Want to go after CeaseFire PA ? Stumbled onto this while looking for something else

With all the talk about the new proposed illegal Philly gun ordinances. and wanting to hit back at CeaseFire PA, I found an interesting write up that outlines and highlights the late 90's Anti Gun Groups legal strategies to use contigent attorneys to co erce and co opt local elected officials. Thought it might be interesting to start connecting the dots between the Executive Board of CeaseFire PA and the City of Philadelphia. Im betting there's all sorts of conflict of interest relationships going on. Remember we can use smear campaign tactics just like they can. While there is an inherant morality in always trying to adhere to the high road, that moral superiority quickly becomes worthless when your enemy is fighting the War with Flamethrowers and you stick to a water pistol.I say its time to start fighting these assholes with their own tactics and peel back the layers of corruption and expose them.

Article follows.


http://www.i2i.org/main/article.php?article_id=520



III. Contingent Fee Government Lawsuits are Invented and Coordinated by Private Interests who then Solicit Government Officials to Serve as Nominal Plaintiffs.


A long article in The American Lawyer magazine explains how the recent wave of anti-gun lawsuits was invented by an anti-gun group, then taken up as a business enterprise by aggressive contingent fee lawyers. (Long Shot at Gun Tort Dollars, by Douglas McCollam, June 1, 1999.)



Dennis Henigan is the lead attorney for the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, which is the legal arm of Sarah Bradys group Handgun Control, Inc. At a breakfast meeting in Washington, Henigan convinced contingent fee attorney Wendell Gauthier to take the lead on anti-gun government lawsuits.



New Orleans lawyer Gauthier is head of the Castano Group, a consortium of sixty contingent fee firms that worked on the tobacco cases. Gauthier convinced many of these law firms to sign up for anti-gun litigation, as the sequel to the their tobacco cases.



The contingent fee lawyers then traveled the country to solicit mayors to serve as plaintiffs. New Orleans, Cincinnati, Newark, and Cleveland are among those who signed on to the Gauthier/Castano solicitations. These [mayors] have been hoodwinked by the plaintiffs bar into thinking these suits are an easy source of revenue, charges Paul Jannuzzo, general counsel of Glock, Inc., a major handgun manufacturer.



Although the lawsuits are premised on very dubious legal theories, and have been dismissed in many courts, Gauthier explains that in his line of work, he doesnt have to win, he only has to settle. Of course Castano would take a percentage of any money allocated to the cities under any settlement agreements.



One of the factors that can coerce settlements is that the entire gun industry, put together, would not make a single Fortune 500 companies. Thus, the pretrial discovery litigation expenses from the 30 different lawsuits orchestrated by the anti-gun groups can be crippling, even if the plaintiffs never win a single case. Gauthier and his contingent fee government contract lawyers, believe that there is nothing like a good discovery battle to make defendants reach for their wallets.



The October 1999 issue of Reason magazine fills in the details of the cynical strategy of blackmail through frivolous litigation. (Big Guns, by Walter Olson.):



whatever possessed the mayors to dream up these suits? They weren't the ones who dreamed them up. As the June American Lawyer recounts in detail, the gun litigation got under way when a bunch of the nation's richest trial lawyers began looking for new worlds to conquer after the successful mugging of the tobacco industry. Following a December pow-wow in Chicago to get their story straight, they began flying around the country to pitch their services to mayors and city attorneys. Under the terms of contingency fee agreements with the cities, they stand to pocket as much as 30 percent of any trial winnings.



the idea is to create as much uncertainty as possible, capitalizing on the difficulty of defending against many different theories in many different places at once, all this aside from the irreducible random factor in all litigation. [We] have the resources to start a war instead of taking little potshots, trial lawyer John Coale[1] told The New Yorker's Boyer. Well, weve started a war. Attorney Dennis Henigan of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence said what he's after is to create a "credible threat of liability....The more cities that file, the greater is the threat. So what you really want is a diversity of cases in lots of different regions, lots of different courts to create the greatest threat of liability." You might call this a "spaghetti strategy": Throw a potful against the wall and see if any strands stick. You might also compare it with what the Irish Republican Army said after its Brighton hotel bombing failed to assassinate Margaret Thatcher: "We only have to be lucky once. You have to be lucky every time."


I know the Federal Law bars lawsuits against manufacturer's like is discussed in the article. But I just recently saw reports that as recently as December 2009 the SCOTUS tossed out yet another manufacturer liability lawsuit brought by the Brady Bunch in 2009 , Adames v Beretta USA. So even thought theres a clear Federal Law prohibiting these suits , the Brady Bunch is still pursuing them anyway.

