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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Today's Note From a Madman
May 12, 2008
Governor Philip Norman Bredesen
Phil Bredesen is the Governor of Tennessee. Allow me to re-state that: Phil
Bredesen is the two-term Democratic Governor of Tennessee who swept all 95
counties in the Volunteer State during his re-election bid in 2006. In fact,
Bredesen garnered more than twice the number of votes which his Republican
opponent Jim Bryson had cast for him.
Bredesen came out and lambasted Obama for his "bitter voters" comment, although
many think the statement was taken out of context.
"And it's not surprising then they (small town dwellers) get bitter, they cling
to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or
anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their
frustrations."
-Senator Barack Obama
It was s dumb comment for Obama to make, and a statement which gave those in the
Democratic Party who speak out loud no choice but to disagree with. After all,
being a Democrat in a Fox News world means never being able to make a mistake.
Even though Bredesen hasn't yet jumped on the Barack Obama bandwagon, which is
getting more and more crowded every day, he should be a man on the Illinois
Senator's short list for Vice President. A popular Southern Governor who managed
to shake the "Liberal" tag and still get important legislation passed, such as
bringing education to the forefront, Bredesen makes for a good possibility as
Obama's Number Two.
Although Bredesen doesn't have the military experience which would be nice to
see in a VP running mate, his upside is considerable. He was born in New Jersey
in 1943, but spent his early years on a farm in New York, educated at Harvard
and has real health care experience as the founder of HealthAmerica Corp, a
company which he sold some twenty years ago. Although his experience spans
business, health care and agriculture, it doesn't seem to end there.
Bredesen popularity was helped by his ability to lure both the National Football
League and National Hockey League to Tennessee. Both the Tennessee Titans and
Nashville Predators (NFL and NHL, respectively) have found homes during his
years as Nashville Mayor (the Titans, whom he lured away from Houston where they
played for years as the Oilers, also play in Nashville). And whether or not you
consider the attraction of two major sport's leagues as accomplishments, the
people of Nashville thought of it as a really big deal. (We here in new Jersey
almost lost the NHL's New Jersey Devils to Tennessee in 1996.)
But Bredesen's greatest accomplishment appears to be what he has done, and is
doing, in health care. he has done what every Republican claims to want to do
with every single government program that benefits the poor - trim the fat. The
TennCare program, which fed off of Medicaid, was out of control. Bredesen made
it a priority to fix the system and apparently, has. The new Cover Tennessee
program, while not comprehensive, is a good start in a state whose medical bills
were out of control.
From www.covertn.gov
-CoverKids offers comprehensive health coverage to uninsured children in
Tennessee, age 18 and under, and pregnant women.
-AccessTN provides a comprehensive health insurance plan for seriously ill
adults who have been turned down by insurance companies.
-CoverTN partners the state, private employers and individuals to offer
guaranteed, affordable basic health coverage for employees of Tennessee's small
businesses. Complete the qualification form to find out if your business
qualifies.
-CoverRx offers affordable medication to low income, uninsured Tennesseans.
-Cover Tennessee is not an entitlement program — it is voluntary health
insurance coverage that is affordable to participants and affordable to the
state.
Whereas I am a proponent of mandatory coverage, this program offered by
Tennessee is a good place to begin.
There are many possible VP candidate which Senator Obama will have to choose
from, and even though Governor Bredesen wasn't, and isn't, on board right now
doesn't mean he should be excluded from the list.
-Noah Greenberg
KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY
by Victoria A. Brownworth
copyright c 2008 Journal-Register Newspapers, Inc.
As I watched the funeral of Philadelphia police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski on May
9th, that dreadful feeling of deja vu came over me. I’d been here before, at the
funeral of a valiant Philadelphia cop killed in the line of duty.
And I knew I would be here again.
As much as Mayor Michael Nutter, who sat in the front row at the Basilica at the
funeral and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey represent the “new” Philadelphia
augured in with Nutter’s inauguration in January, the criminal element in the
city is still the same: Violent, gun-toting, murderous, sociopathic career
criminals with no regard for anyone else–not cops, not civilians, not children.
