The sad Philadelphia story: the City of Brotherly Love shows America how not to deal with a crime wave

National Review, June 30, 2008 by Kevin Williamson

The problem is that Sandra Dungee Glenn was right. Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia would feel under siege if they received the police attention they desperately need. As one Philadelphia cop put it, "I can solve crime in these neighborhoods tomorrow. You put a cop on every street corner. But the neighborhoods will complain and the city won't pay for it."

THE PARANOID STYLE IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN POLITICS

The careers of mediocrities such as John Street and Sandra Dungee Glenn have been made possible by what might be called "the paranoid style in African-American politics," the elevation of racial loyalty over citizenship. The hogwash proffered by Barack Obama's mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright--AIDS is a government plot to kill African-Americans, the CIA peddles crack--is pretty mild compared to political discourse in black Philadelphia. Before the 2004 election, one black newspaper warned its readers to flee the city because President Bush was planning to suppress the inner-city vote ... with nuclear weapons. This paranoid style is deeply embedded in the race-based politics of Philadelphia, and the police catch the worst of it.

"We have an avid hate for the police," says Michelle Green, a black woman working an overnight shift near the Convention Center. "Black police officers have taken on the role of overseers," she says, smiling at the whip-cracking plantation metaphor. "They are haters of their own race." This attitude is not isolated. "Stop Snitchin'" T-shirts, advertising a philosophy that threatens death to those who cooperate with police--"Snitches get stitches, and get found in ditches"--are a hot item at street kiosks. A former prosecutor reports seeing a woman who planned to give a statement in the murder of her son being physically dragged out of a police car by her neighbors.

But it is precisely in the black neighborhoods that the police are most needed. Nine of Philadelphia's 25 police districts, mostly in black neighborhoods, account for two-thirds of the city's homicides. African-Americans represent about 85 percent of the homicide victims and a similar proportion of the killers.

None of this is lost on Judge Jeffrey Minehart. He was the first judge to preside over the city's special "gun court"; he now spends almost all of his time hearing Philadelphia homicide cases. On the day of our interview he happens to be hearing the case of a convicted drug dealer charged with gun possession. The defendant is acting as his own attorney and he's no Perry Mason. He has to be physically prompted to stand when the judge enters the room. But he's cut a deal: two to four years in lockup and two years of probation. He'll probably do the time in boot camp, and that time will probably be closer to two years than to four. It's a slap on the wrist, but everybody seems pleased with it, except the guilty party. He is disappointed that his sentencing is immediate: "Do we have to do it now?" he asks.

This guy isn't the kind of armed felon who makes the news in Philadelphia. On the morning of Not-Perry-Mason's trial, the papers were full of the hunt for all-star fugitive Eric DeShawn Floyd, an armed robber with 17 priors and an appreciation for SKS semiautomatic rifles, one of which he and his crew had just used to murder Philadelphia Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski in the aftermath of a botched bank robbery. Three men, disguised as burka-clad Muslim women, were involved in the heist. The Philadelphia Daily News carried an info-graphic describing the SKS with the headline: "Should This Gun Be Legal?" There was no Daily News headline asking why a felon with 17 entries on his rap sheet was walking abroad in Philadelphia. Should that be legal?