https://nationalfile.com/phila...iving-equality-bill/

The new regulations come as the city struggles with a sharp increase in vehicle-related crime

Philadelphia is set to become the first major U.S. city to ban police from making minor traffic stops. This includes busted tail lights, expired inspection tags and other vehicular infractions. The law will take effect 120 days after Democrat Mayor Jim Kenney signs the bill. Those in favor of the new measures argue that black drivers are racially targeted and disproportionately stopped on the road, something left-wing activists refer to as “driving while black.”
Philadelphia City Council passed the “Driving Equality Bill” by a vote of 14-2 last Thursday. The legislation is designed to “reduce disparate, unequal police practices in how minority motorists are stopped by police for minor offenses,” according to the bill. The legislation was put forward by Councilmember Isiah Thomas.

“Councilmember Thomas’s Driving Equality bills seek to address the tension between police and community members by removing negative interaction through minor traffic stops. These bills end the traffic stops that promote discrimination while keeping the traffic stops that promote public safety,” reads the bill. Philadelphia Police officers will undergo “training and education” before the law takes effect. “Nothing in my bill will allow law enforcement to be handicapped when a crime is committed,” Thomas said. “I’m hoping this can be something historic.”

The new legislation comes as Philadelphia deals with increasing issues caused by large groups of street illegal off-road vehicles. Groups of ATVs and dirt bikes have essentially been given free roam and routinely take over entire city streets, at times veering onto the sidewalk or the wrong lane of traffic. Increasingly less visible Philadelphia Police officers are unable to stop the swarms while city leadership has been accused of taking a lax approach. Dirt-bike swarms have even made their way out to Philadelphia’s affluent, main line suburb of Radnor, not far from the campus of Villanova University.

There have also been instances of violence related to mobs of off-road vehicles. In March, a dirt biker almost shot a driver during a viral attack in South Philadelphia. According to police, a 25-year-old man was driving when a group on dirt bikes and quads stopped abruptly, causing the victim’s vehicle to strike one of the bikes. After the driver got out of his car to check see if the riders were OK, he was assaulted and had his car destroyed with a cinder block. The assailant then drew a handgun and walked towards the driver before being stopped by other riders. In June, a man was shot and killed by a dirt bike rider following a road rage incident in West Philadelphia.

Police have also been unable to stop other vehicle-related disturbances. Earlier this month, a large crowd gathered outside City Hall while cars did burnouts. A police car was damaged during the disturbance when members of the crowd jumped on the hood while another vehicle did donuts around the car. The incident took place in Philadelphia’s center city, which is not far from the city’s most notable landmarks and has historically been considered among the safest areas.

Critics of the new legislation argue that increasing vehicle-related criminal activity will only be emboldened. “A shameful day for Philly: it’s so-called leaders actively promote lawlessness and call it ‘equity.’ This type of ‘leadership’ is why the City is mired in crime and chaos,” wrote former federal prosecutor and current GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McSwain in a tweet.

That whole city has become a shithole and I refuse to go there voluntarily now, it's got a Woke Black female police commissioner who is completely inept and more concerned about the color of nail polish on female police officers than actually fighting crime.

Does that mean I can go downtown and blow stop signs and lights and not get in trouble? Or do I have to be black for that?

Also, I'd love to not get a ticket for "illegal parking", even though I'm in a clearly marked zone where parking is legal.... Will this bill help?

Finally, when did this great dirtbiking of Radnor happen? I must have missed that even though I'm there nearly every day of the week.

We don't think we are enforcing the law equitably, so our answer is not enforce the law.

Good plan.

Living in South Jersey I get my local news from Philadelphia stations. I never go to Philadelphia. The city has been in a downward slide for a long time. It's been accelerated by the current DA "Let 'em loose" Larry Krasner. The news is a daily story of crime and mayhem. Just yesterday there was a shooting outside a Philadelphia high school. Multiple shots were fired. One student was shot in the head. A second random person was driving by the school. 67 year old man. He was killed. That was yesterday. Typical day in Philadelphia. We'll see who gets victimized today.

quote:

Originally posted by Oat_Action_Man:
Does that mean I can go downtown and blow stop signs and lights and not get in trouble?

Or do I have to be black for that?

