Tag Archives: #Philadelphia

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Killadelphia All the News That's Politically Correct!

The WordPress software I use for The First Street Journal assigns numbers to posts with the same name; the system tells me that this is the 34th post entitled “Killadelphia”. That says something right there!

Robert Stacy McCain wrote too quickly:

The homicide total so far this year is 180 in “Killadelphia,” meaning that the city’s averaging about one homicide a day, but nobody seems to consider this an emergency, and Congress is sending billions to Ukraine.

If only it was just one homicide per day! The 180 murdered number was for Thursday, May 19th, the date for which that 180 total is accurate — the Philly Police do not update their statistics on Saturday or Sunday — was the 139th day of the year, meaning that the City of Brotherly Love is killing the brothers at the rate of 1.295 per day!

But, come Monday morning, and we get the update: there have now been 186 souls who have been sent early to their eternal rewards on Philly’s mean streets as of 11:59 PM EDT on Sunday, May 22nd, upping that average to 1.310 per day. As of right now, the statistics project 520 homicides in the City of Brotherly Love for 2022.[1]Methodology: I have taken the number of homicides on this date in 2022 and divided that by the number of homicides on the same date in 2021, then multiplied that number by 562, the number of … Continue reading

As of the same date, 807 people had been shot in the city. Maybe the gang bangers had actually killed 180 people, but they tried to kill at least 807!

As of May 18th, ‘only’ 160 out of 180 homicides was committed by firearm; on the same day Philly reported 802 shootings, down from 807 on the same date in 2021. While homicides were down by 9.91%, shootings were down only 0.62%. Translation: the thugs are shooting at each other at about the same rate, but they have become poorer shots, killing only 19.95% of their intended victims.

Actually, it’s even lower than that, since we have no statistics on how many people were shot at, but missed completely.

Interestingly enough, The Philadelphia Inquirer actually reported on the weekend’s bloodletting, in a story which was linked on the main page of the newspaper’s website, which was yet another surprise to me! Continue reading →

References

References
↑1 Methodology: I have taken the number of homicides on this date in 2022 and divided that by the number of homicides on the same date in 2021, then multiplied that number by 562, the number of homicides in 2021. I do this to account for the fact that homicides tend to increase as the weather warms up, and this approximates the trend as the year progresses. Other methods of doing this could be used. If I simply multiplied the current daily homicide number by 365, it would result in an anticipated homicide number of 478, but that doesn’t take into account the effects of warmer weather, nor does it seem anywhere like a reasonable number the way the trends are moving.
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Why is Larry Krasner wasting time and money trying to set criminals free?

It’s perfectly understandable that when a city like Philadelphia elects a George Soros sponsored defense attorney to become District Attorney, that that District Attorney will be more interested in setting criminals free than prosecuting crimes. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Two judges have sparred with the Philly DA’s office recently over questions about old murder convictions

The developments — which prosecutors dispute — have offered a degree of pushback as DA Larry Krasner’s office has sought to free one man from death row and overturn another man’s murder conviction.

by Chris Palmer | Thursday, May 19, 2022

Judges in state and federal courts in recent weeks have raised questions about whether prosecutors under District Attorney Larry Krasner included incomplete or even misleading information in court documents seeking to remove one man from death row and overturn another man’s murder conviction.

The developments — which prosecutors dispute — have offered a degree of pushback to the post-conviction work of Krasner’s office, one of the most aggressive offices in the country in seeking to overturn cases it has viewed as flawed or marred by misconduct. Continue reading →

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Killadelphia Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.

Philly Police Department press release via Steve Keeley, Fox 29 News. Click to enlarge.

Two more Philadelphians bit the dust yesterday, but if The Philadelphia Inquirer was your only news source, you’d never know it. Nine people bled out their lives’ blood in the city’s mean streets over the last five days, but the “anti-racist news organization” won’t tell you anything. In December of 2020, columnist Heleb Ubiñas wrote, “What do you know about the Philadelphians killed by guns this year? At least know their names.” A year and a half later, the Inquirer, under publisher Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Hughes and Executive Editor and Senior Vice President Gabriel Escobar, don’t want you to know that anyone was killed.

