Who Do You Work For?

Apparently Lieutenant Fran Healy of the Philadelphia Police Department has forgotten who he and the rest of the department work for. They work for us, not the other way around.

"Officers' safety comes first, and not infringing on people's rights comes second."

-Lt. Fran Healy

Sorry Mr. Healy, but if your officers are breaking hte law and infringing upon people's rights that delegitimizes the entire police force. I understand Healy's point about officer safety, but if you read the article you'll see that what we have here is a systemic problem within the Philly police department where the cops are acting like thugs.

Healy says,

"There's a lot of bad guys out there, "I want to use my time on them and not waste it on this nonsense."

OK, then don't waste your time by harassing, arresting, and abusing people who have committed no crimes. Only 1 of the 9 victims in the incidents mentioned actually broke any laws. The only people breaking the law here are the police. If you don't want to waste time on this "nonsense" then quit violating civil rights. That should be simple enough, no?

These "settlements" the city is offering aren't worth a damn thing. The cops treated these men in a manner that would get a private citizen thrown in jail for some time if they'd committed the same acts. The settlements are insulting, they're "shut up and go away" payouts that'll do nothing to change the attitude or behavior of Philadelphia's finest.

If the cops arrested me, took my gun and permit, interrogated & detained me for 14 hours and then refused to return my property I know exactly where I'd tell them to put their $3,500 settlement offer.

Also, the Florida "loophole" is not a loophole. It simply allows Philadelphia residents to get a Florida non-resident permit and use that to carry in Philadelphia. Given that Philadelphia routinely revokes permits for reasons that have no relation to violent criminal activity it makes sense to obtain a FL permit and continue to carry. That's what I'd do if my permit was revoked over failure to pay a few parking tickets.