Personally, I dont think their thinking very clearly about this tactic, because everytime they have one tossed it just creates a bigger list of cases they've lost.


I know Philly's proposed ordinances arent the same thing as these manufacturer liability suits, but still think the article above gives a valuable insight into the Anti's strategy and Im convinced some digging will uncover connections between Philly Officials and CeaseFire PA that they would rather remain buried.



Thoughts ?

They don’t even bother to hide their plans they have a long term strategy and battle plan of direct action.

They are just going to keep slowly pry people warm finger off their firearm rights by a death of 20,000 plus small, “reasonable / common sense” infringement with yet another gun control law with some claimed noble "reason", much like it happened in other countries till some tragic horrible event comes up to justify the bigger larger total confiscation, step once they have enough controls in place to make sure there is total compliance to disarm everyone, except the criminals of course they are exempt.

total confiscation - It's going to happen here sooner or later because fill in the reason ______ most gun owners rationalize WHY they don't personally do anything to stop them.

Just going to keep doing my small part to make sure it doesn’t happen on my watch.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WhiteFeather

They don’t even bother to hide their plans they have a long term strategy and battle plan of direct action.

They are just going to keep slowly pry people warm finger off their firearm rights by a death of 20,000 plus small, “reasonable / common sense” infringement with yet another gun control law with some claimed noble "reason", much like it happened in other countries till some tragic horrible event comes up to justify the bigger larger total confiscation, step once they have enough controls in place to make sure there is total compliance to disarm everyone, except the criminals of course they are exempt.

total confiscation - It's going to happen here sooner or later because fill in the reason ______ most gun owners rationalize WHY they don't personally do anything to stop them.

Just going to keep doing my small part to make sure it doesn’t happen on my watch.

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Believe me I share your frustration and cyniscm that why Im interested in trying to expose the corrupt connections between the elected officials in Philly and CeaseFire. I KNOW they exist, Bryan Miller is involved and I already have PROOF that he violated IRS non profit regs in NJ and lied on a Federal Document ( IRS 501.3(c) ) Yearly Non Profit Tax Filing. He and they have gotten away with it , which only breeds in their mind that they can continue to do so. We KNOW the corruption exists, we just have to be willing to find it and expose it to discredit both of our enemies, the politicians and CeaseFire.


Here's a list of their Board of Directors and Staff. It shouldnt take to much effort to start tracking down connections , illegal campaign contributions , etc and exposing it.


Board of Directors:

Officers:

Phil Goldsmith, President, is a principal and founder of GoldsmithKahnAssociates, a public issues management consulting firm. He has held senior positions in a broad spectrum of fields including law, journalism, government, banking, and human resource consulting. He is the former managing director of the City of Philadelphia, and past interim director of the School District of Philadelphia.

Nancy Lamason, Vice-President, is one of the founding members of CeaseFirePA. She came to this issue as a concerned citizen after many successful years in business, both in Pennsylvania and abroad. Nancy is one of our hardest working fundraisers, and most reliable office volunteer.

Robin Valicenti, Secretary, is an art therapist who works with youth in crisis, often from the very communities being ravaged by gun violence. She is one of our founding members as well, and this is her second position as a CeaseFire PA officer.

James C. Higgins, Treasurer, is an attorney in private practice in Delaware County, with a long history of public service. Jim is a veteran of the Vietnam War, and several years ago served two terms as a Commissioner of Radnor Township, Pennsylvania. He is the president of a historical foundation in his community and has been an advocate for common sense firearms regulations for over thirty years.

Margaret (Peggy) McCausland, Immediate Past President, is a prominent member of the Philadelphia bar who practices in the field of employment law. She is also on the Board of Directors of Robin’s Nest, a New Jersey based group that supports adolescents at risk, and is an award-winning volunteer attorney with the Support Center for Child Advocates, which represents abused and neglected children throughout the Philadelphia area.

Members:

Susan Burt-Collins practiced criminal law for many years, and been a candidate for Montgomery County District Attorney in the past. She’s also been a member of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Robert Eddis is a long time police officer and former president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 5, and is currently the Chief of Staff at Lodge 5. His connections to law enforcement agencies across the state are an essential part of our outreach in that area.

Dr. Paul J. Fink is a nationally recognized leader in the field of psychiatry, as well as a long time advocate for children. He has headed the Psychiatry Departments at Thomas Jefferson University and Albert Einstein Hospitals in Philadelphia, and has been president of the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Psychiatrists. He is currently chairman of the Philadelphia Interdisciplinary Mortality Review Team’s Youth Homicide Committee.

David Glancey recently retired from the Philadelphia Board of Revision of Taxes, where he held several positions over the years, including Chairman. He is now on the staff of the University of Pennsylvania, in their Office of Government Relations as a liaison to local government.

Mary Beth Hacke joined the CeaseFire PA board as one of the original members. Her son was killed ten years ago, at the age of fourteen months, when he was shot at in their parked car at a gas station, by a convicted felon with a gun. Ever since then throughout her Pittsburgh community, she has been outspoken against lax regulations which allow criminals easy access to handguns.

Warren Haggerty was formerly the Mayor of Reading, PA, and is now heads up the Reading Downtown Improvement District Authority. He is a strong voice for makng the connection between safer streets and the economic viability of communities across the state.

Raymond T. Jones, Jr. is founder of Philadelphia Safety Net and co-founder of the anti-violence group Men United for a Better Philadelphia, noted for its innovative “street shoulder” approach to ending violence. Ray’s length history of service to the community has garnered him numerous awards.

Dr. Julie Levitt is a practicing clinical psychologist in Lower Merion, PA. She represents CeaseFire PA in an interfaith collaborative on the Main Line that conducts vigils and educational programming on gun violence prevention, and lectures widely on conflict resolution.

Lisa Macaulay, joined the CeaseFire PA board last year. She is a business executive with Johnson and Johnson, and lives in Chester County. Lisa brings valued management perspective to the organization.

Dan Muroff is a former legislative aide in Harrisburg and on Capitol Hill. He now has his own government relations firm and possesses an intimate familiarity with the people and institutions that CeaseFire PA must appeal to in order to achieve our organizational goals.

Linda Rosenfeld has served as past President of the Allentown City Council, and Vice President of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners. She is currently a member of the panel of court appointed special advocates serving the needs of vulnerable youth in her community.

James Sayne has been a part of our organization’s leadership from its earliest days, and has held two executive positions on the board in past years. He is employed by Unisys, Inc. in the field of computer systems development.

Jennifer W. Stein has been a CeaseFire PA supporter since its founding, and came onto the board in the spring of 2006. She was a co-founder of the Coalition Against Jewish Domestic Violence in 1983, and has been active in anti-violence causes since then. She is an independent documentary filmmaker and lives in Philadelphia’s western suburbs.

Bridgette Tobler is a licensed clinical social worker and therapist on the staff of Pennsylvania Clinical Schools, in West Chester, PA, a residential treatment center for youthful offenders. She is also a member of the National Association Of Social Workers and The Fiery Phoenix MC Inc.

Staff:

Joe Grace, Executive Director, served for the past 3 years as Communications Director for the City of Philadelphia. Joe is an attorney and former journalist, and has extensive experience managing high profile political campaigns. As chief spokesman for the Street Administration since 2005, Joe worked on the issue of gun violence and illegal handguns at a local, statewide and national level.

Jana Finder, Western Pennsylvania Coordinator, is an attorney with a background in civil rights and public health. Jana coordinates the efforts of the CeaseFire PA Education Fund in Allegheny County and neighboring counties.

Ok, in one quick search, I just discovered that Nancy Lamson of Radnor and CeaseFire PA Vice President is also active in the PA League of Women Voters. So pressure could be applied on the League of Women Voters by asking them why one of their committe members is an activist committed to the forced disarmament and victimization of women via gun control.

And thats how it works. Identify the links, and start attacking the support structure and ancillary connections that hold these people up. A single properly placed charged can bring down a bridge with one shot, we as a group of extremely talented and knoweldgeable people can certainly do the same with CeaseFire PA



Here's another

Robin Valicenti, Secretary, is an art therapist who works with youth in crisis, often from the very communities being ravaged by gun violence. She is one of our founding members as well, and this is her second position as a CeaseFire PA officer.

Now thats a title and descriptive bio, but whats beneath the surface and closer to reality ?



Current•clinical art therapist; art therapy edcuator at private practice
•consultant at Private Practice
Past•art committee at American Art Therapy Association
Education•Hahnemann University
Connections 17 connections IndustryHospital & Health Care
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robin Valicenti’s Summary
Robin Valicenti’s Specialties:
Clinical Art Therapy, Educator of Art Therapy


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robin Valicenti’s Experience
clinical art therapist; art therapy edcuator
private practice
(Hospital & Health Care industry)

January 1992 — Present (18 years 1 month)


consultant
Private Practice
(Hospital & Health Care industry)

January 1992 — Present (18 years 1 month)


art committee
American Art Therapy Association
(Hospital & Health Care industry)

2004 — 2009 (5 years )


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robin Valicenti’s Education
Hahnemann University
Masters Degree , Creative Arts Therapy , 1988 — 1990

Activities and Societies:Hahnemann Graduate Student Society



An ART THERAPIST ???? Are you kidding ? Her bio on CeasFires PA's page makes it sound like she's some kind of noble " youth in crisis " counselor. Havent these " art programs " been near epic failures in the Prison System ? And what do her qualifications have to do with any shred of intelligence of law , Constitutional History, Violent Crime, self defense ,etc ?

Lets take a look at

Margaret (Peggy) McCausland Margaret (Peggy) McCausland, Immediate Past President

Follow the link to her various published papers and speeches. What did she say in them ? Does reviewing them reveal any damning statements or viewpoints that have been long forgotten but would be embarrasing if brought to light ? Sometimes we have to go DEEP into backround , just like a political campaign, to find the long forgotten " dirt " that will compromise someone in the here and now.


http://www.mccauslandlaw.com/About.htm


Next up

Susan Burt-Collins practiced criminal law for many years, and been a candidate for Montgomery County District Attorney in the past. She’s also been a member of the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.


According to the bio, Ms Collins served on the Pennsylvania Commision on Crime and Deliquency. Were her opinions or recommendations while in that capacity at least somewhat contributory to Philly's lackadasical handling of violent criminals, including juveniles ? Are the minutes of this Commision available for review ? What do they say ? Im betting it would be particularly embarrassing for Ms Collins if it were discovered that she could be credibly linked to the epidemic of violent crime in Philly as a result of her opinions or recommendations. According to the links below she's made noteable campaign contributions to many of our well known enemies

http://www.campaignmoney.com/politic...s.asp?cycle=08

And she's also a criminal defense attorney

http://www.democratslmn.org/democraticdirectory.htm


How many true scumbags has she successfully managed to get released back into Society to continue their life of crime ? I would imagine an FOIA request, even redacted would reveal the original charge and the result of sentencing , appeal , etc.


We MUST impeach these people's credibility at every opportunity. The leg work in connecting the dots is gonna be a bitch, and its got to be credible and verifiable, but it can be done. Bottom line is IMHO , one of our best tactics is to make these people radioactive as political liabilities for any current or future elected official. If politicians wont want to risk being associated with them, thats a signifcant blow to their abilities. Sure a few hard core ideologues will staunchly stand by them. But those people are unreachable anyway. Look at how Bryan Miller has completely dissapeared off the radar in Jersey since OGAM and Corzine's loss. He hasnt even blogged about the several higher profile gun crimes ( like the episode last week in Virginia ) or the arrest this week of the guy in North Jersey with the oh noes .50 cal Bushmaster. Bryan's been vocal about the .50 cal ban , and all of a sudden he's silent on the matter ?? Why ? Because he's essentially a nobody at the Statehouse now , with Christie as Gov and NRA A rated Steve Sweeney as Senate President, he doesnt have a sympathetic ear to cry into and he knows it.

[QUOTE=WhiteFeather;1074898 They are just going to keep slowly pry people warm finger off their firearm rights by a death of 20,000 plus small, “reasonable / common sense” infringement with yet another gun control law with some claimed noble "reason", much like it happened in other countries till some tragic horrible event comes up to justify the bigger larger total confiscation, step once they have enough controls in place to make sure there is total compliance to disarm everyone, except the criminals of course they are exempt. [/QUOTE]

Ayn Rand said it best in The Only Path to Tomorrow

Quote:

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Throughout history, no tyrant ever rose to power except on the claim of representing ``the common good.´´ Napoleon ``served the common good´´ of France. Hitler is ``serving the common good´´ of Germany. Horrors which no man would dare consider for his own selfish sake are perpetrated with a clear conscience by ``altruists´´ who justify themselves by-the common good.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by son of the revolution

snip... I already have PROOF that he violated IRS non profit regs in NJ...snip

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Wasn't Al Capone brought down because of taxes? Why not these pieces of crap.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Warpt762x39

Ayn Rand said it best in The Only Path to Tomorrow





Wasn't Al Capone brought down because of taxes? Why not these pieces of crap.

