Category: Philadelphia

Do Philly Police ID Those They Detain?

Philadelphia City Council, May 6, passed a non-binding resolution asking Mayor Michael Nutter to divest any business from Arizona and  to encourage area business to reconsider conventions there.

The resolution is non-binding and the vote was 14-3. It was introduced  by Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez and was in response to Arizona SB 1070 which neither Ms. Sanchez nor the 13 other council members who voted for the resolution apparently bothered to read

As pointed out by Philadelphia Daily News columnist extraordinaire Stu Bykofsky, the Philly resolution claims that the Arizona law “gives local police broad, unprecedented power to detain individuals
based on the vague grounds of suspicion that they are undocumented.”

Well, it doesn’t. It says that that police must check on a person’s immigration status — a driver’s license would suffice, btw, — during a “lawful contact”, which, btw, is being changed in HB 2162 to the even more restrictive “stop,
detain or arrest” standard. Aren’t Philadelphia Police expected to ascertain the identify of people they “stop, detain or arrest?”

As a service to Philadelphia City Council the text to SB 1070 can be found here and the text to HB 2162 can be found here.

And it appears State Rep. Daryl
Metcalfe (R-12) was very wise in binding the law enforcement authorities to check immigration status in the bill modeled on the Arizona law that he just introduced in Harrisburg.

 

Do Philly Police ID Those They Detain?

 

Do Philly Police ID Those They Detain?

Famous Philadelphia Sports Fans II

Gov. Ed Rendell has criticized the use of a Taser by Philadelphia Police to bring down young Steven Consalvi as journeyed through the outfield of Citizen’s Bank Park in the ninth inning of the Phillie-Cards game, May 3.

Rendell thought they should have used a snowball.

Famous Philadelphia Sports Fans II

Famous Philadelphia Sports Fans II

Senate Will Let Philly Hike Sales Tax

The state Senate, btw, today, approved 32-17 a bill that would allow Philadelphia to increase its sales tax from 7 percent to 8 percent for five years and stretch out its pension contributions to generate $700 million to postpone the payment to the piper.

Question will there be any car dealers or appliance stores left in the city in
five years?

Mayor Nutter And Blazing Saddles

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is threatening to shut down the city’s court system if the state doesn’t give him permission to reform the city’s pension system and  raise the sales tax from 7 percent to 8 percent.

It’s like a strategy from the film Blazing Saddles. Nutter is trying to win over the unfriendly townsfolk by holding a gun to his head and saying “give me a tax hike or I’ll shoot the mayor.”

A sales tax hike is not going to help him considering that the rate is 6 percent in the rest of the state (and zero in not-to-far-away Delaware)  and it is not that inconvenient for Philadelphians  to get to the malls, car dealers and appliance stores in those places.

If he’s  counting on the restaurant/bar crowd, he ought to remember that eating out is a seriously discretionary expense.

Tough love is what’s required. Granted this would require the Mayor cutting into the union/Democratic Party patronage base, but what must be done must be done.

Mayor Nutter And Blazing Saddles

Tough Love For Philly

The Senate Republicans led by Majority Leader and Delaware County’s own Dominic Pileggi (R-9) is going slow on giving Philadelphia permission to raise its sales tax from 7 percent to 8 percent.

Pileggi says solving the state budget mess comes first.

Well, kudos for Pileggi. Showing the city some tough love and forcing them to cut some fat might keep it from going the way of Detroit.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, btw, is upset with Pileggi action. If the Inky is sincere about helping  Philly’s financial situation they would move their operations back to the city from Montgomery County.