Free Republic

Progressives who’d decided that “soft on crime” is a winning message in urban America got a well-deserved wake-up call Tuesday, as Philadelphia Democrats tapped Cherelle Parker as their nominee, and so near-certain to become the city’s 100th mayor. Like our own Mayor Eric Adams, Parker won voters over with her promise to address public safety and quality of life concerns. She explicitly vowed to restore stop-question-and-frisk (conducted constitutionally) as a policing tactic and to get more beat officers on street patrol. The progressive darling was Helen Gym, backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson....

...in return for $825,000 under an agreement that settles a long legal battle over the organization's ban on gays, Mayor Michael Nutter's office said...[t]he Boy Scouts Cradle of Liberty Council staff will leave its downtown Philadelphia headquarters of 85 years by June 30...

"A federal jury on Wednesday declared that the city of Philadelphia had violated the First Amendment rights of the local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America by moving to evict it from its city-owned headquarters if it refused to repudiate the anti-gay policies of the scouts' national parent group. In its verdict, the jury of six women and two men found that the city had imposed an "unconstitutional condition" on the scouts and declared that it was not "reasonable" to do so."

PHILADELPHIA, PA, June 16, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Tuesday opening arguments were heard in a case involving the Cradle of Liberty Scout Council, which is challenging the city of Philadelphia's decision to evict the Council from a building that it built and has maintained since 1929. The city said it would carry through with the eviction unless the Council rejected the Boy Scouts of America's policy banning open homosexuals from membership.In the Boy Scouts of America v. Dale case of 2000, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5-4 that the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) were constitutionally permitted...

Ask Candidates about the Boy Scouts Dear Member of the Media: The city of Philadelphia is a war zone. Philadelphia has the highest murder rate of all major U.S. cities and one of the highest overall crime rates. One in thirteen young black males in the city was shot or killed in the past 5 years. Over 1,000 youth under age 24 were shot in 2006 alone. Philadelphia has one of the highest high school dropout rates of all major cities and is among the highest in gang membership, gang violence and drug use. One answer to this crisis facing...

Philly's War on the Boy Scouts http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120312309480173061.html http://tinyurl.com/3cmtwp By KEVIN FERRIS February 16, 2008; Page A10 Philadelphia As Michael Nutter was sworn in as the city's 98th mayor last month, he called for a new wave of public service to clean up drug-infested neighborhoods. If he is serious about renewing volunteerism, he'll start by putting an end to the city's campaign against the Boy Scouts. On May 31, the Cradle of Liberty Council, the local Boy Scout chapter, will be evicted from its headquarters on 22nd and Winter Streets -- a space it has occupied since 1928. The eviction isn't...

Pro-homosexual Philadelphia officials' campaign to evict the Boy Scouts of America from their long-held regional headquarters on city-owned ground will create a precedent that could endanger dozens of other groups in the city, including the Catholic Church, as well as museums and a public radio station. The issue: The City Council has decided the Boy Scouts, because they prohibit participation by open homosexuals, do not comply with the city's anti-discrimination policies and can no longer rent their headquarters for $1 a year, as they have since the city approved its original resolution on the plan 80 years ago. The city...

PHILADELPHIA, December 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America will lose the lease on its historic premises for its refusal to bow to pressure from the homosexual lobby to accept homosexual members and leaders. The city has told the Scouts they will be evicted if they cannot come up with US $200,000 a year "market value" rent for the land on which their building sits. Until now, the Scouts had paid a nominal $1 per year lease fee although the youth organisation had originally owned the premises in 1929. The famous Beaux Arts style...

For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city’s request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928. Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the seat of the seventh-largest chapter of the organization and the first of the more than 300 council service centers built by the Scouts around the country over the past...

The city of Philadelphia is threatening to end a nearly 80-year building agreement with the nation’s third Boy Scouts chapter if the group doesn’t change its policy to accommodate gay employees. All members of the local Scouts chapter, which operates as the Cradle of Liberty Council, must take the Scout Oath and Law in which they promise to do their duty to God and to be morally straight, as well as to be clean in their thoughts, words and deeds. While the organization does not inquire about sexual orientation at the time of membership, the group bars an avowed homosexual...

Philadelphia has big city problems. The murder rate is on the rise, and gangs make some areas unsafe even in the daytime. It’s no secret that fatherless, undisciplined boys are the main reason the streets are deadly. So what is the city doing about it? Let’s imagine for a moment that we’re in a Philadelphia City Council discussion. “How about a crackdown on gangs? Or a crackdown on drug dealers?” “Nah. Those people shoot back. I’ve got it! Let’s persecute the Boy Scouts! They won’t give the police any trouble.” “Yeah, this will be a great way to pay back...

