South Whitehall Answers NAACP

The local NAACP announced a travel advisory for people of color in regard to both South Whitehall and Dorney Park.  Although I understand that their mission is to combat racism,  I think that their advisory was unwarranted under the circumstances of the recent lethal encounter.

I understand that they're not going to issue a warning against taking drugs and menacing motorists, and then jumping on police cars and pounding windshields.

South Whitehall took the unusual step of issuing a counter statement,  denying that their police department engages in racial discrimination in enforcing the law.  I applaud the township for not being intimidated.

The Great Allentown Fair

The Morning Call website is hosting an archive of Fair Pictures from over the years. Being a fan both of fair pictures and black and white photography, looking at the 111 photos presented was a treat.

The photo shown above, which I will get back to, reminded me of one of my unique fair experiences. In previous posts, I have discussed that both my father and myself had stands at the fair. While my father learned that you couldn't sell hotdogs near Yocco's, I learned that drunks leaving the beer garden loved to buy printed T-shirts.

But today's post has to with George Kistler, long time City Clerk during the 1950's and 60's. George loved the fair, and loved sharing his fascination with a large group of people. I was fortunate enough to be invited several times. The routine was always the same; Dinner at a local stand on the eastern side of the fairgrounds, followed by the wrestling show. I remember photographing Andre The Giant.

The Morning Call fair picture above is none other than Jim "Super Fly" Snuka, who was recently back in Allentown, for a most regrettable reason.

reprinted from September of 2016

Race For Dent's Seat

The facebook sponsored promo describes Susan Wild as a community leader.  I happen to be bi-municipal...  I work in Allentown,  but currently live in South Whitehall.  I have been a student of media and politics in both communities for many years.  Although Ms. Wild ran unsuccessfully for county commissioner in 2013,  and was appointed solicitor in Allentown,  I have no memory of her being a community leader,  whatever that means.

As a media and political junkie,  this upcoming fight for Charlie Dent's seat should be worth the price of buttered popcorn.  As a registered independent,  I will get shortchanged in mailers.  I did however already receive a targeted mailer to independents from Nothstein.

Readers looking to divine an endorsement from this post should know that I haven't yet even decided for whom I'm voting, much less endorsing.

Bill White's Apology Column

Bill White's recent column was about the apologies he would like to have seen from Ed Pawlowski and the Pennsylvania Catholic Dioceses.  This column is about the apology I would like to read from Bill White.

Dear readers,  As you know I have the bully pulpit here in the valley,  but squander it mostly on serial repeats, such as what I eat every year at Musikfest.  I have been very fortunate that the paper has been essentially for sale for over a decade,  and the new editor didn't know how tired these columns really are,  and the interim editors are just glad that they still have a job.  But I must mostly apologize for my silence on local issues.

I know that the articles promoting Reilly's Strata apartments are more hype than reality.  My office is across the street from a building supposedly full, but I seldom see anybody who remotely resembles a millennial on the street.  I seldom see a light on, come dusk. I know that the paper has an agenda to protect the local sacred cows and I play along.  When I praised Wally Ely recently,  I knew that we never printed his heartfelt op-ed opposing the weed walls in the parks. I know that we don't report that South Whitehall isn't honoring the voter's referendum in regard to Wehr's Dam. More recently, I will remain silent about what we did to Marty Nothstein.   I'd like to say that I'll do better, but I won't.  There's a new editor coming on board,  and he will think that my columns this winter on Christmas lights are a breath of fresh cold winter air.  

Bill White

Shown above is another year of chocolate cake tasting for Bill at the fair.  However, in fairness to him, he is my low-hanging fruit when it comes to criticizing the Morning Call.  Apparently, Terry Rang,  interim editor once again,  was involved in the decision to go ahead with the Marty Nothstein story/smear.  I would think that The Morning Call is in a position where they could really be an independent voice for truth in the valley.  Back in the day when Allentown was ruled by the Park&Shop Oligarchy, of which the publisher was part, the paper was dependent on those local merchants for  advertising.  They are now just a vehicle to distribute flyers for national chains. I suppose old editorial doctrines die hard. I'm sure that when the new editors arrive from out of town, they are wined and dined by the valley's sacred cows.