With 6,245,051 people according to the 2020 census, Philadelphia and its surrounding metropolitan area is the seventh largest in the United States. With a population of 1,603,797, the city of Philadelphia itself is the sixth largest in the United States. The Inquirer is the nation’s third oldest continuously published daily newspaper, older than The New York Times and The Washington Post. So why, then, does The Philadelphia Inquirer rank only 17th in circulation? Could it be because they censor the news?

The numbers are stark. At the end of Thursday, May 12, the city was seeing 1.295 homicides per day. Five days later, that’s up to 1.314 per day. More importantly, the City of Brotherly Love has gone from a projected 503 homicides in 2022 to 514.[1]Methodology: to compensate for the normal increase in homicides as warmer weather approaches, I have taken the number of homicides on a given date, divided it by the number on the same day in 2021, … Continue reading

So, if the newspaper does not report on homicides in its own home city, on what does it report? How about his gem? Continue reading →

References

References
↑1 Methodology: to compensate for the normal increase in homicides as warmer weather approaches, I have taken the number of homicides on a given date, divided it by the number on the same day in 2021, and multiplied that fraction by 562, the number of homicides in 2021. I have also compared the numbers to 2020’s homicide rate, and come up with huge numbers, 623 and 642, but have not really given them much credence. There are several different ways of calculating the numbers, but I will note that I accurately projected 562 homicides for 2021 on July 9, 2021.
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Would-be armed robber in Philly gets a death sentence No, not by Let 'em Loose Larry Krasner, but by his intended victim

When a city like Philadelphia set a new record for homicides with 562 last year, and is on pace for 510 this year, which would be second-place all time, no one should be surprised when the law-abiding citizens of the City of Brotherly Love decide that they need to protect themselves, and not depend on the police.

Man fatally shoots cyclist wielding gun in South Philly

When officers arrived, they found the bicyclist on the street with a gunshot wound to his head.

by Rodrigo Torrejón | Thursday, May 12, 2022

2200 block of South 6th Street, approaching West Moyamensing Avenue, September 2019, via Google Maps. Click to enlarge.

A man shot and killed a would-be robber who was riding a bicycle and wielding a gun in the Lower Moyamensing section of South Philadelphia late Wednesday night, police said.Just before 11:30 p.m., on the 2200 block of South Sixth Street near West Moyamensing Avenue, a 30-year-old man on a bicycle approached a 24-year-old man who was standing outside his home smoking a cigarette, police said. The man on the bike said he was going to rob him, at which point the 24-year-old pulled out a gun and shot at the man as he was dismounting from the bicycle. Continue reading →

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Philadelphia Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier doesn’t want her “Black and brown” constituents paying more in property taxes

One great thing about moving back to our home state of Kentucky from Pennsylvania: property taxes are much lower in the Bluegrass State! Property taxes on what was our home in Jim Thorpe are currently listed as $3,228 according to Zillow, while we paid slightly under $400 in property taxes on our current abode last October.

No, $400 is not a typo!

Black and brown homeowners unfairly targeted by Philly’s new property assessments

The Kenney administration cannot claim to center either racial or housing equity if they are making it more difficult for working class and Black and brown homeowners to afford to their homes.

by Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier (D – 3rd District) | Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier (D-Philadelphia). Photo from her city biography page and is a public record. Click to enlarge.

Philadelphia prides itself on its high homeownership rates, especially among working class residents. But the massive property assessment increases that were announced earlier this week present an immediate threat to this fact of life in our city — especially in Black and brown neighborhoods experiencing rapid gentrification. A disproportionate number of these neighborhoods are in the 3rd Councilmanic District, where residential assessments have increased by 50% on average.

I will admit to some amusement that The Philadelphia Inquirer’s use of the Associated Press Stylebook has led to the “Black and brown” formulation when it comes to race. The AP decided that black was to be capitalized when referring to race, but white was not. Continue reading →

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Hold them accountable!

What happens when the District Attorney does not take crime seriously?

It was a series of small decisions, taken the wrong way, and the result was that a woman was sexually assaulted.

