Vigilantes — or self defense?

There were armed guards on 9th Street, hired by Italian Market merchants. A shotgun-carrying private security guard forced several youths to their bellies outside a big box store they had robbed. The owner of South Philly’s Firing Line shot and killed one of a group of intruders trying to ransack his gun shop.

At 17th & Packer,  a handful of men with rifles posed for a picture outside the closed Philadium, a popular dive bar. Also in South Philly, a large group took up positions outside the Target near Front & Snyder, guarding it from intruders.

In the Far Northeast, at the Morrell Park Plaza, I’m told the town watch put people in front of the Shop Rite, which had been looted the night before. Others reportedly protected the  Academy Plaza all night. 

In Fishtown, a group of club and bat-carrying men, mostly white, lined up across from a group of mostly white young protestors who hadn’t caused any trouble, yet. Cops got between the two groups, each of which accused the other of fomenting trouble.

KYWNewsRadio interviewed a West Philly woman who said local teens tried to break into her home.

Gun sales are zooming because of the actual looting of stores, plus rumors that anarchists or other criminals would begin breaking into homes next. There seems to be some basis for that fear.

Why are ordinary citizens arming up?

Because they feel abandoned by the leaders who were elected to protect them. The first order of government is to protect citizens, then to maintain order. 

In West Philadelphia, “We’re watching what we put together fall apart in a matter of minutes. We need some security now on this land. Now, not tomorrow, not later,” West Philadelphian Kim Fuller told Mayor Jim Kenney when he visited West Philly. She was quoted by 6ABC.

The commercial area around 52nd & Market, the heart of West Philly, had been plundered. 

“I apologize for what happened yesterday,” the mayor said. “We just couldn’t, we didn’t know where to pull from without putting everybody else at risk, putting the officers at risk.”

The mayor’s hand wringing is pathetic.  I’m sympathetic to the cops, but they take the job with the understanding they may be put in harm’s way. It’s why we call them the “finest,” some of us, anyway, and most of them deserve it.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw confessed her department had been outwitted by the looters and the department’s strategy “did not happen as quickly as I would’ve liked it to occur.”

I give Outlaw an A for honesty, but then switch to what I thought when she was hired. While nearly everyone was going gooney over her being Philly’s first black female police commissioner, I was wondering if she was up to the job. She came from Portland, which is one-third of Philly’s size.

For the few of you who go immediately to race, remember I’m criticizing the white, male mayor, too. 

And I am wondering if the mayor and the police commissioner can’t give a blanket assurance that Philadelphians will be protected, why should they be surprised when some citizens start oiling their weapons.

Our genius mayor, with a gift for being on the wrong side, warned that he doesn’t want any “vigilante” actions. Self-protection is not “vigilante.”

The only bright spot in this whole mess has been that the hoodlums who mix themselves in with peaceful protestors have not yet attacked innocent civilians.

Who knows? That could be next.