DV Journal

In his stump speech, Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman likes to brag about his work with the Braddock police during his time as mayor.

“I’m running on my record on crime,” Fetterman told a Bucks County audience earlier this month. “I ran for mayor of Braddock, a community that has significant gun violence, to be mayor and fight that, and because of our working with the police and funding the police and working with the community, we went more than five years without a murder. It never happened before and never since I’ve been mayor.”

But on Tuesday, those officers gave their endorsement to his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

“Many times, I was called to assist in Braddock when Mr. Fetterman was mayor. I know he says that he’s a law-and-order candidate. I have to disagree with that,” said Vincent Dicenzio, Jr., president of the Allegheny County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 91, which includes the Braddock police officers.

Fetterman “was always good to show up for a photo opportunity. But as crime was going on in Braddock, you did not see Mr. Fetterman. Instead, you saw other police departments there assisting Braddock Police Department. I had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Fetterman when he ran for lieutenant governor, and as the mayor of Braddock, he had no idea what their officers made. They didn’t even have a contract or benefits. They were one of the lowest paid police departments in Allegheny County.”

Fetterman’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the Braddock police officers’ endorsement of his opponent.

Oz, who is also endorsed by the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of the Police, the EP Jermyn FOP Lodge 2 in Scranton, and the Pennsylvania Sheriffs’ Action PAC, used the opportunity to return to his campaign’s law-and-order theme.

“We have seen a tragic increase in crime in Pennsylvania. As senator, I will work across the aisle to ensure we are keeping our communities safe from criminals and cartel organizations and preventing the flow of illegal drugs like fentanyl across our borders. The Pennsylvania FOP has unanimously endorsed me because they know that I will put the safety and security of officers and law-abiding citizens first. Together, we will return safety and security to our commonwealth,” Oz said.

Oz added Fetterman “supports releasing murderers, decriminalizing heroin, and open borders, while I will secure our border, fund our police, and support critical local services that provide help to addicts.”

A day earlier, Oz was also endorsed by a coalition of local unions in the Council of Prison Locals, a national group representing more than 30,000 federal corrections officers across the country. That endorsement followed the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association’s endorsement earlier this week.

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Lisa Borowski may want to look for some different political friends.

The Radnor Township Commissioner, a Democrat who is challenging incumbent GOP Rep. Chris Quinn (R-168th District), has been endorsed by The States Project, which is a joint partner with a progressive group that has advocated defunding the police.

The States Project, which is listed as an endorser on Borowski’s website, is part of a $60 million national Democratic effort to flip state legislatures in swing states like Pennsylvania. It is a joint project of Future Now Action and The PAC For America’s Future. Future Now Action has previously lobbied for legislation to defund the police.

“As Democrats continue to ignore the crime crisis in cities like Philadelphia, Democrats in Harrisburg seem to have no problem accepting money from a group that has been known to have previously (called for) defunding law enforcement,” said Republican State Leadership Committee Deputy Communications Director Mason Di Palma. “If Democrats do not return this money, they will show Pennsylvanians that their allegiance is not to law enforcement and protecting our communities but rather to violent criminals for the sake of politics.”

Rising crime is a major issue in the Delaware Valley. Philadelphia is on track for another record-high murder tally with 393 deaths as of Sept. 22. Some of that crime has spilled into the suburbs. And there is a bipartisan investigation in the state House that may lead to the impeachment of progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, largely due to his lax approach to prosecuting crime.

Borowski said she had not seen that legislation and is a “huge supporter” of the police. She said she had been previously employed as a fundraiser for the Philadelphia Police Foundation and raised millions to provide bulletproof vests, restore the mounted police unit, provide Segways for patrol officers, and new bikes for bicycle officers.

“In fact, I’m getting criticized for raising taxes to support our (Radnor) police,” she said. “I voted to raise taxes to support our police pension program. I’m willing to take the criticism because that is more than worth it.”

Currently, the Pennsylvania legislature is controlled by Republicans.

House Leader Rep. Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) is quoted in The New York Times as saying The States Project had helped many of the party’s candidates in the state with training on messaging and with an incentive program that unlocks more funding per candidate based on doors knocked on. But the biggest accomplishment, McClinton told the Times, was simply pulling even with Republicans who have controlled the state’s legislature for over a decade.

“Because they have been in power for so long, they’re able to outpace us in so many ways, particularly around fund-raising,” she said.

Quinn has the endorsements of several key law enforcement organizations.