Funerals are sad affairs and Liczbinski’s was sadder than most. It wasn’t just
that he leaves behind a wife, Michelle, and three children: Matt, Stephen and
Amber. It’s that he represents yet another Philadelphian who lost his life to
the seemingly unstoppable violence in our city.
By all accounts Liczbinski was one of those guys who would do anything for
anyone. His final words as he lay bleeding to death from a severed artery on a
street in Port Richmond was “Tell my wife and kids I love them. Tell my wife
I’ll miss her.” He had been shot five times.
There were few dry eyes at the Basilica on Friday. Despite the pouring rain,
phalanxes of police officers lined the Parkway outside, while others filled the
pews inside behind Liczbinski’s wife, children, eight siblings and their
families.
There *should* be tears throughout Philadelphia. Not just because Liczbinski was
murdered three days shy of his 40th birthday, was still married to his
high-school sweetheart, was a dedicated husband, father and 12-year veteran of
the police force who had just gotten a promotion, but had still decided to stay
in the dicey 24th district. There should be tears because of what Liczbinski
stood for: he stood for decency. He was a Philadelphian who wanted to make this
city better. Not just for his own wife and children or his own neighborhood, but
for everyone.
He died trying.
When Liczbinski was killed–executed, said eye-witnesses–on May 3rd, he was one
of several officers responding to a bank robbery. The three male suspects had
dressed like Muslim women, in full Burkas and head scarves as they held up the
Bank of America in Port Richmond.
Howard Cain, who allegedly shot Liczbinski with an SKS automatic rifle, was
killed at the scene after firing at the officer with the shout to his
accomplices “Bang him!” Levon Warner was arrested that day. Eric Floyd was
arrested on May 8th, after a nationwide manhunt. All three men had long arrest
records that made it difficult for ordinary Philadelphians to understand why
they were on the streets to commit yet another crime. The Germantown Masjid
Mosque has refused to conduct funeral services for Cain. A spokesperson for the
mosque said that murder is contrary to Islamic law and that Cain’s actions were
contrary to Islamic tradition.
The horror and sadness of Liczbinski’s murder have cast a pall over the city as
flags fly at half mast and black drapes police stations.
While Liczbinski’s viewing was being held in the Northeast on Thursday night,
national newscasts were talking about police in Philadelphia, but not about the
murder. They were showing police videotaped in what appeared to all who viewed
it as a Rodney King-style beating of three suspects in a triple shooting in
Feltonville on May 5th, just days after the Liczbinski murder.
The video–shot by a Fox 29 news helicopter–is hard to excuse, even in the
atmosphere created by yet another cop killing and when one of the suspects was
still on the loose. For 11 minutes of footage the three suspects were kicked and
punched by the police, even after all of them were subdued and on the ground.
For many Philadelphians the scene was a reminder of the bad old days when police
ruled the city with night sticks and Billy clubs.
I remember those days vividly. I was the star witness in the first federal
police brutality trial in Philadelphia in 1977, after having witnessed a beating
much like the one most of America has now seen either on the evening news or on
YouTube. I reported the incident to the police and the FBI and as a consequence
became the star witness in the case. For nine months I dealt with line ups,
police surveillance and threats, FBI investigations, constant interviews and
prepping by the U.S. attorney’s office. I wanted justice: for the victim of the
beating (who was not a criminal and who had never been in trouble with the law),
justice for the city, which at that time was known as the police brutality
capital of the nation, and justice for all the cops who were doing their jobs
without violence and retribution.
A lot can happen in 30 years. In the three decades since I was a college student
on a witness stand testifying against police officers who had beaten a man
unconscious on a Society Hill street corner, the police department is no longer
run by mob rule as it was in the Rizzo era. In 2008, police beating suspects is
an anomaly, not the norm. Which makes the May 5th incident that much more
terrible.
The change in atmosphere in Philadelphia also makes it incumbent upon both Mayor
Nutter and Chief Ramsey to review the circumstances of the May 5th incident as
expeditiously as possible and punish the officers involved. There are no
excuses. Not for the three gunman who were involved in the killing of Sgt.
Liczbinski and not for the 13 police officers who have been re-assigned pending
an investigation for the beating of the three suspects on May 5th.
