May 14, 2008
Who To Blame For Flyers 3-0 Deficit?
Okay, so the Flyers were beaten 4-1 by the Penguins last night and are down 3-0 to the Penguins. Alas, alas. Who to blame for this 3-0 hole?
Oh, Metro's Clark DeLeon had an idea on Monday:
Then the son asks everyone in the Cathedral to sign the "Let's go Flyers, let's go." Fight song. And again, rather than appreciate the sentiment, my immediate reaction was, "He just jinxed the Flyers."
Yes, that's right: Clark DeLeon is blaming the dead cop's son for the Flyers' loss. "Geeze, couldn't that kid think of anyone but himself once in a while?" I assume he was thinking. A poster at Domelights -- clearly a liberal hippie communist college student -- advocates tossing all the copies of Metro in the trash, which you may know is against the law.
Posted by D-Mac at 12:18 PM
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May 09, 2008
Flyers Chant At Slain Cop's Funeral
The 700 Level notes a "Let's Go Flyers!" cheer went up at the funeral of Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. From the
York Daily Record: "His casket's lining bore the team emblem, and a jersey and flower arrangement in the shape of the logo were displayed nearby before the Mass."
The Flyers are still in the playoffs -- I know, what's with the layoff? -- and play their first game against the Penguins tonight.
Posted by D-Mac at 04:12 PM
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May 08, 2008
Great Rant From Police Commissioner
Okay, this is an ESPN Instant Classic rant from Police Commissioner Charles Ramsay after an Inquirer reporter asked an annoying question, and by that I mean one that referenced Wikipedia. Ha ha, silly journalist, you're supposed to hate Wikipedia. The video does confirm the "fricking" variant said by Ramsay.
Earlier today: Wikipedia Blasted For Its Accuracy
Posted by D-Mac at 05:59 PM
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Mayor Disappointed In Murder Suspect
Eric Floyd, the fugitive suspect in the slaying of police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, was
captured yesterday. All good.
Then things got surreal:
Afterward, the mayor told reporters said he got within two feet of Floyd. "I looked him dead in the eye when he came in, and I told him how disappointed I was in him," Nutter said. There was no response from the suspect, the mayor added.
Ooh, you showed him, Mr. Mayor! Two feet! Maybe someone can set up a trip for the mayor to death row where he can tell every killer how disappointed he is. "Don't murder, guys! You might let the mayor down!"
Suspect caught, arraignment today [Inquirer]
Posted by D-Mac at 08:59 AM
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May 02, 2008
Sigh: Domelights, Inquirer Collide
How did I miss this one earlier in the week? Annette John-Hall wrote
a column on how "racial incidents threaten campaign against violence." Sounds good. She's going to write about the mistrust between minority communities and the police does no one any good, how our "colorblind" society sometimes fails to notice unintentional racism -- and some people believe there's no such thing as racism anymore, unless you have a white hood on -- and all that related stuff.
My summary's an oversimplification, for sure, but this is an Inquirer columnist! She'll go through 750 words of flowery prose, explaining it better than I can in a little blog post and maybe try to make a coherent argument.
No, wait. She just quoted Philly cop messageboard Domelights and Rochelle Bilal who said a recent cop suspension "sends a message to the department that all jokes aren't funny." And John-Hall ended up writing about, uhm, some idiot cop in Ohio and anonymous Internet messageboard posters being (get this!) angry.
Look, you should only quote Domelights when you're looking for, as Chrissmari might say, the lulz. (Plus, what if someone tries to shut down the site? Think how many hilarious posts would go un-mocked.) And so, I present to you the Domelights thread on Annette John-Hall's column, and the greatest sentence ever written on the messageboard by far.
You are better off BECAUSE of slavery. NOT in spite of it.
Guess what ethnicity the person this was directed at was? I'll give you a hint: It's not white!
Annette John-Hall: Racial incidents threaten campaign against violence [Inquirer]
DOME MAKES THE PAPERS [Domelights]
Posted by D-Mac at 04:14 PM
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April 30, 2008
No They're/Their Mixup Goes Unpunished
Okay, I usually don't care about typos -- Lord knows I make enough of 'em -- but making the their/there/they're mistake? For shame, Philly.com.
