Guess who's coming to dinner...
I like to make the monthly meetings at my local police headquarters. It's a community affair - the neighbors come out and air some complaints directly to the captain, we get an update on crime in the area, etc. They bring in guest speakers to talk about current events and issues of importance to the neighborhood. The other day I get a letter like I usually do informing me of the next meeting's time and agenda. Guess who's making an appearance four blocks from my house next Tuesday?
http://db.tt/hFs5TXXw
That's right, CeaseFire PA is sending one of their sheepdogs to tell us, the residents of West Philly along the Lancaster Ave. corridor, how we can prevent gun violence in our community! Yay! I'm wondering how she's going to expand "ban all guns" into 30 minutes...
Anyone have any more info this Orla Treacy? I read somewhere that she finished college in 2008, which makes her too young to address a room full of police officers and people who have lived in their neighborhoods going on 50 years on how to prevent anything other than acne, but maybe there's more than one Orla Treacy in Philadelphia.
If anyone has a good summary of the usual BS they try to push please post it here. If all goes well I plan on recording the entire session for posterity.
Re: Guess who's coming to dinner...
Subscribed, This is gonna be good.
Re: Guess who's coming to dinner...
I'll being watching this one too.
Re: Guess who's coming to dinner...
Ok Philly PAFOA'ers, fill the hall, and don't forget the recorder's! Sound's like an entertaining night!
Re: Guess who's coming to dinner...
Is this an open meeting or limited to members of the local community? I would love to attend this one!
Re: Guess who's coming to dinner...
You could ask her why she insists on disarming people when the DOJ suggests that violent crime goes down as lawful gun ownership increases.
You can also ask her how she expects folks to be protected since the Supreme Court has said that the Police have no responsibility to protect everyone.
You can also suggest that Cease Fire PA focus their energy on making sure the judges and the DA actually put people away and not just a slap on the wrist or catch and release.
This should be interesting to say the least.
Re: Guess who's coming to dinner...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SammyL
Is this an open meeting or limited to members of the local community? I would love to attend this one!
Well...it's not a "closed" meeting, but I've only ever seen locals, and occasionally the state rep from the next district down. They have everyone sign in when they come inside, and I've only ever seen local addresses. That's not to say that outsiders *can't* attend, though. I mean, they encourage us to bring friends. They don't say where these friends can come from... ;)
Re: Guess who's coming to dinner...
I'm here, she's here, we're all here. Hopefully my iPad battery will last and hopefully the mic will pick her up. And hopefully Evernote will record the whole thing. Lots of hope. ;)
Re: Guess who's coming to dinner...
Glad nobody came out of their way...she talked for about five minutes. I'll have audio or a transcript up later.
Re: Guess who's coming to dinner...
The recording was *really* soft. But here's the best transcript I could make without audio processing software:
Quote:
People always ask me, "Are you against guns?" I'm not for gun violence. But I oppose illegal firearms. We're not against guns whatsoever. We're against illegal guns. Because it's illegal guns that do the crimes in the area. You had four homicides, you have them around the street, drug dealers, and that's what we're against. And we're really advocating tougher sentencing for people who traffic guns illegally and that's the main thing I'm here to speak with you tonight. So I've been going to community meetings across the city in every police district for the last few months. So we're launching a new program with the D.A.'s office: courtroom watching. And it's the same thing that Mothers Against Drunk Driving does, because they want tougher sentencing for people who were drinking and driving. So we're doing a similar thing, but we want tougher sentencing for people who have illegal gun possession and who have been trafficking those guns in the city of Phila. (unintelligible) [You're] not [testifying] against the person, like, I saw this drug dealer across the street, and I saw that he had a firearm. You're just testifying that, I'm a concerned citizen, I grew up in this neighborhood, illegal gun trafficking is a problem, and the sentencing [lacks parity?] with the crime. So it's giving people a platform to speak out against gun violence. And we're going to make it very very very public. We're relaunching our website. We're going to have a blog. I'm going to be, or another staffer is going to be, at every [cough] and were going to recommend that the judge gives [unintelligible] ... We're trying to change the curve of people getting slapped on the wrist, probation, for having eight pounds of illegal firearms.They're just back on the streets, and the police can be patrolling morning noon and night, but the same people they put in jail are back on the street two days later or a month later or two months later, it's still too early. And there's no message that, I can't do this because otherwise I'll spend five years in jail. ... We already have one sentencing coming up in December for the 26th police district but eventually there will be a sentencing for the 16th district. So if anyone wants to get involved ... Feel free to come talk to me, even if you don't really want to testify ... [unintelligible; but I did catch her talk about upcoming legislation and contacting your reps] ... I have a pledge form, it has your name, your email address, your phone number ...
[unintelligible on the recording; Captain Wilczynski verifies with her that the guy being sentenced will be there while you're there testifying that you don't want illegal guns on your block. Possible safety concern for people who do show up.]
[After the meeting she was bending some guy's ear about HR822.]
So that was interesting. I have the "pledge form" she passed around - I'll make a copy tomorrow at work and post it here. It's a hoot - a real propaganda piece.