Best Cop Reporters In Town Target P.C. Outlaw & The Big Lie

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

The best cop reporters in town may themselves be cops who are presently moonlighting as bloggers.

Their target is embattled Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, and in particular, the Big Lie that she told last year at a press conference after the riots that may prove to be her ultimate undoing.

On Sept. 27th, anonymous bloggers posted an inside exposé

about Philly's top cop on muckrak.wordpress.com, entitled, "Philadelphia Police Commissioner Outlaw Still Not Ready for Prime Time."

In their exposé, the bloggers portayed Outlaw as a coddled, lightweight desk jockey and identity politics hire who is universally disrespected within the department because she has zero practical experience as a patrol officer out on the street. 

The bloggers also ripped Outlaw for lying at a June 25, 2020 press conference when she claimed she didn't give the final OK to tear gas protesters who were illegally blocking the Vine Street Expressway during rush hour.

According to numerous sources, Outlaw did give that final OK to use tear gas, and she's been covering it up ever since.

The bloggers also posted some intriguing inside dope about the soured relationship between Outlaw and her boss, Mayor Jim Kenney. 

According to the bloggers, four months into her new gig, Outlaw figured out that she'd made a big mistake. 

The bloggers say that Outlaw tried to bolt Philadelphia last year and return to her native Oakland when the police chief job became open, but Kenney wouldn't let her go.

Then, according to the bloggers, after the riots in the summer of 2020, when people were calling for Outlaw's resignation, Kenney wanted to replace Outlaw with former Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall, but this time it was Outlaw who wouldn't go. 

According to the bloggers, "Outlaw refused, and the universal belief is that Kenney is too much of a pussy to fire or pressure her. Outlaw owns Kenney because he was [also] informed and approved of the [tear] gas, and she would give him up in a heartbeat."

On Sunday, Big Trial asked spokespersons for both Kenney and Outlaw to comment on the Muckrak story, but over the past two days neither one of them are talking.

In Kenney's defense, in a town with more than 400 murders, our mayor was preoccupied with keeping the 20-foot-high marble statue of Christopher Columbus stuffed in a plywood box down in South Philly on "Indigenous Peoples Day," so the statue wouldn't pose a "serious public safety risk."

A big mystery in the police department is who are the authors of the Muckrak piece. They write with such an insider's perspective that local cops figure they have to be cops, with possible assistance from other cops out on the West Coast who were keeping book on Outlaw.

The bloggers have also made it clear that they're writing from an African American perspective, and they say many things that whitey can't. But aside from those few hints, nobody really knows who they are.

Big Trial's attempt to contact the bloggers has not been successful. But local cops have given their work rave reviews.

"This is fucking great," one cop said. "Who's running this website?"

"That mo fo who does that page is no joke," said another cop. "They are missing a journalism career."

Well, not exactly. In a town where the mainstream media, led by The Philadelphia Inquirer, refuses to hold public officials accountable, the bloggers at Muckrak are filling the gap. They're boldly saying things that the mainstream media would never dare to say, while loudly calling for the resignations of both Kenney and Outlaw. 

The exposé on Outlaw begins in 1996 when the future P.C., then known as Danielle Bowman, a sociology major at the University of San Francisco, won $40,000 while competing as a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. 

The next year, the future P.C. who had what the bloggers describe as a "cute, perky demeanor" entered the police academy in Oakland as Police Cadet Daneille Ashford.

In Oakland, she worked as a community services officer "putting together treat bags for children for Christmas parties" while "her peers were out on the street responding to calls, dealing with the public at their worst moment, and constantly exposed to danger."

According to the bloggers, the future police commissioner quickly became a favorite of Oakland Police Chief Richard Word, "enjoying full access" to the chief during private meetings in his office. In 2005, the bloggers wrote, Danielle Ashford divorced her first husband, an Oakland police sergeant, and went back to using her maiden name, Danielle Bowman. Then, she married again and became Danielle Outlaw. 

According to the bloggers, during her nearly 20 years in the Oakland P.D., where she rose to the rank of deputy police chief, Outlaw "never worked patrol" and was the beneficiary of identity politics when she was hired in 2017 to be Portland's police chief.

"She can thank liberal whites for giving her the police chief job," the bloggers wrote. "Yes, she got the job because she is a black female."

