The Big City Blame Game is a tired old broken record

We’ve heard this song already. It all but went platinum after Trump said “bad things happen in Philadelphia” near the end of the first 2020 presidential debate.

Back then, the former president claimed poll workers were having problems in Philly, when in reality there were no polls open in the city at the time. But anytime Sir Lies-A-Lot wants to make his followers dance, he hits those notes, no matter the issue.

And now the tired track is back — remixed by all kinds of wannabe tough guys looking to make the local charts by demonizing big cities, often Philly specifically.

First, there was Camden County Commissioner Lou Cappelli Jr., who earlier this month disparaged Philadelphians following the shooting of a 6-year-old girl on July Fourth, calling on “the thugs, criminals, and gun-bearing freaks who live in a society of lawlessness” to stay out of Camden.

I understand that emotions run high after a child is shot. Philly’s worst mass shooting in decades happened the day before, when a 15-year-old was the youngest victim killed and 2-year-old twins were wounded. But the commissioner’s attack just didn’t make sense when you consider that both Camden and Philadelphia struggle with high rates of poverty and crime, and similar levels of violence.

A couple of weeks later, Abington’s police chief offered his own backup vocals by blasting Philadelphia again — specifically District Attorney Larry Krasner — after a Philly man was charged with allegedly attempting to abduct a 14-year-old girl at the Willow Grove Park Mall.

“I think some of the failed policies in Philadelphia, with the District Attorney’s Office, where it’s somewhat of a revolving door, where dangerous felons are let back onto the street to prey upon our citizens,” said Abington Police Chief Patrick Molloy, referring to the accused abductor’s extensive criminal history in Philadelphia and Montgomery County.

Never mind that it was a Montgomery County judge in January who ordered the suspect’s parole while he was serving a sentence of 11 to 23 months.

“I think it’s telling when anyone describes a complex and enormous issue like crime or violence as belonging to any one city,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

I have my issues with Kenney, but he was 100% correct when he called these attacks on our city by local politicians an “oversimplification” when our region and country are grappling with a crisis of violence and needed criminal justice reforms.

Look, there is no doubt that Philadelphia, and plenty of other big cities, have their share of problems. No one has their head in the sand about crime in Philly — it’s a reality that far too many of us live with every day. The police force has struggled in recent years to solve even half of the city’s homicides, and the results of Krasner’s prosecution policies have certainly been mixed, to say the least.

But the comments by these officials were straight from the racist and classist, city vs. suburbs songbook that any Tom, Dick, and Vivek looking for a good photo op or sound bite samples from whenever it’s convenient.

Which is why they parachute into places ravaged by crime and drugs like Kensington the way presidential hopeful and Trump defender Vivek Ramaswamy did recently, singing that same sad song about big cities gone woke.

“It’s a shame that those who obsess over climate change & third-world poverty don’t care more about the misery on the streets right here at home,” he tweeted during his first visit to Philly last month. “I visited Kensington not because it’s a popular place for presidential candidates to go, but because it’s not.”

Well …

Remember that other political dilettante, U.S. Senate hopeful Mehmet Oz, who made Kensington a campaign stop as he vowed all kinds of changes — at least until he lost November’s election and all of his concerns for big bad cities in crisis disappeared?

Bottom line: These performative attacks on Philadelphia aren’t really about Philly, or sincere concern over gun violence. If they were, they’d admit that violence is affecting every small town and big city in our country, that no one is completely at fault and no one is completely faultless — and that we aren’t going to solve our collective crisis by parsing blame by zip codes.

But that kind of messy truth doesn’t make for a catchy tune, right Jason Aldean? The country singer’s song “Try That In A Small Town,” released in May, is an ode to guns, “good ‘ol boys raised right,” and vigilantism.

After noting that attempts at gun reform “might fly in the city” Aldean sings: “Try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own / You cross that line, it won’t take long / For you to find out, I recommend you don’t.”

I recommend that if you’re going to insist your little diddy isn’t racist, you might want to filter your song for dog whistles and not film scenes for the music video released July 14, and subsequently pulled amid backlash, at a courthouse in Columbia, Tenn., where a Black man named Henry Choate was lynched in 1927.

If Aldean’s name sounds familiar in connection with guns, it may be because his 2017 Las Vegas concert was targeted in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

One might think experiencing such a traumatic event might lead to more introspection and perspective on the unhealthy relationship America — all of America — has with guns, and the bloody havoc it wreaks on our nation. In fact, after the Las Vegas shooting, Aldean said guns were “too easy to get” and questioned the thoroughness of background checks.

But then, with thousands more mass shootings in the years since, our country has been playing its own tired old broken record.