author. | March 22, 2024

Al Qaeda is back to its old tricks in Afghanistan. Much as it did before masterminding the 9/11 attacks, the terrorist group is running militant training camps; sharing the profits of the Taliban’s illicit drug, mining, and smuggling enterprises; and funneling the proceeds to affiliated jihadi groups worldwide.

An unpublished report circulating among Western diplomats and U.N. officials details how deeply embedded the group once run by Osama bin Laden is in the Taliban’s operations, as they loot Afghanistan’s natural wealth and steal international aid meant to alleviate the suffering of millions of Afghans.

The report was completed by a private, London-based threat analysis firm whose directors did not want to be identified. A copy was provided to Foreign Policy and its findings verified by independent sources. It is based on research conducted inside Afghanistan in recent months and includes a list of senior al Qaeda operatives and the roles they play in the Taliban’s administration.

To facilitate its ambitions, al Qaeda is raking in tens of millions of dollars a week from gold mines in Afghanistan’s northern Badakhshan and Takhar provinces that employ tens of thousands of workers and are protected by warlords friendly to the Taliban, the report says. The money represents a 25 percent share in proceeds from gold and gem mines; 11 gold mines are geolocated in the report. The money is shared with al Qaeda by the two Taliban factions: Sirajuddin Haqqani’s Kabul faction and Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s Kandahar faction, suggesting both leaders, widely regarded as archrivals, see a cozy relationship with al Qaeda as furthering their own interests as well as helping to entrench the group’s overall power.

There’s more at the original.

So, after going in and spending almost twenty years there, spending trillions of dollars and seeing over 2,000 American soldiers coming bad in body bags, all to destroy al Qaeda, the terrorist group are back.

The younger President George Bush included in the mission ousting and, supposedly, destroying the Taliban, the hardline Islamist faction which governed the country at the time. It wasn’t too difficult for American soldiers and Marines to kick the Taliban out of power, but, as we all know, the US, under President Donald Trump, negotiated a withdrawal from that abysmal place, though it wasn’t accomplished until August of 2021, under President Joe Biden. Naturally, under Mr Biden, the final departure was a complete mess and foul-up, in which 13 more Americans were killed, and the US handed power right back to the same Taliban President Bush swore would be driven from power.

And now we have this:

Taliban publish vice laws that ban women’s voices and bare faces in public

The Taliban say it’s mandatory for Afghan women to conceal their voices and bare faces in public

by The Associated Press | Thursday, August 22, 2024 | 12:19 PM EDT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public under new laws approved by the supreme leader in efforts to combat vice and promote virtue.

The laws were issued Wednesday after they were approved by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, a government spokesman said. The Taliban had set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” after seizing power in 2021.

The ministry published its vice and virtue laws on Wednesday that cover aspects of everyday life like public transportation, music, shaving and celebrations.

They are set out in a 114-page, 35-article document seen by The Associated Press and are the first formal declaration of vice and virtue laws in Afghanistan since the takeover.

“Inshallah we assure you that this Islamic law will be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice,” said ministry spokesman Maulvi Abdul Ghafar Farooq on Thursday.

There’s more at the original

Al Qaeda are back and the Taliban are back, returning to the same basic Islamist and authoritarian principles they imposed in their previous regime. And that, along with the failure of democracy in Iraq, raises the obvious question: what the f(ornicate) did we gain from all of the blood spilled and all of the treasure burned up and blown up?

President Bush was seduced by Natan Sharansky’s and Ron Dermer’s book, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, in which the authors argued that the only moral foreign policy is to expand democracy across the world, and that once a people experience democracy, they will want to keep it. More, democracies will never be aggressors against their neighbors. Mr Bush tried to impose democracy on Iraq and Afghanistan — remember the purple-stained ‘I voted’ fingers? — but once American soldiers were not there to enforce democracy, it just never took.

