Joe Sullivan

It has been a long night, and unfortunately, here it has been qui... by Joe Sullivan

It has been a long night, and unfortunately, here it has been quite a tragic night.

There were no red flags, if you will, that we could anticipate so... by Joe Sullivan

There were no red flags, if you will, that we could anticipate something like this.

Jason Brian Dalton had passed a background check, and was a driver-partner with Uber, we have reached out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can.

I was very disappointed there wasn’t one mention of starting to refocus and strategically target persons that are carrying guns illegally, especially previously convicted felons and persons on probation or parole, as that should be the backbone of any anti-violence program in Philadelphia, but since he’s taken office, we’ve seen a significant reduction in prosecutions in general and for persons carrying guns illegally. I think that’s counterproductive for a time when the city of Philadelphia is setting records for gun-related homicides and shootings.

Applications for permits to carry in Philadelphia in the last year has skyrocketed astronomically, in my mind, that is an indication that people feel unsafe, and they lack confidence that the criminal justice system will protect them, and they feel the need to protect themselves.

In any city, including Philadelphia, there is a very small number of violent individuals responsible for a significant percentage of gun violence, and that’s what we need to focus our energy on, as a lifelong Philadelphian, I think last night should really send a message that we have to focus on that small group of individuals, and we have to be very deliberate in our response, and we have to make the police officers of Philadelphia feel confident that if they’re doing their job, they don’t have to fear that they will be scrutinized or treated unfairly for doing their job.

Probation and parole are a large part of the criminal justice program and should be a significant partner in any gun violence reduction strategy.

You’re always going to have dysfunctionality when the police and the DA are not able to work independently of one another but cooperatively, when it comes to violent crime, they need to be on the same page.

You can follow a timeline of the rise in homicide and the rise in violent crime and compare that to when the present DA took office, and you can see the relationship very easily. Without a doubt, the communities that are most impacted are communities of color – somewhere between 85 and 95% of all homicide victims in the city of Philadelphia are citizens of color, what concerns me, whether you’re a reformed DA or a conservative DA, if you have an increase of crime within your jurisdiction, you should be always be willing to take a second look at what you’re doing.

Like most police departments, Philadelphia is having a very hard time recruiting new applicants, we’ve seen a mass exodus of officers to early retirement and transferring laterally to other police departments, so the police department is severely understaffed right now, meaning there’s also very little proactive policing going on.

The lack of proactive policing is also driven by a perception that there’s a lack of support for the police and a concern of if they get involved in any type of controversial incident how it’s going to be handled by the administration and the district attorney, you put all that together you have a recipe for disaster.

There’s no fear of being caught carrying a gun illegally in the city of Philadelphia, it’s the job of the police and the district attorney to create that perception of fear among bad guys that if you get caught with a gun, there will be swift and certain consequences.