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BOY SCOUT STORY http://www.philly.com/dailynews/opinion/8161352.html By MARK CHILUTTI Posted on Mon, Jun. 25, 2007 I'M WRITING THIS filled with disappointment due to the actions of the leadership of the city that I love. While in Atlanta several weeks ago on Boy Scout business, I was pulled aside and told we'd been blindsided, again with regard to the office that the Scouts have occupied and maintained in Philadelphia since 1928. I get frustrated when I read the side of the story that our city solicitor tells, as it seems to not fall in line with the first...

Scouts Honor: One famous Logan Square building won’t go condo—at least for nowhttp://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/14825 by Gwen Shaffer Should the local assembly of Boy Scouts be evicted from its headquarters in the Art Museum area, the grand Beaux Arts building will remain “institutional in nature,” Philadelphia City Councilman Darrell Clarke assured neighbors during a recent meeting. Logan Square residents called for the June 2 powwow amid fears the historic building could be transformed into upscale residential units or a restaurant. “We’re concerned about many potential unintended consequences of this eviction, one of which is the property being developed in ways that aren’t...

The City of Brotherly Love has been enlisted by the hedonists in their war against the Boy Scouts of America. Philadelphia is moving to evict from its city-owned headquarters the Scouts' Cradle of Liberty Council, which serves 40,000 inner-city kids growing up amid epidemics of gun violence, crime, sexually transmitted diseases and poor academic performance. After nearly 80 years, the Scouts will get the boot unless they agrees to end "discrimination" against homosexuals. In the name of political correctness, the city seeks to discriminate against the Scouts and deprive them of their right of free association, a constitutional guarantee the...

Philadelphia Gets Tough on Violatorshttp://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16968717 07/26/2006 By: Michael P. Tremoglie, Special To The Evening Bulletin Philadelphians are being gunned down in record numbers - mostly by people who were previously convicted of violent crimes, or acquitted of violent crimes, by one of Philadelphia's legendary lenient judges. The Street administration's response to the carnage was a typical liberal one - blame gun laws. Never mind the reams of evidence that state that more guns owned by honest citizens deter crime, the Street administration follows the failed liberal Democrat doctrine to reduce crime - ban guns. Never mind that the perpetrators are...

Street's Ousting Of The Boy Scouts An Act Of Political Cowardicehttp://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16997240 http://tinyurl.com/qhhrm 08/02/2006 By: GREGORY J. SULLIVAN, Special To The Evening Bulletin The decision by Mayor John Street and supported by the Fairmount Park Commission to punish the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America for its adherence to the organization's long-standing prohibition on openly homosexual members and leaders is the triumph of political correctness over sound policy. What is more, it is a betrayal of an organization and, most especially, the young boys who desperately need the moral instruction of the Scouts more than ever. Since...

Fitzpatrick steps in for Boy Scoutshttp://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/111-07312006-691181.html http://tinyurl.com/pvk5s By BRIAN SCHEID Bucks County Courier Times Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, R-8, wants the city of Philadelphia to end its dispute with the Boy Scouts of America. Fitzpatrick has sent a letter to Philadelphia Mayor John Street, blasting the city's pending decision to oust the Boy Scouts from their Philadelphia headquarters for refusing to change their policy prohibiting gay members. Fitzpatrick, an Eagle Scout and former president of the Bucks County Council of the Boy Scouts of America, also gave a brief speech on the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday in support...

Good turns' ought to counthttp://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/15140277.htm http://tinyurl.com/n2kxw Posted on Fri, Jul. 28, 2006 Hans Zeiger In 1928, the City of Philadelphia made a promise to the Boy Scouts "in perpetuity." That was the city's arrangement for its leased land to the Scouts at 22d and Winter Streets, where today sits the headquarters of the Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council. In exchange for the city property, the Boy Scouts have contributed countless "good turns" to Philadelphia. A good turn is an act of kindness, a volunteer project, a daily decision to invest in the lives of others. Scouting teaches boys to...

Street Wrong To Evict Boy Scoutshttp://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16963263&BRD=2737&PAG=461 http://tinyurl.com/qo4r4 07/25/2006 By: RAJ BHAKTA, Special To The Evening Bulletin In the midst of Philadelphia's worst crime wave in memory, including 220 murders already this year, a shrinking police force and failing schools, who has Philadelphia Mayor John Street bravely targeted as public enemy number one? The Boy Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts Cradle of Liberty Council, which serves 87,000 scouts in Philadelphia, Montgomery County and Delaware County, has kept its headquarters on public grounds near Logan Circle since 1928. In a more sane era, the City Council promised that the Boy Scouts...

Philadelphia may evict Boy Scouts council The Associated Press Published: Saturday, July 22, 2006 Updated: Saturday, July 22, 2006 PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The city said it will evict a Boy Scout council from its publicly owned headquarters or make the group pay a fair rent price unless it changes its policy on gays. The Boy Scouts' Cradle of Liberty Council, the country's third-largest, has been battling with the city for more than three years over the policy, which like the national Scouts organization forbids gays from being leaders. City Solicitor Romulo L. Diaz Jr. wrote a letter to William T....