Laughing Stock Kenney Caves Again To Tent City Anarchists

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

To the surprise of virtually no one, Mayor Jim Kenney has surrendered a third time to the homeless anarchists who have taken over the formerly scenic Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Within the past hour, according to police sources, Kenney called off a secret plan to have police raid the filthy Tent City homeless encampments at 3 a.m. tomorrow and clear them out.

The Philadelphia Police Department, under the direction of First Deputy Commissioner Melvin Singleton, had cancelled days off for more than 800 uniformed cops beginning tonight and stretching throughout the weekend. Plans called for the cops to show up in riot gear, with some 300 cops on bicycles. The state police were scheduled to participate, as were cops from several surrounding counties.

But word of the impending raid leaked out on social media and a frightened Kenney chickened out. It was Kenney who previously set the supposedly final deadline of 9 a.m. this morning for more than 150 homeless protesters to evacuate the Parkway, as well as nearby camps in the Azalea Garden, and outside the PHA headquarters on Ridge Avenue.

But once again, Kenney didn't have the balls to go through with it. Said one cop who was scheduled to participate in the raid, "I've seen a McDonald's drive-through run better than this."

Kenney has done nothing but cave when it comes to dealing with anarchists.

It started on June 11th, when Kenney ordered the cops to stand down as they invaded the Von Colln Memorial Field, at 22nd and the Parkway, where kids in the Fairmount neighborhood used to play baseball and soccer, and they set up 100 tents.

The city wasted months trying to negotiate with the unruly protesters, their shifting, factional leaders, and continually changing pie-in-the-sky  demands. While Kenney agonized over what to do next -- and did nothing -- more tents sprouted on the grounds of the nearby Rodin Museum, and the Azalea Garden bordering the Philadelphia Art Museum, which just re-opened this month.

The city set a July 17th deadline for the Parkway to be cleared, but at the last minute, Kenney called that off so he could personally take over the so-called negotiations with the anarchists, which predictably went nowhere. 

A frustrated Kenney then set a second so-called final deadline of 9 a.m. Aug. 18th. for the Tent City protesters to evacuate. Police were ordered to gather at 3 a.m. that morning to begin the dirty work of clearing the encampments. But the day before the final deadline, a pro bono lawyer for the homeless activists beat the city to the punch by going into U.S. District Court to request a temporary restraining order and an injunction against the city. 

On Aug. 25th, U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo Robreno ruled in the city's favor, saying the city had the right to clear out the encampments. That's when Kenney set today's third and supposedly final deadline before chickening out again. 

When the city went to court to fight the injunction, the city's lawyers contended that conditions at the camp were unsafe and unsanitary; a menace to the public health.

The only running water at the encampment was being illegally siphoned from a city water fountain. The limited water supply made it difficult for camp residents to wash their hands, clothes, or bedding. Also, at the camp, the homeless "eat food that is not properly refrigerated, and from unknown sources," the city solicitors stated in their brief, which could lead to "an untraceable food-borne illness outbreak." 

The camp also featured illegal electrical hookups and portable grills that could lead to fires or electrocutions, the city contended in court. And since it's hurricane season, the protesters could also face flying debris, toppling trees, and flash flooding, "all of which puts individuals living in an open field at severe risk of injury and even death," the city solicitors argued.

In their brief, the city solicitors stated it's an ongoing violation of the city's building and zoning codes to live in tents erected on land zoned for parks and open spaces. The city solicitors also complained that "certain protesters in the encampment have consistently barred outreach workers from speaking to" homeless residents, preventing them from getting help for substance abuse, mental health problems, as well as placement in shelters.

"Here, the city's purpose in removing the encampment is multifold and rooted in the city's duty to exercise the police powers to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of all its residents and visitors, including the organizers and occupants of the encampment," the city solicitors wrote.

"In the judgment of the city's public health officials, the lack of running water and waste disposal, exposure to the elements, and challenging weather, presents a real risk to the physical makeup of the encampment," the solicitors argued.

