DV Journal

Paris Dennard was among the Republican luminaries who attended a rally to open a new Republican National Committee (RNC) Community Center in Philadelphia’s Germantown section.

The center, which opened last week, is one of three new RNC community centers around the country, part of the party’s outreach to minority community voters. It will house ward leader meetings, social events, community gatherings, and voter registration drives. At the opening, the late Daphne Gibbons, a Philadelphia ward leader, was recognized with a plaque presented to her sons and grandson.

Dennard, a GOP strategist, commentator, and writer, is currently RNC director of Black media affairs.

Asked by the Delaware Valley Journal about Democrat politicians who seem to believe they can use the name “Trump” and claim Republicans are for voter suppression to win this fall, Dennard cited Republican wins last November in Virginia.

“How they tried to insert President Trump’s name as a negative factor, and it backfired,” said Dennard. “And you have Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who won with 13 percent of the Black vote, and Winsome Sears become the first Black immigrant, as well as veteran (and) Black woman, to become lieutenant governor, winning 17 percent of the Black vote.

“In places like Georgia, they tried to lie about the laws, saying that you can’t get food and drink in lines,” Dennard said. “They said things that were just absolutely not true, which led to Georgia losing $100 million in revenue when they removed the (2021) All-Star game from there. I think the Black community is smart enough to understand what these laws are doing and differentiate between the tried and true liberal rhetoric of division and race-baiting versus the actuality of what Republicans are trying to do, which is to make it easier for people to vote and harder for people to cheat.”

Dennard worked in the White House for President George W. Bush.

“It was the great honor of a lifetime,” he said. “I was 24 years old and right out of college. And being there at so many historical moments in a Republican administration was truly humbling and something I’ll never forget.”

The Republican Party has welcomed him and is inclusive, he said.

“I’m living proof of the inclusivity of our party,” said Dennard. And he said more than 80 Black Republicans are running for Congress this election cycle.

Philadelphia ward leaders, candidates and public officials, as well as community members, packed the new RNC Community Center on Wayne Avenue, listening to speakers, then enjoying a dinner that featured fried chicken and cornbread.

Lawrence Tabas

“This office is just a first step. It is a step that will be critical and important,” said Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas.

All Republicans “need to begin a listening tour so that we can start to work together and build a partnership. And I don’t mean just when the cameras are rolling. I don’t mean just during an election cycle like this. I mean, all throughout the year…the ideas and the programs and policies that you can talk to us about so we can put them into action will be critical.”

Calvin Tucker, deputy chairman of the Pennsylvania GOP, said, “We’re standing here in the heart of Germantown. We are steeped with history and culture. I just want to go back to 1688 in our community, here in Germantown. The Germantown members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), they were the first group in this nation to stand against slavery. That’s an investment they made at that point, in human nature. Today the RNC, the Pennsylvania GOP, and the Philly GOP are making an additional investment in who we are because it’s important.”

Calvin Tucker

While we had record low unemployment for everyone, including African Americans, under President Trump, now there is ‘Bidenflation.’ We have invasions. We long for those days when we had strength.”

State Rep. Martina White, chair of the Philly GOP, gave a rousing speech.

“We know what we’ve been through in these past 60 years of Democrat rule in the city of Philadelphia,” said White. “And while they may call it progress, I’ll tell you–” The crowd laughed. She told them it was important to talk to their friends and relatives about politics.

“Homicides are at historic highs in our city,” said White. “Criminals on our streets are stealing the lives of our youths and ripping away any comfort and safety for our families and business owners that they did at one time have in our neighborhoods. We believe in fully funding law enforcement so they can provide community policing. We want the district attorney to prosecute criminals who are breaking our laws and terrorizing our communities.”

Rep. Martina White

She also touched on school choice so students can get a “quality education regardless of their Zip code,” saying Democrats are in the “pockets of the teachers’ unions.”

Dennard also spoke to the crowd, saying that besides the new community centers, the RNC made “a five-figure media buy” on Black news stations for Black History Month, honoring Black Republican elected officials.

RNC Co-Chair Tommy Hicks rallied the audience.

“We’ve all got to do our part to make sure the 21st century is the American 21st century,” said Hicks. “And unfortunately that is not a given. It’s clear that our nation is suffering under the failed leadership of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the Squad who rules all of them.”

He added, “Inflation (at) 40-year highs, the price of everything from food, transportation to heating oil is going up. This is a hidden tax on the American people esp. affecting the middle class and lower-income Americans. You name it, it’s going up…And this sagging economy is a direct result of the Democrat Party, their failed policies are making life harder on all of us.”