Democracy is an artifact of Western civilization, a development of northern European and American culture. We managed to impose democracy on Japan and South Korea, but only after they had been completely devastated by war, and much of their military aged male population were killed or wounded. Those nations have copied and assimilated Western culture to the extent that they could. Israel is a Western democracy because it was resettled by Jews fleeing from Europe.

But let’s tell the truth here: We will never see true democracy or Western civilization in the Muslim Middle East, and we should not be naïve enough to waste our money and our blood on trying to push it. Iraq and Afghanistan are abject lessons in this.

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Live by the gun, die by the gun A public service homicide

Yeah, I’m treading on Robert Stacy McCain’s “Aspiring Rapper Update” turf with this one, but it was a Philly story, so I can call dibs.

Abdul Vicks, 25, had some sort of rap career as “YBC Dul”, and Philly Crime Update told me that he had “millions of streams” for his ‘songs,’ if rap can actually be called a song, and I don’t think it can.

Popular rapper who prosecutors say was ringleader of violent gang was fatally shot in Olney

Abdul Vicks, who performed as “YBC Dul,” was fatally shot on the 5500 block of North Sixth Street, just after 3:30 p.m. Friday.

by Ellie Rushing and Robert Moran | Saturday, August 23, 2024 | 7:14 PM EDT

A popular 25-year-old rapper — who prosecutors say was considered the ringleader of a notoriously violent West Philadelphia-based gang — was shot and killed Friday afternoon in the city’s Olney section, a law enforcement source said.

I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked, that The Philadelphia Inquirer, which told us 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, used the word “gang,” especially when one of the writers of this article, Ellie Rushing, was also the first name in the byline of that September 19, 2022 article.

Police said the shooting occurred just after 3:30 p.m. on the 5500 block of North Sixth Street. The victim, who was identified as Abdul Vicks, was taken by private vehicle to Einstein Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m.

The newspaper’s source remains anonymous, because he was not authorized to speak to the press about the case. As of the writing of this article, no arrests have been made.

Prosecutors say Vicks, who performed as “YBC Dul,” was considered the ringleader of the West Philadelphia-based gang called YBC, or Young Bag Chasers.

Also see: Robert Stacy McCain, “‘Public Service Homicide’ in Killadelphia“

Philly Crime Update also told us that young Mr Vicks, who will never become the elder Mr Vicks, was also known by a gang name, “Mr Disrespectful.” It appears that someone else has “disrespected” Mr Vicks.

Earlier this month, 22-year-old Quamere Hall, a Vicks associate, was arrested at the Criminal Justice Center and charged with the shooting death of a 34-year-old man last year.

Hall, another rapper who performs as “Mere Pablo,” was at the Criminal Justice Center to show support for Arshad Curry, a fellow YBC member who was scheduled to be sentenced for shooting five people, three fatally, in 2021. Curry was sentenced to 42½ to 85 years in prison.

Last year, three other YBC members were convicted of killing two teens.

Let’s tell the truth here: other than for the families of the Young Bag Chasers, this is all pretty good news. Mr Vicks, the supposed ‘ringleader’ of the gang, has been taken off the streets, permanently. Mr Hall has been arrested for murder.

Arshad Curry, a.k.a. “Most Wanted,” Raheis Sherman, street name “F5ive,” Zaire Crawford, a.k.a. “1k” or “Murda K”, Yaseam Miles, a.k.a. “Baby Wick” or “Ya Ya”; and Semaj Nolan, a.k.a. “Reek12Hunnit,” some of them with the Chaser’s allied gang, the Young Face Arrangers, are all behind bars, most for decades. How can it be a bad thing when bad guys are off the streets?

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Don’t blame Other People if your neighborhood is a mess

Our good friends on the left like to tell us that the plight of poor people is the result of systemic racism, redlining, poor schools — though never to say that vouchers for private schools or school choice could help! — and disinvestment in poorer communities, basically blaming all of their travails on greedy capitalists, and really anybody other than the poor themselves.

