Archive for December, 2021

Tone deaf in Killadelphia

Posted: December 14, 2021 by chrisharper in Uncategorized

By Christopher Harper

One of the main reasons my wife and I decided to move out of Philadelphia was the soaring crime rate in the city.

Even so, it was surprising how bad it got this year. Philadelphia has recorded more homicides this year than the nation’s two largest cities – New York City and Los Angeles – with 528 homicides to date. New York City has recorded 443 as of Dec. 5 and Los Angeles 352 as of Nov. 27.

Philadelphia is not alone in recording a record number of murders. Eleven other cities—all governed by Democrats—have set records: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Austin, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Louisville, Kentucky; Portland, Oregon; St. Paul, Minnesota; Toledo, Ohio; Tucson, Arizona; and Rochester, New York.

What’s just as surprising is the tone-dear responses to the crime spree from Democrats.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a George Soros darling and recently re-elected to his post, said that the city wasn’t experiencing a crime wave.

“We don’t have a crisis of lawlessness, we don’t have a crisis of crime, we don’t have a crisis of violence,” the district attorney said last week. “It’s important that we don’t let this become mushy and bleed into the notion that there is some kind of big spike in crime.” He added that tourists should feel safe in the city.

The usually calm Michael Nutter, who served as mayor for eight years, denounced Krasner’s comments as “some of the worst, most ignorant, and most insulting comments I have ever heard spoken by an elected official.”

Nutter, who is Black, added in a column in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “I have to wonder what kind of messed up world of white wokeness Krasner is living in to have so little regard for human lives lost, many of them Black and brown, while he advances his own national profile as a progressive district attorney.”

After widespread condemnation for his remarks, Krasner, who is white, assembled a bevy of leftist political and religious leaders to announce an apology.

But it wasn’t only Krasner who didn’t understand the nature of the murder spree.

Two students from Temple University, where I teach, were murdered—a rare occurrence even though the college is located in the center of the city.

The president of the faculty, a Black woman, offered this disingenuous analysis of what’s going on.

“There are so many systemic issues at play—not just here in North Philadelphia—but in most urban centers across the nation that need to be addressed. Issues of poverty, severely compromised urban education systems, joblessness amidst a consumer culture that is always reminding us of the class divide between the haves and the have nots—complicated by COVID-19 and nearly two years of its wake—making these issues even more nuanced than they have been in previous years. But loss of life is a tragedy—no matter where it occurs or why. We have much work to do, and we need everyone to join in that struggle,” a statement said.

It’s impossible to unpack the illogical analysis in the statement above.

The facts, however, are clear: Two people died! Two or more people killed them!

The Democrats running the cities and the academy are out of synch with most people, who can easily point to the cause for rising crime rates: a lack of police enforcement and investigation. That’s because the Democrats don’t like law and order.

Seven Let’s Go Brandon stores in NEW ENGLAND?

Posted: December 13, 2021 by datechguy in American Success Stories, culture, politics
Tags: ,

Last week when I heard about a “Let’s Go Brandon” store in MA. I thought it was funny but no big deal. One such store in a deep blue state isn’t so odd. Trump got 32% of the vote which is more than a million so yeah one store might be a fun oddity.

That one store in Massachusetts is now six:

Let’s Go Brandon retail outlets have popped up in seven locations just in time for the holiday season, offering T-shirts, hats, hoodies, mugs, magnets, stickers, flags and other merchandise inspired by the viral political euphemism.

The seven shops — six in Massachusetts, one in Rhode Island — are the brainchild of Keith Lambert, founder of New England for Trump, who said the stores are resonating with customers eager to tout their opposition to President Biden.

“Sales are very good. We’ve got a lot of support. There’s a lot of excitement,” Mr. Lambert told The Washington Times. “People absolutely love coming out. Being in the atmosphere of a store, it’s a lot of fun.”

Plus one in Rhode Island.

This is a problem for the left because a lot of their power comes from fear. One enough people in a state decide that they aren’t afraid of showing what they believe then sustaining the fictions that the left’s power is based on becomes untenable.

If these stores are still hoping after Christmas, then if I’m a MA dem I’d start worrying.

Report from Louisiana: All Politics is Local

Posted: December 13, 2021 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT — They say all politics is local so let’s take a moment to consider the bond election held last week in Shreveport. I know you don’t live in Shreveport but consider this a model for what is likely happening in Democrat run cities all over the country, for the most part.

Our Democrat mayor, Adrian Perkins, is wallowing in the sub-basement of low approval ratings as our homicide rate has already tied the record for the most homicides in the city per year, as our police force diminishes to over 100 officers below expected levels, and as our fire department shuffles equipment from one station to another just to keep trucks and EMS operational. Our roads are literally crumbling, and the last major manufacturing business, Libbey Glass, shut the doors and pulled out. We are a dying city.

December 11 was election day for a bond proposal to address a few of these issues. Among the issues on the ballot, the only one to pass was Prop 1:

Proposition 1 was the sole passing proposal, being supported by 59 percent of the 15,581 voters. The proposition’s most costly projects are a $27.5 million renovation of the police department’s central headquarters, $13.5 million for new fire department trucks and vehicles, and more than $15 million for fire station renovations and relocations. Proposition 1 will cost the city $70 million.