The King Abdicates

In 1958 my father had a food stand at the fair. It took him about an hour to realize you can not sell hot dogs in the King's back yard; Yocco, the hot dog king. When Yocco's claimed last year(2006) they were not at the fair because their canvas ripped, I was skeptical. This year it's official, they have abdicated their spot. Tonight the fair was jammed. In Ag Hall the granges still compete in vegetable canning. A wiseguy still incites you to dunk him. The world's smallest horse hasn't grown. Maybe Yocco's is gone, but the fair is still much more like 1958 than any other aspect of Allentown.

reprinted annually since 2007

As Allentown Turns

The big local news this week is The Great Allentown Fair, and that the prosecution recommends that former mayor Pawlowski be sentenced up to 15 years.

Being a local with some carney background, it occurs to me that a dunking booth at the fair this year, featuring none other than Pawlowski himself, would be a great success. It would also give him the opportunity to earn some money for his legal appeals and other expenses. I have not passed this advice along to the Mayor, here's why... In 2006, when Pawlowski started his first of four terms as mayor, he had a big open house at Symphony Hall. Although he invited 100 people to give input suggestions for Allentown, he didn't invite me, even though I also ran that year as an independent. 

There has been speculation that Cedar Beach Pool should have been moved farther away from the creek since it was being rebuilt anyway. Although the creek did spill over into the pool two storms in a row, historically, that is a rare occurrence.

Exploring Black History In Philadelphia

Several blocks south of molovinsky on allentown's Philadelphia office is an area* rich in history for the black community.  Although the more studious types might check out the renowned  African American Museum In Philadelphia,   I prefer walking about and asking questions.  I stopped in at the Philadelphia Tribune office, the first black paper in the nation, and printed continuously since 1884. I learned a little bit about the paper's history and got to talk to a staff member. Nearby was the home of the Jack and Jill Of America movement, started in 1938 by Marion Thomas. Its intention was to provide leadership training for the city's black professional and middle class children.  Among other churches and mosques serving the neighborhood, is the huge United House Of Prayer For All People,  a nationwide black Apostolic Pentecostal church.

While the historical roots of this black middle class neighborhood are deep,  the spreading gentrification from the Rittenhouse area is encroaching.  The facade of the Royal Theater,  the first black owned theater in Philadelphia, is being incorporated into a new residential and commercial project. While Lincoln's body was brought by train to this neighborhood after his assassination in 1865,  how many residents of the new expensive condo tower will be black?

* neighborhood surrounding area of 15th and South Street

photocredit: Facade of Royal Theater by Librarian1984

The Mighty Atom

Years ago, at the Allentown Fair, as one would push through a sea of carney delusion, tucked back by the 4H animals, was an island of reality. There, in an old battered truck, an ancient Jewish strongman performed incredible feats of strength, to sell only homemade kosher soap. Standing on a platform on the rear of his truck, flanked by photographs from his performing youth, he would bent horse shoes and bite through nails. Many years earlier, my mother as a little girl in Bethlehem, saw him pull a truck uphill with his hair. Even as an old man, like a reincarnation of Samson, his grey hair was still long.
In the summers of 1964 and 1965, myself and a friend,(Fred Schoenk, retired Allentown art teacher) made and sold printed tee-shirts at the fair. We had the honor to know Joseph Greenstein(The Mighty Atom) and his wife. For those interested, there are various articles on the Mighty Atom and even at least one book. Enjoy the fair!

reprinted every year since 2007

Pawlowski As A Legend

In his leniency plea Pawlowski claims that he is a legend among Allentown's less fortunate... there certainly is some truth to that statement.  He was essentially voted into his fourth term by the minority voters. who he courted extensively.  He visited their barbershops and hair salons, and attended their parties whenever invited.

I met with a black woman who was and remains a staunch supporter.  However,  I must say that she was also a supporter of Marion Barry in her previous community of Washington.  Pawlowski's legal issues and even his mistreatment of some others were of no concern to her.  Her single criterion was the access that Pawlowski was providing to people of color, including herself.