Then I found this, in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Residents welcome Philly’s citywide cleanup, but complaint data show trash quickly returns

Mayor Parker’s Office of Clean and Green aimed to deep clean every Philly neighborhood this year. Halfway through the program, Philly 311 data show that trash complaints have not receded.

by Saara Ghani and Ximena Conde | Tuesday, July 30, 2024 | 5:00 AM EDT

My Nguyen and Cloud, her big and fluffy dog, walk through their Kensington neighborhood every day. She worries that Cloud will rifle through the garbage on the sidewalk and get dirty — or worse, choke on something.

Just a week before, the area had been swarmed by city crews armed with leaf blowers, street sweepers, and water trucks — part of a citywide summer cleanup targeting every corner of Philadelphia.

“It doesn’t last, because people keep littering,” Nguyen said.

From Kingsessing to Kensington, residents have welcomed the added investment but said it is not a long-term solution. Garbage complaints keep rolling in to Philly311, the city’s reporting system for nonemergency complaints.

I certainly appreciate the alliteration the Inky’s reporters used, but it’s worth noting here that Kingsessing and Kensington are two of Philly’s poorer neighborhoods.

The story included a photo by staff photographer Tom Gralish that could be somewhat deceiving, showing the intersection of South 55th and Elliot Streets in Kingsessing, with a bunch of litter and trash in the street, but also six city workers equipped with leaf blowers, and it appears that they were blowing the trash into a smaller area for easier pick up. Nevertheless, there was a lot of trash!

Some of the problems are caused not by the residents just littering the streets, but illegal dumping, presumably from other neighborhoods, but that happens because people know that they can get away with it. Yet, just two weeks after the city cleanup crews have gone through, the system receives more complaints about trash than before the cleaning. Some of that can be attributed to people seeing that hey, someone did clean up the mess, people who might not have complained before because they thought it a waste of time and effort. I suppose that, under previous Mayor Jim Kenney, who mentally checked out of his job long before his term ended, very little got done, so almost anything getting done under the new administration is an improvement.

But, to me, it’s pretty simple: if you don’t want your neighborhood trashed, don’t trash your neighborhood. If you have some garbage in your hands, carry it with you until you get to a trash can; how hard is that? The above linked picture shows dozens of scraps of paper, some soda bottles and drink cups, the kind of thing you’d have after a trip to McDonald’s or a corner bodega. If you’re walking up to your house, and you see little stuff like that littering the sidewalk or the gutter, pick it up and take it in to your trash can. I can understand if the garbage is a used drug needle that no decent person would want to pick it up with his bare hands, but a sandwich wrapper or a drink cup? Just pick it up!

You don’t have to be wealthy to pick up a piece of trash. Just because there are a lot of poor people in the City of Brotherly Love does not mean they can’t try to keep their neighborhoods clean.

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Crazy people are dangerous

London’s Daily Mail is a sensationalist tabloid, to be sure, but as I pointed out here, the Daily Mail was the only credentialed media source that I found which exposed the fact that the Pennbrook Middle School assailant was transgender, a boy claiming to be a girl. I’ve still seen no major credentialed media sources stating that, but I’ve also seen no credentialed media sources publishing anything which have claimed that the reports that ‘Melanie,’ the (alleged) Pennbrook assailant, is ‘transgender’ are false.

And now there’s this:

Middle schoolers study in FEAR after being forced back to class with ‘troubled’ trans kid who named 45 on ‘hit list’: Boston parent says ‘they know the school is not protecting them’

Continue reading →

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

Is Mayor Cherelle Parker Mullins (D-Philadelphia) an [insert slang term for the rectum here]? The city’s left are aghast that Mrs Mullins has promised that the city government will not provide even a single dollar for the syringe exchange program to ‘reduce harm’ to the junkies who shoot up in Philly’s streets. And while I have yet to see an official editorial in The Philadelphia Inquirer opposing the Mayor’s announced policy, the newspaper’s coverage certainly seems slanted in that general direction. We have previously reported on how almost everyone supports drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation, but they prefer it to be in other people’s neighborhoods, and how even in Democrat-controlled Philadelphia, the City Council passed an ordinance which bans ‘safe injection centers in all council districts except one. We also noted that, despite residential opposition, the editors of The Philadelphia Inquirer have supported the concept of ‘safe injection centers and been opposed to efforts to ban drug treatment centers in specific neighborhoods.

