Snowflakes in Hell

Well, it’s often been said there has never been a better gun salesman than Bill Clinton.  Seems that Mike Nutter is doing his part too.  You see, Mayor Squidward, the more you bellow, the more we buy; the more bold and defiant we get.  You sure you want to keep doing this?

It would seem that she doesn’t much like it.

Harsh words from C. Scott Shields for Mayor Nutter:

NRA attorney C. Scott Shields later accused Nutter of being a “tyrant” willing to cast gun-shops owners in a false light. “To suggest that they’re engaging in unlawful trafficking of handguns is outrageous,” Shields said.

The city ultimately hopes to take this fight to a higher court to provoke reconsideration of a 1996 state Supreme Court ruling that killed the city’s last attempt at gun-control laws.

City Solicitor Shelley Smith yesterday said that she’d be ready with an appeal in a week to 10 days if Greenspan rules against the city.

Earlier in the article

Nutter said that “you don’t have to be a rocket scientist” to know some legally purchased guns are later resold to people who are prohibited from owning them.

So Nutter thinks having lost in the state legislature, he can just decree Colosimo’s and The Firing Line to be criminals?  Well, that pretty much fits the definition of tyrant if you ask me, which in ancient Greek meant a ruler who seized power without legal right.

Nutter is dragging Philadelphia gun shops into this now.

“These gun traffickers are not going to stop us from keeping the citizens of Philadelphia safe,” Nutter said in a news conference before an afternoon court hearing on the five laws he signed into law last month. One of them limits gun purchases to one a month in an effort to curb “straw purchases,” in which individuals buy multiple firearms for resale to felons and others forbidden to own guns.

I would be talking to a lawyer right now about a libel suit against the Mayor.  Good thing is, the lead attorney appears to hint at the possibility:

C. Scott Shields, who spent the afternoon arguing the case against the laws in a City Hall courtroom, called Nutter’s words “shocking.”

“He may be inviting separate legal action for casting Colosimo’s and the Firing Line in a false light,” Shields said. “To suggest that they’re engaged in illegal trafficking of handguns is outrageous.”

The three ring circus in that city continues.  But why isn’t Mayor Nutter talking about this?  Why isn’t the media forcing him to address it?

Things are looking good to get a permanent injunction against the city’s five illegal gun control laws:

Greenspan ordered the city and the NRA to condense their positions into writing by this morning, in advance of an afternoon hearing.

The city wanted to offer testimony from 10 witnesses, including Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and a retired ATF agent, along with 75 exhibits that included two semiautomatic assault rifles. The city planned to use that testimony to argue that there is “no common lawful purpose” for assault weapons.

But NRA attorney C. Scott Shields objected to such a lengthy proceeding.

“What we’re trying to circumvent now is putting on a dog and pony show of having to listen to all the different reasons why the city needs gun control,” Shields said. “They should really be concerned about criminal control.”

The judge seems to have rebuked the city’s request for a dog and pony show of witnesses.  I’m guessing the judge didn’t take too kindly to having her courtroom used as a three ring circus for the city politicians.  This is really a matter of law, and the City of Philadelphia is on the wrong side of it.  I do hope that Judge Greenspan rules the right way on this one.

UPDATE: Just noticed this one, “The hearing drew a small crowd of demonstrators from X-Offenders for Community Empowerment, a group of men who previously served prison terms, some for crimes with guns.”

Felons for gun control!  Are you kidding me?

The clarion call has been sounded, both by the politicians in Philadelphia, and by the Philadelphia media, that the only way we’re going to prevent cop killings on our streets is to pass more gun laws.  The Philadelphia media has spent precious few resources concentrating on the three pieces of human debris that were responsible for the shooting death of Sergeant Liczbinski.  I have managed to obtain complete criminal records for all three of the murderers.