I should also note that Pawlowski won the recent election with much less than a majority of votes, because it was a three way race with a strong write-in candidate.  In conclusion, I will refrain from making a moral judgement on the black woman's criterion....  We all have our own special interests.

Allentown, A Frame Of Reference

I graduated Allen High in the mid 1960's.  Allentown was a prosperous city, with a large center city shopping district supporting three large department stores.  There were also three five and dimes,  six movie theaters and a hundred other stores.  In addition to Hamilton Street, the stores extended two blocks out on the number streets, between 5th and 10th.  On 7th Street, the stores extended out to the new Route 22.

The newspaper was family owned and produced two editions, both morning and evening. The streets were immaculate, keep swept by diligent homeowners.  Factories ran two and three shifts...you get the picture.

Yesterday on facebook a young man wrote that he is optimistic that Allentown is turning around for the better.  For someone my age, with my frame of reference, that is a challenging statement. Although I'm glad that he is optimistic,  and I can appreciate that being so is beneficial in 2018, it is an attitude which wasn't necessary in Allentown's past.

I produce this blog as the intersection of local history and politics. I do not purport to be a life coach.  Although I can analyze our current events through an historical prism,  those seeking attitude enhancement might do better looking elsewhere.

As Allentown Turns

Last Tuesday I started my As Allentown Turns posts... A weekly snippet of  events as seen through the eyes of a third generation local.  Although my grandfather brought his parents over,  it was my grandfather who decided to make Allentown the family home in 1893.

Air Products announced that they're returning their natural gas division to Trexlertown from a Reilly tower at the end of their five year lease next summer. Other office workers, whose employers were enticed by Reilly's subsidized rents, have told me that they preferred their previous suburban locations.

A gentleman was arrested in Allentown over the weekend for firing a gun out of his car window.  Turns out this formerly convicted felon wasn't legally allowed to own a gun. Furthermore, he was driving drunk with a suspended license.  I wouldn't be surprised if he also didn't work, but collected Social Security Disability.  That unfortunately is the profile of thousands of center city residents. If these comments and assumptions offend you,  please first pick up the litter he threw out his car window before you get mad at me.

Concerning yesterday's post on Marty Nothstein...  Allentown Republican Scott Armstrong had some interesting observations.  He wished that Nothstein had gotten in front of the story.  He expects the Morning Call headline to appear on Susan Wild's mailers.

Elsewhere, The King George Inn just over the border in South Whitehall, is deteriorating in spite of being that Township's first (and only) building under their historic designation.  The township commissioners have refused to add the historic Wehr's Dam to the list, even though their voters thought that they were saving it by referendum.   New commissioner Mark Pinsley, who wants to be a state senator,  doesn't even assert himself on township issues.  He did however join the protestors against his township's policeman involved in the recent shooting outside Dorney Park.

Hit Job By Morning Call

After a three month investigation by the Morning Call,  although The newspaper "could not determine what the complaint alleges, whether the investigation is open or if Nothstein has been cleared of wrongdoing", they still headlined the story of alleged sexual misconduct against Marty Nothstein. Although I have no horse in this political race, I can recognize dirty politics when I see it.. Nothstein described it as a hit job, and in that he is correct.

Nothstein followed up on the paper's hit job with a press conference Friday afternoon.  In that conference he and his lawyer maintain that the paper was not interested in seeing affidavits from the supposed victims.  They revealed that they had appealed to both Robert York and Terry Rang, to no avail, trying to prevent the meritless detrimental headline.

The headline is not unrelated to my recent post about the national editorials against Trump. Although I agree with those who find Trump's tongue too loose, newspapers are themselves loose and easy with journalism.  When I recently wrote that the Morning Cal is for sale and protects local sacred cows,  York contacted me about correcting the for sale portion,  but wasn't concerned about the sacred cows.

Although I found the headline very unfair,  I can only hope that it wasn't a conscious attempt to boost Nothstein's opponent at his expense.  The paper did highlight his claims of unfairness in Saturday's edition.  If Nothstein can manage to project himself as a media victim, and turn the sequence of articles into lemonade, remains to be seen.