Suspect in SEPTA sex assault masturbated in a probation office two weeks before, officials say — but wasn’t charged

Some in the court system are questioning whether Quintez Adams could have been prevented from allegedly sexually assaulting a woman on the subway on April 24.

by Chris Palmer | Thursday, April 28, 2022

Quintez Adams, photo by Philadelphia Police Department and is a public record. Photo via the Bucks Daily Voice. Click to enlarge.

The man accused of sexual assault on SEPTA’s Broad Street Line last week had masturbated in front of probation officers inside their Center City offices two weeks earlier, authorities said Thursday.

And though police took 28-year-old Quintez Adams into custody — landing him in jail for potentially violating his probation in a prior burglary case — they didn’t ask prosecutors to charge him with a crime for several weeks.

In the meantime, court records show, a city judge ordered that Adams be released and ended his probation. And just 12 days after that, police say, Adams sexually assaulted a woman on the subway.

  • Mr Adams had been convicted of burglary in 2014, and sentenced to three years in prison. After his release, he was put on probation. Due to several probation violations, his probation has been extended.
  • Mr Adams showed up for a probation meeting on April 4, 2022, and was visibly intoxicated. He had actually appeared on the wrong day. While seated, a probation officer found him masturbating in public. The police were called, and Mr Adams was taken into custody, and the probation officer taken to the police department’s Special Victims Unit to be interviewed.
  • Following the interview, the Special Victims Unit failed to issue an arrest warrant, even though he was arrested after committing an obscene act viewed by several probation officers.
  • Mr Adams could have been charged as a violation of his probation, but was not.
  • Nevertheless, the Adult Probation and Parole Department notified Common Pleas Court Judge Frank Palumbo of the incident. A week later, on April 12th, Judge Palumbo ordered Mr Adams released and his probationary period ended.
  • On Sunday, April 24th a woman was raped on SEPTA’s Broad Street Line. The alleged attack happened between the Erie and Girard Avenue stations around 12:30 PM, a crime caught on surveillance tape.
  • Mr Adams was arrested for that rape, for which he has been charged, along with indecent exposure at the probation office, and an indecent exposure incident at a hospital.

Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said the Department would investigate why the Special Victims Unit did not issue an arrest warrant for Adams over the obscene act on April 4th, to see if there is some action which needs to be taken.

Now, why was Mr Adams allowed to skate, when the Philadelphia Police Department had him in custody? He violated his probation, yet Judge Palumbo turned him loose and ended his period of supervision. The Special Victims Unit knew what he had done, and knew he was a previously convicted felon on probation. They had everything they needed to keep him behind bars.

Because he was not behind bars on April 24th, an innocent woman was raped.

So far, I haven’t found George Soros-funded District Attorney Larry Krasner’s grimy fingerprints on this directly, but he has created an atmosphere in which crime is not taken seriously, because everyone knows he doesn’t really like to send anyone to jail, at least anyone not a police officer who stepped over the line. Did the Special Victims Unit just wave it off as something harmless, because they figured that let’em loose Larry would never prosecute? We don’t know, but can hope that Chief Inspector Vanore gets to the bottom of it.

Did Judge Palumbo somehow figure that the public masturbation, and intoxication, was somehow a meaningless crime, so no harm, no foul? Did he think that Mr Adams was simply no longer worth spending the city’s money?

At some point, people holding a public trust need to be held accountable! Judge Palumbo, most certainly, and the officers on duty with the Special Victims Unit at the time, definitely. Right now, a woman is dealing with the trauma of having been raped due to their refusal to do their duty!

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Killadelphia Though slightly below last year's pace, Philly is easil;y on track for over 500 murders this year.

In doing some research for a completely different project, I came across an article of mine from August 23, 2021:

Haven’t the editors of The Philadelphia Inquirer noticed the numbers?

Homicides and shootings in the city have dropped significantly

Posted on August 23, 2021 | 9:05 PM EDT

We have previously noted the recent decrease in the number of homicides in the City of Brotherly Love. We noted, on July 9th, that there had been 291 killings as of 11:59 PM on July 8th. 291 ÷ 189 days in the year, = 1.5397 homicides per day, for a projected 562 for the year. If I recall correctly, that 562 number was my highest projection for the year.