Also, Ramsay gets rid of the narcotics strike force and diesel is $4.20 a gallon. Coincidence? I think not.
Thanks, Brad!
Posted by D-Mac at 01:12 PM
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April 14, 2008
Stop-And-Frisk On Its Way!
The supervisors also encourage officers to be clever and resourceful about using even minor infractions - something as routine as spitting, littering, loitering, or holding an open container of alcohol - as a rationale to stop a suspect person and conduct a legal frisk.
Woo-hoo! Are you as psyched as I am, Philly, for stop-and-frisk? I know, I know, I'm white, so it's unlikely I'll ever be searched by a cop on the street, but, hey, I can kind of get into the spirit as well. The cops got training yesterday, and I used to spit on the street when I was 13, so maybe I'll pick the habit back up again so I can get searched for weapons!
City police get stop-and-frisk lessons [Inquirer]
Posted by D-Mac at 04:26 PM
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Cops Make Nicely-Timed Arrest
On Friday, the Philadelphia Police
began a trial run of four Segways that police officers would use to, uhm, roll the beat.
And what do you know! The same exact day, Segway officers nabbed a man allegedly calling in bomb threats to City Hall at 15th and Market Streets. And, get this: It was apparently the guy with one leg who panhandles near the clothespin!
I say the Segway trials are already a success. Because if there's one kind of criminal the cops need Segways to catch, it's a one-legged man.
City officers to try patrolling on Segway scooters [Inquirer]
Segway Officers Nab One-Legged City Hall Bomb Threat Suspect [NBC 10]
Posted by D-Mac at 08:57 AM
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March 31, 2008
Hilarious Cops Suspended For Bad Joke
You may remember Scott Schweizer, the lovable narcotics cop alleged to have
had a KKK sticker in his locker. Well, now he and the officer who put the sticker on his locker
are both back to walking to beat.
Commissioner Charles Ramsey suspended Schweizer and fellow narcotics cop Eric Dial for 20 days without pay and transferred them away from their elite jobs arresting black people for drug crimes. They're now back to their original districts. Ramsey said they were bad dudes but weren't racist, and so they get to keep their jobs. He actually even directly skipped a disciplinary hearing and just punished the guys himself they were so offensive and not racist.
Apparently, Dial actually created the "Blue by day, white by night" stickers and put it on Schweizer's locker. Schweizer just put the two stickers into his locker and left them there, and now for some reason both men are being branded offensive-but-not-racist jokesters! No, really. That's why they're being suspended. "It's my understanding that [Dial] thought that this was a prank, but it was in incredibly poor taste," Ramsey said. If we start suspending cops for making offensive jokes, I don't think we will have much of a force left.
The quote of the article once again comes from Rochelle Bilal, head of the Guardian Civic League, which represents the 3,000 black officers on the force. She says the demotion of the two officers "sends a message to the department that all jokes aren't funny."
All jokes aren't funny! The police officers sure have learned a good lesson here. For news on how this new affects the most oppressed of all peoples, the white man, please head to police messageboard Domelights. Do you think white Philly cops change their names (รก la the Nation of Islam) because they are so oppressed?
Posted by D-Mac at 11:25 AM
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March 25, 2008
A Real American Hero?
Action News enthusiastically reported the other day a story they called
cop versus cop: Off-duty Sgt. Larry Smart allegedly was evasive, did not identify himself as a police officer and then got into a fight, sending two cops to the hospital.
This all happened, naturally, at the parking lot at the Home Depot on Roosevelt Boulevard. Sgt. Smart works out of the 92nd District.
We now go to Domelights to find out how the white man is being kept down again, revealing what he heard Sgt. Smart said during the altercation.
Oh, please. He woulda said cracker, or maybe honkey. Unless the arresting police officer was Barack Obama's black-hating grandmother, noted typical white person. And those angry emoticons aren't just for show! Sgt. Smart wasn't arrested despite allegedly assaulting two cops. Ha ha, Sgt. Smart. He sounds like a G.I. Joe doll.
