Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s edition of Shackamaxon looks at a crackdown on \u201csmoke shops,\u201d the Philadelphia police\u2019s handling of traffic citations, how Harrisburg deadlines can be leveraged to fund transit, and what City Council forgot to talk about in its first session after returning from summer break.<\/p>\n
Up in smoke?<\/p>\n
An increasingly common frustration has been expressed across Philadelphia over the rise of what are known as \u201csmoke shops,\u201d which have proliferated in the city\u2019s commercial corridors. Ostensibly operating as grocery stores, they are often locations where illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia are sold. They tend to operate late into the night and attract the ire of both residents and other business owners.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why it was refreshing to see someone make a substantive move to shut them down. State Rep. Amen Brown, whose district includes parts of West Philadelphia<\/a> and Logan Square, has put together an initiative he\u2019s called Operation Breezy. Working with both city and state law enforcement, and relying on the support of members of the community, Brown\u2019s efforts have already shuttered 13 of the establishments.<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s approach uses confidential informants, many of whom come from the community itself. He told me that one of the now-closed shops had roughly 40 pounds of marijuana on the premises, the outlets routinely sell out-of-state cigarettes, and that firearms have been seized as part of the efforts. Residents who would like to help can send an email to OperationBreezy@gmail.com<\/a> or a message to the effort\u2019s Instagram page, @operationbreezy.<\/p>\n Brown said he\u2019d like to do more to stop the smoke shops, but that the best option requires action at the local level. Rather than enacting a broad-based curfew for all businesses, he\u2019d prefer to target just the smoke shops. He says that might be possible by imposing restrictions on the operating hours of grocery stores that are smaller than 300 square feet. That\u2019s a size below which, officials say, legitimate uses for a storefront become impractical.<\/p>\n Official inaction<\/p>\n Philadelphians were rightly outraged at the actions of a police officer who, in August, left a struggling pedestrian lying in the street<\/a>, where he was later killed in a hit-and-run. Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel said he was \u201cdisgusted\u201d by the patrolman\u2019s behavior. City officials announced their intent to fire the officer. That\u2019s the right call, even if the city\u2019s cop-friendly arbitration process leads to 85% of officers getting their jobs back<\/a> after alleged misconduct.<\/p>\n Still, I couldn\u2019t help wondering whether this incident is a natural outgrowth of the department\u2019s policies. The Philadelphia police simply do not seem to take enforcing traffic laws seriously enough. Traffic citations have plunged over the last few decades<\/a>. In the 1990s, officers regularly issued roughly half a million tickets per year. In 2023, about 45,000 tickets were handed out. These days, we celebrate an increase of a few thousand citations, even as overall stops remain at a fraction of the total pedestrian safety experts say is needed. Commissioner Bethel has said that enforcing traffic violations is a lesser priority<\/a>.<\/p>\n While many officers blame the city\u2019s Driving Equality Law<\/a> for this decline, that measure does not prevent officers from enforcing moving violations<\/a>, which are the most dangerous offenses. Failing to do so is a choice the department has made on its own. The result of this lack of enforcement, traffic safety experts say, has been an increase in reckless and aggressive driving.<\/p>\n Given that a city controller report called Philadelphia\u2019s streets the most dangerous of any major U.S. city<\/a>, this lack of prioritization must change. While speed cameras and other forms of automated enforcement have made a difference along high-traffic corridors like Roosevelt Boulevard and Broad Street, they can only enforce certain offenses in certain locations. Reckless driving is an issue almost everywhere.<\/p>\n It is impossible to know what went through the mind of the officer who left Eugene Beauford in the street. The department has declined to publish his name, let alone make him available for an interview. But perhaps this horrific incident will prompt police brass to rethink the department\u2019s strategy for enforcing traffic laws.<\/p>\n Skill game shutdown<\/p>\n Next month, Pennsylvania\u2019s so-called games of skill will need to be unplugged. Oct. 13 marks the last day<\/a> of the grace period the state Supreme Court gave the General Assembly to devise a taxation and regulatory scheme for the machines, devices that resemble slot machines and which are currently banned under state law. For years, legislators have debated where the machines can operate, and whether they should pay the same tax rate as existing slot machines.<\/p>\n By pure coincidence, there\u2019s another big deadline approaching: the authorization period for the state-appointed SEPTA prosecutor<\/a>. I\u2019d like to propose a potential compromise for both issues. Harrisburg should extend the SEPTA prosecutor\u2019s authority by three years, agree to Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a>\u2019s proposed shift in sales tax revenue to support public transit, and pay for it by legalizing skill games and taxing them at the same rate as slot machines. They should also pass regulations limiting the placement of the machines and creating penalties for owners who allow children to use them.<\/p>\n Given District Attorney Larry Krasner<\/a>\u2019s recent struggles, extending the SEPTA prosecutor should be less politically contentious now than it was in years past. Lawmakers can also point to the significant decline in fare evasion and violent crime on the transit system<\/a> over the last few years as justification.<\/p>\n For Philadelphia lawmakers who may be reluctant to place limits on the authority of Krasner, who has been overwhelmingly elected by their constituents three times, that kind of middle ground can provide fiscal peace of mind for SEPTA, which has been subject to financial uncertainty for three years. While Democrats<\/a> seem to be pinning their hopes for approving more state funding for SEPTA on winning control of the state Senate during this fall\u2019s elections, that is hardly guaranteed. If a deal can be reached ahead of time, it reduces the risk of a collapse. It also does not preclude additional action next year.<\/p>\n Finally, the need to act on skill games is clear. As it stands, it will be difficult for the commonwealth to shut down every location that houses the machines. We don\u2019t even know how many exist. I am not a fan of these devices, which have a negative impact on the communities that host them. Regulation will make it easier to mitigate that damage and ensure Pennsylvanians see some benefit from the funds that flow through them.<\/p>\n Council comeback<\/p>\n After its three-month summer hiatus, City Council is back in session. All eyes on the second floor of City Hall will be trained on how Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a> will respond to a series of potentially contentious legislative proposals \u2014 from Councilmember Jamie Gauthier<\/a>\u2019s bill to stop burning trash to Councilmember Isaiah Thomas<\/a>\u2019 efforts to stop at least part of the school closure plan.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the matter of those city officials who deserve additional scrutiny, in particular Krasner and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal<\/a>. Krasner has been referred for prosecution by a federal judge<\/a>, while Bilal misled Council during her budget hearing<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n City Council should hold investigatory hearings into both officials. Residents deserve better from their leaders than what both Krasner and Bilal have shown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min This week\u2019s edition of Shackamaxon looks at a crackdown on \u201csmoke shops,\u201d the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[120375,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-289941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-eugene-beauford-death-police-traffic-citations-smoke-shops","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}