The other proposals failed:

Propositions 3 and 4 both lost in tight races. 54 percent of voters selected no on both. Proposition 4 would have been for fixing roads. Proposition 3 would have been for replacing the city’s 80-year-old lead pipe water system with a more modern plastic pipe system less likely to leech dangerous chemicals into the water supply and built to sustain extreme temperatures. Proposition 3 also would have addressed sewage and flooding issues.

Propositions 3 and 4 each would have cost more than $60 million.

Proposition 2 was for improving access to broadband internet in Shreveport and would have cost more than $20 million. 60 percent of voters said no to it. Proposition 5 was for improving parks and recreation centers and would have also cost more than $20 million. 61 percent of voters said no to it.

Voter turnout was a miserable 12.7%, and this was the second time (at least) that Perkins has put up this bond issue for vote.

The bottom line is this: nobody trusts this administration. I voted no down the line because my feeling is that if these city administrators think that approving a $10 million contract for curbside recycling to a woman with a Lexus, no staff, no training, and no where to take the material is a good idea….well, I don’t want to give them one bloody dime.

Even more, none of the proposed propositions addressed the abysmal police pay rate which is a huge problem and a large part of the reason we can’t keep officers.

Our priorities are wrong.

Our administration is wrong.

And I see this same pattern is a whole lot of cities run by Democrats.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and at Medium. She is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation (LSU Press).

Lightfoot’s blame-the-victim response about flash mob thieves reminiscent of pre-woke SNL sketch

Posted: December 12, 2021 by John Ruberry in crime
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By John Ruberry

If you give a press conference and the result looks like a Saturday Night Live sketch, a pre-woke version of the show that is, then you have a big problem.

So it was last week with Chicago’s inept leftist mayor, Lori Lightfoot, when she blamed retail crime victims for the rise of flash mob thieves plaguing Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shopping area.

“We still have retailers that won’t institute plans like having security officers in their stores, making sure that they’ve got cameras that are actually operational, locking up their merchandise at night, chaining high-end bags,” the first-term Democrat said. “These purses can be something that is attracting a lot of organized retail theft units.”

So it’s the victims’ fault.

Just like it was in this SNL skit from 1991, featuring Chicago native Joe Mantegna, where he blames New York City crime victims for their problems.

“Yeah, I was flying to Florida, and we had a stopover in New York,” a caller to a talk radio show told Mantegna. “Well, while we were sitting on the ground a group of ‘wilding’ teenagers boarded the plane and beat with me on the head with a pipe.”

“And which airport was this,” Mantegna asked,

“LaGuardia,” was the reply.

“Well, there you go,” Mantegna scolded the caller.

Chicago Police brass were said to have a plan in place to combat smash-and-grab thieves and avoid scenes such as what happened when a Burberry’s on North Michigan Avenue was emptied of purses–each handbag was worth more than a thousand dollars. 

If there was a plan by the CPD, then it clearly didn’t work. Since Lightfoot’s delusional presser a North Face store on the Mag Mile was struck twice. But proving that the Burberry’s looting was just a tame opening act, yesterday a luxury car dealer just off of the Magnificent Mile was robbed of an estimated $2 million worth of high-end watches–which, are you paying attention Mayor Lightfoot?– were locked up inside a locked glass display case. Yep, $2 million.

The dealership is now seeing customers on an appointment basis only–its doors are locked during store hours. Welcome to the new Chicago.

On Friday night’s Flannery Fired Up show on Fox 32 Chicago, host Mike Flannery estimated that 20 percent of the storefronts on North Michigan Avenue are empty. Regular readers of my posts know that the Mag Mile was devastated by two rounds of looting–oops, I mean “mostly peaceful protests”–in 2020. 

The luxury dealership, which sells Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis, is owned by Joe Perillo, who is rethinking operating in Chicago.

“It is wrong for someone to break into a place – if they get caught, they get let out!” Perillo explained to ABC 7. “If they get arrested, they get let go. So, how do you intend to ever solve that problem?” He added, “If they don’t do anything about this, they’re going to lose a lot of businesses. They lost Macy’s. They’re losing Neiman Marcus. They may lose this store.”

While Neiman Marcus still has a store on the North Michigan Avenue, the Gap and Disney have also left in the last year. And remember what Flannery said about Mag Mile vacancies. 

It’s not just Lightfoot’s fault.

Kim Foxx is one of those woke so-called prosecutors whose campaign was funded by radical leftist George Soros. She’s received plenty of well-deserved scorn for her mishandling of the Jussie Smollett case. But the greater sin of the Cook County state’s attorney is her catch-and-release policy involving criminals accused of serious offenses. Even some alleged murderers are out of jail on electronic surveillance.

How ’bout if a non-woke SNL updated that skit with a Chicago twist?

“Hello, my store was emptied of merchandise by flash mob looters,” a caller to that SNL-radio show might say.

“What do you sell,” Lori Lightfoot would reply.

“Purses worth more than $1,000.”

Lightfoot’s retort would be, “Well, there you go.”

Retail groups have been complaining that shoppers are now afraid to visit North Michigan Avenue. Who can blame them?

Chicago is dying. The cause of death? Woke politicians.

Well, there you go.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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