A few weeks ago, Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson took a valiant stab at relevancy by calling on black men throughout the city to volunteer for patrol duty. While it’s nice to see some attempt at fresh thinking coming from the top brass at the Philadelphia Police Department, I really liked this plan better the first time, when it came spewing out of T. Milton Street’s word hole. 
For those who are just joining us in Philadelphia, former hot-dog vendor Milton Street is current mayor’s John Street’s rascally brother, who ran a hilariously doomed campaign for mayor. Aside from pulling classic stunts such as crooning atop a prop coffin at an anti-violence rally and making various racial slurs on live radio/television, Milton is best known for his total lack of credibility as a city administrator. As his campaign burst into flames, he concocted various absurd plans to hold the public eye a little beyond his allotted 15 minutes, including deputizing 10,000 random Philadelphians to stem the murder rate.
So essentially, Sylvester Johnson has taken this insane plan and retooled it into a merely ineffectual and slightly less dangerous one. Hat’s off to the commissioner for not unleashing 10,000 untrained police deputies on the city, but is this really the only idea the PPD can come up with for allaying the violence in our city? This vain attempt to create a giant, uncoordinated town watch program is wholly empty of feasibility and any promise of success. Most neighborhoods in the city already have neighborhood watch programs that are understaffed, under funded, and by and large completely overwhelmed by the criminal element they must face. Milton’s plan was unquestioningly moronic, but it almost certainly would have had an effect (not necessarily a good one…), while Johnson promises more of the same: nothing.
It is time for the city to jettison this do-nothing commissioner. I have no doubt about Commissioner Johnson’s credentials as a police officer and a heroic servant to our fine city, but the man is not an administrator. He was most certainly appointed by John Street because of his race and uncontroversial reputation for being a “cop’s cop”. While he has done a splendid job of not rocking the boat thus far, his embarrassing response to the most recent crime wave has shown his true ability as the leader of our police.
In crisis times like these politics and race need to take a back seat to efficacy. It is with all sincerity that I hope our future Mayor will have the foresight to look past these two ever present pillars in Philadelphia, and select a true leader.
