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It's unbelievable that gun violence and homicides hasn't slowed down at all during the shutdown the past 45+ days.
Btw, where has Police Commissioner Outlaw been? Haven't seen her since late March when she did what looked like a at-home Skype demo on how to wear a mask.
article blocked/paywall....glad someone else is asking though where the new police commissioner has been. Besides changing the nail polish policy (so she could wear her preferred color), what else has she been doing? Certainly not tackling the gun and homicide violence.
It's unbelievable that gun violence and homicides hasn't slowed down at all during the shutdown the past 45+ days.
Btw, where has Police Commissioner Outlaw been? Haven't seen her since late March when she did what looked like a at-home Skype demo on how to wear a mask.
I can tell you just based on my own observations that the city has scaled way back on patroling etc, and the lawlessness has increased exponentially. My building in the middle of Old City has had attempted breakins every few days regularly - some fairly brazen. Some piece of garbage tried to crowbar the door open this Saturday morning @ 10:30 in broad daylight. Friday, last week, same - crowbar to the door at 10:00 on a friday night. No sense of urgency or sneak. Walked right up with a crowbar.
The cops have literally given notice to criminals that if you are planning to break the law, now's the time to do it.
I can tell you just based on my own observations that the city has scaled way back on patroling etc, and the lawlessness has increased exponentially. My building in the middle of Old City has had attempted breakins every few days regularly - some fairly brazen. Some piece of garbage tried to crowbar the door open this Saturday morning @ 10:30 in broad daylight. Friday, last week, same - crowbar to the door at 10:00 on a friday night. No sense of urgency or sneak. Walked right up with a crowbar.
The cops have literally given notice to criminals that if you are planning to break the law, now's the time to do it.
I was one of the lucky ones three Saturday afternoons ago.
I was riding the Market-Frankford Line eastbound, playing a word game on my phone, when someone yanked said phone out of my hands as the doors were closing at 34th Street station eastbound.
Fortunately, it's easy to force the doors open on the craptastic M-4 Market-Frankford cars, which I did as they almost closed, and I gave chase to the thief, who I saw running up the stairs to the mezzanine.
I followed him up the southeast exit/entrance stairs from the surface, and as I saw him run down Market headed east, I saw a guy standing against the staircase surround.
"Do you have a cell phone I can borrow?" I asked him. "No," he replied.
"I need to report mine stolen."
He pulled out his phone and dialed 911. I described what happened to him just as I'm doing to you now. Lucky for me, his wife, who was behind the wheel of the car parked next to the stairs, told me she saw the guy cross Market, run back west, and head back into the subway station.
I gave all this info to the Philadelphia Police 911 dispatcher, who then passed me on to the SEPTA Police Deaprtment. I then repeated the story to their dispatcher, who told me to go down to the cashier's booth and wait for them to show up.
They did so in about five minutes, though it seemed much longer. Three Philly cops and two SEPTA police took my story again and also told me that they'd gotten a similar report of a phone theft at 11th Street.
As they wrapped up their reporting, I said to one of them, "I think I should log into 'Find My iPhone' and disable it."
The SEPTA cop loaned me his phone and I logged in. Unfortunately, since I didn't have my phone, I couldn't enter the code Apple sent to it.
"So why don't we try calling it?" he suggested.
I gave him the number. He dialed it, and I heard my ringtone going off down the stairs leading to the platform.
Seems the guy ditched the phone on the way to the next eastbound train — I'm guessing he couldn't unlock it, as I had Face ID security enabled.
When the SEPTA police called me a couple of days later, the officer said they thought I didn't want to be involved with the case after the incident. I corrected them and said that I would be willing to pick the perp out of a virtual lineup, as I got a good look at the guy.
I haven't heard back from the cops since then.
This would not have happened on a typical Saturday afternoon in all likelihood, because the car would have been nearly full with passengers. At least they caught the thief, it sounds like.
I now put my phone in my pocket when boarding the subway.
I was one of the lucky ones three Saturday afternoons ago.
I was riding the Market-Frankford Line eastbound, playing a word game on my phone, when someone yanked said phone out of my hands as the doors were closing at 34th Street station eastbound.
Fortunately, it's easy to force the doors open on the craptastic M-4 Market-Frankford cars, which I did as they almost closed, and I gave chase to the thief, who I saw running up the stairs to the mezzanine.
I followed him up the southeast exit/entrance stairs from the surface, and as I saw him run down Market headed east, I saw a guy standing against the staircase surround.
"Do you have a cell phone I can borrow?" I asked him. "No," he replied.
"I need to report mine stolen."
He pulled out his phone and dialed 911. I described what happened to him just as I'm doing to you now. Lucky for me, his wife, who was behind the wheel of the car parked next to the stairs, told me she saw the guy cross Market, run back west, and head back into the subway station.
I gave all this info to the Philadelphia Police 911 dispatcher, who then passed me on to the SEPTA Police Deaprtment. I then repeated the story to their dispatcher, who told me to go down to the cashier's booth and wait for them to show up.
They did so in about five minutes, though it seemed much longer. Three Philly cops and two SEPTA police took my story again and also told me that they'd gotten a similar report of a phone theft at 11th Street.
As they wrapped up their reporting, I said to one of them, "I think I should log into 'Find My iPhone' and disable it."
The SEPTA cop loaned me his phone and I logged in. Unfortunately, since I didn't have my phone, I couldn't enter the code Apple sent to it.
"So why don't we try calling it?" he suggested.
I gave him the number. He dialed it, and I heard my ringtone going off down the stairs leading to the platform.