As far as the bloggers are concerned, Outlaw is a spoiled brat.

"It was wrong to coddle Danielle in the formative years of her police career," the bloggers wrote. "Coddling hurt both Outlaw and the public by setting both up for failure. Coddling encouraged Outlaw to become (or stay) delusional, egotistical, and whiny. She enjoyed a lifestyle that was geared more for administrative work instead of being a cop. Even today, she has only known police work as Monday to Friday day work. Ask her to do anything beyond that, and she feels drained and irritated."

Into the breach stepped Jim Kenney, who was trying to do some virtue signaling back in Philly after he forced Richard Ross out as police commissioner.

"A black female police chief is a sought-out and prized commodity," the bloggers wrote. "They are the showpieces of progressive white mayors."

Can you imagine those two sentences appearing in The Philadelphia Inquirer?

The bloggers quoted a West Coast newspaper reporter who sounded an early warning about Outlaw, after Kenney appointed her on Dec. 30, 2019, as Philadelphia's police commissioner. 

"Jim Redden of The Portland Tribune warned readers about Outlaw as she was headed out to Philly," the bloggers wrote. “Though tasked with being an ambassador to the public in a way that other chiefs had not, Outlaw prized her privacy, telling reporters never to call her personal number. At times she seemed to visibly chafe at the politics swirling around policing in Portland, as well the scrutiny . . . that came with her job."

"But Kenney had foolishly painted himself in the corner when he limited himself to a Black female to replace Ross," the bloggers wrote.

"In December 2019, Outlaw made her appearance at Philadelphia City Council," the bloggers wrote. "She came across as cocky, disrespectful, and unprofessional with her hair down."

Outlaw got off to a rocky start when she issued her first official policy directive, about nail polish, a Big Trial scoop that quickly went viral. Outlaw issued the new policy directive after she was told while making the rounds on her first official day in office that her signature black nail polish violated department policy, which called for wearing only clear nail polish in uniform.

The next morning, Outlaw issued a new policy directive that did away with the old clear nail polish rule. According to the bloggers, after that incident, around the department, Outlaw became known as "Nail Polish."

Outlaw's next gaffe was chronicled in another Big Trial scoop, when the rookie police commissioner issued a directive that during the Covid crisis, cops would no longer be making arrests on many crimes that included narcotics, theft, and burglary. 

"In March 2020, Outlaw failed to respond to the COVID pandemic by issuing an outrageous memo for police to stand down in fighting crime," the bloggers wrote. "Then she was bewildered and angry when the memo leaked out. Her memo significantly contributed to the soaring crime and murder rate."

On May 15, 2020, Big Trial reported that the police department rumor mill had Outlaw heading back to the West Coast to become police chief in her native Oakland. Three days later, Jeff Cole of Fox 29 grilled Outlaw at a press conference.

Cole questioned Outlaw about her low profile in her new $285,000 job. He also asked if she was "comfortable" being police commissioner, and whether she was qualified for the position. 

"Fox 29 noticed that Outlaw began missing daily press briefings," the bloggers wrote. "Outlaw made secret trips back to Oakland to interview, but Kenney wouldn’t let her leave. She signed a contract. When Fox29’s Jeff Cole confronted Outlaw during a press briefing if she would consider a police chief job in Oakland, Outlaw said, 'no.' ” 

The bloggers ripped Outlaw's managerial style.

"Outlaw leads by memo," the bloggers wrote. "Her memos to police personnel take on an out-of-touch, elitist, managerial, pompous, condescending, and rambling tone. Officers think they are stupid. The media might give kudos for her memos in Portland, but everyone in Philadelphia is WTF."

Then, came the George Floyd riots, followed by the Walter Wallace Jr. riots. The city suffered through wide-scale looting, rioting and arson fires. In their account, the bloggers placed the blame for the city's inept response to the riots squarely on the shoulders of Outlaw, and her boss, Mayor Kenney.

"Three reasons explain the utter failure of Philadelphia to prepare for the riot and protests," the bloggers wrote.

"First, Mayor Kenney didn’t want 'the optics' of police on the streets. He feared police presence and visibility would trigger unrest. But he is a politician and should have relied on the expertise of his police commissioner for police preparations."

"Second, Outlaw is incompetent, lacks leadership, and habitually pushes her responsibility on to others. Her fixation on being Black and a mother hinders her police duties to safeguard all Philadelphians and the City."