The Butchers Of Allentown

photograph by Bob Wilt

A&B (Arbogast&Bastian), dominated the local meat packing industry for almost 100 years. At it's peak, they employed 700 people and could process 4,000 hogs a day. The huge plant was at the foot of Hamilton Street, at the Lehigh River. All that remains is their free standing office building, which has been incorporated into America on Wheels. Front and Hamilton was Allentown's meatpacking district. Within one block, two national Chicago meatpackers, Swift and Wilson, had distribution centers. Also in the area were several small independents, among them M. Feder and Allentown Meat Packing Company.

Allentown Meat Packing was owned by my father and uncle. The area was criss-crossed with tracks, owned by both LVRR and Jersey Central. All the plants had their own sidings. This is an era when commerce was measured in factories and production, not just relocated office workers.

Molovinsky On Allentown occasionally takes a break from the local political discourse to present local history.  My grandfather came to Allentown in 1893 and lived in the Ward on 2nd Street. By the time my father was born in 1917, they lived on the corner of Chew and Jordan Streets. 

Trump Protesters Speak Independently In Unison?

The editor of the Boston Globe opinion page, Majorie Pritchard,  about two weeks ago asked all papers across the country to join her on August 16th and let President Trump know that the press isn't the enemy of the people. In reality it was just an organized attack against Trump, which many papers have been doing separately for two years anyway.

Apparently, Ms. Pritchard sees no contradiction between protecting an independent press, and all the newspapers printing essentially the same thing at the same time.

Even though the Morning Call is between editors, they couldn't resist participating.  Never mind the local sacred cows that they routinely protect.  Here in the local blogosphere, Bernie O'Hare's Lehigh Valley Schadenfreude joined the chorus of Trump protesters.

ADDENDUM: O'Hare had a problem with me calling his blog schadenfreude.  Last night in his comment section he wrote.... appears regularly on Molovinsky's blog, where the racists congregate. That distortion is his attempt to marginalize this blog. In reality,  O'Hare does promote schadenfreude by taunting favorite targets, and then submitting them to anonymous comments. His news is tailored to compliment those (politicians) he likes, and bash their opponents.

Allentown's Misguided Train Plans

Up through the 1960's, Allentown's train system remained much in tack. In it's heyday, there were two passenger stations, and three commercial branch lines with dozens of individual business sidings. The WestEnd Branch ran along Sumner Ave, crossed Tilghman Street, headed west till 17th Street, and then looped back east  to 12 St. The Quarry Barber Branch ran along the Little Lehigh Creek, crossing Lehigh Street and running under the 8th Street Bridge. After crossing S. 10th Street, it proceeded west till it reached Hawk Flour Mill, where it turned north heading to Union Terrace. It crossed Hamilton Street by the current Hamilton Family Diner, and ended at the park department building, across from Birney Crum Stadium. Both these branches have been totally removed, not a track nor railroad tie remain. The third branch, which was the Old LVRR main, as opposed to the New Main, ran along the Lehigh River and crossed Front Street on a diagonal at Linden St. This branch line, although unused, still exists. One of it's main customers was Lehigh Structural Steel, under the Tilghman Street Bridge. Lehigh Structural had it's own engine to shuttle material on it's own tracks within their complex.  Although the steel fabricator closed, the parcel still has industrial tenants. Currently in Allentown there are two simultaneous plans which would misuse our railroad assets. The AEDC, headed by Scott Unger, wants to use a government grant to restore the Quarry Barber Branch to an empty building on S. 10th Street. The former plant operator never cited lack of train service as a factor in it's closing. To restore the line would cost untold millions of dollars, and require miles of track.  This is a folly which only seasoned bureaucrats could entertain. On the other hand, there is another plan by another group, to abandon the potential of the last remaining intact former branch line. The NIZ now controls the riverfront and the former Structural Steel property. Their plan is to vacate the industrial tenants, including Air Products, and convert the property into residential and light commercial, such as restaurants and gift shops. All these plans are driven by federal and state grants and tax incentives, which do not factor in Allentown's particular existing assets and long term interests. In a short sighted grab for some quick tax dollars, we would build one track to nothing, while ignoring another track and vacating an existing viable industrial site.