There are those who insist that since the suspects in the May 5th incident are
criminals, it doesn’t matter what the police did to them. But anyone who says
that insults the memory of good cops like Liczbinski or Chuck Cassidy who was
murdered on Oct. 31, 2007 or Gary Skerski who was murdered on May 8, 2006–all
killed in the line of duty, all killed doing their job protecting
Philadelphians, all leaving wives and kids behind.
In his emotional and deeply moving tribute to Liczbinski at his funeral, Ramsey
said “As long as there is breath in our bodies, we will honor Sgt. Liczbinski.”
Part of honoring the fallen cop is making sure other cops aren’t behaving like
criminals.
The day before the funeral, Ramsey and Nutter were both on national morning
newscasts answering questions about the alleged beating by a sergeant and 12
other officers.
Three suspects in a North Philadelphia drug-related triple shooting--Dawayne
Dyches, 24, Brian Hall, 23, and Pete Hopkins, 19–were the ones alleged to have
been beaten by police. Rev. Al Sharpton has said the alleged beatings were
racially motivated, because like the three suspects in the Liczbinski shooting,
the suspects arrested in the North Philadelphia shooting are African American.
The accused police officers are white. Ramsey has said repeatedly that he does
not believe the incident was racially motivated but was, rather, a response to
the outrage police officers were feeling about Liczbinski’s murder.
Nutter agreed, insisting the incident has “virtually nothing to do with race, it
has to do with crime.”
And therein lies the real problem in both these events: Crime.
Crime is pandemic in Philadelphia. Guns are endemic to Philadelphia. The
combination has earned the city the national moniker “Killadelphia.” We have a
city filled with career criminals who have not just guns, but automatic weapons.
Those weapons are being used on cops and civilians with equal lack of concern
for the consequences.
While Eric Floyd was on the run–which he described to police as “being like a
rat in a hole”–his mother and other relatives refused to tell police where he
was. (He was hiding out with his girlfriend, who has also been arrested.)
After the three suspects alleged to have been beaten by the police were
arrested, members of their families were quick to state that the three could not
have been involved in the triple shooting. Two of the three suspects have
criminal records, despite their youth.
Nutter and Ramsey are trying not to equivocate on the beatings, but Nutter said
on ABC that “The video is the video. We have no audio. You don’t know what was
going on at that moment when the officers approached the vehicle. There will be
an investigation and we will move on.”
Nutter also said, in defense of all police officers, “This is very dangerous
work. We had an officer assassinated on Saturday. Everyone has to understand
that this entire city has been affected.”
What our city really has been affected by is crime and criminals. What compounds
and complicates the endless cycle of violence is the atmosphere of complicity
created in and by the families and communities of career criminals that allows
these men to continue committing crime after crime.
The tragedy of Stephen Liczbinski’s murder is no more and no less than the
tragedy of any Philadelphian killed by what some call “senseless” violence. But
is it “senseless” or is it really cold-hearted, sociopathic crime perpetrated
repetitively by the same career criminals and gang-bangers?
The three suspects in the Liczbinski murder had long arrest records. Each had
received early parole for their most recent crimes. The alleged trigger man,
Cain, had been paroled after serving a third of a nine to 18 year sentence.
Each of these men spent their entire adult lives and the majority of their teen
years committing serious crimes against Philadelphians and Philadelphia,
culminating in the murder of Liczbinski.
It is unclear whether the other three suspects–the ones allegedly beaten by
police–are guilty of the triple shooting for which they were arrested. Dyches
and Hopkins have criminal records; Hall does not. But Hall is hanging out with
criminals, which suggests it will only be a matter of time until he, too, is
involved in crimes other than the one he has been charged with.
We have choices as Philadelphians: We can support the kind of decency and
lawfulness that guys like Stephen Liczbinski symbolize. Or we can pretend the
criminals in our families and communities aren’t criminals and continue to look
the other way as our city gets more and more dangerous and violent.
There is no acceptable level of criminality in Philadelphia, whether it’s
shooting a cop or beating a suspect. Every Philadelphian needs to adopt a
no-tolerance policy when it comes to crime. Until we do, there will be more
tragedies, more murders and more lives lost, one way or another.
In response to "Gas Options", Dorothy Schwartz writes:
The only good thing about rising gas prices was your column today: Very funny.
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg