Coatesville Situation Gets Worse

Well, it appears I was right. Now the Guardian Angels are (literally, I suppose) pouring gas on the fire.

Guardian Angels Help With Coatesville Arsons [NBCPhiladelphia.com]

Things In Coatesville Still Not Great

As you might’ve heard, there have been 13 arsons in Coatesville in the last four weeks, including one on Saturday that burned 15 homes.

Sadly, though, for Coatesville’s residents, things are going to get worse before they get better. Case in point: The Guardian Angels are coming to town! Curtis Silwa and his crew did such a bang-up job patrolling SEPTA, they’re headed to Coatesville to… I dunno, walk around and try to catch someone setting more fires.

And even the city’s charity isn’t working out: The Coatesville Memorial Community Center has put a stop to collecting food and clothing: “The community center at 99 9th Ave. in Coatesville has so much donated clothing that it is hard for it to provide all its normal recreation activities[.]”

Oof. Is there anything people out there can be happy about? Why, yes! The West Chester Daily Local — which did this amazing year-end video — has a new video out with the same awesome narrator. I think he’s doing a Walter Winchell impersonation, but I can’t really be sure. You know what? Forget the other links in this post. You really need to hear the first 10 seconds or so of the video.

Photo by Cyberesque used under a Creative Commons license

Guardian Angels Also Pop Stars

The new blog What the Hell, Philly? points us to the Inquirer’s article on the Guardian Angels… and the Abbey Road-esque photo by Ed Hille, reprinted above.

Although the Angels might not be able to stop all the attacks on the subway, at least they can encourage us to “Come Together.”

Retro fever hits the city: Guardian Angels, Abbey Road [What the Hell, Philly?]

No Free Rides For Beret-Wearing Men

The Guardian Angels have been patrolling SEPTA ever since a man was killed in the concourse a few weeks ago. And what a bang-up job they’ve been doing, with a two more attacks since the Angels started patrolling. (But not every attack was real!)

Of course, that’s being unfair to the Angels; they might not even be patrolling at all. Daily News reporter Damon C. Williams writes Angels founder Curtis Silwa is nowhere to be found now that he’s made his presence felt initially: “Curtis Sliwa seems to have disappeared during this recent crime wave, and commuters, interviewed live on various 5-and-11 p.m. newscasts, say they have yet to see any Angels really working in the subways, on the trains and platforms.”

Yesterday, the Angels met with Police Commissioner Charles Ramsay and asked for free rides on SEPTA. Whoops: No dice. Ramsay said, “That’s not my bailiwick.” Bailiwick! Really? Anyway, SEPTA says they’re not allowed to give free tokens to the Angels — which, honestly, seems weird — so I suppose they will have to disappear into the darkness. Until another dust-up in the city, when the Angels can announce they will be patrolling soon and everyone can report on it as if they haven’t announced they’d be patrolling areas many times before.

Guardian Angels Among AC’s Best Dressed

The confusing case of the four women found dead, posed facing the casinos, just outside of Atlantic City continues to unravel this week. Police have identified two of the victims, both of whom had been collared for prostitution in the past, but the other two remain nameless.

Police are trying to figure out if this is the work of a serial killer, etc. Very sad all around. But there are two new developments in the case worth mentioning:

• The Guardian Angels came down over the weekend to join the search. They attempted to flush the killer out by forcing him, or or them to look at the Angels’ red berets and jackets over and over and over until they couldn’t take it anymore.

• Police have released reproductions of the tattoos on one of the unidentified victims. One is a bulldog, and the other is a Playboy bunny drawn by a third-grader who has never seen a bunny in his life.

Prosecutors Release Tattoo Photos, Seek Public’s Help [NBC 10]
Guardian Angels Join Search For West Atlantic City Killer [NBC 10]

Philadelphia’s murder rate soon to drop to absolute zero

A photo on the front page of today’s Metro by Rikard Larma:

Seriously. Who will even want to be out on the streets for fear they’ll have to see a Guardian Angel’s jacket and beret-with-pins combo? Not me, no way.

Angels we have heard on high

Whoo! The Guardian Angels have returned! The Angels are a New York-founded — of course! — group that was on a two-year hiatus from America’s Next Great City. The group began in the Bronx in 1979, and came to Philly in 1980. To be honest, I never knew they were in this city at all. But, you know, I grew up in that crime free Franklin Mills section of the city.

The Angels — they’re the ones with the red berets and jackets and all that jazz — hope to have 500 members on the street in the coming weeks. And it’s about time: three more people were gunned down yesterday, for a grand total of 371 with only a few weeks left.

And with the Angels back, well, this city’s going to have a bunch more red berets bopping around. And, come on, anything that distracts us from that seasonal affective disorder is good, right?

Guardian Angels back on patrol [DN]
Photo by Todd Klassy