It's sad to see people in a neighborhood I know very well arrested for expressing their very valid concerns over excessive political and police presence. I lived on Leland Street right before Nutter took office. The police attitude toward people in Philadelphia, the surrounding counties and throughout this country has become increasingly aggressive toward the people they have sworn to protect and serve. We lost the support of our politicians long ago and the muscle for those politicians, such as, the police, military and intelligence services have followed suit. This is only a sign of the things to come and shows that the rhetoric used by politicians is simply that and the true intentions of the actions they promote are concealed between their words not in them.
Philadelphians have some of the most rebellious and free thinking minds left in this country, especially those that have been disenfranchised by the system - of which there are many, and the politicians know this; hence the necessity to pacify those responsible for cultivating that free and critical thinking, rebellious mentality. There is too much emphasis on voting for a certain type of elected official because they share our values or they represent a popular view on an imaginary left to right scale and not enough emphasis on our community and neighbors who do the same. People have become so disconnected that they truly believe those in government, at any level, truly want to help us. The only person that will empower you and I is YOU AND I! Not Nutter, not the police commissioner, not the military, and certainly not Obama, Bush or McCain. YOU AND I thats it. You and I the common man and woman outnumber the elitist backward thinkers 20 to 1 or more. Stop putting Faith in false prophets and starting putting your faith and energy in protecting people like those arrested for no other reason than stressing these truths.

I think the Move housebombing the recent police beating of "suspects" and this raid indicates how the police feel towards their citizenry.
Any illusions?

Ramsey has not even announced when and where they might be introducing Targeted Enforcement Zones against people illegally carrying guns. It makes not one whit of sense why there would be some grand conspiracy against 4 "activist" types for misleadingly complaining about a policy they are not even ready to unroll yet.

Just one question, do folks in this thread support stronger gun laws and if so how do they suppose the city set about the business of reducing the number of illegal weapons being carried on the streets, weapons that end up being used to kill people again and again in petty beefs that get out of control?

From my perspective the anti-"stop-and-frisk" crowd might as well carry signs saying "I Heart Senseless Gun Violence, Especially When Crossfire Takes Down Children and Innocents" because that is the end result of their mistating the facts and aims of "stop-and-frisk" - but hey thats just me.

You guys should at least know the theory behind the policy you seek to criticize. Take a look at the Kansas City Gun Experiment:
http://guide.helpingamericasyouth.gov/programdetail.cfm?id=349

Targeted enforcement against illegal guns in "hot spots" with control areas where the same policy was not employed. There was no dramatic surge in other types of arrests but in the area where intensive enforcement against carrying illegal guns was employed the number of gun crimes dropped by 49%. Philly can use a drop of gun crimes by 49%, in my humble opinion.

http://mxgm.org/web/organizational-news/charges-dismissed-against-mxgm-c...

"is an increase in arrests for carrying weapons going to stop people from shooting each other?"
Yes it is, by up to 49% according to the Kansas City Study. What facts, studies do you have to back up your suggestion it won't?
"Is giving the police more power going to make the communities involved safer for its members?"
Depends on how its administered. I trust Nutter and Ramsey more to make an intelligent thought out response to the epidemic of violence in this city than I trust someone like you, "anonymous", to. Its clear to me from your tone you are psychologically invested in "radicalism for radicalisms sake" rather than in a coherent look at what will improve people's lives.

Interesting article about Nutter and Ramsey's handling of community relations, BTW.
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/19241549.html

I'm quite confident that at the end of the day this will turn out to have been driven by the Feds - which is bad news for the activists in the house.

Clearly, this isn't legal. This is little different than how politics are imposed in so-called third world dictatorships.

um.
could we have a more focused discussion here? this isn't about "stop and frisk" anymore- and it is most certainly not about drugs. it may be about wider, national issues.

but mostly its about the philadelphia police being so out of line about critisism and petition drives- both rights in our country that people from all sides of the political spectrum use to get things done- that they raided a house without a warrant, seized the homeowners' belongings, and threw them in jail without charges for the night. and thats just the completely illegal part. Next they screwed them from here 'til sunday the LEGAL way by calling in L&I to throw the book at them.

What will police come and take YOUR home away for critisising? the Fraternal Order of Police is completely, utterly, horrifyingly OUT OF CONTROL. I have lived in and visited many cities in the United States and I have never, ever seen anything like the horrifying situation we have here in Philadelphia. Its completely out of hand. I've heard terrible, terrible things about the police force in this city that- as many critisisms of police and the structuree they are apart of as i may have- i would never DREAM of happening in any other place i have lived in or seen.

this situation is such a scenario.

What is the community that reads this blog going to do about this completely horrifying situation? We might consider:

- publisizing the event to the public ourselves, without the Daily News' schlock-like slant(GOD did anyone see that insanity?!).

- protesting in the streets

- meeting with city officials in constant and angry groups to demand change(which- in recent history- should have happened as soon as the "Blue by Day, White by Night" KKK stuckers were discovered in police lockers- or as soon as all the officers who beat teh living shit out of those three unarmed men a little whiel back wasn't FIRED outright).

- continuing whatever work these people got screwed over for the sake of - petitions, critisiss of police brutality- tenfold and en masse, so that next time they have to raid twenty or a hundred houses instead of one

- getting a fund or benefit set up for the people who got evicted, and for the undoubtedly mindboggling repairs L&I will now demand from the homeowners

what is being DONE about this situation? god its f-ed up.

Watch these 2 videos. They're a lecture given by a criminal defense lawyer and a cop. Watch both. Now. Your ignorance of your rights damages everyone's freedom (or what's left of it).

Don't Talk to Cops, Part 1
http://youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik

Don't Talk to Cops, Part 2
http://youtube.com/watch?v=08fZQWjDVKE&feature=related

I believe that it is about time that the FEDS put the pressure on those who infringe or violate the ideas of another organization or person. Like it was stated earlier this week that last year alone $500,000,000,000 dollars was stolen from industries from such violators of the law. I just can't wait until the FEDS turn the heat up on copyright violators of the law.

The honey moon brought on by the election of the new mayor and his appointees will be over soon. The police are acting like they did in the Rizzo era. God help us all

What kind of BS is this..the cops are out of control all across country. I know because i live in LA.