Tag Archives: #Police

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The Philadelphia Inquirer and their writers really hate it when the rule of law goes against their police-hating views

It is, of course, no surprise that most of the writers at The Philadelphia Inquirer hate the police. Columnist Helen Ubiñas, whose Twitter biography states that she is “a Latina columnist”, as though her ethnicity should make any difference, tweeted her great disappointment that former Philadelphia Police Officer Ryan Pownell should be reinstated, with back pay and restored seniority.

Fired Philly cop Ryan Pownall, whose murder case in controversial shooting was dismissed by judge, can get job back, arbitrator rules

The arbitrator also ruled that Pownall is also entitled to full back pay and seniority, the president of the police union said.

by Robert Moran | Thursday, April 25, 2024 | 8:56 PM EDT | Updated: 9:50 PM EDT

An arbitrator has ruled that the city must reinstate Ryan Pownall to his former job as a Philadelphia police officer — 1½ years after a judge dismissed criminal charges, including third-degree murder, that were filed against Pownall for the on-duty 2017 shooting death of David Jones.

Roosevelt Poplar, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, the union that represents Philadelphia police officers, said in a statement Thursday that the arbitrator ruled that Pownall was also entitled to full back pay and seniority.

The union “and fellow officers stood in solidarity with Pownall and his family throughout this entire ordeal. We’re happy to see Pownall reinstated to his job and he looks forward to protecting this great city,” Poplar said.

Last’s be clear about this: Mr Pownall is not guilty of any violation of the law, but somehow Miss Ubiñas doesn’t think that matters. This site has previously noted the dismissal of charges against Mr Pownall:

Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara A. McDermott said there were “so many things wrong” with how the District Attorney’s Office instructed grand jurors before they approved a presentment recommending murder charges in the landmark case.

In particular, McDermott said during a pretrial hearing, prosecutors had failed to provide the panel with information on how and when officers are legally justified in firing their weapons. “How could the grand jury do [its] job without knowing that?” she asked.

She chastised prosecutors for what she viewed as a series of other errors, saying that if a defense attorney had behaved in a similar fashion before her, “I would declare them incompetent.”

Of course, the city’s George Soros-sponsored, police-hating, and softer-than-Charmin-on-civilian-crime District Attorney, Larry Krasner, waxed wroth over the dismissal of all charges just because his minions had performed so terribly. From the first cited story:

Krasner indicated at the time that his office might refile charges against Pownall.

“This case is not over,” Krasner said in 2022 after the judge’s ruling.

Court records show that Pownall has no criminal charges pending.

I’ll make clear what the article mealy-mouthed: with 1½ years to work on it, the District Attorney’s Office has been unable to put together a case against Mr Pownall that would withstand legal scrutiny. The newspaper screams about the rule of law every time their columnists and editors mention Donald Trump, hoping for something, anything, which would prevent him from running in or, Heaven forfend! winning, the 2024 presidential campaign. Yet, when it comes to the rule of law where Mr Pownall is concerned, Miss Ubiñas is utterly appalled that a solid police officer who has not been convicted of any crime might get his job back, along with six years of back pay due to an improper dismissal.

I’d also point out here that the newspaper strongly supports trade unionism in the City of Brotherly Love, with one exception: they really, really hate the police officer’s union, the Fraternal Organization of Police Lodge #5, and particularly its past President, John McNesby, because the officers’ union did what unions are expected to do, and that’s defend union members.

Western civilization strongly depends upon law enforcement to maintain that civilized society, something which seems pretty strained in our major cities, especially Philadelphia, these days. That thin, blue line, which so many on the left hate these days, is all that stands between the law abiding and the barbarians. The Philadelphia Police even protect Helen Ubiñas, who hates them so much.
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Why would anyone want to become a cop these days?

Following the unfortunate death of methamphetamine-and-fentanyl crazed drug addict and previously convicted felon George Floyd while he was resisting a legitimate arrest in Minneapolis, the left went wild, and “Defund the Police“, as though the problem wasn’t crime, but people being arrested for committing crimes. This stupid notion was popular with the street agitators, and thus some Democratic politicians took up the call, but it wound up fading from sight reasonably quickly, as sensible people — meaning, in this case: those not out in antifa demonstrations — soundly defeated a police reorganization proposal in Minneapolis.

