It’s a Crime Problem - Not a Gun Problem – in Philadelphia

vanity | 10-5-07 | Michael P. Tremoglie

[William Tell 2]

Despite the proclamations of the city’s leading citizens, Philadelphia has a crime problem - not a gun problem.

More specifically, it is a problem of Philadelphia’s criminal justice system, although, this is not quite an accurate characterization either. Calling what occurs in Philadelphia’s courts as “criminal justice” does a disservice to Noah Webster.

The words “criminal’ and “justice” really have no meaning in Philadelphia. There used to be a saying about the Old West that there was “No Law West of the Mississippi and No God West of the Pecos.” A modern version would state there is no law east of the Schuylkill - because the Philadelphia court system is at best dysfunctional and Philadelphia is more dangerous than Dodge City, Tombstone, Deadwood ever were.

Consider these examples of what passes for crime and punishment in Philadelphia:

•Khalil Slights of South Philadelphia had a record of 25 arrests including 3 for attempted murder and 11 for gun violations when he was arrested yet again in 2006 for – you guessed it – shooting someone.

•Ernest Odom was also a repeat violent offender when he stabbed and killed someone in 2001.

•Solomon Montgomery, the person arrested and charged with killing Philadelphia Police Officer Gary Skerski had a prior record for violent crimes. He was also acquitted by a lenient Philadelphia judge after he shot somebody.

•Wayne Hogue, “Imam Wadir” was arrested for selling guns and ammunition, including hollow-point bullets, between May 9, 2003, and March 23, 2004. Hogue was a convicted felon – which automatically prohibits him from possessing firearms.

None of this comes as a shock to Philadelphians. It also is not a shock to those who study the causes of crime in Philadelphia – even though it is rarely mentioned by the reportage of the liberal mainstream media.

For example, the Urban Institute Justice Policy Center, which is an organization that promotes “ sound social policy and public debate on national priorities… gathers and analyzes data, conducts policy research, evaluates programs and services, and educates Americans on critical issues and trends” addressed Philadelphia’s crime issue. It published a 2006 study titled, Instituting Lasting Reforms for Prisoner Reentry in Philadelphia, which noted that:

“The Philadelphia Prison System ( PPS) population has high recidivism rates. Over the eight years studied in this report, many of the same individuals churn into and out of PPS (and quite possibly other Pennsylvania jails and prisons as well). As is described below, a relatively small population accounts for a large percentage of all admissions and releases. If PPS can identify these high rate prisoners and successfully address the issues that lead this population to commit large numbers of crimes, the impact on PPS, and on the city of Philadelphia, would be enormous. PPS maintains data that can identify these frequent prisoners…Between 1996 and 2003, there were a total of 240,729 individuals admitted to and released from PPS. However, during those eight years, only 106,849 different persons were incarcerated and released… many prisoners proceed through the system multiple times. The second column counts only the first time an individual was released in a given year. …Almost exactly half of this population (53, 228) entered and were released from PPS once. The other half (53,621) account for all other releases – 187,101. Only 22 percent of all those admitted and released to PPS during this period passed through the gates one time….Given that this study only examines those released between 1996 and 2003, the number of individual ‘churners’ is likely to be even higher than indicated by these data. For example, some of those admitted only once would have been too young to enter PPS before 2003. Others may have served time before 1996 or served sentences in state prison. ”

However, it is easier for Mayor Street to make casuistic statements such as, “This is just a classic example of the problem with the proliferation of guns on our streets," after another police officer was shot, rather than actually solve the problem of violent criminals not staying in prison.

Chances are that the criminal who shot Officer Decoatsworth, Antonio Coulter, has a prior criminal record. More than likely a criminal record that includes a violent crime (or crimes) for which he was either paroled, placed on probation, or not prosecuted.

After all, federal data indicates that two thirds of convicted murderers have a prior felony conviction and one of eight convicted murderers has a prior murder conviction.

Yet, it is easier to blame access to guns.

