To Save His Own Ass, Mayor Jim Kenney Presided Over The Public Sacrifice Of A Scapegoat Named Dennis Wilson

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

At a June 25th press conference, a masked Mayor Jim Kenney stood silently off to the side of the podium so he wouldn't get any blood splashed on his suit as he watched the ritualistic slaughter of a scapegoat. 

The public sacrifice of Deputy Police Commissioner Dennis Wilson was an ugly but necessary spectacle, however, because it served to absolve Kenney and his hand-picked police commissioner of any personal responsibility for the June 1st teargassing of protesters on the Vine Street Expressway.

After Wilson had been dispatched, Kenney came to the podium, took off his mask and proceeded to throw his entire police department under the bus by lying about what had actually transpired on the Expressway. 

In doing so, Kenney once again raised the white flag of surrender to the lawless mob that's been invading his city, with little resistance under Kenney's command, since May 31st. Kenney's handpicked police commissioner finished the job by making an announcement that all but guarantees the city will be defenseless the next time the mob decides to return to inflict more damage. 

Even by Kenney's standards, it was a remarkable display that he presided over on June 25th, one of cowardice, deception, and treachery. And when I called Kenney on it yesterday, the mayor was still hiding under his desk. And no doubt hoping that the rest of the press corps won't awaken from its slumber and finally get around to reporting that Kenney and his handpicked police commissioner had lied to their collective faces about the deployment of tear gas. And, as of this morning, they're still getting away with it.

In the light of recent revelations, it's worthwhile to take a second look at the show Kenney and Outlaw put on for the press and public on June 25th.

Kenney began his performance at the 25-minute press conference at police headquarters by watching Deputy Commissioner Wilson take the fall for the entire Police Department. 

Wilson did it by claiming that it was he and he alone, and not Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, who made the call to deploy tear gas on the Vine Street Expressway. And Wilson confessed that he forgot to get the commissioner's final approval before the cops sent tear gas canisters flying. 

The only problem was, it's not true. As revealed previously by Big Trial, several police sources confided that the story Wilson told at the press conference was total B.S. And that Wilson knows -- and phone records would show -- that even though, according to police department policy, as the highest ranking commander at the scene, he didn't need Outlaw's approval to deploy tear gas, Wilson sought it anyway, and that she indeed gave him the green light.

Why did Wilson take the fall, along with a voluntary demotion to chief inspector, and an annual pay cut of $30,000? Because, according to police sources, he'd been threatened with arrest by our corrupt district attorney. And if convicted by a jury during a time when everybody's dumping on the cops, under Pennsylvania law, Wilson stood to lose not only his pension, but also a DROP bonus of some $800,000.

To recap, on the day of the press conference, Kenney and Outlaw were under attack, not only for weeks by the local Progressive press corps for the use of tear gas on the allegedly "peaceful" protesters. But just that morning, the bible of the left, the all-powerful New York Times, had terrorized the locals by posting a ten-minute edited video online that as far as left-wing Progressive snowflakes were concerned, made what happened on the Vine Street Expressway the moral equivalent of the My Lai massacre. 

As a card-carrying Progressive, when the mighty New York Times publicly indicts you for sins against Progressivism, and the Twitter mob is ready to pounce, Kenney knew the only acceptable thing to do was to grovel and surrender, appease and apologize. 

The mayor had just watched as his handpicked commissioner had "humbly" apologized to those peaceful demonstrators and pronounced that she was not only "disgusted" but "sickened beyond description" by the horrors that she saw on the Times video. 

Not to be upstaged, Kenney began his speech by saying, "I'm as disturbed as the commissioner by what is depicted in the New York Times video report."

An investigation into the teargassing of the protesters was already underway by the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. Kenney had also previously announced that he had commissioned an independent investigation of the city's response to the protests.

But with the NYT on his tail, Kenney knew he had to do something fast to satisfy his Progressive base. So he ordered up the press conference featuring the public sacrifice of Wilson.

"It was clear to me that we cannot wait for the results of these probes to take action," Kenney declared. Then it was time to grovel.