Seems the guy ditched the phone on the way to the next eastbound train — I'm guessing he couldn't unlock it, as I had Face ID security enabled.
When the SEPTA police called me a couple of days later, the officer said they thought I didn't want to be involved with the case after the incident. I corrected them and said that I would be willing to pick the perp out of a virtual lineup, as I got a good look at the guy.
I haven't heard back from the cops since then.
This would not have happened on a typical Saturday afternoon in all likelihood, because the car would have been nearly full with passengers. At least they caught the thief, it sounds like.
I now put my phone in my pocket when boarding the subway.
If I can avoid the subway I normally do. Like leaving 58th street and instead of catching the el to 30th street I decided to catch the 21
If I can avoid the subway I normally do. Like leaving 58th street and instead of catching the el to 30th street I decided to catch the 21
I've been a subway fan ever since I first rode one in New York in 1971, when the cars were covered with graffiti inside and out, and I'm not about to abandon my fandom because of the first theft I ever experienced on rapid transit in the 49 years since.
I made a mental vow to myself after I left Kansas City for Cambridge and college that I wouldn't live in a city that didn't have one. That vow ruled out most of the country. And here I am, in the last of the four "legacy" subway cities, 37 years now.
I can tell you just based on my own observations that the city has scaled way back on patroling etc, and the lawlessness has increased exponentially. My building in the middle of Old City has had attempted breakins every few days regularly - some fairly brazen. Some piece of garbage tried to crowbar the door open this Saturday morning @ 10:30 in broad daylight. Friday, last week, same - crowbar to the door at 10:00 on a friday night. No sense of urgency or sneak. Walked right up with a crowbar.
The cops have literally given notice to criminals that if you are planning to break the law, now's the time to do it.
Remind me again. Don't you have desk security? Don't you have external camera surveillance? Camera surveillance that would tell your desk personnel to at least know what is/was going on when it happened if they needed to review footage later? In my building we've had to call PPD about an internal matter and there was no problem with them showing up.
I've been a subway fan ever since I first rode one in New York in 1971, when the cars were covered with graffiti inside and out, and I'm not about to abandon my fandom because of the first theft I ever experienced on rapid transit in the 49 years since.
I made a mental vow to myself after I left Kansas City for Cambridge and college that I wouldn't live in a city that didn't have one. That vow ruled out most of the country. And here I am, in the last of the four "legacy" subway cities, 37 years now.
I am not doing a blame-the-victim post but it surprises me that more don't try to do a phone yank as what happened to you.
I am not doing a blame-the-victim post but it surprises me that more don't try to do a phone yank as what happened to you.
Again, I think the reason they don't happen more often has to do with what Jane Jacobs said makes city streets safe, namely, "eyes on the street." Or in this case, "eyes in the car."
The subways usually aren't this empty during the day — especially not the Market-Frankford Line, which carries more people than the Broad Street Line does in much smaller cars.
On a typical Saturday afternoon, it would have been harder for the perp to pull off his grab-and-go, for there would have been standees in the car's narrow aisle and likely people standing in the door wells.
But when all you have are people seated, and not that many of them, and some of them are doing the same thing I was doing at the time, then the perp has an opportunity. No one's looking and the aisle and doorway are clear. Grab and go.
I also suspect that the perp probably didn't expect me to be able to push the doors apart and chase him. That too may have contributed to a positive outcome in my case.
Crime, especially when committed by poorer people, is often an act of desperation. There’s a lack of opportunity for too many in the city proper. If you’re older than 40 or otherwise have studied local history then you know why. To a degree, the same pattern has played out in many other cities although we had the “bonus” of Frank Rizzo.
Blackface is a reminder of a time when Black people, despite their eagerness to be gainfully employed, were shut out of opportunity. It can be transcend political lines as partially referred to here. Unfortunately, national leadership to address such issues in a trans-partisan way is lacking. But again, that’s a topic for another forum.
Again, I give credit for the brigade leaders for taking ownership of the issue at the parade instead of getting defensive or minimizing the significance of historic pain and insult it has for African-Americans.
Apologies for responding to an old argument but most of the almost entirely white gentrifiers calling out the "racism" of the Mummers use verbal and digital blackface constantly. Constantly. Not to mention the racism I have seen many show when they aren't pretending to be allies to people of color.
The reality is they hate the parade for purely aesthetic reasons and even in years where there is no actual racism do everything they can to demonize the participants and hype up the smallest things as much as possible. They don't do this to do the right thing. The right thing is letting people of color speak for themselves and not acting like you own the entire city and only things you like should exist within it.
It isn't a bunch of tradespeople with ties to the oldest working class neighborhoods in the city who are behind white supremacy and racism. It's the people who either are or come from the regional power structure and do everything they can to denigrate those who aren't that are behind it. That isn't to say none of the participants have ignorant views or engage in problematic behavior. What I am saying however is that the people always calling for the parade to be ended and hyping things up as much as possible are the complete opposite of who should be bringing up any issues and are full of it and full of themselves.
It really has absolutely nothing to do with crime. That's obvious by reading the many posts in this thread from liberals that have been added between your post I'm quoting and this one.
Mummers and the people so many get offended on behalf of have a lot more in common than those getting offended do with the people they're getting offended for. Maybe those people should take a look in the mirror and examine their own actions towards and relationship with Philadelphia's communities of color.
Also, plenty of young people know exactly why there's a lack of opportunity. A person doesn't have to be over 40 to have grown up with a lack of opportunity. Two entire generations now have.
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