Howard Cain was the trigger man in the Liczbinski murder.  You can see his fifteen page criminal record here.  Let’s look at all the violations of the Pennsylvania Uniform Firearms Act that Cain has been arrested for.  Keep in mind we’re only looking at gun charges, since that is what this blog concentrates on.  Over Cain’s criminal career he had thirteen arrests for unlawfully carrying a firearm, that were listed “Nolle Prossed,” meaning the prosecutor chose not to bring charges.  In a further eleven arrests for violations of Pennsylvania’s firearms laws, the charges were either withdrawn or dismissed. In only three cases was he prosecuted and either plead guilty or was found guilty.  On weapons charges alone, he could have done 12 years in prison, in which case he would not have been on the streets to kill a police officer.

You can find Levon Warner’s criminal record here. His is only six pages.  We are happy to see Warner facing three charges for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and for unlawfully carrying firearms, in his latest arrest for conspiring to murder a police officer, and we do hope Ms. Abraham’s office will make them stick this time. Previously, the Philadelphia DA’s office thrice declined to prosecute Warner for gun law violations. The Philadelphia judicial system chose not to try him for six other violations of Pennsylvania’s gun laws.

And last, but certainly not least, Eric Floyd.  Again, hopefully this time, he’ll actually face weapons charges, in addition to the murder charges.  But again, in 1994, he was arrested for robbery, and the prosecutors declined to prosecute him for carrying firearms illegally in two counts.  Also in 1994, the courts declined to try him for two counts of carrying firearms illegally.

Now keep in mind, I’m only looking at weapons charges.  The rap sheets of these scumbags total twenty six pages, and contains all manner of things that should have kept them off the streets for good.  I think it’s time we had a serious discussion here in Pennsylvania about how absolutely and utterly broken the City of Philadelphia’s criminal justice system is, and talk frankly about things we can do to fix it.  Gun control obviously is not a solution, since the system is currently not using the laws already in the books in prosecutions. The Philadelphia media must not continue to give the politicians a free pass on deflecting blame onto others, and shame on them that it takes bloggers to bring the criminals records of these scumbags into the public light.  The citizens of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania deserve better, and they aren’t getting it from either their political leaders, or from the media.

Mayor Michael Nutter:

“I looked him dead in the eye when he came in and told him how disappointed I was in him.”

Oh dear.  So Mayor Squidward is “disappointed” in a cop killer, and I, an NRA member, am scum of the earth.  Surely the Mayor’s moral compass is as true as any!

A retired Philadelphia Police officer takes the city politicians to task:

Yet Mayor Nutter repeats the usual sophistry about guns. Hizzoner said, “That officer was assassinated on the streets of Philadelphia. There was nothing that could have protected him - that weapon penetrates vehicles.”

His statement illustrates why our elected representatives are unable to reduce violent crime.

The mayor’s lack of knowledge of weaponry notwithstanding, there is one patently obvious policy that definitely would have protected the officer.

If Levon Warner had served his full sentence, he would’ve been in prison until 2012. He could not have committed any crime in 2008.

If Howard Cain had served his full sentence, he would’ve been in prison to 2052. He would not have murdered anyone in 2008.

If Eric Floyd had served his full sentence, he’d have been in jail, not robbing banks, in 2008.

But all three served less than the max and committed more violent crime. This time a cop ended up dead. Why isn’t the mayor addressing this more easily remedied and more salient issue?

Read the whole thing.  The Mayor isn’t addressing the issue because we can’t have a real, public discussion about the dreaded topic of personal and civic responsibility; something that’s sorely absent in many of the city’s worst neighborhoods.  It would take real leadership to address it, and the voters of that city aren’t going to get it from its Democratic machine.

From Rightwingprof, talking to Jill Porter who you might remember from two days ago:

Look, idiot, here in central Pennsylvania, we have lots and lots of guns, and very little crime, absolutely none compared to you. Why is that? Don’t try to answer: That’s what is known as a rhetorical question.

Here’s why. We. Don’t. Tolerate. Crimimals.

You worship criminals. You bow and scrape at the mere mention of Mumia’s name. You elect liberals who accommodate criminals at every opportunity, letting them go free on minimal bail or OR, putting them in halfway houses, slapping them on the wrists, and sending them to group therapy. And what do they do? Why, they commit more crime as soon as they get the opportunity, and they will continue to do so as long as you elect morons who put them back out on the street.