"Third, [former Deputy Police Commissioner] Joe Sullivan was no longer in the Department. If he was, all she had to do was delegate the problem to him, and he would have done everything for her."

But Sullivan was pressured to leave by Kenney's former managing director, Brian Abernathy, and Outlaw had no clue.

"An entire week and Outlaw failed to prepare," the bloggers wrote. "No contingency plans. No canceling days off. No extending tours. No deployment of bikes and special units. No police commissioner meeting with her command staff."

Instead, while Philadelphia was being invaded, Outlaw and her boss had no clue about what to do. And then when the New York Times jumped on the tear gas story, Outlaw and Kenney were cornered, so they decided to tell the big lie.

At a June 25th press conference, Outlaw had then-deputy Police Commissioner Dennis Wilson stand up and claim that he had promised but failed to call Outlaw on the day the protesters invaded the Vine Street Expressway, to get Outlaw's final approval to drop tear gas. 

"I didn't call the commissioner, I gave the  approval," Wilson said. "And it was me and me alone."

Wilson also announced that for "violating the rules of engagement and the commissioner's trust, I'm going to take a voluntary demotion" to chief inspector, as well as a voluntary annual pay cut of $30,00.

"Falling on the sword," was how Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw characterized it, before she dismissed Wilson with a condescending pat on the back. 

But according to numerous police sources, the story concocted by Outlaw and Kenney to take the heat off themselves was a big lie, as originally reported by Big Trial. 

Contrary to the story line floated at the press conference, Wilson, described by his fellow officers as the ultimate company man, had indeed called Outlaw and gotten her final approval to drop tear gas.

"Outlaw blamed Wilson after she failed to take responsibility," the bloggers wrote. Wilson agreed to be "the sacrificial lamb" after "the city threatened Wilson to take responsibility for her or be arrested and fired for improper use of force."

If Wilson was arrested and convicted, he not only stood to lose his pension, but also a $800,000 DROP bonus.

According to the bloggers, Outlaw was familiar withe the use of tear gas in Portland. She also had been thoroughly briefed by SWAT team members about the plan to use tear gas; the SWAT team officers even fitted Outlaw for a gas mask.

The bloggers also ripped Outlaw for being missing in action during the riots.

"Outlaw remained in four locations throughout the riot days: Police Headquarters, City Hall, the Emergency Operations Center, and her home," the bloggers wrote. "She often followed Kenney around, but she never checked on her officers. By all accounts, no one ever saw her."

As part of the cover up, the bloggers wrote, the police tapes from the day of the Vine Street protests have been removed from the broadcastify website "so the public can't hear them."

"In the aftermath of calls for resignation, Kenney offered Outlaw two years of her commissioner salary to leave so he could bring in [former Dallas Police Chief] Renee Hall, who became available at the end of last year and is waiting in the wings," the bloggers wrote. 

"But Outlaw refused, and the universal belief is that Kenney is too much of a pussy to fire or pressure her. Outlaw owns Kenney because he was informed and approved of the CS gas, and she would give him up in a heartbeat."

The police grapevine says that after Outlaw gave Wilson the final approval to drop tear gas, she called the mayor to tell him what was about to go down.

Big Trial has previously exposed the mayor's complicity in telling the Big Lie, which is still universally believed by the media and gullible public officials like the city controller up until today.

Wake up, people; everybody in the Police Department knows that Outlaw and Kenney lied to you about the tear gas. 

There's another part to the cover up. Before he was relieved of his duties as chief inspector of Internal Affairs, DeShawn Beaufort had repeatedly sought permission through the police computer network to interview Outlaw about what happened the day of the Vine Street teargassing, but she repeatedly ignored his requests. And then Outlaw demoted Beaufort, for an alleged road rage incident on Feb. 12th in Feasterville where Beaufort allegedly filed a false police report.

Outlaw's inept leadership, the bloggers say, has had deadly consequences.

The city's murder count hit 427 yesterday, a 14% increase over last year's near record of 499 murders. At this rate, the city will set a new record this year with 568 murders. 

While the murders continue, "Outlaw does nothing, but no one can complain about her because she is a Black female," the bloggers wrote. "This is the real 'elephant in the room.' Identity politics is Philadelphia’s number one underlying problem."