But then, as of the 221st day of the year, 325 homicides had been recorded. 325 ÷ 221 days in the year, = 1.4706 homicides per day, for a projected 537 for the year. That number stayed fairly consistent, as a week later, with ‘just’ 339 homicides in 228 days, Philadelphia was seeing ‘only’ 1.4868 homicides per day, which works out to ‘just’ 543 over the course of 2021.

As of 11:59 PM on Sunday, August 22nd, the Philadelphia Police Department reported that there had been 345 homicides in the city. 345 ÷ 234 days = 1.4744 per day, or 538 projected for the year. The big news is that, over the past 31 days, a full month, if not a calendar month, there have been ‘just’ 31 homicides, ‘just’ 1.00 per day. With 131 days remaining in 2021, if that rate could be maintained, there would be ‘only’ 476 killings in Philly for the year. If The Philadelphia Inquirer has noticed that decrease, I haven’t seen it mentioned. It certainly doesn’t seem as though their Editorial Board has noticed.

There’s more at the original. But the line that caught my eye was, “We noted, on July 9th, that there had been 291 killings as of 11:59 PM on July 8th. 291 ÷ 189 days in the year, = 1.5397 homicides per day, for a projected 562 for the year.”

And 562 it turned out to be!

Between July 9th and September 6th, which Labor Day, the homicide rate dropped to 1.4578 per day, which would have worked out to ‘only’ 532 homicides. Sadly, the killing rate increased, and by the end of the year it was back up to 1.5397 per day, and that 562 projection was realized.

Also see: Robert Stacy McCain: Killadelphia Update

As of 11:59 PM EDT on Sunday, April 24th, there had been 151 murders in the City of Brotherly Love this year. That’s 4.43% below last year’s pace, when there had been 158 homicides by the end of April 24th.

As of April 24, 2021, 28.11% of city’s total of 562 murders had been committed. If the same percentage applies this year, Philly would see 537 homicides. The city still has the long, hot summer ahead.

But there’s an obvious question: what if Philadelphia doesn’t have that early July through early September lull this year? During the ‘lull,’ there were still 72 murders in the city, but had the ‘lull’ of 1.2203 homicides per day not occurred, there would have been 91 people killed.

Yes, I’m something of a numbers geek, but projecting things like this will always be somewhat problematic. It is well known that homicides increase as the weather gets warmer, and decrease as it cools down again. Yet, in Philly, the pace of killings picked up in the fall; that’s how the city ‘achieved’ its record of 562 souls sent early to their eternal rewards. A couple of weeks of rain could affect the projections, as could an early, heavy snow. A heat wave might keep the gang bangers inside in the air conditioning, and not out on the streets shooting at people.

Well, the 151 number didn’t even last the morning:

The 500 block of West Spencer Street (not Avenue) is not a terrible neighborhood. The area is filled with mostly well-kept attached single-family homes, and North 5th Street is lined with decent-looking two-story businesses with (probable) apartments on the second floor.

Of course, when The Philadelphia Inquirer gets around to reporting it, they’ll remove the race of the victim!

Thus far, under Mayor Jim Kenney, District Attorney Larry Krasner, and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, Philadelphia has seen the first and third most homicides in its history, with only Mayor Wilson Goode’s — Mayor Goode of MOVE bombing fame! — record of 500 in the crack cocaine wars of 1990 in the middle of that. But I’m guessing that 2022 will see at least a solid second-place finish for Messrs Kenney and Krasner, and Miss Outlaw.

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Why Philly cancelled its #MaskMandate : it was entirely politics!

I do not normally like to reproduce photos from The Philadelphia Inquirer, due to copyright issues, but this one definitely falls within “fair use” criteria. The caption, reproduced along with the photo via screen capture, states:

Masked Sixers fans watched pregame warm-ups before the Sixers’ Monday playoff game against the Toronto Raptors, during Philadelphia’s short-lived revival of an indoor mask mandate.

Except, of course, that’s not what the photo shows at all.

The photo captures the faces of five people at the game, during pre-game warmups. Three are clearly wearing face masks, a fourth has one, but it’s tucked under his chin, while a fifth spectator doesn’t have a mask visible anywhere on his person, though it’s possible he has one available somewhere. The boy with the red mask is wearing his slightly below his nose, so it’s useless there as well.

