Crime – Page 43 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Woo Bum-Kon, ROK Police Officer

Dr. Helen relays to us the story of Woo Bum-Kon, a mass killer in Korea, who happened to be a police officer:

Bum-Kon had an argument with his live-in girlfriend in the afternoon of April 26, 1982. Enraged, he left the house and went to the police armory, where he began consuming large amounts of whiskey. He became moderately drunk, raided the police armory of its weapons and built a personal arsenal. Bum-Kon then stole a single high-powered rifle and some grenades and left the armory. It was by this point around dinner time. He walked from house to house, and abused his position as a police officer to make people feel safe and gain entry to the home. Then he shot the victims, or killed the entire family with a grenade. He continued this pattern for the next eight hours, and into the early morning hours of April 27.

This speaks to a point I’ve been raising in the comment sections of various blogs: the police aren’t super humans. They are people, just like everyone else, and have the same passions, failings, virtues and deficiencies as the rest of us. Folks are calling it “insane” to suggest that valid concealed weapons license holders be allowed to carry on campus, but most would have few problems with a police officer in the same age range being permitted to do the same. Why? The idea that police officers are particularly well trained is a fallacy. Some are, and some aren’t, just like the rest of us. While police should be appreciated for the job they do, which is necessary, they should not be exalted above ordinary citizens. The police, in fact, are ordinary citizens, just ones that society pays to enforce laws and keep the peace. If you would trust an armed 22 year old police officer on campus, you should trust an armed CHL holder too.

The Silence of John Street

…is deafening.

This week, students assaulted at least four teachers in district schools, and there were seven attacks at West Philadelphia High alone over the last 10 school days. The issue has dominated nightly newscasts and appeared on newspaper front pages.

The mayor’s relative silence on the issue of battered teachers stands in stark contrast to the badgering he gave schools chief Paul Vallas late last year over the district’s $73.3 million budget deficit.

Then, Street spent nearly 14 hours over four days sitting in the front row during public hearings on the fiscal problems, interjecting his criticisms. He also testified before City Council on the issue.

The article goes on to say that getting out and front of the media to rant and rave just isn’t John Street’s style, and that’s fine. However, his silence on the issue when there have been such a rash of school incidences isn’t doing anyone any favors. He’s coming across as either vindictive towards School District CEO Paul Vallas or an aloof lame duck.

The article also contains a passage I find laughable:

The Street administration has launched a $3 million program to hire more truancy officers and also is establishing 12 curfew centers that will give youths safe havens from the streets. Education Secretary Jacqueline Barnett also participated in a March 6 meeting with Vallas and Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson that spelled out a tough new security policy for schools.

“The mayor takes a systems approach,” Barnett said. “For him it’s how do you get at the root of the chronic social issues we have. He’s absolutely passionate about it.”

Systems approach! To steal a quote from Dr. Evil, “I haven’t laughed that hard since I was a little girl.” Curfew Centers and truancy officers is a system’s approach? No, it’s still component tinkering, which as I’ve said before, might work for fixing cars but isn’t going to do anything when it comes to the social fabric. The inner cities have become bereft of opportunity and hope, and no amount of tweaking is going to fix that.

Unarmed and useless

My industry is a perfect example of one of the real problems with guns. The wrong people have them and the right people don’t. There have been several strip club shootings in the news recently, the most recent occurring less than a week ago in Texas. Before that there was a high-profile incident in Las Vegas involving multiple celebrities.

Working around drunk people in any capacity can be pretty scary. Most of the clubs I’ve worked at either have metal detectors or (more commonly) “wand” patrons as they come in. At the ones that only wand people, I’ve only seen it done on the weekends and evenings. I understand the logic (basically it’s profiling) but it seems to me that a preventative measure that takes 15-20 seconds should be performed every time if it’s going to be used at all.

The real problem, though, is that bouncers are never armed. In most places security is a joke. A lot of dancers refer to them as “door guys,” because we can’t bring ourselves to say “bouncers” or “security” without an accompanying eye-roll. I would love it if every club had armed bouncers. The problem is that clubs don’t want to deal with the hassle of having every bouncer licensed, trained and background-checked. Not for a position that pays minimum wage plus tips. Most bouncers don’t stay in the industry very long, either, so it would be time-consuming and costly to jump through the hoops to arm each bouncer, only to have to do it again a few months later. Additionally, a lot of clubs are skittish of having too much visible security. According to this line of thinking, metal detectors and armed bouncers make a club look dangerous and scare away the “right” type of customer.

