Sylvester Johnson Steals Idea From… Milton Street?!

Feb. 21, Philadelphia Will Do, “Milton Street Continues Baffling Campaign“:

Yesterday, Street came up with a kickoff plan for his mayoral candidacy: A March 1 rally outside City Hall where he expects 5,000 people to show up to support his Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol-inspired plan to deputize ordinary Philadelphia citizens and give them police powers.

Today, Daily News, “Commish: I need 10,000 black men“:

Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson is joining with civic leaders in an effort to recruit 10,000 black men to fight crime in Philadelphia’s toughest neighborhoods.

Dubbed “A Call to Action: 10,000 men - It’s a New Day,” the effort will begin Oct. 21 with a rally and recruitment drive at the Liacouras Center, followed days afterward by the training of the volunteers to act as community “peacekeepers.”

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Police Chief Takes Time Out From Fighting Crime To Bash Cartoon Praise New Billboards

Hey, everybody: Your favorite company is at it again! Yes, that’s right, my and your favorite American corporation, Clear Channel, is about to install video billboards in the Philadelphia area.

Now, Clear Channel, being the great benevolent corporation that they are, knew people might get a little upset about LED billboards that rotate every 8 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, 1000 years a millennium. And so the great Clear Channel was way ahead of you there.

Kauker recruited two local law-enforcement officials - Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson and Fred Harran, director of public safety in Bensalem Township, Bucks County - to endorse the video billboard.

Johnson was quoted in a ClearChannel statement as saying digital billboards were in the “community’s best interests because they have the capability to deliver important emergency information, such as Amber Alerts or disaster-preparedness bulletins.”

Ahh, so nice when the head of the police force whores himself out to a major corporation. Maybe Clear Channel can spend 8 seconds a day encouraging citizens to snitch.

Video billboards coming this way [Inquirer]
Nov. 30, 2005: Drawing conclusions

Mayor Finally Introduced To His Police Commissioner

It may have taken a triple homicide at a bar — and a bunch of shootings over the weekend — but Mayor John Street met with Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson for a brainstorming session! This marks the first time the mayor has met Johnson, and the two were said to get along pretty well.

And, apparently their solution is to ban alcohol or something.

A couple of recent shooting incidents drew special attention during the meeting with Mayor John Street: “I am really concerned about bars and the proliferation of shootings and violence that are taking place in bars. We had another triple shooting in a bar over the weekend. We had a triple homicide in a bar the weekend before that.”

Hey, the mayor’s doing something, everybody! Gather around, this is about as common as a full solar eclipse or the installation of a new pope.

Mayor Meets With Phila. Police Brass To Address City Crisis [KYW 1060]

Milton Street’s Dream One Step Closer To Reality

In order to combat the city’s rising murder rate, Police commish Sylvester Johnson and other police brass will be patrolling high-crime areas for four hours a week.

The Daily News article notes there will be 300 police officers on the street attempting to stop homicides. Perhaps it will work. But I’m in favor of the plan because it’s getting us one step closer to making elected officials walk the beat, which then would make us one step closer to Milton Street’s plan to deputize the entire city. Citizens on Patrol here we come!

Top cop, captains, others to patrol streets [Daily News]

Two Headlines That Sum Up The City Pretty Well

Yep. The mayor moving 12 cops and the police commissioner concerned about a coloring book.

Police Commissioner Calls For Coloring Book Boycott [MyFox Philly]
Mayor Moving Cops to Southwest Philadelphia [MyFox Philly]

Dept. Of Bad Breaks

Ahh, there’s a nice shiny car. It’s all clean and nice. Hmm… maybe it has something inside. Do you think… it might… hmm… I can just smash in and… uh oh:

A thug with a lengthy arrest record is again behind bars after he allegedly broke into Police Commissioner Sylvester John-son’s car last week and stole his city-issued cell phone, police said. [...]