Mayor Parker proposes cutting nearly $1 million in syringe exchange funding for Prevention Point

The shift is part of Parker’s promise to end the city’s financial support of programs that provide sterile syringes to people who use drugs.

by Anna Orso and Aubrey Whelan | Income Tax Day, April 15, 2024 | 12:02 PM EDT | Updated: 4:11 PM EDT

Mayor Cherelle Parker Mullins, from her Facebook page.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration wants the city to cut nearly $1 million of funding to Prevention Point, a large social services organization in Kensington, as part of her promise to end the city’s financial support of programs that provide sterile syringes to people who use drugs. Continue reading →

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Perhaps his disability was that he was just plain stupid

My good friend Robert Stacy McCain has a new post, Biden’s Gun Control Policy Won’t Work, about the President’s attempt to close the so-called ‘gun show loophole,’ which is, as Mr McCain pointed out, “a propaganda phrase invented by the anti-gun fanatics who want to prevent law-abiding citizens from defending themselves.”

But the part which interested me most was further down:

Anthony Wade was 34 when he died March 29 in Sparks, Nevada, after shooting a cop who pulled him over for a traffic violation. Police on Friday released video of the incident, during which Wade fled after shooting the cop, crashed his car, ran on foot, broke into two different homes where he attempted to hide out, and ambushed police when they came after him. Anthony Wade was a convicted felon who, as such, was prohibited from owning firearms. He’d been a criminal his whole life: Continue reading →

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Not old enough to grow a man’s beard, but old enough to do a man’s crime! And now he'll do a man's time, but will he learn a real man's lessons?

In 25 years, John Nusslein will be 44 years old; in 25 years, Chung Yan Chin will still be dead.

We should have, I suppose, some gratitude that carjacking is a federal offense, and such cases can be tried in federal court, rather than in a state court in which Philadelphia’s George Soros-sponsored, police-hating, and softer-than-Charmin-on-crime District Attorney, Larry Krasner, has no say in the charges or outcomes. Nevertheless, Mr Nusslein will eventually be a free man, while his victim will still be pushing up daisies. Continue reading →

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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.
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Also posted on American Free News Network. Check out American Free News Network for more well written and well reasoned conservative commentary.

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Does The Philadelphia Inquirer really want to excuse juvenile crime?

As we reported on Ash Wednesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer gave OpEd space to three Montclair State University ‘academics,’ in which they argued that the barins of teenagers are not fully matured by age 18, and that they should usually be treated as juveniles for several more years, to give them a chance for rehabilitation. Well, it was just a day later, that the newspaper gave more OpEd space, for two more activists to make the same point:

Locking teens up won’t make our city safer. It will have the opposite effect, and here’s why.

When young people commit nonviolent offenses, they should be able to learn from and make amends for their poor choices. We hope our new police commissioner knows this.

by Donna Cooper and Anton Moore, For The Inquirer | Thursday, February 15, 2024 | 6:00 AM EST

While it is incredibly welcome news that gun deaths in Philadelphia decreased in 2023 from the peaks of the COVID-19 years, there is so much work that needs to be done to prevent people — especially our young people — from going down the path that leads to violence.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s selection of Kevin Bethel as police commissioner is a good one because — as the former chief of school safety — he has the right mindset and experience to invest in our children. Commissioner Bethel recognizes that the brain isn’t fully developed until a person’s mid-20s, which means young people make reckless decisions at 16, 17, and 18 years old that they would likely never make in adulthood. When those reckless decisions are nonviolent offenses, it is undeniably better to give children and teens the structure to learn from and make amends for their poor choices, not lock them up.

One obvious point: juveniles who are incarcerated are not out on the streets able to commit further crimes.

