Last week the Morning Call gave Promise Neighborhoods another Easy Pass. Two paid employees conducted a survey on neighborhood violence. Only five men participated, and they were paid with gift cards to fill out the forms.
It is painful that our tax dollars are being used to provide grants for such things. It is painful that our local paper found it news worthy enough to have fourteen photos about it. The men were photographed from the left, then the right, collectively and then individually. One photo showed just a man's hands with a pencil.
This blog gives no easy passes. The only stories about Promise Neighborhoods that are interesting is that there was another shooting this past weekend, and that Hasshan Batts is stepping down with little explanation. Now, that might be a back story worth a paper's time!
photocredit:The Morning Call
Honestly, I have no idea what this organztion does other than siphon tax money into its pockets for the enrichment of Hasshan Batts, or whoever is the head of the organization now.
ReplyDeleteBrett - As usual, no benchmarks were given by City Hall to measure the effectiveness of Promise Neighborhoods for the money they received.
DeleteThey are supposedly an intermediary between “the community” and the police, but my suspicion is that their real value to city politicians comes from helping to turn out crowds to city-sponsored events and intimidating those who dare to question the party line.
I believe MM has documented at least one such incident in a prior post.
The last I knew was that your attorney was the 'intermediary' between an individual and law enforcement.
DeleteOr in the new woke era, people need someone else ?
This is nothing but a sham hustle which the taxpayers is on the hook for, thanks to our mayor.
Democrat elected officials have convinced their voters that the police are the problem. They’ve also convinced their voters that in order to access police services, they have to use a middle man. And they can only hope that the middle man (who doesn’t have to meet police standards) doesn’t out them to the very criminals that they’re trying to report and get help with.
DeleteThe result? Inner city minority neighborhoods have suffered with increasing lawlessness. Meanwhile, the rich white elites in the party pick up the phone, dial direct, and get a police response quickly when needed.
Two systems then exist, one that works and one that’s guaranteed to fail. Results vary, predominantly by skin color.
I guess that’s “equity” in the eyes of democrats.
Promise Neighborhoods is an absolute farce. The Morning Call did it’s readers a service by running that piece with the accompanying photos highlighting exactly how bogus the entire organization really is.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad to see this pathetic group exposed yet again as a fraud.
Another corrupt Tuerk backed organization? It can’t be possible.
ReplyDeleteI also don’t understand what specifically this group does to justify so much money being thrown at it. Of course, I also don’t understand what purpose the Morning Call has anymore, nor the real reason behind all the deceptions it publishes daily. Purely, hardcore Liberal propaganda to my eyes.
ReplyDeleteBatts was/is a problem. Self-promoting, but at what? I see no evidence that Promise Neighborhood has influenced the outcome of any situation in downtown Allentown. Have they actively prevented any violent act? No, they show up afterward. They actively fundraise. Ironically they seem to have a location away from the residential neighborhoods they supposedly serve. 501c3s are tricky organizations. They can be great or they can be a front for an ambitious director to help himself to grants and public money. And the Lehigh Valley is full of 501c3 organizations. Some do real work, others service themselves.
ReplyDeleteYou describe exactly what DOGE (Elon Musk) was charged with doing. Uncovering waste, fraud, and abuse, and boy, did they ever find that with the USAID scams and so-called non-profits. Unfortunately, much of that money was filtering down to politicians and their campaigns. No wonder our Congress was up in arms over the whole thing!
DeleteThis is the latest Form 990 I could find:
ReplyDeletehttps://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/464977927/202411369349312086/full
It's a couple of years old, but he received a little less than $140K to run an organization with a budget of about $2M. There was an additional line item of a little under 500K for "other" salaries, but i didn't find how many employees are in the outfit.