A Million Stories

Less stopping, more frisking

Evan M. Lopez

Ahoy, progress!

Last week, Councilman (and maybe mayoral candidate?) Bill Green introduced legislation to scrap the so-called " blogger tax," a term that emerged out of the hornet's nest this newspaper kicked in August when we reported that the city had demanded that some small-time "businesses," including bloggers, pay $300 for a lifetime business privilege license, or $50 for an annual license [Naked City, "Pay Up," Valerie Rubinsky, Aug. 19, 2010]. This story went viral, and after a few right-wing websites got a hold of it and painted it as some Orwellian crackdown on free speech, the city was barraged with complaints. Green's bill is an attempt to rectify that: If you make less than $3,000 a year through activities the federal government deems a hobby, the city will no longer consider you a business, and you won't have to pay for a business license.

If nothing else, Green's legislation — which Mayor Nutter has yet to comment on — might help ice the black eye that is this city's reputation with small business. And hey, whatever this city can do to combat its infamous brain drain, we support.

In other words: More of this, please.

LESS OF THIS, THOUGH

It's been the worst of times of late for the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD), which has been all over the news for not-so-awesome things. They're not only being sued by the ACLU of Pennsylvania and a local law firm because of their allegedly racist " stop-and-frisk" policy, but also, one of their erstwhile stars, Inspector Daniel Castro, a 25-year vet, was arrested on extortion charges — Castro gets the distinction of being the 15th PPD officer arrested since March 2009 — and then another, a cop was suspended for boozing on the job. But back to that whole stop-and-frisk thing: It's not the first time the ACLU has taken issue with this controversial policy. Earlier this fall, City Paper wrote about the PPD and other local agencies' aversion to the state's Right-to-Know Law [Cover Story, "Hall of Secrets," Holly Otterbein, Sept. 9, 2010]. And guess which files the cops were intent on withholding from the ACLU: If you said the stop-and-frisk cases (or records on officers' interactions with illegal aliens), pat yourself on the back. (We should note that the allegations in this lawsuit stem from different records than the ones we wrote about: After endless obstinance, you'll recall, the ACLU got a court to force PPD to disclose those documents; after that, says ACLU staff attorney Mary Catherine Roper, the cops became more forthcoming.)

Turns out, PPD had good reason to want to keep those records from the public: The lawsuit, citing data from the Police Department's Research and Planning Unit, alleges that in 2009, about 72 percent of those targeted for stop-and-frisks were — surprise! — black. What's more, the tactic isn't terribly effective at preventing crime: Only 8 percent of those stop-and-frisks prompted arrests, and of those, Paul Messing, one of the attorneys on the case, told the Daily News , many were disorderly conduct arrests prompted by the frisks themselves.

The suit asks PPD to halt stop-and-frisks without reasonable cause, and to monitor the practice more closely.

EVIL

Lost somewhere in the thrashing that Democrats took all over the country — and throughout Pennsylvania — last week was this little nugget from Gov.-elect Tom Corbett, who soundly defeated ... wait, what was that guy's name again? We forget. Anyway.

During his acceptance speech, Corbett told the assembled that his "role model" in office would be none other than New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. And since Corbett thinks so highly over his comrade across the Delaware, let's revisit some of Christie's shining moments from his first year in office.

First, though, one difference: Corbett will govern with an assist from a Republican-dominated legislature, unlike Christie, who has been forced to negotiate with unfriendly Democrats. That means our new gov could very well act like Christie on steroids. We already know that he'll acquiesce to the avaricious demands of the natural gas industry that bought him — er, funded his campaign — and deprive this deficit-addled state of the billions of dollars a severance tax could bring in, and probably slash social services in urban areas (read: Philadelphia). After all, that's just what his role model wants to do: Earlier this year, Christie vetoed a tax on millionaires that would have offset increases in property taxes for the elderly — Jersey's Office of Legislative Services estimated that a retired couple living on a fixed $40,000 annual income would see a $1,320 tax increase under Christie's plan, while a dude making $1.2 million would get an $11,598 tax cut — while proposing to lay off 1,300 state workers, gut the state education budget and close state psychiatric hospitals to help balance Jersey's budget.

Then there was the weird incident with that education grant, the one in which, according to his former education commissioner, Bret D. Schundler (whom Christie blamed for the debacle), Christie rejected a compromise that would have qualified his state for $400 million in federal education funds because he didn't want to appear to have caved to the teachers' union. The union wanted a guarantee that, if there were layoffs, those teachers with the least seniority would be laid off first. Despite the fact that nearly half a billion dollars was on the line, the governor's "concern became more about how it would be perceived," Schundler, a Republican, told a state Senate committee, especially after a radio talk-show host accused Christie of selling out.

And then, Christie single-handedly put an end to the largest mass-transportation project in the United States, a rail tunnel connecting New Jersey to New York City under the Hudson River, because he was afraid of cost overruns — despite the Department of Transportation's efforts to ameliorate those concerns, and the facts that $600 million has already been spent on the project, the feds were kicking in $3 billion and the tunnel would have created 6,000 jobs. Oh yeah, and there's also the recent U.S. Justice Department Inspector General's report alleging that Christie, as a U.S. attorney, failed to follow federal travel guidelines and billed taxpayers for stays in luxury hotels. His antipathy to government spending, it seems, only applies to other people.

For thinking this is role-model behavior, our governor-elect gets a 21 on the 23-point How Evil Is Tom Corbett? Barometer.

This week's report by Jeffrey C. Billman and Juliana Reyes. E-mail us at amillionstories@citypaper.net. Get your daily fix of news, sports and commentary at The Clog.