Today’s Alexander Haig Award
By Mitch Berg
A “wave” of gun violence prompts a Philadelphia ‘burb to send the entire city to time-to-think:
Darby Borough, Delaware County is under a State of Emergency due to a recent uptick of gun violence.
Five shootings in three days led to the announcement Friday night.
Mayor Helen Thomas [heh] announced the state of emergency telling residents the gun violence had to stop.
“I Mayor Helen R Thomas declare a state of emergency.”
Officials say the shootings were not fatal and they seem unrelated, but something had to be done to curb the violence.
And that answer; keep the law-abiding majority penned up in their houses.
An 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew is in effect for adults and juveniles for at least 10 days.
Anyone outside during that time can be stopped and questioned by police, though Police Chief Bob Smythe says they’re more concerned about groups loitering or causing trouble.
“You’re in a group of more than three people and you are causing a disturbance. You’re going to be stopped and you’re going to be cited,” says Smythe.
A larger police presence is expected on the streets and Mayor Thomas says after the 10 days, officials will re-evaluate and go from there.
Hopefully they’ll evaluate the crushing ridicule (that they certainly deserve) that they get for adopting a banana-republic solution to a law-enforcement problem.
June 30th, 2011 at 7:49 am
8 PM? Seriously? The first recall rally begins tonite at 8:05 PM.
June 30th, 2011 at 8:54 am
Let’s see, right to free assembly is hereby restricted. I wonder what right they’ll decide needs to be curtailed next in the interests of public order and safety. Can you guess?
June 30th, 2011 at 9:17 am
“The first public reading of the Declaration took place on July 8 before a huge throng in Philadelphia.”
Benjamin Franklin and the Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY PHILLY!!!
June 30th, 2011 at 9:29 am
Maybe Rahm Emanuel can declare a Chicago from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM. It only makes sense. Then we can start the house to house searches of all private property in the name of “public safety”.
June 30th, 2011 at 9:44 am
So what happens if the majority of Philadelphians just say “whatever” and go on about their business as they normally do?
Seriously, they can’t possibly have enough police in a city of 1.5 million residents (not to mention visitors) that if most of them decide to continue staying out past 8pm or go out before 6am that the cops can do much about it.
June 30th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Well, they start by rounding up the usual suspects.
Note, however, that this isn’t the City of Philadelphia itself, but a smaller municipality.
July 1st, 2011 at 1:15 am
It’s nice to have neighbors!
July 1st, 2011 at 5:16 am
A few years back, Minneapolis bought “gunshot detectors” for North Minneapolis because there weren’t enough cops to hold the lid on violence there.
Didn’t stop the violence but now we know what areas to stay out of, to avoid being shot.
Maybe Philly can borrow ours for a while?