Before I started dancing in clubs I worked at a peep show. This was the only time I ever worked with an armed bouncer. The peep show was in a porn shop, and the bouncer was also a clerk. He was definitely a “gun guy” who always had his weapon on him, including at work. He carried it unconcealed. I never had a single problem with customers there when he was on shift. It didn’t seem to affect my money or the shop’s business. However, he carried his weapon because it was part of his lifestyle, not as part of the job. I guess the only conclusion I can reach from these musings is that if I were to ever open a club of any sort I’d want to hire “gun guys” for security. Opening a club is not in my ten-year plan, so for now I’ll just continue to work at places with metal detectors and avoid NFL players.

Time for Louis Gosset, Jr?

West Philadelphia High gets evacuated again. I expect that Mayor Street will finally cave to Paul Vallas’ wishes to have police patrol the school.

That might be a good short-term solution just to make it through the rest of the school year. In the long term though, instead of thinking large-scale about systems, they’ll just shove a “Crazy Joe” Clark principal into West Philadelphia High and hope that the rest will fall in line.

Welcome to The Jungle

This Sunday Inquirer piece sums up what’s been a bad year and a bad week for Philadelphia teachers. Teachers and aides have been attacked, assaulted, and threatened by students. Things got so bad at West Philadelphia High school that the principal was removed earlier this week. And then things got even worse by last Friday, so the school district decided to split the school up four ways to reduce the number of students.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is pointing the finger at the school district for under-reporting the incidences. Also, even though incidences may get reported, violent students may just get shuffled around to different schools. Most of the time, the student stays at their current school: according to one study, 19 out of 100 of the worst cases of assault (called Level-2) result in the student getting moved. While the Philadelphia Schools CEO Paul Vallas said that students who assault teachers will get an immediate 10 day suspension and possibly get sent to an “Alternative School”, he is facing a surprise $36 million deficit. It is this hole in the budget which forced the district to cut back on hall monitors.

While the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ head Ted Kirsch can clamor for the district to “Put money in the schools,” he is failing to mention that two years ago, he had nearly twice the number of hall monitors than this year, and there were still 897 reported cases of students assaulting teachers. There were 791 reported incidents last year. This school year, to date, there have been 409.

When dealing with problems in a system, you isolate the component that’s causing the problems, fix it, and the system works like it’s supposed to. This is true if you’re fixing cars or writing computer software, but it’s different when it comes to the social fabric. Change one part of the social fabric, and every other component reacts, changes, and possibly disrupts other parts. The struggle in Philadelphia schools may actually have nothing to do with the amount of funding it receives, whoever is principal at West Philadelphia High, or how many bouncers you have roaming the halls.

Philadelphia is a hostile business environment with its wage tax on those working in the city regardless of where they live and those who live in the city, regardless of where they work. There also exists a business privilege tax. Philadelphia is the second most heavily taxed city in the country. Over the past 30 years, Philadelphia has hemorrhaged population and business have gone with them. So even if these students settle down and get a modicum of education, where are they going to work?

David Simon, who wrote the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and is a producer and writer for HBO’s The Wire, summed this up perfectly in an interview with Reason Magazine.

For 35 years, you’ve systematically deindustrialized these cities. You’ve rendered them inhospitable to the working class, economically. You have marginalized a certain percentage of your population, most of them minority, and placed them in a situation where the only viable economic engine in their hypersegregated neighborhoods is the drug trade. Then you’ve alienated them further by fighting this draconian war in their neighborhoods…The solution is to undo the last 35 years, brick by brick. How long is that going to take? I don’t know, but until you start it’s only going to get worse.

While Philadelphia can’t and won’t just up-and-end the war on drugs, which is a good chunk of Mr. Simon’s solution, they can do something about the business climate in Philadelphia. And by demolishing the wage tax and the business privilege tax, they will experience some truly delightful un-intended consequences when the students actually start giving a damn.

Deja Vu All Over Again

In an earlier post, Sebastian described the story of a Philadelphia restaurant owner who shot two would-be robbers, killing one of them.

This follow up in the Philadelphia Inquirer describes a very similar story in 1993 involving the same man with the same results: two robbers shot, one dead and the other facing attempted robbery and aggravated assault charges.

The first confrontation was on Aug. 15, 1993, when two men walked into a grocery run by Lee’s family at 68th Avenue and Broad Street in East Oak Lane.