Rep. Chris Quinn

“Chris Quinn is proud to be endorsed by Fraternal Order of Police, Pioneer Lodge #37, which includes all PA State Troopers currently assigned to Troop K, Philadelphia; Troop K, Skippack; Troop K, Media; and Troop T, King of Prussia barracks. Retired State Police Troopers from these barracks are also included in their membership,” said Pete Peterson, a spokesman.  “He is now being considered for endorsement by the statewide Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, an endorsement he has earned in each of his prior elections.

“Also, in each of his past elections, Chris Quinn has been endorsed by the Delaware County Fraternal Order of Police (Lodge 27).  While Lodge 27 has not yet issued formal candidate endorsements, he is hopeful to once again earn their support this election cycle.”

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A new Emerson College poll found 40.7 percent of Pennsylvania Republicans say it is very important to them that a candidate has lived in Pennsylvania. Another 32 percent say it is somewhat important. The question of residency has been a major part of the criticism against Dr. Mehmet Oz’s campaign for the U.S. Senate, and it plays a significant role in attacks against Dave McCormick. Interestingly, the poll found voters age 18-29 had the greatest concern with a candidate’s residency.

I understand why voters might feel this way, given the honor of being our representative in Washington. But I still believe McCormick and maybe Oz can overcome this obstacle if they appear to be candidates who can win. I might be evaluating this through the lens of my opposition to residency requirements for police officers in places like Philadelphia.

I have always believed those requirements speak to a government intrusion into our lives that squelches the best and brightest from being attracted to a community. It certainly is a huge factor in stopping Philadelphia from attracting qualified people interested in becoming police officers in the city. In 2020, the Philadelphia City Council — reacting to the furor against police nationwide after the murder of George Floyd — restored a law that mandated a one-year residency requirement for cops prior to hiring.

I recently had the Philadelphia police captain in charge of recruiting new cops on my radio show, and he told me they had hundreds of potential candidates on their preliminary list. However, shortly after the end of the recruiting drive, only 14 people showed up for the first physical training session. Apparently, only 8 or 9 even finished the session. This pathetic situation is fueled by the #DefundThePolice movement in Philadelphia, media attacks on the police, etc. But many experts in the field cite the residency requirement as the main hurdle that has left the city without a large pool of qualified candidates.

Philadelphia City Councilor Cherelle Parker is one public figure who supports the residency requirement. She represents the council district that borders on mine, and she recently joined me on my radio show because she wants to recruit 300 more Philadelphia police officers that would solely be engaged in what she called “community policing” — cops that walk the beat.

She agrees communities across Philadelphia have reached a breaking point regarding homicides, carjacking, and overall violence. She wants police on the streets who see themselves as “guardians” rather than “warriors.”

Parker argues that, if we need it, there is a civil service requirement that would allow massive exceptions to the residency requirement. But she also said, “It makes good economic sense for the city of Philadelphia for people who are being paid by the city of Philadelphia to own a home in the city of Philadelphia.”

That may be true. But isn’t the responsibility of elected officials to make Philadelphia an attractive place where people want to live, rather than passing laws making it a place people who want city jobs are forced to live?

John McNesby, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police, told me recently that under Police Commissioner Ramsay — and without the residency requirement — Philadelphia was able to recruit a great pool of great candidates from the military nationwide. It also recruited recent college graduates, including many from historically Black colleges,  to fulfill the goal of getting more educated and diverse candidates.

The evidence is clear: If Philadelphia is going to have the police force we need for public safety, we must do the things that make it a destination area to live and work, rather than a city that has to force its police to embrace it.

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Mr. Krasner’s recent comments and lack of acknowledgment that we have a gun violence crisis are outrageous. We do have a gun violence crisis, and it is one of the root causes of inequity in our city and in our nation. The question is how to fix it. Having a district attorney who does not see or believe what is in front of him is a major part of the problem.

There are many solutions, but they all require working with faith, neighborhood, and union leaders as well as with the police commissioner and the families of victims. As a leader, not recognizing a problem does not make it go away. It just makes the problem worse.

Gun violence is not just about the homicide numbers, but also about all the shooting victims, their families, neighbors, and our city. We want to live in a city where we can say hello to a stranger and look them in the eye without fear of being shot for no reason. We want to live in a city where you can honk your car horn without fear of being murdered at the next traffic stop due to road rage. Enough is enough. Gun violence affects us all.

I have written in the past about the impact of gun violence on emergency care providers and caregivers with suggestions for how to move forward. What I do know from speaking with officers in the Emergency Department is that they feel demoralized and unsupported by our DA. They have a “why bother” attitude that permeates down from a leader who leans more toward anarchy than law and order. We need laws and nonviolence in our society so we all can live life in “…pursuit of Happiness,” but we cannot do that unless we all feel safe.