This photo was as much propaganda as much as anything else. It was published along with this story:

Why some health experts worry that Philly’s switch on masks may backfire

Philadelphia’s mask conundrum, which saw the city reverse a new mandate days after imposing it, may undermine public confidence, experts warn.

by Tom Avril and Sarah Gantz | Saturday, April 23, 2022

As Philadelphia’s health commissioner during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, Stuart H. Shapiro knows what it’s like to run a big-city health department during a crisis. The evidence keeps changing, yet the guidance has to be updated in a way that inspires public cooperation and trust.

That’s why it was smart for Philadelphia to establish clear COVID-19 benchmarks in February, spelling out what levels of cases and hospitalizations would trigger requirements such as masks and proof of vaccination, he said. But now that those metrics have been cast aside as of Thursday, Shapiro worries that the abrupt reversal may backfire.

Also read: Philadelphia is the only top 10 U.S. city where lawmakers are still meeting virtually

“It’s totally confusing,” he said. “It takes away confidence in science-based criteria.”

Another former health agency chief, previously skeptical of Philadelphia’s decision to become the only big city to resume an indoor masking requirement, praised its decision to replace its mask mandate with a strong recommendation to mask up.

“They did the right thing at the same time, which is to highly recommend the use of masks,” former Baltimore health commissioner Leana Wen tweeted Friday. “Remember if you wear a mask to please wear a well-fitting N95 or equivalent.”

There’s more at the original.

If you look at the photo closely — and you can click on it to enlarge the image — you’ll see that of the three people actually wearing the masks that none of them are wearing N95 or equivalent masks; they’ve got cloth masks, while the gentleman wearing a mask below his chin appears to have a surgical mask.

The article is basically full of excuses as to why Philadelphia was the only major city to reimpose a mask mandate, and then cancel it four days in. But while it gives us an excuse, the real reasons are two-fold, and obvious:

  1. The indoor mask mandate was being significantly ignored, as witnessed by this video taken the same day as the photo above; and
  2. The Democrats are facing a potentially disastrous election for them, and the public, and the voters, are just plain tired of the restrictions.

On Friday, Philadelphia health commissioner Cheryl Bettigole rejected any suggestion that the quick reversal on the mask mandate could hurt the health department’s credibility.

“I very much take seriously my obligations to say things that are true to Philadelphia and to keep my promises,” Bettigole said. “I had said when I announced this that if we didn’t see hospitalizations rising that we needed to rethink this and that we shouldn’t have a mandate in that case.”

COVID hospitalizations in the city rose earlier in the week, following an increase in cases, but both numbers have since declined slightly. Everyone hopes that widespread vaccination, along with the immune response induced by prior infection, will make severe COVID a thing of the past.

Note that the last quoted sentence is not indicated as a quote from Dr Bettigole, but appears to be a political statement by the article writers.

In the past, the decisions and announcements on COVID restrictions came on Mondays. The reinstated mask mandate was announced on Monday, April 11th, the health department supposedly taking the weekend to consider data which were obvious, something I predicted on April 5th, to take effect the following Monday, April 18th. Yet the mandate was lifted on the evening of Thursday, April 21st. Whatever health data existed from the first four days of the mandate was hardly sufficient to justify changing the decision, but the information on the political aspects was right in front of their noses. That Philadelphia was the only major city to reimpose the mandate was information that they did have, as it was blared all over the city’s media outlets.

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A very Democratic city!

We have frequently noted the ridiculous lack of law enforcement in Philadelphia when it comes to illegal drug use.

Now we get Steve Keeley, a reporter for Fox 29 News:

This means that junkies are shooting up heroin and fentanyl and who knows what else in public, on the train platform. This isn’t even the Allegheny Avenue station we’ve written about before, but 30th Street, thirteen stops away from Allegheny Avenue, near the Amtrak station and Drexel University. This isn’t Kensington, this isn’t the slums. This is near Powelton Village.

Of course, some of the junkies could have gotten on the train in Kensington, shot up while riding, and then gotten off at 30th Street, but why would they? It costs money to ride the train, and 30th Street isn’t really a neighborhood itself, but the middle of the train, trolley and Amtrak lines.

But hey, this is for what the good people of Philadelphia voted!

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