'A Failure Of Leadership'

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

On a day when the National Guard had to be sent in to restore order, all Philadelphia cops on duty were pulling 12 and 16 hours shifts in the wake of rioting and looting over the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. 

The cops made some 225 arrests during the riots, but the cost was 60 injured officers, the most serious of which was a female sergeant who's still in the hospital after she got hit by a truck and broke her leg.

Besides the wounded officers, 17 police vehicles and two Fire Department Rescue Unit were damaged by rioters. Some 210 businesses were looted and sustained property damage. Across the city, 24 ATM machines were blown up by explosive devices.

In the wake of the latest round of civil unrest, former Mayor John Street made headlines by telling anchorman Ukee Washington of CBS 3 that the blame for the fatal shooting of Wallace rests on a "failure of leadership." Street was talking about Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, who told Washington, "It's really easy to sit back and Monday morning quarterback.”

Meanwhile, the city's murder rate continued to climb. Philadelphia had seven shootings and one homicide overnight, and the city is now up to 412 homicides for the year, with a full two months to go. When I talked to a veteran cop about how bad things were, he had one more name to add to the city's list of failed leaders.

"This city is out of control under Jim Kenney, Larry Krasner and Danielle Outlaw," the senior police commander said. "These three are the faces of failed progressive policies."

“This is a failure of leadership," former Mayor Street told Washington. "We take nine months to train someone to be a member of the Philadelphia Police Department. We spend tens of thousands of dollars. It is inexcusable for those police officers to be there without the proper equipment. The only person that you can hold responsible is the leadership of the city. That situation should've never have happened."

Street was talking about the two cops who shot Wallace not having tasers at their disposal. So Washington asked Outlaw why aren't all Philly cops outfitted with Tasers.

“I do know that there has been a line item in our annual budget for $900,000 for tasers," Outlaw told Washington. "That has been approved. No one has said no, we’re not going to give you this money."

"Did there need to be some rethinking in how we deploy the tasers or the amount of tasers that we were purchasing?" Outlaw asked rhetorically. "Maybe, but to say it’s a failure of leadership I think not only is it unfair, but I think it’s really easy to sit back and Monday morning quarterback."

The city has not yet released the toxicology report on Wallace, but don't be surprised if he was loaded up on drugs. Some cops who watched the video of Wallace charging the cops with a knife wondered whether Wallace was on PCP. 

If he was, there's a good chance that even if the cops had Tasers, they might not have been effective against Wallace.

Street, however, is right when he talked about a failure of leadership. Right now, the new brass in the Philadelphia Police Department, thanks to a purge by Mayor Kenney, doesn't appear to have any idea of what they're doing. 

A case in point: Outlaw told reporters that she was surprised that the looters decided to ransack stores along Castor and Aramingo Avenues in Port Richmond.

"This is a big city and Castor and Armingo has never been on the radar," Outlaw told reporters. She apparently forgot that back in June, during the riots over the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, rioters in Philly ransacked numerous businesses in that exact same area of Port Richmond. 

Another case in point: Last night, First Deputy Commissioner Melvin Singleton decided to deploy dozens of cops on overtime to lock down Center City, from Arch to Walnut, and 8th to 20th Street. Every intersection was closed off as cops sought to protect Center City from riots and looting.

But on a cold and rainy night, "there wasn't a soul out," said one cop who was on duty during the lockdown. It turned out to be a total waste of police manpower. At a time when cops have been pulling 12 to 16 hour shifts since Monday, Oct. 25th, and all days off have been cancelled until Nov. 8th.

Sadly, this isn't the first time that Singelton, known as "Simpleton" to his critics, has overreacted to threats of riots, after the show had already left town.

On July 25th, as the George Floyd riots were dwindling down, Singleton ordered hundreds of cops on overtime to mobilize outside City Hall, Love Park, police headquarters, the Liberty Bell, and the Art Museum. 

Under Singleton's direction, the department deployed 100 bicycle cops, at least 100 other cops redeployed from other units, as well as an additional 50 cops from the Major Incident Response Team. 

In addition, the department under Singleton's direction ordered the entire citywide night shift, some 200 cops, to come in four hours early. And then he ordered the entire midnight to 8 a.m. shift, at least 75 to 100 cops, to stay an extra four hours on overtime. 

The total cost of the extra police personnel had to run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. All to babysit a couple hundred protesters that day at a couple of peaceful demonstrations. 

Singleton's other claim to fame -- he ordered cops to take a knee during the George Floyd protests. 

Other cops subsequently pointed out that by taking a knee to show solidarity with demonstrators, Singleton, as well as Police Commissioner Outlaw, had violated the Police Department's own policies.

Policy Directive 8.3 states: "Police personnel of all ranks shall maintain complete neutrality and objectivity at all times." And: "Under no circumstances shall the department be made subservient to any group."

The fact that the city had to call in the National Guard today is due to another failure of leadership.

Before the National Guard was called in, the Philly P.D. sent out requests for mutual assistance to numerous suburban police departments in Montgomery, Chester and Bucks counties, as well as to the state police.

But all of those departments said no to Philly's requests for help because of D.A. Larry Krasner's propensity for arresting cops. Having a cop go to jail for following orders, something that's already happened several times in Philadelphia under Krasner's reign, has become a risk that other police departments simply aren't willing to take.

Of course, Krasner is also responsible for Wallace being out on the street in the first place, so he could attack his own mother. That's why the cops were repeatedly summoned on Monday to West Philly to deal with Wallace, when they wound up shooting him.

Wallace is a a guy with 18 previous arrests, including robbery, assaults on cops, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, and repeated domestic abuse incidents where he violated at least three domestic violence protection orders by assaulting his own mother, as well as the mother of his children.

In March, his most recent arrest, he stabbed the mother of his children and threatened to "shoot you and that house up." But after the victim declined to press charges, the D.A.'s office only charged Wallace with making terroristic threats. 

It only cost Wallace just a $1,000 deposit on $10,000 bail to go back out on the streets, so he could continue to harass and assault his mother and the mother of his children. Even though Wallace was still on probation when he stabbed the mother of his child in March. Because back in 2017, Wallace was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in prison, plus probation for five years, after he was found guilty of robbery, simple assault and possession of an instrument of crime. 

Another failure of leadership. But Krasner has repeatedly declined to answer any of Big Trial's questions about why Wallace was out on the street when he was shot to death by police. And the rest of the media, led by The Philadelphia Inquirer, the official Pravda for the local Democratic party, hasn't even bothered to ask Krasner the big question.

And so it goes here in the Progressive paradise of Philadelphia, where we've had nothing but uninterrupted Democratic rule for the past 68 years. Who needs an opposition political party, or a local press to hold city officials accountable? 

In the birthplace of democracy, what's going on now is both a tribute to lawlessness, and a free advertisement for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. 

Vote Republican, or you'll end up living in a lawless Progressive hellhole like Philadelphia. A place where they have to send in the National Guard to restore law and order. Because our local Progressive Democratic leaders clearly aren't up to the job.