The idea that access to guns cause crime is sheer sophistry. If that were so, then gun clubs, where there is access to alcohol and guns, would be the most dangerous places on the planet. They are not.

However, it is more convenient for liberal politicians, jurists, lawyers, journalists and academicians to blame guns for the mayhem in Philadelphia than the lack of punishment, the lack of incarceration, or the inefficacy of probation and parole. If they did, they would discredit themselves and their failed liberal social policies.

This they will not do.

( Michael P. Tremoglie is a former Philadelphia police officer and the author of the novel "A Sense of Duty," available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He is an advisor to Rep. Duncan Hunter’s presidential campaign )

[Terpfen]

This explains Eagles fans.

[SkyPilot]

And please don’t mention crime statistics per race here either - nobody wants to know.

[stayathomemom]

My daughter just moved to Philadelphia for grad school at UPenn. Her second week there she and some other people she was with witnessed a van with about 5 guys in it repeatedly try to run someone over. I guess they will have to get rid of vehicles too. She is relieved by the fact that there hasn't been a murder on her block in two years.

[libstripper]

Pennsylvania is a shall issue state. If she doesn’t already have one, she ought to get a carry permit and start packing.

[BallyBill]

It seemed for a few weeks the city tried to blame the problem on us folks that live outside the city and our guns. That they couldn't control the problem because of all the guns in the suburbs being stolen and sold in the city for drugs.

I guess they realized that if there was guns and drugs outside the city too, why weren't we shooting the towns up like the Wild West?

This article puts the blame where it belongs and that is too uncomfortable for them to admit. Better to find an outside scapegoat.

[bill1952]

I lived in SE PA for 29 years and still own property in Valley Forge.

That area is - as far as I’m concerned - a cesspool.

I was visting a student there and watched a charming citizen take a dump on the sidewalk in broad daylight.

In 29 years, I always hated to go to philly.
They used to have good cheese steaks once, before they discovered cheese whiz.

[bill1952]

Are you sure? I tried to get one once, and the process was pretty exclusive to LE officers.

[William Tell 2]

If you read my novel “ A Sense of Duty” ( available at Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com), you will see that I address - in a fictitious way - many of the problems that hamper law enforcement in Philadelphia.

Although fiction, the scenes are derived from my experiences as a police officer in Philadelphia.

So, while I hope it is entertaining, I also hope to enlighten people about police work in Philly ( and elsewhere). Bestselling author WEB Griffin - who wrote a series of novels set in Philadelphia and about the Philly PD - said “A Sense of Duty” provides an insight about law enforcement.

I think if you read it, you would have a better understanding of the criminal justice system in Philadelphia and why the politicians who blame guns for the carnage are just engaging in political theater.

(Thanks for permitting me to plug my novel.)

[driftless2]

Liberals believe in the "evil gun" theory whereby the mere presence of firearms turns normally pacifistic Gandhis into raging, murderous psychopaths. There was even a movie (Lady Blue?) made with those ideas in mind. Ron Silver, playing an average citizen, discovered a handgun in the aftermath of a failed robbery and suddenly he just couldn't help himself. He had to go around shooting people BECAUSE THE EVIL GUN MADE HIM DO IT!!! Libs actually believe those things.

If guns made people murderous pyschopaths, then my area of Wisconsin would be leading the nation in murders. There's tons of guns in Wisconsin. Not including Milwaukee or Madison. The crime rate here is as low as you'll find in many countries where guns are strictly controlled. It's the person that does the crime, not the gun.

[Gritty]

Thanks for posting. I'll be sure to read your book.

It's not the guns who are out of control, it's the politicians and their enablers. What you point out so well is in large measure the result of the scourge of Liberal corruption and the utter failure of their policies which have allowed - nay, encouraged - once great cities to turn into cesspools. These politicians deserve to be put in jail along with the (other) criminals.

