I don’t blame Outlaw for this screwup

I am no fan of Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, who has been in over her head since Day One, because “progressive” Mayor Jim Kenney wanted to prove his Wokeness by hiring a Black female who had commanded a police force one-sixth the size of Philly’s.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw

That would be Portland, Ore., population 645,300, with a poverty rate of 14%, compared to Philadelphia’s 24% poverty rate, and poverty is a reliable indicator of crime. 

I don’t know the woman, never met her, but she just finished a week in which she was sandbagged by her own officers, either stupid or corrupt.

In the wake of the fatal shooting by police of 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry, Outlaw conducted a news conference in which she said Irizarry was shot standing outside his Toyota Corolla on a Kensington street.

It was a lie.

I don’t blame Outlaw for the lie.

She was repeating information gathered by her staff, and her staff was dependent on the officers on the scene for a description of what happened.

We have now learned, from body camera footage, and examination of the car, that Irizarry was seated in his car, with the windows rolled up, when he was shot six times by a police officer identified as Mark Dial, a five-year veteran of the force. It has the earmarks of an execution. 

An embarrassed Outlaw then had to revise her first statement to one that fit the emerging facts.

It seems obvious the involved officers — Dial’s partner, not yet identified, was on the passenger’s side and reportedly shouted that Irizarry had a weapon — lied. The “weapon” was a knife, or two, that might not have been in the victim’s hands. Even if it were, behind a rolled-up window, was he a threat to officers?

To give the two cops the benefit of every possible doubt, it is possible that they told the truth but their words were garbled as they were passed up the line, like that game of telephone you may have played as a kid.

No, I don’t believe that, but I also don’t believe in convicting without a trial. The body camera footage should be released immediately. It would go a long way to answering questions.

I have one police source, not a fan of Outlaw’s, who told me a while back that he felt sorry for Outlaw because no one in the department has her back. From the command structure, to the rank and file, she is regarded as an outsider hired not on merit, but on looks — Black and female.

That may be true.

At the worst we have a crime — filing a false report with police — and at the least an extraordinary communications break down surrounding the shooting.

Someday has to face the music — and fast.