Posted by D-Mac at 11:15 AM
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March 17, 2008
Naked Men And Cop Car Thieves
Everybody remembers that episode of
COPS (in Philly!) where the police arrest the slippery naked guy. But what about that other one, I forget where, where the guy hops away while cuffed? That's sort of my favorite, besides the one in Utah (or some similar place) where the cops are on the case of the missing cow.
Anyway, this is all just an excuse to lead into two great stories today: (1) The man in Lancaster who trashed a grocery store while naked and (2) the man in Philadelphia who, while cuffed, managed to slip into the front of a police cruiser and steal the car and drive it to Camden.
Continue reading "Naked Men And Cop Car Thieves"
Posted by D-Mac at 11:20 AM
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March 07, 2008
'Blue By Day' Cop's House Vandalized
Philly narcotics cop Scott Schweizer, who
allegedly had a blue by day/white by night poster in his locker, is in the news again; this time, somebody
spraypainted "KKK" and "die pig" on the back of his place which appears to be in Mayfair from the photo.
He chased the vandals off and says the believes the men attempted to break in as well. Sounds pretty open and shut. Oh wait!
Rochelle Bilal, president of the Guardian Civic League, which represents 3,000 black officers in Philadelphia, questioned the validity of Schweizer's story. "I would do a handwriting analysis first before making a decision that there was a crime committed," said Bilal, who declined to elaborate.
A handwriting analysis... on graffiti? Honestly, I've just never heard of that. Also, according to Bilal, Schweizer possibly spraypainted "KKK" and "die pig" on the back of his own house. (A self-hating cop?) Having KKK stickers in one's locker is a stupid, if plausible, thing to do. Are we to assume this dude is the stupidest man in the world, spraypainting his own house just to get attention? This isn't a Princeton conservative we're talking about here.
Anyway, don't worry, all of this is going to blow over; after all, having a "white power" sticker in your locker is no different than pink power or blue power. Ohh, boy, I love me some Power Rangers!
Posted by D-Mac at 10:02 AM
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February 25, 2008
There's Something In The Corner
Front of Philly.com:
I can't be sure, but I think the Philadelphia police department is never going to have trouble finding evidence, as they apparently always check each and every corner.
Posted by D-Mac at 09:51 AM
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February 04, 2008
Phila. To Clean Up City, Starting With Pot
Hey, remember Charles Ramsey's hot crime plan that was
going to send Pac-Man to restore the city's crime wave? Well, apparently not.
According to a column in the Inquirer, the police are going to arrested every black pot smoker in town until they finally have no more KKK posters in the department and the city is free and clear of crime.
No, really! The Inky article follows Officer Henry Schoch, who has arrested four people for drugs and one for bootleg DVDs in recent days. Oh, the residents of the 35th no longer have to deal with drugs or copyright infringement in their neighborhood, praise the Lord. Proven-to-work no-arrest drug crackdowns? Pshaw!
Some officers say the effort invested in making a case like this - Schoch and Leva spent two hours processing paperwork and evidence - removes officers from the street to hunt for worse offenders. But Schoch said such arrests sent a strong message of intolerance for all crime. And it's impossible to say, until the arrest is made, when a minor stop might yield a bigger fish - somebody with a warrant for a violent crime, or somebody carrying an illegal weapon.
Sometimes these small arrests lead to information about bigger crimes, Schoch added.
"Some cops tell me I'm wasting my time with these arrests," he said. "I say I wouldn't want that stuff going on in my neighborhood."
And if he keeps arresting people over and over, maybe drugs will no longer be sold in North Philly. Busting people for pot will surely make this city safer.
See also: Broken windows, broken record, Young Philly Politics
Posted by D-Mac at 03:19 PM
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January 30, 2008
Commish's Crime Plan Costs 25 Cents
New Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey has released
his crime plan, and it's sensible-sounding, at least at first glance.
He wants more cops on the street, fewer homicides, lawful stop-and-frisk techniques in high-crime areas. He also wants to work with the community. (Here's a summary, .pdf format.) And, in case you're wondering, Segways are mentioned. Yes!