Sure, we'll always have street criminals. But when it's the inept, corrupt, coiffured criminal class running a city, the city doesn't stand a chance - no matter how many silly gun laws craven politicians get passed.

It's the moral rot from top to bottom causing the problem - not the "excess" of forged iron and brass.

[bill1952]

>the scenes are derived from my experiences as a police officer in Philadelphia.

What part of Philly?

Believe it or not my former wife was from Philly, and not the Greater Northeast, either.

2nd and Allegany. - Of course, that was back in the old Frank Rizzo days.

- I’ll be sure to get your book at B&N. :)

[The_Reader_David]

How far off Penn campus is she living? Or was she in some other neighborhood when she saw this? When I was a grad student there in the 80’s that sort of stuff happened fairly close to campus, but after one of my successors as a math grad student was murdered about a block from my first apartment (at 40th and Pine) a decade after I finished my Ph.D., Penn redeveloped a huge swath of West Philly, and extended the reach of their own police (real police, guns and all, not like the rent-a-cops we have out here at midwestern cow colleges) into I think a 15 block arear around campus.

When I was back on sabbatical, I had the impression that the Penn neigborhood was now pretty safe. Maybe your daughter would do well to stay near Penn and only venture out into Center City and the South Street area by day. (The suburbs are fine, too: there was a movement in the 80’s for Penn grad students to live in the suburbs and commute by train. I lived in Paoli my last two years, and my best friend lived in Berwyn.)

[blam]

A Sense of Duty

"The Philadelphia Bulletin calls A 'Sense Of Duty' : A Double Shot Of Testosterone Michael P. Tremoglie's "does for big city police training what Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam classic, "Full Metal Jacket" did for U. S. Marine boot camp. ..Tremoglie's attention to detail and understanding of the psychological hazards circling around his characters draws its readers into a world fraught with pending disaster, mixed with the joy of accomplishment, and then hit with the harsh reality of the eventualities its inhabitants tried so hard to avoid. "A Sense Of Duty" deals with clashes. Clashes between cultures, social status, ideologies, political parties, races, sexes, along with hopes and dreams. --The Philadelphia Bulletin "

[William Tell 2]

I was in Wisconsin this past August. Stayed in Milwaukee stopped in Madison and Windsor.

Beautiful state. First time I was there. Reminded me a little of Pennsylvania - including the German food.

[William Tell 2]

Thanks for the kind words. I do hope you buy the book.

You are absolutely correct. The politicians are out of control. They are stuck in gear using failed social policy of a by-gone era.

Ironically, it is the “progressives” who are really not progressive.

Here, btw, is a relevant excerpt from my novel:

***
“I always figured that a white liberal was more dangerous to
blacks than the Ku Klux Klan,”Mike said.

“Really?” Beverly asked, skeptically.

“Liberals don’t like imprisonment and capital punishment. This causes more crime. So, who are the people that bear the brunt of the consequences of that policy? Blacks do! That’s why homicide is the leading cause of death among young black males.”

Beverly was incredulous, “You think that capital punishment
would stop that?”

“Sure. Execution definitely limits the chances of someone
repeating a crime does it not? The recidivism rate is very low for someone who was executed.”

***

Mike is Mike Carr the protagonist of the novel. Beverly is Beverly Clark a civil rights attorney - who just happens to be very beautiful and very rich.

I won’t tell you how they meet or the relationship between them. You’ll have to buy the book :)

[William Tell 2]

I was from South Philly, 8th and Oregon, which is where the novel is set. As a cop I was assigned to the 12th District in Southwest Philly ( I lived around 68th and Dorel when I was a boy.)

I hope you do buy the book. B&N is cheaper than Amazon.com. B&N’s website says they are out of stock right now. Let me know if they tell you you cannot buy it. I will need to fix that.

Thanks again.

[William Tell 2]

Thank you very much for posting that. I am grateful.

[policestory]

I highly recommend the novel.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Just an excuse to grab guns from the law-abiding citizens and deliberately leave them in the hands of the criminals.