This is something the Philadelphia chattering classes absolutely don’t understand.  They, in fact, refuse to understand it.

Ed Rendell shows his true colors, in case Pennsylvanians ever had any doubts.

“Get these weapons off the street.  Get those large-capacity magazines off the street.  As the mayor said, the only people who should have weapons like this is the police and the military.  We should outgun the criminals, not vice versa.”

Not to be outdone, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey so eloquently stated:

Police commissioner Charles Ramsey became incensed at the news conference when a reporter asked if, in fact, the weapon that killed Sgt. Liczbinski might not be covered by an assault weapon ban:

“Let me just say this — if it’s not an assault weapon by definition, then add it to the frickin’ list.  Add it to the frickin’ list!  We don’t need it.”

The problem is, the SKS is not an assault rifle.  It never was an assault rifle.  It’s never been banned, and there’s no reason to put it on any “list”.  I am so sick of the bullshit that spews out of that city on a daily basis, and I’m glad, at least, in this instance someone in the media asked a difficult question of Commissioner Ramsey.  Now if only they would do more of that.

In response to this call, gun hating Congressman Joe Sleetsak Sestak has signed on as a cosponsor to HR1022.  Sestak defeated Republican Congressman Curt Weldon last fall, and represents the town I grew up in.  Here’s hoping the folks back home give this asshole the boot.

Apparently all the proceeds from sales today at Geno’s Steaks will be going to the Steven Liczbinski Family Memorial Fund.  Joey Vento is a man who still cares about his city, even though its politicians put him through the ringer.

Nabbed. Good news, though there is the unfortunate aspect of this, that he didn’t offer the opportunity to be sent to join his co-conspirator.

He’s calling for a renewal of the assault weapons ban:

Rendell says the gun that cut down Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski (see related story) was a Chinese assault weapon, and he says that there used to be a ban on importing assault weapons:

“And yet in 2004, the Congress of the United States – often some of the very same congressmen who would come and attend ceremonies like this – let the assault weapons ban lapse.”

The governor acknowledged that the gun that killed Liczbinski was brought into the country “well before that action,” but says it’s symptomatic of the refusal of lawmakers to provide “maximum protection” to law enforcement:

“If we really want to pay honor and tribute to the memory of those 703 police officers who have given their lives, we will suck it in, do the right thing, and pass laws that would give our police officers out on the street, protecting us every day, the maximum amount of protection we can.”

I don’t expect much out of the city politicians, but I would have expected the governor to show some class and not jump on the bandwagon of exploiting this for political gain.  Also more “Kill a cop, we’ll blame something other than the criminal.”, and this time from our governor.

From a comment to this Philadelphia Daily News article:

Good Luck Nutter. You can not use reason when you try to reason with those inbred NRA morons. What he should do is arrange for a bus to go to the cow pastures of Central PA and pick up all those NRA nuts and bring them to Philly. Let them try to survive one night on the streets here and see if they still want to block the assault weapon ban.

They would survive.  Not only would they survive if they were relocated, but Philadelphia would very quickly have a lower crime rate, because those people would not tolerate the levels of crime that goes on in these high crime neighborhoods in the city.  If you want to see what happens when you drop a gun nut into the middle of an inner city, take a look at Pro-Gun Progressive.

It’s not the geography that’s the issue.  North Philadelphia is not destined to be a hell hole.  It’s a hell hole because the streets are ruled by thugs.  But getting rid of the thugs is going to entail working with the police, and electing judges willing to put the criminals in jail for a long time.  The rural parts of this state are virtually crime free, but they are like that because the people there would not tolerate the levels of crime in their neighborhoods that people in north Philadelphia tolerate.  I’m reluctant to blame the povery too, because there are parts of this state that are definitely struggling with poverty and lack of opportunity that don’t have a fraction of the crime Philadelphia does.  Philadelphians have spent entirely too long allowing their politicians to feed them excuses for why the crime is so high.  Maybe when they stop buying it, they’ll demand something actually be done about it.