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In Jersey at least Im having a really hard time to get anyone in the media interested in following up on it. I have a couple other things up my sleeve that I cant get into detail about right now to try and drag this thing across the finish line, but ............................

The bigger and better question is, since he's gotten away with it thus far, what else remains to be uncovered with CeaseFire PA ? Nothing encourages further bad behavior than being convinced you got away with it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Warpt762x39

Wasn't Al Capone brought down because of taxes? Why not these pieces of crap.

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According to the FBI History File on Al Capone, he was convicted on Tax Evasion and Prohibition charges. He did 11 years in federal prison. The URL I referenced gives some interesting information about him. It's pretty short, but it's an interesting read.

An art therapist?

Well, the recidivism rate is 94%, almost all of them end up back in jail within two years, but their tagging is so much more colorful now...

Officers:CeaseFirePA

Phil Goldsmith, President, is a principal and founder of GoldsmithKahnAssociates





Most recently, Phil was Managing Director of the City of Philadelphia, responsible for overseeing the 13 operating departments of the city.As a member of the Cabinet, he reported to the Mayor.Previously, Phil served as Acting Executive Director of Fairmount Park, one of the largest urban park systems in the world.From November 2000 to December 2001, he served as Interim Chief Executive Officer for the School District of Philadelphia, the nation's seventh largest school district.


Gee, there couldnt possibly be a conflict of interest when the President of CeaseFire was also the former Managing Director of Philadelphia could there??

Im assuming this was during the Street Administration, which was scandal ridden. Wonder what Phil's policy decisions would reveal ? Frankly, he should NEVER have been permitted to hold both positions at the same time. How much absolute,unadulterated bullshit from CeaseFire did he feed to the Admin ?

This is one guy I'd LOVE to get the dirt on


Found this, from Phil's very own Blog, acknowledging that over the last FOUR administrations, covering nearly 30 years the average homicide level per year in Philly consistantly hovered between the mid 300's to just slightly at 400.

http://philgoldsmith.blogspot.com/

THE FACTS, NOTHING BUT THE FACTS

In my Daily News column of November 7th, I make the point that the vast majority of Philadelphians would say that the homicide rate is much higher under Mayor John Street than it was under Mayor Ed Rendell. The facts show quite the contrary: Here is a list of the number of homcides from Rizzo to Street. (The source is the Philadelphia Police Department)

RIZZO

1972 413
1973 430
1974 444
1975 435
1976 339
1977 323
1978 351
1979 385

GREEN

1980 437
1981 363
1982 332
1983 312

GOODE

1984 263
1985 274
1986 343
1987 338
1988 371
1989 476
1990 500
1991 440

RENDELL

1992 425
1993 439
1994 404
1995 432
1996 420
1997 418
1998 338
1999 292

STREET

2000 319
2001 309
2002 288
2003 348
2004 330
2005 380
2006 406
2007 (11/5) 342


In short, during the Rizzo Administration, annual homicides averaged 390; Green was 361; Goode, 376; Rendell, 396 and Street 363.


Phil isnt kind enough to break these figures down further , so we can see how many of these homicides are gang or crime related, how many were ruled justifiable self defense,etc. What we do know is the Anti's have a disturbing and well known propensity to lump ALL the incidents together, in order to artificially pump up the results to "epidemic" levels that MUST be dealt with !:rolleyes:

Of course 300 to 400 homicides a year is terrible, but in a city with a population of 1.5 Million as of 2008, that equates to something like less then 1% per annum. ( Someone check that math please, I suck at it so I just did a guesstimate on the percentage)

Philly is the 4th largest City in the Country, what are the yearly averages across the same time frame and whats the percentage of population per annum in other comparable Cities ? Im betting we would find indisputable proof that its NOT " the guns " that are the problem, but we need the evidence to show it.

Here's another neat math trick to make our point. Phil's blog talks about the number of Philly police officers never being below 8,000. If we assume the force is still roughly 8k strong, that equates to roughly 187.5 citizens for every ONE Cop.

Again what is the cop to citizen ratio in other comparable Cities ? Would anyone seriously argue that a single officer could possibly serve and protect nearly 200 people ? How many of the City Force are actually beat cops vs administration ? How does that effect the ratio ? Are the homicide rates higher or lower in Cities of similar size that have stricter gun laws ?