Shemp, Larry and Moe
Our mayor, police commissioner and district attorney provide no leadership and fail us miserably. Our next steps are the National Guard, the military and, lastly, exiting the city.
They protect and nurture criminals through policies like no arrests, no bail, reduced charges, releasing prisoners and no strategies on fighting crime, ad infinitum.
Who wants to ride the El, the subway or rail system, walk the City Hall concourse or be in Center City day or night? Hell, you can’t even sit on your own steps and feel safe or inside your house.
What parent wants to send their child to schools in any part of the city with the three stooges running the city? They believe in “restorative justice,” which is a philosophy that rewards the criminal and screws the victim.
Our mayor and district attorney do not deserve re-election or election to any other office, and our police commissioner should be sent back to wherever she came from immediately or sooner.
What’s wrong with “broken window” theory of policing, what’s wrong with punishing criminals rather than having half of the DA’s staff reviewing old cases to see who they can release.
Jimbo sits in his chair in his “Pixie” outfit like Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, wondering what to do next. He could order more vaccines from the boys at Drexel.
He is so typical of politicians who have never “worked” in business, industry or as a paperboy. Clueless.
Our city must have done something terrible to deserve Jimbo, who is looking to become our senator or governor. God help us because Jimbo doesn’t know how.
Michael Hartey
Upper Moreland (Formerly from Burholme)
Hold absentee landlords accountable
I attended the May 17 Take Back Your Neighborhood meeting. The chairman, Robert Rudnitsky, made a passionate plea about absentee landlords renting without proper supervision. Some of the stories by citizens in attendance were heart-wrenching.
Law-abiding citizens are often violated of their rights for a peaceful neighborhood by renters who have no “skin in the game” to speak of. They behave as they want without regard to the peace in the neighborhood because they don’t care and there are no consequences.
In our neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, there are sadly serious crimes committed, and the police do not have enough time or manpower to keep going to these homes. It is very unfortunate for law-abiding citizens who just want to bring their families up in peace and quiet without loud parties through the night with drinking, drugging, loud music blasting and garbage strewn in the streets.
Mr. Rudnitsky’s idea to hold absentee landlords responsible for the mess they’ve created while walking away is a way for us to start taking back our neighborhoods. At least these landlords would understand that without obeying laws that are already in place, they are going to be continually penalized financially, which may jolt them into action. Great idea, Robert Rudnitsky.
Bonnie Kaye
Oxford Circle
Sheriff saga
And the beat goes on. The sheriff’s office only hires the best in the sense that the new counsel has an infinite personal knowledge of how the office works. I don’t know if those judgments still exist. If they do, hopefully, someone will keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t disappear. After the boondoggle of hiring an unapproved outside agency for the sheriff sales, you figure Bilal would low key it. No, she hires a legal adviser with a very questionable financial past. Sure, he’s having a high profile at the sheriff’s office because of his personal dealings with the office but I don’t think the average person would hire him if they knew his past. Oh, that’s right, this is the sheriff’s office that has a history of the upper echelons being in legal trouble. So he should fit right in.
Richard Donofry
East Torresdale
A reason for mistrust
Conspiracy theories are a reality.
To this day, Trump supporters are ridiculed over the belief that the election was rigged and the timing of the COVID pandemic toward the end of Trump’s first term was a deliberate conspiracy to rid Trump from having a second term.
And what constitutes a conspiracy theory? It is an element of “mistrust that is central to all conspiracy theory beliefs.” And I say that mistrust came from the political spectrum that Americans have witnessed during the four years of Trump’s presidency.
We had politicians who spread insurmountable hatred toward President Trump, from impeachment hearings to Nancy Pelosi’s irrational display of disrespect when she tore up Trump’s State of the Union speech in front of national television.
So if citizens are witnessing these actions of hatred from their elected officials toward a sitting president, then why shouldn’t people believe there was a conspiracy to get rid of him?
And as far as the conspiracy theory of COVID created in a Wuhan lab or not, it’s not too far of a stretch to believe that germ warfare and bioweapons have been used in our lifetime, especially when our own government housed such items at Fort Detrick in Maryland.
And isn’t it a coincidence that this COVID virus just happened to come around election year?
At a well-documented forum at Georgetown University in 2017, why did Dr. Fauci himself say there was going to be a “surprise” infectious disease outbreak during the incoming Trump presidency, three years before the 2020 pandemic? I repeat, “a surprise outbreak.”
Conspiracy? Think about it.
Al Ulus
Somerton
Homeless need help
Philadelphia is currently one of the cities with the highest poverty rate in America. One of the biggest issues I came upon was with the housing homeless people don’t experience. After research, it was found that the first-year cost of moving one chronically homeless person into permanent supportive housing is around $55,600. Realistically speaking, that may not be in the city budget. However, we have to work harder on finding better alternatives. For example, creating more “project homes” or affordable housing across the city. With summer right around the corner, now would also be a great time to start pondering on how we can do more to help homeless people during bad weather. Can more organizations be made to provide necessities needed for certain weather conditions? For example, when it’s too hot they could supply free water — when it’s too cold, they could provide blankets. Sixty percent of people who are homeless pass away due to housing and weather conditions such as hypothermia, heart attacks and heat strokes. At least 1,000 people in Philadelphia are left unsheltered and on the streets every year. As a start, we can create campaigns, fundraisers and push for a higher amount of money that goes toward poverty in the city of Philadelphia. As a city and community, we have to use our privilege and voice to fight and help these people who are human beings just like us.
Joana Qirici
Senior, Central H.S.
Somerton