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Delaware County state Rep. Craig Williams (R-Chadds Ford) says Attorney General Josh Shapiro has been a no-show in the fight against Philadelphia’s surging violent crime, and he says that needs to change.

“Attorney General Josh Shapiro has routinely blamed the General Assembly for violence in Philadelphia,” Williams said during a press conference outside the Attorney General’s Office. “Yet when given authority to prosecute gun crime in Philadelphia, he said expressly he would not use it. We intend to give him another chance to pitch into the fight.”

In 2021, Philadelphia recorded 562 homicides and 2,332 shootings. The highest previous year was 500 homicides in 1990. And the murder rate in 2022 is already on pace to eclipse last year’s record high. Additionally, gunpoint carjackings have nearly tripled since 2019, with more than 100 already in 2022. Even a congresswoman was a carjacking victim.

Hoping to make a dent in gun crimes, Williams joined with state Rep. Martina White (R-Philadelphia) to extend a two-year pilot program giving Shapiro jurisdiction to enforce gun crime laws. In 2019, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a law (Act 58) giving the attorney general the authority to investigate and charge certain gun crimes in Philadelphia.

White said during a Tuesday press conference outside the Attorney General’s Office, unfortunately, Shapiro has yet to use the law a single time to get a criminal off Pennsylvania streets.

“Even though the murder rate in Philadelphia rose to record levels, Attorney General Josh Shapiro refused to use this new tool to help us fight crime in Philadelphia,” White said. “Nonetheless, we’re extending the law to give Shapiro a second chance to do what is right as gun crime continues to rise. It’s clear the state must step in to protect the people of Philadelphia from their irresponsible district attorney, Larry Krasner, and that person is the attorney general of Pennsylvania.”

Republicans argue Shapiro needs to step up because of District Attorney Larry Krasner’s extreme progressive policies.

“Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is an ineffective prosecutor, who has refused to fully prosecute many offenses,” White said. “What is of grave concern though, is his refusal to prosecute our state’s most serious crimes, which he has left a trail of murder victims and devastated communities. Our brave law enforcement officers are out there every day doing absolutely everything that they can to arrest these criminals and protect our communities.

“As state officials, we have a responsibility to oversee public safety in our cities and counties. When local officials refuse to act, we must,” she said.

Williams, a former federal prosecutor, said $1.5 million in funding he secured to hire more gun prosecutors in Philadelphia and Delaware Counties, has now come online. The money will flow to the Project Safe Neighborhoods program, which deputizes those local prosecutors as federal prosecutors, who will bring the weight of federal statutes on felons who are not permitted to have a gun. Federal sentences are longer and there is no probation, he noted.

Shapiro rejected the proposal as mere partisanship.

In the meantime, the Gun Violence Task Force, with cross-designated prosecutors, has prosecuted four cases in 2019, 24 in 2020, and 38 in 2021, the Attorney General’s Office said.  There were 571 ghost guns recovered in Philadelphia in 2021, up 128 percent from 2020 and up 489 percent from 2019. Ghost guns are weapons that are homemade and untraceable. Nearly 10 percent of firearms found by the Philadelphia Police Department are ghost guns.

Shapiro noted he has Strategic Response teams in place, working with the Philadelphia police,  in West Philadelphia and Kensington.

Krasner spokeswoman Jane Roh did not respond to Delaware Valley Journal’s request for comment. However, she told PennLive that White and Williams’ news conference was a “comically timed stunt” held on the same day the Republican majority in the state Senate was scheduled to vote on a bill to block Philadelphia and other local governments from “enacting life-saving gun restrictions because these same lawmakers will not.”

However, White and Williams said they are giving the attorney general another chance to buy into Act 58 in the wake of the record number of homicides in the city.

“So, we’re putting the ball on a tee for him again,” said Williams.

“When there is no cooperation, people lose their lives,” White said. “That’s why we must extend this law and demand Attorney General Josh Shapiro prosecute the law the way District Attorney Larry Krasner will not. Lives depend on it.”

Meanwhile, Delaware County DA Jack Stollsteimer is cooperating with state officials.

He “welcomes any and every resource to stop gun violence in Delaware County. Our office was only notified that grant funding for this program was available in the last week; we have however, immediately taken steps to seek County Council’s approval to accept the grant at its first meeting in February. It’s important to note that while adding several federal prosecutors to the US Attorney’s Office to handle gun cases will no doubt affect the problem of gun violence in our region, it is no panacea.  For example, (the DA) has already instituted, without federal resources, a focused deterrence strategy in the City of Chester that has led to a 44 percent reduction in incidents of gun violence during 2021,” said Maggie McAboy, a spokeswoman.

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