"The Black community continues to enable Outlaw, and the Black bodies continue to pile up," the bloggers wrote. "Children are dying. People are hurt. Excuses don’t fix anything."

On Oct. 6th, the bloggers posted a follow-up story to their original opus, entitled, "Outlaw is a Lost Cause."

"We are aware that our blog went viral through the department, and she read it," the bloggers wrote. "She lacks the ability or willingness to engage in introspection (self-examination) to learn and improve."

The bloggers were upset about an Oct.4th incident where a "maniac wearing body armor" was shooting at cops with with an AR-15 automatic rifle after he had just executed a co-worker inside Thomas Jefferson Hospital.

Stacey Hayes, a 55 year-old black male, got off the elevator on the ninth floor at the Gibbons Building at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and started shooting at Anrae Thomas James, a 43 year-old black male. James tried to run away but Hayes chased him, and kept shooting. He fired the final shots at James while he was laying on the floor.

The victim was shot multiple times in the arm, back and head. Police at the crime scene recovered six 40 caliber fired cartridge casings and a total of six projectiles and fragments.

Hayes had four prior arrests for theft, DUI, and narcotics. He owns a 9 mm handgun and a Smith 7 Wesson 40 caliber handgun, but police could find no valid gun permits.

The guns were confiscated by police after Hayes allegedly threatened neighbors. But at a return of property hearing on June 3rd presided over by Judge Crystal Bryant-Powell, who could not be reached for comment, according to court records, the judge granted the motion to return Hayes's property.

Hayes, previously diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, supposedly told police that he killed James because he had allegedly gotten his teenage daughter pregnant. But police found no evidence that Hayes's daughters even knew James. 

The bloggers were upset about how Outlaw reacted to the tragedy.

"Three hours after the event, Outlaw talked to the press at the hospital," the bloggers wrote. "She could have used this as an opportunity to improve perceptions about her. She is universally disliked and instills zero confidence in her officers, her commanders, and the public."

"One senior commander told us, 'I could have got the worst shitbag commander that I have and put them in front of the cameras, and they would done better than her. They would have praised their cops and talked about their families.' ”

Instead, "During her press conference, [Outlaw] was unprepared and unable to speak without looking at her phone," the bloggers wrote. "She fumbled, and the public could hear her phone repeatedly getting pinged with texts. How rude."

"She was non-emotional about the involved officers. When a reporter asked her more about the officers, she said they had between two and six years on the job and were assigned to the 16th district. That’s it."

"She displayed clear annoyance and hostility when another reporter noted the 400 homicides and two active shooter incidents occurring within days apart," the bloggers wrote. "Her body language revealed her anger."

"She moved from side to side, bit her lip, and arrogantly blinked her eyes, and said, 'What can I say? How do you answer that question, right?' Then, sounding like Dr. Seuss, she said, 'One homicide, two homicides. It doesn’t matter. A shooting is a shooting. A loss of life is a loss of life.' ”

Two cops were wounded, the bloggers noted, after, "They pulled their guns out and fired at an armed killer wearing body armor."

"Sometimes, this is what cops have to do," the bloggers wrote. "But Outlaw is delusional and is convinced a police agency can protect the public without patrol, without pulling out guns, and without shooting someone. All police officers can’t be a nursemaid like she was during the riots or sit behind a desk and second-guess working cops like she has made her entire 'career.' See our article posted last week. We told you so."

"Because she was never a cop, Outlaw is mentally and emotionally disengaged from the experience of cops," the bloggers concluded. "She is a bureaucratic slug who bounces from one police department to another because she checks all the boxes."

After Outlaw was universally panned for her remarks, the bloggers said, she went on Fox 29 two days after the shootings to belatedly praise the cops who took down the maniac in body armor wielding the AR-15.

"We need a police commissioner that was a cop and appreciates what they do," the bloggers wrote. "We need a police commissioner that can work under stress and respond appropriately and effectively in real-time. Considering the belated Wednesday TV appearance and her $285,000 salary, Danielle Outlaw is two days late and a dollar short."

Amen. 

The bloggers have confirmed from the inside what we already knew from the outside -- that Outlaw is a complete failure of a police commissioner who's already cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage, as well as many lost lives. 

It's well past time to get rid of her, as well as the incompetent failure of a mayor who hired her.