Yeah this is just an exemption for blacks.
A subset of the "it's OK to lute and riot if you are black" rule.

I grew up there and it used to be a good place to live. They have managed to turn it into a cesspool. Fortunately my parents moved up to bucks county the year after I left for the Navy so I don't have to go near the city when I visit them.

Deathrace 2000 ....

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
A subset of the "it's OK to lute...

Buncha Goddamned minstrels!

quote:

Originally posted by Fed161:
Living in South Jersey I get my local news from Philadelphia stations. I never go to Philadelphia. The city has been in a downward slide for a long time. It's been accelerated by the current DA "Let 'em loose" Larry Krasner. The news is a daily story of crime and mayhem. Just yesterday there was a shooting outside a Philadelphia high school. Multiple shots were fired. One student was shot in the head. A second random person was driving by the school. 67 year old man. He was killed. That was yesterday. Typical day in Philadelphia. We'll see who gets victimized today.

You speak the truth. I'm also engrossed in the daily news and politics out of Philadelphia. The most recent atrocity of course was the woman raped on a Septa train on her way home from work as other passengers simply sat there and did nothing to help. Oh wait, no. Some managed to pull out their phones and record the assault. So there's that.

All this exploding crime and rising murder rates are a direct result of Larry Krasner, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, and Democrat policies in the city. I bet you the homeless man who committed this rape is back on the streets in no time, if he isn't already.

It's a clear sign of a BS excuse when they fold in the urban dirt biker problem. Philly and other cities have been trying to get a handle on those guys for some years now.

Wait'll they see what this does to the city coffers

Never mind traffic accidents and major violations. They're essentially doing a reverse-broken-window-policing thing.

Idiots.

I avoid the city at almost all costs anymore. Only go down there when absolutely necessary. The only reason I've been there in the past couple of years is because we had to take my daughter to CHOP. But that is almost all freeway and it's right on the UoPenn campus.

My daughter is starting to look at colleges, I told her to look in red states or at the very least not in any major city around us.

Who ever stopped for lights or stop signs in West Philly? You slow down, try to avoid the dealers, then push the gas.

Man, I served 90% of the warrants I served due to minor traffic offenses…no one answers the door when they have a warrant, but they do go to Walmart, the store, to get beer, etc

And I always wrote the traffic violation too, just to justify why I had stopped them.

I got back from being activated in 2003 and I got moved to the worst section of town. And the very first car I stopped was for no seatbelt. Dude had warrants, weed, an open beer and a stolen Nintendo console in the car. My sergeant, at the end of the shift is going thru paperwork, sees the seatbelt ticket…he’s all like, that’s some chickenshit stuff right there. After explaining everything to him he quit hassling me over traffic stuff.

This will solve everything!

https://www.phillytrib.com/new...2b-39b7c565b7bf.html

Philly to begin hiring an all-new class of unarmed traffic officers this month

Ryan Briggs
WHYY Oct 18, 2021

As Philadelphia officials once again push back the deployment of the city’s first traffic enforcement officers, they promise hiring will begin this month.

City Council President Darrell Clarke first offered a plan to create a new class of “public safety officers” in the spring of 2019, partially as a reaction to increasing downtown congestion. A related ballot measure passed with overwhelming support later that year and empowered new, uniformed safety officers with the ability to issue citations for some traffic offenses.

Unsworn and unarmed, the new class of civilian officers represent an experiment at a time when many are calling to change the nature of law enforcement and reduce incidents of police brutality. Sarah Seo, a law professor at Columbia University who authored a book on the history of traffic enforcement, says studies have shown police disproportionately target Black and brown drivers, while police also view traffic stops as among the most dangerous and unpredictable parts of their job.

“We’re a car-based society and most encounters with police occur in the context of a traffic stop. And there’s more realization that Black people experience traffic stops differently than white people,” she said. “Black people are scared, but the police also say it’s extremely dangerous,” she said “We’re doing something very wrong if everyone is scared.”

In theory, she says, civilianizing traffic enforcement minimizes contact between drivers and law enforcement while lowering the stakes of an encounter. But the plan to roll out this new class of officers in Philadelphia has moved slowly in part due to the pandemic but also because of the new questions that come with the model.