“The commissioner knows it wasn’t personal. It’s just life in the city,” said Sgt. Kimberly Byrd, Johnson’s chief of staff.

Byrd described her boss’ reaction to the crime as “even-keeled,” noting that “no one escapes crime, not even the commissioner.” [...]

Johnson keeps his car shiny and clean, “so it probably caught the kid’s eye, and he tried to get something out of it,” Byrd added.

So, basically, the way to avoid getting your car broken in to? Keep it nice and dirty. Thanks, commish.

Top cop victimized; man charges [Daily News]

Commish Hops On The ‘Sixth Borough’ Bandwagon

Scanned in from a Jessica Griffin photo in today’s Daily News, Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson:

Well, how else do you explain the Enyce — pronounced ‘N-Y-C’ — sweatshirt at yesterday’s marijuana bust? Pretty soon he’ll be telling us this is where all the hip artists are living now.

$11.6M bust is pot luck [DN]

Quickies: These colors do run

• Get ready, people, for a decrease in your freedoms! Well, okay, they’re just going to ban desecrating (read: burning) the flag. And they’re going to continue to take away our other freedoms without amending the constitution. We do know that. But there is an upshot: Business will soon be booming for Uncle D-Mac’s Irregular, Highly Flammable brand flags! [Dick Polman's American Debate]

• Police commish Sylvester Johnson asked for $100 million to hire new officers, but instead got $10 mil for overtime. He’s happy, though, since the city will be spending half of it on “Start Snitchin’” t-shirts. [Inky]

• Guess which owner is part of the group threatening to throw the NFL into chaos by hoping to block a revenue sharing plan? Guess, guess! Tat’s right, Eagles’ owner Jeff Lurie. It’s okay, though, at least he keeps the ticket prices for Eagles fans cheap. Erhm. [ESPN.com]

• Houston Texans linebacker Kylie Wong recently got an autograph from his hero: Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel. “You got GNP!” says Wong. [Blinq]

• And, from the Bucksco crime log: “Theft: Giant Food Store, 700 block Stony Hill Rd., 1:01 p.m., Sun, baby formula, $300 value.” [Bucks County Courier Times]

Quickies: Send in the goon

• While real police officers are out on the street actually trying to deal with crime (more or less), and the news media is writing stories trying to figure out why the murder rate went up last year, and yours truly is blogging about newspaper typos (always a way to slow the rise in murders), Police Commissioner Sly Johnson is blaming the news media and saying there’s no way cops can stop crime. Oh yeah! [NBC 10 via Philebrity]

• The Inky has a scoop on older women dating younger men. (And it’s not even by Faye Flam.) As a young man, I highly encourage more stories like this. Many more. [Inky]

• Steve & Mia come up with a great made up first question today that’s quite funny. (Disclaimer: I don’t know if the questions to Steve & Mia are made up. In all fairness, I also think that every single S&M question is real. I just allege that they’re fake because, come on! I feel the same way about Herb Denenberg, too. Update: Wendy Warren says that letter is real, and I’ll take her word for it. Even more awesome, then.)

• The infamous Sid the Snake, terror of Bucks County, has died. Let’s all say a prayer for Sid. I’ll be holding a candlelight vigil tonight. [Bucks County Courier Times]

Quickies: No boroughs here

• Congratulations to the Inquirer for doing a story about New Yorkers moving to Philadelphia and not mentioning the sixth borough. But did you have to make the story take up 75% of the front page? [Inky]

• The No. 9 Bucks County moment of 2005, according to the Bucks County Courier Times: Anthony Federov, American Idol contestant from Trevose. Indeed. [BCCT]

• That NBC show, Deal or No Deal? Yeah, it got good ratings. Sometimes you just want to take this country by its neck (Florida?) and give it a good shaking. [Hollywood Reporter via CNN.com]

• The whole Tyree (Cousin of Rasheed) Wallace shooting lets Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson focus on the important issues: How newspaper headlines offend him. [DN]