"I should also be held accountable," he said before confessing that the day before the protests on the Vine Street Expressway, Kenney had approved the use of tear gas on 52nd Street in West Philadelphia, where rioting, looting and arson was being done by those peaceful protesters. As had Outlaw.

For acting albeit briefly to defend the city, a guilt-stricken Kenney confessed, "I ignored what my instincts told me." 

And what were those instincts telling our surrender monkey of a mayor? That deploying tear gas was always evil, especially when used on Democratic voters.

Ever since, "I've regretted my decision," Kenney blubbered. And, as a true Progressive, Kenney continued, "I recognize that I also need to apologize."

Then it was time for the bus to rumble through the press conference, over the bodies of the entire police force.

"I apologize sincerely to the peaceful protesters out there on that highway on June 1st who were simply choosing to exercise their right to speak out against injustice and institutional racism," Kenney said.

Yo Mr. Mayor. At the time the tear gas was deployed, those peaceful protesters were not speaking out against injustice and institutional racism. They were breaking the law by dangerously venturing out into the Vine Street Expressway, to risk their own lives and others by blocking traffic during rush hour.

That's a crime. The entire New York Times video is built on that lie. And the cops were acting to clear the expressway of lawbreakers by using the classic tools of the trade, which included tear gas and pepper spray, tools that Kenney and Outlaw had personally authorized for use against rioters, looters and arsonists the day before, on 52nd Street.

Congrats Mayor Kenney and Commissioner Outlaw; way to lose the entire police department. Can you imagine any police officer deciding to risk his or her life in the service of the city? Even if they're following orders, like former SWAT team member Richard Nicoletti was, the cops know if public opinion blows the other way, now they risk having to face the firing squad of Kenney, Outlaw and Krasner.

As Ricky Watters once said, for who? For what?

But Kenney was on a roll. At the press conference, he invoked his previous less-than-inspiring call for "healing and reconciliation." And then he said that what the cops did on the Vine Street Expressway "was the precise opposite." 

Having cleansed his soul through a ritualistic blood sacrifice, a public confession and an apology, Kenney followed up with a pledge.

"I pledge to do everything I can to fix what's broken in this police department," he said. "I pledge to do much better for this city."

Yo Mr. Mayor, if you want to fix what's broken in the police department, look in the mirror and resign. And take your rookie police commissioner with you.

It's Kenney who bears responsibility for the rioting, looting and arson fires that ensued during the George Floyd protests. Because it was Kenney who got rid of former Police Commissioner Richard Ross and Deputy Police Commissioner Joseph Sullivan, a couple of guys who knew how to handle an unruly crowd.

It was Kenney who gutted the Police Department's leadership and replaced them with the incompetent but easily controlled Danielle Outlaw; riots promptly ensued.

It was Kenney who watched helplessly as the rioters, looters and arsonists pillaged the city. It was Kenney who got down on his knees with the protesters, and never stood up. It was Kenney who ordered the cops to stand down when the protesters came for the Frank Rizzo statue. And it was Kenney who told the cops to stand down when an army of homeless activists took over a ball field on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

It was Kenney the career bureaucrat who's never missed a government paycheck in 30 years who has kept the bars and restaurants in this city shut down for the past three months while he's given the key to the city to whatever group of anarchists wants to show up next. 

And it was Kenney's handpicked police commissioner who. at that same June 25th press conference, announced a new moratorium on the use of tear gas to disperse crowds, unless they're "armed and dangerous."

So barring an invasion by an armed militia, it's perfectly legal to block traffic in Philadelphia. As well as to camp out in public spaces.

Yesterday, I sent Deana Gamble, Kenney's spokesperson, an email posing a simple question:

"Why did the mayor feed this false narrative to a gullible press corps," I asked. "Why did the mayor lie about who really approved the teargassing of the protesters?"

The response: silence, crickets. 

Gamble and Kenney are cynically betting that the rest of the Progressive press corps in this town, headed by the relentlessly Progressive Philadelphia Inquirer, will continue to cover for them.

Sadly, it looks like a safe bet.