As I have stated in the past, we can do better policing with less aggressive and invasive tactics, with more funding, more training, (especially in de-escalation) for our police workers, not less. We need social workers integrated into community policing efforts. We need better access to substance use disorder resources; we need housing first options where people with psychiatric and substance use issues can get the help they need. We need to share and allocate mental health resources across counties, not restrict care to a county and make our crisis a “city” problem instead of a state and regional problem. And yes, we need to end our Jim Crow-era drug laws, so we stop incarcerating people with addiction and instead focus our law enforcement efforts on decreasing violent crimes like gun violence, theft, rape, and murder. Using drugs is one thing. Stealing someone else’s property, and/or destroying the quality of life of a neighborhood is a completely different issue. They should not be equated.

We need to invest in our city’s safety and start acting like our children’s future depends on it. We need to ensure that tourists feel safe visiting our great city. We need to ensure that our schools are safe for both our teachers and students. We need to rebuild the relationship between police in Black and Brown communities. All of it starts with not having a DA who is blind and tone-deaf to the very real problems facing our neighborhoods and our city.

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Police officials and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to the city’s increasing crime rate. Neither side can agree on the cause behind the rising homicides and shootings. So, who’s right?

According to the DA’s office, 29 percent of homicides resulted in an arrest, and only 15 percent of nonfatal shootings resulted in arrests. Some police officials believe the district attorney isn’t prioritizing those prosecutions. However, a representative from that office told The Philadelphia Inquirer violent crimes “have always been a top priority.”

Former Upper Darby police chief Michael Chitwood told Delaware Valley Journal both sides are incorrect.

“There’s no one side that’s responsible or irresponsible,” Chitwood explained. “There are two sides, and the people who suffer from lousy police work and lousy prosecutors is the community.”

Chitwood spent 55 years on the police force before retiring. He served as police chief in Portland, Maine for 17 years, Delaware County for 14 years, Middletown Township for four and half years, and as a Philadelphia homicide detective for 20 years.

Chitwood says he believes the biggest problem with the increase in violence is the police department’s inability to interact with the community.

“I think two things happen. The first thing is the police department. We’re our own worst enemy when it comes to dealing with the public,” Chitwood said. “We don’t know how to treat people the way people expect to be treated. And that’s as follows, and I always say this whenever I hire somebody. Always treat people the way you want yourself and your family to be treated. If you do that, 95 percent of the time you’re going to be alright. There’s going to be 5 percent of the time that you’re not going to be alright and that’s where you learn how to defend and take the aggressive action that’s needed.”

In addition, Chitwood believes Philadelphia’s district attorney isn’t doing enough to keep the violent offenders off the streets.

“The second thing is, you have this elected DA who does not prosecute violent offenders,” Chitwood said. “Those individuals that commit these heinous types of crimes like rape, aggravated assault, murder, they have to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Thomas Hogan, former Chester County District Attorney, and a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, also sees this as a problem. In a podcast for The Manhattan Institute, Hogan decried progressive prosecutors, including Krasner, who have been elected with outside money in cities around the country.

“The police can do all this stuff, but unless the prosecutors are there to work with the police, to lock up the 5 percent (who commit most of the violent crimes), to lock down these 5 percent of locations (where crime happens), and work with them on taking care of these timeframes (weekend nights in the summer months), the police can work as hard as they want,” said Hogan. “It won’t move violent crime at all if you don’t have a prosecutor working with you.”

He predicted that violent crime will continue to increase in the next 15 to 20 years unless people get fed up and vote out the prosecutors who philosophically oppose incarceration.

“The only question is whether there will be a political will to fix this,” said Hogan.

“You can’t commit a crime if you’re in jail,” said Chitwood. “And you shouldn’t be in jail unless you commit a crime. The non-violent types of crime that are committed, I can see giving somebody a pass. I can see trying to rehabilitate without any problem. But those violent offenders that commit violent crime over and over again, they do not belong amongst us. I think that there’s a way to start that.”

The Inquirer analyzed that out of the 8,500 shootings between November 2015 and August 2020, only 21 percent of them led to an arrest, and only 9 percent led to a conviction. That statistic includes all fatal and nonfatal shootings during this time.

Chitwood’s suggestion to fix the crime and violence in Philadelphia? Put police officials through specialized training that teaches them how to treat people and gain the trust of the community they serve. Chitwood knows that isn’t going to happen overnight.

“It takes a long, long time to build that bridge that interacts with the community,” Chitwood said. “I think that’s the first thing the police have to do. The second thing that the prosecutors have to do is start putting these individuals in jail. You know, no bail, no ‘get out of jail free’ card. Those types of things just don’t work. As long as you see the swinging door of justice in any city, you’re going to see this increase in crime and what’s happening to society as we speak now.”