Philly Media: Masters Of The Obvious

By Wyatt Earp | February 4, 2010

You know what bothers me about the media here in Philadelphia? It’s not that they are uber-liberal. It’s not that they’re always ripping the police. It’s that they are completely clueless about what goes on in this town because most of them live in the suburbs.

Want some proof? Check out the below listed story, which decries the proliferation of syringes in the Kensington section of the city. Thankfully, CBS3 is on the case:

In the shadow of the Frankford El train lays a community that feels it’s been living in the dark, Kensington. The North Philadelphia neighborhood is a place where trash litters the sidewalks and you don’t have to look hard to find hypodermic needles, like the needle recently picked up by a five-year-old boy whose mother contacted Eyewitness News to tell their story.

“He told me about it and by that time he was already bleeding and said that he’d poked himself with it,” said the mother, who chose to remain anonymous. “The number one thing is AIDS and now he has to get frequent blood tests every now and then.”

Bawahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Why am I laughing? It’s not because the poor kid got stuck with a needle. It’s because Kensington has been a haven for drug dealers and users for decades. I should know, since I was a police officer there for six years. These geniuses are just noticing the problem now? Are they frakkin’ kidding me? No one in the media cared about the children’s safety before!

A man afraid of the local drug dealers did not want to be identified, but tells Eyewitness News that he has owned a shop in Kensington for 20 years.

Therein lies the problem, folks. No one wants to speak up, no one wants to talk to the po-po, but everyone wants the dealers and users to magically disappear. Yeah, good luck with that.

People living in the downtrodden neighborhood wish City Hall would see the problem.

City Councilmen who represent the Kensington district of Philadelphia did not respond when reached for comment on this issue.

If the Philly media would do its job, they would ask this follow-up question: “Why doesn’t City Hall see the problem?” It’s okay, CBS, I’ll do your work for you.

City Hall does see the problem. They have always seen the problem. They just don’t care. They don’t care because the majority of the people in Kensington are either White or Latino. If this story was taking place in an African-American neighborhood, Mayor Nutter and Police Commissioner Ramsey – both of whom are African-American – would be flooding the area with police officers, sanitation personnel, and anything else that could rectify the problem. It’s happened before. Hell, it’s happening now.

But don’t trust me, CBS3. What do I know? I just live here.

Topics: Philly | 7 Comments »