There are also charts and graphs, which you can see from my (slightly edited) copy of a pie-chart at right. If Pac-Man can just eat enough of those big pellets and chase down flashing blue homicide suspects, maybe we can have a crime reduction in this city after all.
PPD's Crime-Fighting Strategy, .pdf
Posted by D-Mac at 12:08 PM
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'He Has Really Made My Life A Living Hell'
Pity the poor, poor white Philadelphia police officer. He is, surely, the most oppressed man on the planet. Having to deal with a black police commissioner, a black mayor... God, how they all manage to even survive is just impressive.
This is pretty much the conclusion you can draw from the unintentionally hilarious Domelights thread on the cop who had white power posters in his locker. Philebrity posted some gems yesterday, but since then I think it's only gotten better, somehow.
First, some background: Earlier this week, the story broke about a narcotics officer under investigation for having a poster that said "blue by day, white by night" in his locker. Today the Daily News adds some more details: It was actually two stickers, one with the cop/KKK slogan and another simply saying "White Power." The DN story even references the album cover I posted yesterday (and with this post): "For example, an anarchist punk band called MDC, sometimes calling itself 'Millions of Dead Cops,' used a version of the image on an album in the 1980s."
The officer, Scott Schweizer, says the stickers were placed on the outside of his locker as a practical joke and he simply moved them inside instead of throwing them out or something sensible.
Continue reading "'He Has Really Made My Life A Living Hell'"
Posted by D-Mac at 11:52 AM
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January 29, 2008
Klan Poster Found In Officer's Locker
Hey, know what's a good idea to do if you're a cop?
Put a Klan poster in your locker. Oh, wait, that's not quite a good idea, even if you are a white supremacist.
And now the story: The police department is investigating an officer who had a poster that said "Blue by day, White by night" in his locker. He wasn't a Penn State fan; this was a poster symbolizing a cop by day and a Klan member by night.
Scott Schweizer says the poster wasn't his -- again, white supremacists are pretty stupid by definition, but could this guy be dumb enough to bring a Klan poster into work? -- and he's been moved from undercover narcotics to a desk job at the Roundhouse. Investigators are now exploring whether this little good old fashioned police racism is limited to just this poster; the new commish says it looks like it's just limited to this one officer.
The Daily News reports Schweizer "has arrested countless drug suspects in predominantly African-American neighborhoods." By the way, 78 percent of those arrested for marijuana offenses in Philly in 2006 were black.
Cop probed over racist poster [Daily News]
[Img via some hardcore website]
Posted by D-Mac at 10:00 AM
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January 24, 2008
NBC 10 Running All Over Nation's Laws
Oh, no,
noted sex educator and Power 99 DJ Golden Girl lost her ring at the airport! She says it was stolen while going through airport security at PHL. Oh no! Scandal.
Well, apparently not. NBC 10's Lu Ann Cahn went down to the airport and got the scoop! And not only did she get the scoop, the cops just let her do whatever the hell she wanted to, apparently.
The NBC 10 Investigators looked at surveillance video of Power 99 radio host Golden Girl walking through security, and concluded that her ring probably wasn't stolen. The footage cannot be released to the public, but after police showed the NBC 10 Investigators the video, it appears the host lost her ring at a security checkpoint.
It is also clear, from two camera angles, that security or some other passengers did not take it, according to NBC 10's Lu Ann Cahn.
Wait, what? The footage can't be released to the public, but it's perfectly okay for police to show it to reporters. I didn't know that's how the law worked; thanks for cluing me in, NBC 10! I'm totally going to find out just who really shot JFK now.
Police, Reporter: Golden Girl's Bling Wasn't Stolen At Airport [NBC 10]
Posted by D-Mac at 02:40 PM
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November 09, 2007
Cops Say Man Made Up Tip
Hey, here's a way to get a hold of your girlfriend:
Pretend you helped murder a cop! Yes, Shawn Williams told police the day after police officer Chuck Cassidy was shot that he drove the killer to the murder scene. Police spent a few hours with him Nov. 1, and cops felt they were close to apprehending someone.