But, of course, attacks on the legitimacy of the police continue, from shakedown lawsuits in Detroit to the George Soros-sponsored, cop-hating defense lawyer serving as Philadelphia’s District Attorney Larry Krasner trying to put police officers doing their duty in jail, Philadelphia didn’t actually defund the police, per se, but the effect of the city’s policies has been to do just that: as we have previously noted, the Philadelphia Police Department is nearly 600 officers understrength from its authorized full strength of 6,380, with around 800 more expected to retire within the next four years. Police Academy classes have not kept up with officer attrition. And really, who’d want to become a Philly cop when the Police Commissioner won’t support you and the DA is trying to throw you in jail?

Well, it’s not just Philly! From The New York Times:

N.Y.P.D. Officers Leave in Droves for Better Pay in Smaller Towns

This year has seen the highest number of resignations in two decades.

By Chelsia Rose Marcius | Friday, December 9, 2022

Earlier this year, the chief of police in Aurora, Colo., needed to find a few dozen officers to join his force.

The chief, Dan Oates, was 50 officers short to patrol Aurora, a city of roughly 400,000 people just east of Denver. But he knew limiting his search to Colorado would not be enough: Like many other leaders in law enforcement, he has found that fewer people these days want to be cops.

So Chief Oates and his team began to seek recruits at agencies where they believed pay and morale were low. They settled on New York City, and in August, he flew about 1,800 miles to meet with New York Police Department officers. He convinced 14 of them to move out west.

“I feel bad raiding my home agency,” said Chief Oates, who once served as a deputy chief in New York City. “But frankly it’s a cutthroat environment right now among police chiefs to recruit talent, and we all desperately need it.”

The departure of those officers was no anomaly. The New York Police Department, with about 34,000 officers, has seen more resignations this year than at any time in the past two decades as other agencies have become more aggressive in recruiting from its ranks.

Through November, about 1,225 officers resigned before even reaching five years of service, according to New York City Police Pension Fund statistics obtained by The New York Times. Many left for other New York State agencies or police departments outside the state.

There’s a lot more at the original, but the numbers are pretty stark.

Chief Oates, who retired this week, said the officers he recruited from New York were partially lured by better pay. The starting salary at the Aurora Police Department is about $65,000 in an area where the average monthly rent is approximately $1,750 and the average home sale price is about $624,000, according to an August report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Incoming officers with four or more years on the job can earn a salary of around $100,000. Aurora also gives incentives to those who transfer from other departments, including a signing bonus of up to $10,000 and a $5,000 relocation bonus.

That is more money than officers make in New York City, where the median sales price for a home is $810,000 and the average monthly rent is about $4,500. The starting salary at the Police Department is $42,500, according to the most recent contract between the agency and the officer’s union. After three and a half years of service, officers can earn a salary of $47,000, and $85,292 after five and a half.

Even foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia pays its police officers more: $59,795 annual salary while a Recruit in the Academy, with a raise to $63,945 upon graduation and joining the PPD. Philly is a lot less expensive a city in which to live than New York: housing costs less, taxes are lower, and they can get Wawa coffee to drink as well!

But if the pay is higher, it also means putting up with open air drug markets in Kensington and having to patrol the Philadelphia Badlands.

As we noted on Thursday, when Philly had an official — whatever “official” means in Philadelphia — 499 homicides in 2020, neighboring Upper Darby Township had 10. With a population of 85,681 according to the 2020 census, that means that Upper Darby had a homicide rate of 11.67 per 100,000 population, while Philly’s that same year was 31.11 . . . and that paled before the 2021 homicide rate. Even directly adjacent to Philadelphia, smaller towns are safer.

Aurora, Colorado, which poached officers from the NYPD? With a population of 386,261 according to the 2020 census, the city saw 38 homicides that year, for as homicide rate of 9.84 per 100,000. Why wouldn’t a former NYPD cop, or Philadelphia Police officer, prefer to work there, where the pay is better and the crime rate a lot lower?

Yes, police pay is unacceptably low in New York City, and the left-leaning city council isn’t going raise it that much. But the real problem is that the big cities in the east — and not a few in the west — just plain hate cops! Why would anyone want to work in a place where the public spit on your shadow, if not your shoes?

The far left wanted to defund the police, and while they didn’t get it de jure, it has been achieved de facto: with major city police departments being hundreds of officers undermanned — Baltimore is 420 officers short staffed — what the left wanted has been achieved: fewer dedicated police officers to enforce the law.