OUR OPINION: Kudos To President Clarke

COUNCIL PRESIDENT Darrell Clarke tightens security and authorization of city vehicles after two City Council staffers were arrested for DUI while driving city vehicles last weekend. Clarke fired the two employees after finding out pair drove vehicles without authorization. Photo by Rory McGlasson

It’s refreshing to see a leader in this city act as a leader should, making decisions on the spot. That leader is City Council President Darrell Clarke!

When he was faced with the fact two of his staff had violated City Council rules and his trust as well, he terminated them. It was the obvious decision and he didn’t hesitate.

His action reflects well on City Council and the possibility, should President Obama win reelection and take Mayor Michael Nutter to Washington for his second term as rumored, he could bring that kind of decision making to another role … that of filling the remaining term of the Mayor.

SHAME ON OUR CITIZENS

We have been reduced to a bunch of sheep, a shepherdless flock milling around the streets of our own killing fields, bleating our protests as we gather around the police tape, markings and dried blood of fellow Philadelphians shot dead on our neighborhood streets.

Last weekend, police reported seven were shot and three killed. Only God knows how many more shootings took place, not reported because no one was injured or killed.

We have watched as a handful of civilian crime-fighters have patrolled the streets crying for neighborhood support in fighting those who purposefully, and those who randomly kill our neighbors. Their cry to cooperate with the police, to point the finger at the perpetrators and to bear witness against them in the courts, has fallen on deaf ears through the years. Today, it is still not heard, even though their call has become more urgent than ever.

Much of this killing is engendered by the drug epidemic destroying this city. With a growing population of junkies and dealers, we have become dulled as to the extent of this crisis. Neither can we blame the police. We aren’t telling them what they need to know to make arrests. So those who kill continue to do so with impunity.

We have become cowards and deserve the fate we now endure.

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