Krasner and restorative justice equal increased violence
We rationalize the cause of the city’s shootings and killings by misplacing the blame and thereby finding illogical remedies.
First, it’s too many guns that fire themselves and one solution is a “new phone system — 211” for reporting crimes, like that will work. Then give money and grants to community groups so they can buy guns to defend themselves. That will work!
But the corker of all ideas belongs to Krasner and his progressive staff – “restorative justice.” His belief is that offenders were impoverished, lived in poor areas and could not pay restitution. Therefore, they are absolved of their mistakes and free to go do it again.
People rioted, burnt businesses, stole merchandise “all they could carry,” resisted police and state troopers —cursing, spitting, throwing objects, etc. – and police were charged; no restorative justice for them.
Krasner did not think it relevant to review prior criminal history, I guess he was afraid to find out what he would find.
What were those business people thinking by keeping their stores open? They got a fire sale they never saw coming, but don’t despair. It will happen again.
Most people arrested received only citations — what behavior are you re-enforcing?
Jails are a bad place for bad people and are necessary.
As Jason L. Riley stated in the Wall Street Journal, “Low-income blacks are the most frequent victim of violent crimes. When you diminish the quality of policing in their communities, you’re not helping matters. And gun restrictions make it more difficult for law-abiding blacks to defend themselves and their families and can only make a bad situation even worse.”
Michael E. Hartey
Upper Moreland (formerly of Burholme)
Schumer comments unacceptable
I would not use this as a format to express my views on this matter and what has transpired since the opinion from the Supreme Court.
My only two observations are that many protesters do not fully understand the history or provisions of Roe vs. Wade or the rationale behind the decision from the Supreme Court. Yet they are protesting, some violently. The media have really encouraged this type of behavior. My other one is the outrageous conduct of several top officials. Schumer, Waters and AOC, to name a few, should be forced to resign. What Schumer did is on par with the Jan. 6 debacle. He is using this as a political coverup to all the other major problems facing our country. It is the first time in our history that a senior senator promoted violence against a Supreme Court justice, in large part due to the fact that he opposed his nomination. Their conduct was unacceptable and they need to face the consequence of their actions.
Anthony Dello Russo
Fox Chase
Misleading argument
It is time to reject any references to Nazi Germany by people opposed to gun reform. Such comparisons are misleading, cruel and offensive. It is categorically not true that a small group (less than 1% of the German population) would have been able to defend themselves against Hitler’s army and avoid genocide. Hitler’s disarming of the Jewish population neither enabled nor caused the Holocaust. Both Politico and Fact Checker responded with a clear and definite FALSE to this disingenuous statement. Countless Jewish scholars have also debunked this specious thinking and labeled such claims an abuse of history. Yet that is exactly what Doug Mastriano is doing by saying, “Historically this is accurate” (Philadelphia Inquirer, June 2, “Mastriano backs gun remark”). One cannot help but question the intelligence and ethics of Mastriano and other shameless politicians who try to manipulate people’s thinking by distorting history and using fear tactics to advance their own agenda.
Tom Sexton
Lawndale
Just correcting an error
Just a note to correct an error of historic fact in Mr. Al Ulus’s letter to this page, (“Where’s the Apology?” – June 1).
To quote Mr. Ulus: “So, to all the anti-Trumpsters out there who believed in those false accusations and for the insurrections against Trump, you owe America an apology.”
Mr. Ulus seems to forget what the rest of us remember, that in terms of recent American history, “insurrection” refers to events in our nation’s capital on Jan. 6, 2021. The insurrection in question was led by Trump’s followers, at his instigation, and was pro-Trump all the way.
Trump’s followers tried to halt proceedings of our democratically elected Congress, which amounts to an attack on our democracy itself.
I am sure that when Mr. Ulus looks back to refresh his memory of events of that day, he will recognize his error. (Might we now expect an apology from him?).
We can only hope that all of the “Al Uluses” of the nation will try to be more accurate when they attempt to cite events in American history.
Roland Williams
Pennypack East
Krasner an easy scapegoat
An easy scapegoat for rising gun violence in Philadelphia seems to be DA Krasner. The rhetoric has amped up to include attempts to recall this duly elected official. What these commenters fail to note, including the recent piece by GOP Al Taubenberger (June 15), is that Republicans in Harrisburg have stonewalled attempts made by Philadelphia to control unfettered gun access. Nor have they mentioned the outsized and ever-increasing police budget that fails to stem the violence. Nor do they mention the longstanding and systemic disinvestment in the “throwaway” communities of Philadelphia. Nor do they mention that gun violence is rising across the country so this is a national issue not just a local issue. Instead of trying to overturn the will of voters (69% to 31%), why don’t Taubenberger and other Philadelphia GOP officials lobby their state GOP counterparts to work with Philadelphia instead of obstructing Philly efforts.
Diane Payne
Burholme