In March of 2020, Mayor Jim Kenney committed $1.9 million in funding to the Philadelphia Police Department to create a class of about 20 ​​Public Safety Enforcement officers. But officials hit pause on the plan last year, blaming the pandemic. At that time, officials hoped the officers would roll out this year. Then, last month, administration spokesperson Joy Huertas said the city plans to post the officer job listings by the end of October. But residents shouldn’t expect to see the officers hit the streets until the spring of 2022 at the earliest.

“The goal is to launch the program early in the new year,” Huertes said.

The officers will eventually focus on directing and managing traffic, spotting illegal or unpermitted activity and enforcing parking and traffic regulations, like parking in a crosswalk or double parking, or unpermitted right-of-way closures or encroachments, according to the Kenney administration.

Traffic officers would also coordinate with the police department around crashes and other disturbances. The new officers would be deployed to “high need” intersections in Center City during weekday peak hours –– 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. –– but would “address activities throughout the Center City that impact congestion” during off-peak hours.

All officers will receive four weeks of training on motor vehicle regulations, safety, implicit bias, and citation issuance, according to the city. Officers will report to Michael Carroll, the Deputy Managing Director for the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability.

The new officers will come on the scene soon after a new city law banning police officers from stopping drivers for so-called minor traffic infractions such as a broken tail light or a failure to show an inspection sticker.

However, despite a year’s hiatus in implementation, the city had few other detailed answers about the nature of the program. The spokesperson blamed “strained capacity” in City Hall due to the pandemic for delaying planning.

But experts say those details are important, particularly with the city just days or weeks away from embarking on what could be one of the first programs of its kind in the modern era –– civilian traffic enforcement is not a new idea, but history has shown it is not an easy one to effectively implement.

Seo said the concept of using non-law enforcement officers to enforce traffic law gained new life following outcry over aggressive policing following the death of George Floyd, with communities from Berkley, Ca. to Florida have proposed civilizanized traffic enforcement. But cities like New York have employed uniformed traffic enforcement officers since the late 1800s, known for many years as “brownies” due to their brown-colored uniforms.

But Seo also said these officers faced so much abuse at the hands of drivers in the car-centric decades of the 20th century, that, at one point, they sought to be converted into conventional police officers on safety grounds. While New York kept traffic officers unsworn, the city merged the brownies into the police department in 1996 and opted to change the color and appearance of their uniforms to more closely resemble police uniforms in a bid to reduce harassment.

Seo said the saga illustrates why careful planning was needed not just to protect drivers but also the unarmed traffic officers.

“It’s not that it can’t be done but rather that the policy has to be crafted in light of the difficulty traffic enforcement presents,” she said.

Seo said that any plan to revamp traffic enforcement should be paired with automated measures, like speed cameras and traffic calming.

“Cameras don’t discriminate and there’s no need for human interaction,” she said. “And it should all be paired with better design of streets and highways that will enhance safety.”

I grew up in Philly too, went to college there also. It's always been bad. But, still had some great areas. Such a shame that it continues to get worse! Though I'm not surprised.

What is Broken Windows Policing?

The broken windows model of policing was first described in 1982 in a seminal article by Wilson and Kelling. Briefly, the model focuses on the importance of disorder (e.g., broken windows) in generating and sustaining more serious crime. Disorder is not directly linked to serious crime; instead, disorder leads to increased fear and withdrawal from residents, which then allows more serious crime to move in because of decreased levels of informal social control.

The police can play a key role in disrupting this process. If they focus in on disorder and less serious crime in neighborhoods that have not yet been overtaken by serious crime, they can help reduce fear and resident withdrawal. Promoting higher levels of informal social control will help residents themselves take control of their neighborhood and prevent serious crime from infiltrating

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
It's a clear sign of a BS excuse when they fold in the urban dirt biker problem. Philly and other cities have been trying to get a handle on those guys for some years now.

The leftist turds who run this shithole of a city keep trying to say it's "part of black culture!"

Ummm...no it isn't This BS has only started in the last 10 years or so when these cretins discovered they can do whatever the hell they want to include running (ILLEGAL) ATV's and dirtbikes all over the streets and sidewalks.

Just look at them, they terrorize drivers on the streets and have complete free reign: