Letters to the Editor | Feb. 11, 2024

Philadelphia’s Democratic Party recently ousted about 20 duly elected committeepeople from its ranks, at least 11 of them from Mount Airy’s 22nd Ward. This smacks of the 45th president’s and his allies’ more than 60 failed lawsuits to overturn the 2020 election — including several in Pennsylvania — and their efforts to prepare a fake slate of electors, all of which led up to the coup attempt on Jan. 6, 2021.

For more than three years, Democrats in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and nationwide have excoriated the antics of the GOP as foul play. But now in Philadelphia, party chairman Bob Brady, aided and abetted by Councilmember Cindy Bass, has booted duly elected committeepeople from their posts. Is Philly’s Democratic establishment seeking to emulate the very political party it doggedly works to defeat? If Philly’s Democratic Party wants to be akin to an exclusive and private country club with its own rules, why hold elections for committeepeople in the first place, if only to reverse the results?

Lila Bricklin, Philadelphia

The involuntary manslaughter conviction of Jennifer Crumbley following her 15-year-old son’s 2021 Michigan school shooting seems just to me. He took four young lives with a semiautomatic handgun that his parents purchased for him despite red flags about his mental instability. What I don’t understand is how the school wasn’t also held culpable. I spent much of my 24-year career as a school counselor working with at-risk adolescents. I assure you that the suburban school district where I was employed would have handled things much differently.

That boy would have been escorted to the principal’s office. Our school resource officer would have been pulled in along with the counselor and school psychologist. The student, his locker, and school bag would have been searched. The police department may have also gone to the home to look for additional weapons. The child would have been sent directly to a mental health facility for a psychiatric evaluation. He may have also faced arrest. He would not have been permitted to remain in school just because his parents refused to take him home that day. The school dropped the ball big time.

Claudia Carabelli, Philadelphia, ccarabelli@comcast.net

With all due respect to the family of Alexander Spencer, convicted felons are not supposed to be walking around with loaded weapons. If a police officer wants to question you, comply. If you are asked if you have a gun, answer honestly, and don’t try to flee. The reason for stop-and-frisk is to get illegal guns, drugs, and wanted criminals off our streets. Innocent civilians and children are collateral damage of gun violence. To gun owners who have guns “stolen” and do not report it: This is the definition of a straw purchase. To Philadelphia police: Keep body cameras rolling. Officers should not be able to disable them. And to our esteemed City Council, the Philadelphia Police Department, and the district attorney’s office representing the commonwealth: Start working together to get more of these guns out of the hands of criminals. More stop-and-frisk, please!

Kenneth Thomas Houser, Philadelphia

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