Reps: Get tough
on the thugs

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

State Rep. John Taylor thinks some lawmakers have misplaced priorities.
Taylor (R-177th dist.) pointed to countless meetings and news conferences related to the two proposed slot machine parlors in Philadelphia. He thinks too little time has been spent on reforming the probation and parole system in Pennsylvania.
Last week, he and Rep. John Perzel (R-172nd dist.) held a news conference to again call for consideration of three legislative initiatives:
• Eliminating parole for any violent offender convicted of rape, robbery, murder, aggravated assault or any crime with a gun.
• Eliminating early release programs for offenders convicted of a violent crime or a crime involving a gun.
• Requiring that all mandatory five-year sentences for gun offenses be served consecutively and not concurrently with sentences for other crimes.
"There is nothing more important than these bills," Taylor said.
The news conference was held at Perzel’s district office on Frankford Avenue in Mayfair.
The legislators introduced their measure following the murder in May of police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. Three of the alleged suspects were parolees.
In September, police Officer Patrick McDonald was killed by Daniel Giddings, who was released from prison two years before his maximum sentence would have ended. Giddings was shot to death by another officer responding to the scene.
Perzel blamed the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole.
"Daniel Giddings should have never been out on the streets," he said.
Giddings, 27, was paroled on Aug. 18 after serving 10 years of a 12-year sentence stemming from a 1998 carjacking. He killed McDonald a little more than a month later.
In prison, he had committed more than 20 infractions that landed him in solitary confinement.
"The parole system is not functioning properly in Pennsylvania," Perzel said.
In addition, the lawmakers want judges to sentence suspects to consecutive sentences, not concurrent ones.
"No more rolling them together," Taylor said.
At the news conference, Perzel and Taylor stood next to a large poster with a picture of Giddings and the words, "Enough is Enough!"
The poster chronicled Giddings’ criminal history and included a comment from then-Assistant District Attorney Joseph Coolican, who said, "I’m telling (the judge), he’ll never be a safe person. Never let him back on the street."
Perzel and Taylor wrote a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell, agreeing with his call for a moratorium on the release of all parolees. They urged the governor to convince House Speaker Dennis O’Brien, Majority Leader Bill DeWeese and Appropriations Committee chairman Dwight Evans to take action on the bills in the last few days of the session, which ends Nov. 30.
Another poster showed the names, pictures and rap sheets of some of the 576 Philadelphians who have been paroled from prison, but are absconders. The probation and parole board cannot find them. Statewide, there are more than 1,400 absconders.
"We don’t have any idea where they are," Perzel said.
The lawmakers have said that the state needs to increase the number of parole field agents to cut down their monthly caseloads. They’ve also called for a requirement that all inmates receive an affirmative vote by a majority of the nine members of the parole board. Currently, an inmate needs only two votes.
On a related note, Taylor credited Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 with going public with some of its complaints about decisions rendered by city judges in criminal cases.
FOP Lodge 5 president John McNesby, meanwhile, harshly criticized Perzel for what he called "politicizing the death of a police officer."
McNesby said no meaningful action was taken on the bills between the time of the Liczbinski and McDonald murders.
"On behalf of the entire police department, I take serious offense when a politician stands on the badge of a fallen officer to score political points, and that is precisely what we saw John Perzel do on October 2nd," he said in a statement.
"When there are cameras around, he claims to be a champion of the police officers. But as soon as the cameras disappear, so does his interest in the topic."
The FOP has endorsed Perzel’s Democratic challenger, Rich Costello, a former Lodge 5 president. ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com