The photograph is from the Mark Rabenold Collection, and shows the Union Street crossing. 

above reprinted from October of 2012

ADDENDUM August 15, 2018: I'm afraid that taxpayer-grant and train-wise, things have gotten much worse since I wrote the post above in 2012. The Old Main Line along the river was removed, and the last railcar client in Allentown was displaced. Scott Unger and the Allentown Economic Development Grant Siphon is receiving $millions of our dollars to rehab the old Metalworks factory on S. 10th St., and still wants to reinstall the rail spur-line, although the chances of a future tenant needing rail service is one in a million.

As Allentown Turns

Early this morning I was imagining J. B. Reilly's reaction to Don Cunningham's column identifying the boroughs surrounding Allentown as the new haunt of the millennials.  He wrote about a packed old tavern in Hellertown  serving craft beers, with a food truck instead of a kitchen.  While J. B.'s spending $millions of our tax dollars building designer palaces in center city Allentown,  Donny says that the target audience is starting to hang in places like Emmaus.

Hopefully, J.B. will forgive both Donny for writing the article, and his tenant, The Morning Call, for publishing the piece.  The Call is between publisher/editors right now,  with Robert York having been transferred to the Daily News by Tronc, the current outside media giant owning the paper.

Before York left,  he told me that my agenda seems to be taking the paper to task. While I had always fancied this blog as the intersection of local politics and history,  I'm willing to also accept York's description of this site as an additional mission.

A Morning Call Omission

I've been wrestling with something over a week now,  but Bill White made the answer much easier yesterday.  In his column he writes about the contributions of Wally Ely, both to the valley in general and to him in particular.  He mentions that Ely's last contribution to the paper concerned the Philly's,  his favorite team.  Actually, that was the last contribution they used,  but not his only recent piece.  His previous piece, submitted to the paper only weeks before, was a protest against the weed walls in the Allentown park system.

Ely was too much of a gentleman to make a big deal out of the paper ignoring his submission, but he was passionate enough about the topic to contact me about it...I even alluded to it in a previous post,  but didn't identify him.  Likewise, because he passed away,  I wasn't planning on using his name.  However, since White has chosen to enumerate Ely's contributions,  I decided to come forward.

If White really wants to pay tribute to Mr. Ely,  they should print his letter about the park system.

Wildlands Conservancy Responsible For Fish Kill

In their indiscriminate haste to remove all dams in the Lehigh Valley, the Wildlands Conservancy is responsible for the massive fish kill this week at the Fish Hatchery. When General Trexler had the trout nursery built, they also built, just upstream,  a small dam, to insure and regulate a water supply for the nursery. Last fall the Wildlands gleefully demolished that dam, removing an important component of the trout nursery. Although the heavy storm Monday night occurred hundreds of times in the last century, this time the dam wasn't there to regulate the fast moving water. Over 1,400 fish were flooded out of the holding pools and died. Last summer, I watched the Wildlands Conservancy give a power point presentation to Allentown City Council on dam removals. When I invited City Council to Lehigh Parkway to defend the Robin Hood Dam, the Conservancy crashed my event, and asked the council members instead to come with them to the trout nursery dam, to see their wonderful plans. I hope yesterday that the Conservancy had the decency to help pick up the dead fish.

The lesson here is that not all dams are without purpose.

The Morning Call article on mcall Tuesday afternoon contained a paragraph describing how the fish hatchery workers believe that the dam removal factored into the fish kill. That paragraph was edited out of both the hard and soft copy editions Tuesday evening.  I have no doubt that that the deletion was done to shield The Wildlands Conservancy.

Reggie Rickard an Allentown resident who has been volunteering at the hatchery for 45 years said the fish kill is probably the worst in the hatchery's recent history. Initially, he estimated as many as 2,000 may have been killed, but the final tally was about 1,400.

Fish have been lost in other heavy rains storms, but Rickard said this was a major fish kill. He and other volunteers who joined city workers in collecting and counting the corpses Tuesday believe the death rate may have been exacerbated by recent upstream dam removals on small streams.

photo:April Bartholomew/The Morning Call/July15,2014

ADDENDUM: Above I have combined and reprinted two posts from July of 2014. The fish hatchery again experienced a massive fish kill in this recent storm of August 2018. The former fish hatchery dam, and its removal in connection to the fish kills, has been removed from the Morning Call archives and the memory of its news reporters. However, this blog knows the truth, and so will my readers.