Wyatt links to the address donations can be sent to the family:

Stephen Liczbinski Family Memorial Trust Fund
Philadelphia Police and Fire Federal Credit Union
901 Arch Street
Philadelphia, Pa. 19107

Another police officer killed in Philadelphia.  Apparently they already have the low lifes in custody.  I missed this one yesterday because I was busy doing things with Bitter.  Our thoughts and prayers go out of officer Liczbinki’s family.

Cop killers are a dangerous breed of criminal.  They will kill anyone as soon as look at them.  They have no regard for life.  What’s also important, most of them are actually competent shooters, which seperates them from your typical criminal.  It’s a very good thing the Philadelphia police were able to catch these guys as quickly as they did.

People are often under the mistaken impression that the Philadelphia Zoo is located at 34th and Girard.  Those of us who have been to sporting events in the city know that it’s really on South Broad Street, as this visitor from Montreal found out:

My son and I drove from Montreal to catch Monday night’s Flyers-Canadiens playoff game at the Wachovia Center. Your fans have many reasons to be proud of their city and team, but how they treat their guests at a sporting event is not one of them.

As the game progressed, the level of threats and abuse heaped on us grew at an alarming rate. At one point, an unfortunate Habs fan had a glass of beer poured on her head, and her boyfriend thought it best for them to leave the arena. By the end of the game, we and other Habs supporters needed the protection of arena security and police to exit the building.

I can’t imagine what would have happened to us if the Flyers had lost.

Welcome to the jungle.  When I attended the Flyers-Capitals game a few weeks ago at the Verizon Center in D.C. (in the VIP booth, w/ free beer and food, sweet!), I was telling Bitter the reputation our fans had.  Despite a few beers, I resisted the urge to jump up and start cracking heads when people cheered on the Capitals.  I am a poor Philadelphian.

They just don’t get it.  Or they wont get it:

But “gun fatigue” has set in, and it’s unlikely any new gun bills will be brought up in Harrisburg this legislative session.

However, this represents a moment that Nutter could use to his advantage: exploit the political goodwill he has been forging in Harrisburg to help change the conversation about guns and find solutions. Face it: If anything substantial is going to change about the city’s ability to make gun laws, it will require a civil sit-down between Nutter and state leaders - something House Speaker Dennis O’Brien, who once kept gun legislation safely tucked away in the Judiciary Committee he once chaired - told this editorial board he’s willing to do.

Nutter was smart enough to build bridges with Harrisburg before he took office. We believe he’s smart enough to spark a more productive conversation with state lawmakers, and get them to see it’s in their interest to help the city grapple with our gun problem.

We are not passing gun control laws because the City of Philadelphia can’t control it’s crime problem.  That’s off the table.  Put it out of your minds now.  It is not that we don’t care about the city’s problems, it’s that we keep telling you that you can’t fix your problem this way, especially when the city is doing little to enforce the laws they already have.  Nutter and City Council are throwing this temper tantrum because they lack the political courage to tell their constituents something they don’t want to hear; that until they get off their asses and start taking responsibility for their communities and neighborhoods, and start working with the police to get rid of the criminals, drug dealers, and gangs, nothing is going to change.  And most importantly, Philadelphians need to  elect judges who are willing to put these individuals away for a very long time when they are convicted.

We have a lot of guns in this state outside Philadelphia, and we do not have a violence problem.  The reason we don’t is that we would not tolerate it in our communities, and we’d hold the politicians and judges feet to the fire until they started dealing with it.  Really dealing with it, not pretending to deal with it.

Residents of Philadelphia are being sold a bill of goods by their politicians and by the media, that their problems have an easy solution, and it has to start with gun control.  As long as Philadelphia residents are willing to buy that line, and keep electing politicians who peddle that instead of doing something, nothing is going to change in that city.

The hearing on the Philadelphia gun control ordinances, originally scheduled for April 28th (today), has been rescheduled for May 19th, when we’ll all be in Louisville.  Apparently the city is trying to make a standing argument.

At an April 17 hearing at which Greenspan granted an order temporarily blocking enforcement of the gun-control laws, the judge said she had misgivings about the organizations’ standing to sue. Generally, organizations cannot file a constitutional challenge without showing how their members are directly harmed by the law in question.