Turns out Williams was lying and was implicating an old friend from high school who had nothing to do with the murder. Why did lie to the cops? "He wanted extra attention from his girlfriend," the Daily News said. Uhh, what?
He's charged with hindering apprehension and related crimes.
Posted by D-Mac at 09:44 AM
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November 02, 2007
City On Alert For Black Spider-Men
The description of the killer of Officer Chuck Cassidy isn't all that, well, descriptive: Black man, stocky, spider tattoo, that's about it.
And so the Daily News reports today the cops are stopping black men with spider tattoos. Makes sense, of course, although what doesn't make much sense is stopping them twice. Cops raided the home of 34-year old David Watson, a stocky black man with a spider tattoo, at 9 a.m. yesterday. He was in custody for a few hours and was eventually let go.
Then, there he was, minding his own business at 3 p.m., when he was stopped by seven officers on the street and taken into custody again! Ha ha! "Like they said, stay in the house. I ain't coming back outside," he told the Daily News.
The police, of course, were apologetic for stopping the same guy twice.
Asked if police were remorseful for having twice stopped Watson, the detective said, "No. I hope he gets stopped three or four more times."
And if the cops keep stopping this innocent man over and over again, maybe one of these times he'll turn out to be the killer!
Cops swarm stocky man with spider tattoo - twice [Daily News]
Posted by D-Mac at 12:07 PM
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November 01, 2007
CBS 3: Officer Shot Yesterday Has Died
CBS 3 is reporting Charles Cassidy, the officer shot yesterday during a hold-up, has died. The 25-year veteran of the force was 54. My regrets and sympathy to his family and friends. (Link fixed.)
Posted by D-Mac at 10:45 AM
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October 31, 2007
Police Shooting In West Oak Lane
Hey, not fun news update: A second cop has been shot in Philadelphia for the second time in the past day; he was shot in the head at Dunkin' Donuts in West Oak Lane. If you can get to a TV, the coverage is weird and surreal; going from, say, Guiding Light to coverage of a cop being shot, then back to the soap opera. This shooting was near a plaque dedication of fallen officers, which had to be postponed. (Update: Clarified that previous sentence.) That means there were a lot of officers nearby, and they're chasing after the suspect. The officer shot in the head is in critical condition.
NBC 10 is going from the morning news magazine show with everyone dressed up in Halloween costumes to the coverage. Meanwhile, last night a police officer responded to a shooting at 15th and Sansom -- hey, right outside the PW offices -- and was shot at 22nd and Sansom in the shoulder. He's going to be okay, reports say.
The suspect in the shooting last night at 9 apparently dove into the Schuylkill and died.
Philadelphia Police Officer Shot In Head [NBC 10]
Cop wounded by suspect in shooting of 3 [Inquirer]
Posted by D-Mac at 11:26 AM
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August 24, 2007
Weapon Of Mass Destruction
If you were ever wondering: Yes, if a person uses a stick to attack someone, the police circle it on the ground like it's a shell casing.
Bounced Bar Patron Returns To Give Beatings [NBC 10]
Posted by D-Mac at 09:50 AM
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August 01, 2007
Drug Cops Catch Movie Pirates, Too!
A bunch of police officers spent time last night
busting up a local bootlegging distribution center, set up in a rowhome in West Philly. This bust saves the movie companies from certain destruction. Fortunately, it will also allow them to release
Daddy Day Camp on time.
Cops got a tip there was a bootlegging operation across the street from a drug house they just busted up. (Stop snitchin'!) The men are charged with counterfeiting, which is a felony somehow. This is an important bust, of course, because the violence long associated with the bootleg movie industry will hopefully finally come to an end.
The bootleg movies and CDs were allegedly worth $225,000, but since the movies included hundreds of copies of Who's Your Caddy?, the defendants might be able to put up a good "personal use" defense. I could see going to that movie in the theater -- but to actually purchase a grainy copy on DVD for repeated viewings? That's too far-fetched for me.
Bootleg Bust Nets $225k in Merchandise [6 ABC]
Posted by D-Mac at 12:26 PM
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