Tony Phillips Reemerges

Yesterday on facebook a Hispanic woman commented that she was glad to hear that Tony Phillips was involved with the local NAACP.  Another Hispanic woman responded that although she was here for over a decade, she never heard of him... they're both correct.  Tony is a former Allentown policeman who then served on city council.  In 2009 he ran against Pawlowski for mayor,  as a black Republican no less.  Tony has always been his own man. After that election he dropped out of Allentown politics to work as an educator in the Philadelphia area.

In the NAACP demand letter about the South Whitehall shooting,  Phillips is described as the vice president of the local chapter.  Although I stand by my criticism of the demand letter,  I'm glad to see Tony reengaging in Allentown.  We worked together on a few issues back in the day, and I hope we can do so again in the future.

photo shows Tony outside my SPEAK OUT meeting in 2009. 

Local NAACP Letter Inappropriate

The local branch of the NAACP has, in my opinion, misspoken with demands concerning the South Whitehall Police Department.  Their demand letter was published even before District Attorney Jim Martin released his determination on the recent Dorney Park shooting.  The letter demanded that the police department fire the officer and hire minority officers .  It further demanded that Martin recuse himself from the case.

As it turns out Martin did determine that the shooting was unjustified, and charged the officer with manslaughter.  Besides knowing that I would not have wanted to be in the officer's shoes that fateful afternoon on Hamilton Blvd,  at this point I'll leave judgement to a jury.  

Even as a blogger who is not afraid of being politically incorrect,  I realize that this blog post will rub many people the wrong way.  I appreciate that the local NAACP fights against local prejudice, but in this instance I find them acting as the bully.  The outcome of the confrontation was indeed tragic, but the police were reacting to pleas for help from motorists being terrorized by someone apparently out of control. I see no local police pattern that mistreats minorities.

Allentown's New Park

A reader wondered back channel about yesterday's post on Allentown's trail plans.  He was perplexed about why Emily Opilo would write such a story, especially quoting no less than two people who are no longer with the city for dubious reasons.  The article mentioned that the Wildlands Conservancy donated $50K to further the project along.  It may well be a strategic investment by the Conservancy.  After volunteering to help South Whitehall develop their park masterplan,  the Wildlands was awarded the contract to build a trail along the Jordan through the township.  This is a $multi-million dollar project, and the Wildands Conservancy takes 15% off the top for their administrative fees.  By the time Allentown would have the financing lined up,  the Wildlands could claim that they have experience in trail building.

I have complained on this blog before about the newspaper qenching  my op-ed on Wehr's Dam to protect the Wildlands.  Sacred cows are not new to the valley.  With the Morning Call in business limbo, expect it to be more kitten like than ever.  Although the recently departed publisher denied it, I believe that Bill White is making the editorial decisions.  They couldn't possibly be paying him to just write another column about eating his way through another festival.

photo: the Basin Street parcel, purchased by Pawlowski and being developed by Ray O'Connell as Allentown's newest park.

Pawlowski's Bicycle Scam

Emily Opilo is my favorite Morning Call reporter, but she added up 2 and 2 and got 5 in her recent article about the bicycle path.  In that article she quotes Fran Dougherty as saying the two park purchases from Abe Atiyeh were a unique opportunity for Allentown.  She also interviewed Lindsay Taylor, who advocated for the trail plan.  Although she does mention that there are some brownfield issues, she has no idea how extensive they are,  and how unnecessary those useless  parcels are. There is no redeeming feature or purpose, what-so-ever, for the Basin Street parcel.  Before I dissect the parcels,  lets examine the cheerleaders.  Fran Dougherty is facing a prison sentence for his service to Pawlowski's corrupt administration.  Lindsay Taylor has been dismissed by O'Connell for reasons unknown.  At the very least she also served Pawlowski shenanigans. She was on board for the recent Cedar Beach stunts,  including Pawlowski knowingly opening a leaking pool before last year's election.

