KYW REPORTER STEVE TAWA: “Commissioner, do you have a point of view on ‘Stop and Frisk,’ during the campaign. The councilman was talked about using it, while declaring a crime emergency.”
PHILADELPHIA POLICE COMMISSIONER SYLVESTER JOHNSON: “I’m against that, but that’s his decision to make.” [via KYW]
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THE NATION: As a political matter, Nutter would be wise to maintain his professed flexibility. Though he won the primary with 37 percent of the vote, even some of his most vocal supporters have questioned the wisdom of his stop-and-frisk plan. “We have a ways to go before being sold on the stop-and-frisk initiative,” wrote the editor of Philadelphia Weekly in the paper’s endorsement of Nutter. “Frankly, we don’t have the same trust in the police he does, and we worry about racial profiling.”
KIA GREGORY: What is racial profiling is that the victims and perpetrators of the city?s gun violence are overwhelmingly young black men, men who?ve been perpetually disenfranchised. What is racial profiling is this insidious form of genocide that burns like a brush fire on our streets. The hope under Nutter?s plan is that people will leave their illegal guns at home, that petty disputes will no longer erupt into gun battles, and that our city?s body count goes down. [via Philadelphia Weekly]
INQUIRER: Anthony Edwards’ family will bury him Friday. To the people of Philadelphia, he was homicide victim No. 142 of 2007. As such, it is easy to forget that he, like other victims of the city’s homicide epidemic, was more than a statistic; that his life, even in its ordinariness, had an impact.
THIS JUST IN: Early this morning, a man with a gun was shot and killed by a police in South Philadelphia, according to Homicide Sgt. William Gallagher. The man, in his mid 20s, was riding a bicycle when he was spotted with a gun, Gallagher said. After police pursued, the man ran into a residence, the officers forced the door open, and one of the officers was struck in the face with a gun, Gallagher said. The suspect then aimed his gun at the officers, one or both of whom fired, killing the man, Gallagher said. The dead man’s gun was found fully loaded, police said. The name of the man, who has several narcotics convictions, was being withheld. [via PHILLY.COM]
EVEN MORE BREAKING: A 53-year-old West Philadelphia man was shot in the stomach and leg shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday in his apartment on Pennsgrove Street near Mantua Avenue, said Sgt. William Gallagher of the homicide division. He was pronounced dead at 11:02 p.m. at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. Police suspect the killer was someone avenging an earlier argument, Gallagher said. About two hours later, Attim Frazier, 16, was walking to a Chinese takeout eatery with his cousin when death roared up in an SUV. Attim was shot on Cambridge Street near 41st by an unknown gunman in the vehicle, Gallagher said. He died at 1:02 a.m. at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania, boosting the city’s murder tally to 153 for the year. The city’s curfew for anyone under age 18 is 10:30 p.m. on weeknights. “We believe he was the intended target,” Gallagher said. [via DAILY NEWS]