Council moves to stop city shooting galleries

Finally, I won one.

Well, not the first and not the only, but against my fears that Woke would triumph, Philadelphia City Council overwhelmingly rejected the insanity of so-called “supervised injection sites.”

The site of the shooting gallery that was stopped dead by South Philadelphians

Well-intentioned but clueless advocates started calling them that when the first euphemism, “safe injection sites” was ridiculed by me and others — including then Attorney General Josh Shapiro — because it was a lie. There is no “safe” way to inject illegal drugs.

Council voted 13-1 to ban what is now called (by the Inquirer, which supports the state-sanctioned shooting galleries) “supervised drug consumption sites.” Oh, consumption. Like taking a Tylenol.

Here’s a rule of thumb, folks. When someone has a controversial pet project, and they have to keep changing the name of it (like “defund the police”), you know they are in trouble.

Our embarrassingly Woke Mayor Jim Kenney supported the shooting gallery program, proposed by the Safehouse nonprofit, and the bill goes to his desk, where my guess is he will veto it. That would be just for show, because 13 votes is enough to override his veto. But he likes futile gestures, like trying to write gun laws in Philly that violate the state and U.S. constitutions. 
Woke Democrats wildly warn about “attacks on democracy” as they busily try to dismantle the Constitution.

I believe I was the only Inquirer staffer to oppose the insanity of enabling drug-addicted zombies to continue their suicidal behavior. 

Why did I oppose it? For one thing, running a drug house — no matter how nice the curtains you try to hang on it — is against the law. 

Second, keeping people on drugs does them no favor. They need rehab, not more drugs that can kill them. 
Would you help someone get their first drug fix? Of course not. So why help them get their 500th fix? The humane thing is to get them to kick the habit.

For another thing, no neighborhood wants a magnet to draw drug addicts — and associated crime — to their streets. 

The bill, in fact, doesn’t outright ban the shooting galleries, but stipulates that anyone trying to open an operation would first have to get neighborhood approval. And no neighborhood would want one.

Well, maybe there’s one. Absent Council member Jamie Gauthier, of the 3rd District in West Philadelphia, did not cast a vote, but said in a statement that neighbors should be allowed to decide.

She may think her neighbors would vote yes. I believe they would vote “no.”

The sole “yes” vote was cast by Kendra Brooks of the far left Working Families Party, or Woking Families Party, as some call it. She is elected At-Large and got her seat by knocking off a Republican.

You may remember that this insanity began in 2020 when Safehouse tried to sneak a “safe injection site” into South Philly near Broad and Snyder.

The neighbors found out, went batshit, and stopped the shooting gallery in its tracks.

Since then, the state senate voted 41-9 to ban the shooting galleries statewide.

The progressives don’t know it yet, but they have lost.

It’s over.

Now let’s do the sensible thing: Arrest and imprison drug dealers, and get addicts into rehab.

Let this victory lead to sensible policy.