Basin and Union Street is near no residential neighborhood at all, and has housed numerous heavy industry over the years.  The ground is saturated with arsenic from thousands of railroad ties alone, much less whatever dripped from endless railcars for over 100 years. It was  the busiest train crossing in the Lehigh Valley.  The fertilizer plant on the parcel west of Schreiber's Bridge was a hell hole.

No offense to the spandex cycling crowd, but those portions of the trail plan were just a ruse to justify another Pawlowski deal.  The notion of providing Allentown a way to ride bikes to work is utter nonsense.  

Grants or no grants,  Allentown and its park system will be better served by selling those parcels and starting to operate the city with integrity, instead of taxpayer funded justifications for previous poor policy.   

Using Trump As A Local Slight

Before the mass media coined Trump Derangement Syndrome,  I had noted on this blog that people, mostly women back then, were losing their minds over Trump.  The dislike of him  spread to the media, with CNN now the leading obsessor.

Locally,  the Morning Call's Bill White has been possessed.  He now links Trump to the tragic shootings at the Gazette newspaper in Annapolis,  even though he knows that the shooter had a long term grudge against the paper, because of its reporting on harassment charges against him by a girlfriend.  Another local blogger has painted this blog and its readers as Trumpters,  because he considers that designation an insult. Those types of accusations amuse me.   My post yesterday about the shooting by Dorney Park was met on social media with speculations about my having White Privilege attitudes,  or worse,  hidden racism.  I have become somewhat immune to these types of accusations...  I understand that they're intended to intimidate me for my bluntness.  In that sense I take them as a compliment.  This ties back to Donald Trump.

One of the many reasons that Trump infuriates so many liberals is that he's not crafting his words to be politically correct.  I'll leave it to future historians to evaluate any accomplishments of his term.  However,  I must confess that it amused me that he called in to Rush Limbaugh to compliment the radio host on his show.  Listening to the liberals mutter about that will be priceless.

Shameless Over Police Shooting

It appears to me that some people are shameless about the hay they want to make out of the South Whitehall shooting. “This act of extreme police brutality is not a fluke or an accident, but part of the police system that regularly works to detain, deport and kill black and brown people across the country,” Make The Road said in the release. As someone familiar with South Whitehall, I can assure Make The Road officials that South Whitehall has no such agenda, if they have one at all. Perhaps the person trying to make the most exposure from this tragedy is Mark Pinsley, who is running for State Senate. The Morning Call describes him as a South Whitehall Commissioner. In truth Pinsley announced his candidacy for state senate before he even began serving his first term as commissioner this past January . He now is asking District Attorney Jim Martin to hand the case over to the State Attorney General's office. As someone who has attended dozens of South Whitehall meetings, Pinsley was never involved in community government until he decided to run himself. He should be ashamed of his grandstanding. 

Yesterday a liberal friend asked me why the police officer couldn't have wrestled the man to the ground, instead of shooting him. I have included a picture from the Morning Call of the shot man above, I think the answer to that question is self explanatory.

I have no opinion on the properness of the shooting. I will leave that determination to the authorities. I do have an opinion on the local haymakers, they're shameless.

photo from The Morning Call

Misplaced Anger Over South Whitehall Shooting

While a coalition of Allentown minority groups were scheduling a protest over the police shooting in South Whitehall Township,  there was at least one stabbing and a shooting in center city Allentown. Three more shootings occurred Tuesday afternoon in South Allentown. Although resident on resident violence has been commonplace,  police shootings have been very few and far between.  This is not to say that there hasn't been police overreaction elsewhere,  but not here. As for the incident on Hamilton Blvd by Dorney Park,  it is too early to make conclusions on the appropriateness of lethal force in that case.  With the incident being investigated by no less than two separate entities, hopefully a finding satisfactory to the community will emerge.

This particular protest is being organized by various minority leaders in Allentown, some of whom have been both elected and appointed to oversight functions in our local government.  I believe that by prematurely questioning and accusing our local law enforcement, they may be inadvertently sending the wrong message to their own youth.  Instead of being scared for their children about the police, they should be scared because of the violence within their own communities. While they protest against an isolated police incident, they remain silent about all their own shootings.

I expect that my politically incorrect, blunt appraisal of this situation will not be warmly received by some segments of the community.....  So be it.

photocredit:The Morning Call