[LakeCity]

The laws we have now are not being enforced. Police and prosecutors simply don't have the resources they need. Our criminal justice system in its present state simply can't do the job that needs to be done. The following is quoted from two recent articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Sun., March 23, 2008

Article:
Pa. a favored source for gun traffickers
By Mark Fazlollah

Inquirer Staff Writer

A few excerpts:

"In Pennsylvania and other states, police and prosecutors generally haven't made straw buyers a priority."

"In Philadelphia, the police unit responsible for tracking guns is only now digging out of a 6,000-case backlog caused by inadequate staffing. The delays got so bad that judges sometimes dismissed cases because necessary lab work wasn't finished in time.

And most of the state's 67 county prosecutors didn't file any cases against alleged straw buyers in 2006 or 2007, court records show.

In Philadelphia, Assistant District Attorney Albert Toczydlowski said his office rarely prosecuted straw buyers until recently, when the state set up a task force to focus on gun violence.

The unit is making about 10 arrests a month, only a small fraction of offenders.

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia, who have the advantage of stronger criminal penalties, likewise file only about 20 to 30 cases a year. It's a matter of limited resources, a spokesman said."

"...when straw buyers are tracked down, their most common story is that they really bought the guns for themselves, but that the guns were stolen. It's often impossible to disprove."

"Prosecutors and agents say they could catch many more straw buyers, using existing laws, if they had more resources."



Philadelphia Inquirer

Sun, Feb. 3, 2008

Article:
Tom Ferrick Jr.: Policing alone won't solve crime problem
Justice system, high dismissal rate still a scandal.
By Tom Ferrick Jr.

For The Inquirer

Excerpted from the article:

"According to the latest data, 54 percent of the felony cases in Philadelphia are dismissed at the preliminary-hearing stage.

Some are dismissed because a judge rules there is not enough evidence to advance to a full trial. But most - nobody knows exactly how many - are dismissed because the case fails to come together: Either witnesses or the arresting officers fail to appear. Or the prosecutor is not ready. Or an important piece of evidence has not arrived.

In Philadelphia's high-volume court system, which handles more than 1,000 cases a week, preliminary hearings rarely come off as scheduled. They are postponed, and then postponed again, and then postponed again, and then dismissed by a judge who feels he must move on to other cases.

I first reported on the city's high dismissal rate eight years ago. So it is a continuing scandal, not a new one.

Federal studies have shown that Philadelphia has the highest dismissal rate of any of the nation's 75 largest counties - nearly double the national average of 24 percent. This is from data compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2002, the latest year available for department researchers."