I’m an NRA member.  I have firearms that are illegal under this law that I often transport through the City of Philadelphia.  I am affected.  I know other people who live in the city who will be affected, and are NRA members.  NRA has standing.  Why isn’t that obvious?  Or is it, and they just want NRA off the suit, and are looking for an excuse?

Someone started a petition to Impeach the Mayor of Philadelphia for passing the gun control ordinances.  I fully agree with the sentiment here, but since City Council is the body to carry out the proceedings, and they are complicit in passing the bill, I doubt this is going to go anywhere.  Also, I would advise anyone starting a petition to make sure they are using the proper spelling of the words “advice” and “break.”   I normally hate to be the spell check guy, but it kind of stood out.

Dan Pehrson, president of the PA Firearms Owners’ Association, has an editorial running in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

Until our elected officials learn to abide by the law, we gun owners will have to set an example. In what is only the first of many steps, gun-owner groups have filed for a temporary restraining order to prevent enforcement of the Philadelphia gun-control ordinances. Those of us who live in the city will continue to lawfully keep and bear our arms, waiting on the city to follow our lead in respecting the laws and constitution of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Read the whole thing.  A certain pair of gun bloggers, who will hunt you down and beat you if you don’t, helped in the drafting and submission of this editorial.

It would seem the city politicians want to change the home rule charter to allow more management level positions that are exempt from civil service requirements.  I agree with Wyatt on this one, it’s a bad idea.  It means the city politicians get to give more cushy jobs to their cronies.  If you think corruption is bad now…

Christine M. Flowers at the Daily News:

Philadelphia has been ignored in Harrisburg. It does have special problems. But acting like defiant and belligerent children when we don’t get our way isn’t going to solve those problems. It’s just going to confirm what the people in northeastern and western and central Pennsylvania already think of us.

That we’re a lawless city.

Yes, it will.  Not to mention that it’s not a great idea, in a city infested with lawlessness, to have the Mayor, Police Chief, and City Council themselves flout the law so flagrantly.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

Philadelphia’s latest effort to curb violence through gun control was temporarily blocked by a city judge yesterday in a ruling that both sides welcomed, and that left a National Rifle Association lawyer calling for Mayor Nutter’s arrest for “official oppression.”

Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan granted the NRA a temporary restraining order that blocks enforcement of a package of five gun-control laws passed last week by City Council and signed by Nutter.

Greenspan stressed that she was “just trying to preserve the status quo” until an April 28 hearing on whether to issue a preliminary injunction freezing the laws longer.

The only problem is, you actually have to opresss someone before you can be charged with official oppression, and the restraining order granted against enforcement will eliminate this possible route of action.  As much as I’d like to see the Mayor and City Council arrested for flouting state law, this is just posturing until they actually enforce the ordinances.

Jeff Soyer asks:

So why isn’t Nutter in jail?

It’s something I’ve been hearing a lot of, but the short answer is that the law has to be enforced before possible civil and criminal penalties come into play, and as best as I can tell, the city ordinances aren’t being enforced yet.  There’s no penalty for passing a law in violation of preemption under Pennsylvania law, so the act of merely passing a gun control ordinance is not itself illegal in the sense that you can go to jail for violating it.

Penalties don’t come in until someone attempts to enforce it.  Under our system of government, a law that is unconstitutional is essentially not law, so any arrests made under the Philadelphia gun ordinances would be done under color of law, which opens the arresting officer, and the people all the way up the chain of command, to liability under the Civil Rights Act of 1871.  The Civil Rights Act allows for state and local officials to be stripped of their immunity and to be sued as individuals, rather than in their official capacity.  For local government officials, they may be sued in both their official and personal capacities, since local governments are not considered sovereigns, don’t enjoy sovereign immunity.

There are also criminal penalties, both federal and state, which can apply, but prosecution under these statutes is rare, and when it has happened, it’s been difficult to get convictions.  In order to press criminal charges, either the local Assistant United States Attorney would have to bring charges, or the Pennsylvania Attorney General.  But as with the civil case, the law has to be enforced before there’s criminal liability.