Police said at that time that the robbery took place about 8:30 a.m., and that Lee pulled his handgun and fired when he emerged from a back room and saw that one of the men had grabbed his wife by the throat.

A 30-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene from three gunshot wounds, including one to the head. The second man was found nearby with bullet wounds to the chest and thigh.

The best part is that the law never came down on Mr. Lee for doing the city of Philadelphia a favor. And they’re not doing so again.

Philadelphia Foot Fettish Attacker

This guy is just asking to get shot. When he grabs for the shoes, that’s always a good opportunity to paint the sidewalk with this guy’s brains. This is why more women need to carry, especially in a city with as many warped human beings as Philadelphia.

“I used to walk my dog early in the morning before I went to work, all around the school, now I just stay on Parrish. I take my cell phone, sometimes I talk to someone. It’s scary,” said Fairmount resident, Kathleen Bannon.

Yeah, that cell phone is really going to help. I wish the media and politicians would stop perpetuating this myth that cell phones will protect you.Â Talking to someone on your god damned phone is an invitation to a robber, because it means you aren’t paying attention to what’s going on around you.Â Paying attention will protect you a lot more than any friggin cell phone.Â By the time whoever you’re talking to calls the police, you’re either out your money, and your shoes, a rape victim, or you’re a stain on the sidewalk.Â My guess is this shoe fetish attacker is a seriously dangerous individual, more so than ordinary armed robbers, and need to be stopped before he kills or rapes someone.Â But you won’t hear anyone in Philadelphia suggesting women take self-defense classes and get licensed to carry weapons.Â No, just carry a cell phone.Â If you’re lucky, the police will show up before you become a statistic.

An Open Letter to Congressman Fattah

Congressman Fattah,

I read today in the Philadelphia Daily News about your crime plan for Philadelphia which is summarized as:

More cops investigating illegal guns, better rewards for tips about dirty firearms, and extra surveillance cameras to catch gun-toting bad guys.

Those are the basics of mayoral candidate Chaka Fattah’s plan to fight illegal guns, which he will announce today at Mercy Hospital of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia does not have a gun problem, it has a criminal problem. Until you shift the focus away from the guns and toward violent individuals that are committing crimes, you’re going to keep having this problem. I am happy to see that you at least admit this:

The majority of guns used to kill people in Philadelphia and around the nation are illegal,” said Fattah, a Democratic congressman.

Which is true. So why does your Congressional record and public statements contain so much support for restricting lawful gun ownership? Also, how does “targeted gun officers” that “clear firearms off the streets.” help anything? I am in favor of adding more officers to the city streets, but they need to go after the criminals, not the guns. The guns are a symptom, not the cause of your city’s social ills. Even if all the guns could be cleared off the street, if you left the criminals, they will just get more guns and commit more crimes, leaving the city right back where it started.

I’d also like you to explain how “a network of 1,000 police video surveillance cameras throughout the city” would help catch “gun-toting bad guys”. I’m fairly certain that gun toting bad guys aren’t openly carrying firearms around the city, such that they would be caught on camera. I also hope you are aware that there are approximately 32,000 citizens in your city who are lawfully licensed to carry firearms for self-protection, and approximately similar numbers in all the suburban counties. I hope your “gun officers” will treat these people with the respect and courtesy that they deserve.

We all want to see Philadelphia become a safer place, but I’m disappointed you’re perpetuating the myth that guns cause crime. We all know that’s not true. I would encourage you to focus on the criminals, and on finding productive ways to bring jobs and people back into the city. Focusing your energy on inanimate objects is only distracting people from the real problem, and doing a disservice to the city you want to be mayor of.

Sincerely,

Sebastian

Reading Experiences Sharp Drop in Violent Crime

I came across this article in The Reading Eagle today:

Following a record number of murders in 2005, Reading ended 2006 with the fewest slayings in a decade.

Eight murders were known to have occurred in the city last year, the fewest since 1995, when there also were eight.

In 2005, a record 24 murders were committed in Reading.

Overall in Berks County, 2006 had 12 murders, including the eight city slayings. Three of those slain outside the city were victims of murder-suicides.

This of course, begs the question to the politicians in Philadelphia, how Reading, which is subject to the same gun laws that they claim are woefully inadequate to stop the rising tide of violence in Philadelphia, has managed such a sharp drop in murders and other crimes? Maybe it’s time Mayor Street calls up Mayor McMahon for some advise on how to deal with crime, rather than begging the politicians in Harrisburg for assault weapons bans and other such nonsense that won’t actually fix the problem.