While they're allegedly exercising their First Amendment rights, the solicitors point out, the protesters are illegally monopolizing public land.

"The impact on the park land has been significant and the encampment has worked to exclude use of the land by other residents and visitors with in the city," the solicitors wrote. "None of these purposes has to do with the content of the plaintiff's First Amendment activity and communication; each of these purposes is sufficient to establish that the city's actions to clear the encampment are legitimate."

A judge cleared the way for the city to evacuate these unsafe, unsanitary and illegal encampments. If only the mayor had the guts to enforce the law.  But for a third time, Kenney caved.

On the Parkway today, the complete incompetence of the Kenney administration, as well as its official sponsors and enablers, The Philadelphia Inquirer, was on display. 

Since Kenney had tipped his hand by broadcasting his third and supposedly final deadline for the camps to be cleared, hundreds of protesters had gathered to demonstrate, block the streets, and give speeches through bullhorns.

The cops, who were supposed to clear the joint, were reduced to baby sitters as news helicopters hovered overhead, waiting for nothing to happen.

This is how incompetent the Kenney administration is: while they were planning their secret invasion of the Parkway during a Zoom conference, every city department was in on the call, including sanitation.

What were the chances that somebody was going to leak the secret raid?

Then our rookie police commissioner, handpicked by the mayor, had the brilliant idea of sending in a bunch of ministers who were tasked with trying to talk a group of hardcore anarchists into surrendering, and leaving. The ministers were shouted down and cursed out by protesters wielding bullhorns, before they were sent packing.

Outlaw visited the Parkway today, but according to several cops, she never got out of her car.

Meanwhile, our intrepid paper of record had six reporters on the scene, to provide breathless live coverage of a complete non-event, comparable to the opening of Al Capone's vault. Nothing was going to happen at the camps today, but the Inquirer did succeed in giving one left-wing nut after another a day-long platform to spout their propaganda. 

Toward evening, the progressive newspaper with heightened sympathy for "individuals experiencing homelessness" still hadn't realized that nothing was going to happen with the camps, because Kenney had backed down again. So I went on the comments section of their coverage, to let everybody know what Kenney was up to.

My comment was deleted, but the newspaper eventually got around to reporting the latest surrender by the mayor, only they described it as a "postponement" of action by the city. Kenney then forcefully told the newspaper that's the house organ of the local Democratic party, "We have no comment on when we're going to move. We're going to  continue to try the way we've been doing it . . . in a non-forceful way."

He could have sent impotent. Or incompetent. But why tamper with success, right?

It's safe to say that when it comes to our laughing stock of a mayor, no one in the city, not the residents, nor the cops, nor the protesters, have any respect left for Kenney, who has repeatedly violated his oath of office.

For four months now, Kenney has failed in his first duty to protect the citizens from an unsafe, unsanitary and downright illegal invasion of anarchists who have been allowed to steal ballfields away from children, and cover them with tents, trash and filth.

While the "activists" drink, and smoke dope, and parade around naked whenever they feel like it. And happily accept donations of food, water, drink and first aid from well-meaning liberals who are only increasing the length of their stay.

Tonight, cops were saying that the mayor's latest display of cowardice will only serve to embolden the protesters, and enlarge the size of encampments. And why not? In Philadelphia, we have a mayor who elevates the rights of rioters, looters and squatters over the rights of the taxpaying citizens that he refuses to protect.

While Kenney holes up at his girlfriend's house in South Philly that's protected round the clock by cops in marked police cars and the mayor's personal security detail officers in black SUVs. And his paid mouthpieces refuse to divulge how much Kenney's private security detail for him and his girlfriend is costing taxpayers.

According to the rules of baseball, the game they used to play on the stolen ballfields at Von Colln Memorial Field, it's three strikes and you're out.

And sadly, whether you're a cop, or a squatter, or a long-suffering neighbor on the Parkway, after three supposedly final deadlines to clear the camps have come and gone, when it comes to our Sad Sack of a mayor, everybody knows the score.

As one cop said, "Kenney's a pussy."