We have hope that Bethel understands this. He successfully led an expansion of the Philadelphia Police Department’s school-based diversion program, which responds to low-level misbehavior — like marijuana possession or bringing scissors to school — by linking kids to supportive services, instead of arresting them. These alternatives include academic support and mentoring to identify reasons why kids may be acting out. Since 2013, arrests in Philadelphia public schools have gone down by over 90%. (Bethel’s diversion program began in the 2014-15 academic year.) Youth in the program were also less likely to be suspended or arrested within five years after they went through the program than those students who were arrested at school.

We need to bring this same approach of diversion over arrest to the community.

Uhhh, the problem isn’t teens bringing scissors or pot to school; those things don’t get teens arrested on Philly’s streets. The problems are theft, destruction of private property, carjackings, shootings, fatal beatings, crimes which have identifiable victims.

Further down:

And yet, too many people assume that the only solution to stop youth crime is to lock children up long term.

While there are times when detaining teenagers is warranted, it cannot be the first and only response if we really want to end violence, because it doesn’t address the reasons so many kids are committing crimes in the first place.

Actually, it can. The criminal who is incarcerated or not incarcerated is not the only one who is learning a lesson here. The criminal, teenaged or otherwise, who is not incarcerated, who is treated as leniently as Curtis Wallace, Jr, was, learns the lesson that he’ll always get cut a break; that’s not a lesson the article authors have contemplated.

But it’s also the people around the malefactor who learn a lesson, the lesson being either that, hey, Curtis got busted, but was let go, so I’ll get let off, too, or the lesson that, dang, Curtis got busted and drew ten years in the state pen. The teenaged delinquents the authors contemplate getting whatever services and education that they expect might get that, were they to get their way, but the kids around the leniently treated criminal won’t; they’ll only see that their buddy got away with it.

Philadelphia needs to invest in a full array of services, including prevention and community-based services, to stop the cycle of arrest and incarceration. And we have the funds to do it: A recent economic analysis of the Philadelphia juvenile justice system showed an estimated $17 million in unspent funds each year — money that could be invested in evidence-based solutions that actually reduce crime by helping young people understand how to make better choices and make amends with those they’ve harmed.

And there we have it! The authors were very careful not to use the term “restorative justice,” that leftist prosecutors like Larry Krasner and Pamela Price like to employ, but that’s what “make amends with those they’ve harmed” means. And every place the George Soros-sponsored liberal prosecutors have taken power, crime rates have soared. The lessons of leniency have been well learned, as people with bad intentions have learned that they’ve less to fear than before. Even in the semi-deranged brains of the criminals, cost-benefit calculations are made, even if in forms we wouldn’t necessarily see as reasonable.

I have more than once mocked Mr Krasner as having a diabolically brilliant plan to get criminals off of Philly’s streets: keep excusing them and excusing them and excusing them until they commit a crime which gets them locked up for life, or, more efficiently, killed. That has been the result in the City of Brotherly Love. The problem with the authors’ OpEd is that they are taking seriously the notion that crime by juveniles should be excused, better to teach them a lesson.

The authors used the appointment of Kevin Bethel as their starting point, and even concluded with an appeal to him concerning ‘diversion’ of arrests to some sort of better program. But the duty of the Police Commissioner is to police the city. Even if the Commissioner believed in such diversion programs, such programs would be the purview of agencies outside of the Police Department.

We’ve actually seen such a ‘program,’ though not really stated formally, before, as the Broward County Sheriff’s Department kept letting Nikolas Cruz go, time after time, for his misdemeanors and even a couple of felonies. The school board did the same thing, keeping him out of the so-called ‘school-to-prison pipeline.’ Thus Mr Cruz had no criminal record, and was legally able to purchase the AR-15 with which he shot up the Margery Stoneman Douglas High School, sending 17 people to their deaths, and wounding 17 others.

He could have been in jail on St Valentine’s Day of 2018, but the leniency of the left kept him free as a bird. That is what such leniency does.