Felonious officials and quarterbacks: Who gets second chances?

Many of us believe in second chances. Christians make a big thing out of redemption.

I believe in second chances, but there are limits.

Limits came to mind when I read that three scoundrels — a fancy word for common criminals — were given a second chance after violating the public trust.

The employers were the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia, which are funded by taxpayers like you and me. When the trio of elected officials  stole, they stole not just from the city and state, but from you and me.

And now, we are again paying their salaries.

They are on the city payroll, and I am not assuaged by the words of the mayor’s flack, Joe Grace, that the administration “supports every person’s right to a second chance in society.”

I support that, too, but they have no “right” to a city job. The fiasco put me in mind of another high-profile case that I will get to in a moment.

This is a case of once burned. 

The three who did the burning are: former State Rep Movita Johnson-Harrell, who was found guilty of theft and perjury in stealing $500,000 from a nonprofit; former State Rep Leslie Acosta, who pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy at a low-income health clinic, and the piece de resistance, former Traffic Court Judge Willie Singletary, who got kicked off the bench for sexual harassment in 2011 (showing pictures of his penis to a female employee), then convicted in 2014 for lying to the FBI about fixing tickets.

I had this gem on my bull’s eye in a 2012 column, which has added unbelievable detail.

If you didn’t click on the link, you did not learn that before election to Traffic Court, he ran up $11,500 in violations, leading to his driver’s license being yanked. And telling a motorcycle club if they gave him money, he would take care of them.

This is a guy Mayor Cherelle Parker believes is deserving of another chance?

It’s like the people wanting to release the Menendez brothers for killing their parents for alleged sexual abuse. If it were true, all they had to do was run away from home, as generations of abused kids have done, without resorting to murder.

Oh! The high-profile case, I mentioned.

After he had served time in prison for running a dog-fighting ring, former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was hired by Eagles owner Jeff Lurie, in another second-chance gesture. The contract offer was approved by Eagles head coach Andy Reid. Well, Vick wasn’t the first football felon.

At the time, I wrote that Vick had great quarterbacking skills.

Readers asked if I thought he would be hired.

“I said yes. He would go through the now-familiar process – counseling, rehab, remorse, jail. He would emerge and find a hungry team desperate enough to take him and his freight-car baggage.

I never dreamed it would be my team.”

He didn’t just run the ring. He participated in vicious cruelty to helpless dogs.

In the end, I would be hypocritical to say it is OK for him to play for other teams, but not mine. I resigned to him being an Eagles quarterback.

I also resigned myself to wearing no Eagles gear until Vick was either gone, or demonstrated true remorse.

Later, working with the Humane Society of the U.S. in its anti-dogfighting campaign, he put his money and his mouth on the line and did express what seemed like sincere remorse and regret.

Back at City Hall, have Singletary, Acosta, and Johnson-Harrell done their time in the pillory? Have we seen sincere remorse and regret?

The Inquirer quoted Phillip Hensley-Robin, of Common Cause Pennsylvania, as saying, “There are many Philadelphians manifestly qualified for these roles who have not been involved in notable scandals.”

The city deserves a government that upholds the highest standards, he said.

The city needs to “demonstrate that each hire is the best fit for their role,” said Lauren Cristella, director of the good-government Committee of Seventy.

This did not happen in the current case. Vick was hired by a private employer, and paid with private funds. The three Philly felons are being paid with public money, and with little public remorse.

It is a black mark on Parker’s record.