Coatesville Dems: If we did things like Spain does, most of Pennsylvania’s local government officials would be in the jailhouse.

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Public Corruption in Chester County, PA

I believe an unlikely mix of alleged drug trafficking related politicos and alleged white nationalist related politicos united to elect the infamous “Bloc of Four” in the abysmal voter turnout election of 2005. During their four year term the drug business was good again and white nationalists used Coatesville as an example on white supremacist websites like “Stormfront”. Strong community organization and support from law enforcement, in particular Chester County District Attorney Joseph W. Carroll has begun to turn our community around. The Chester County drug trafficking that I believe centers on Coatesville continues and I believe we still have public officials in place that profit from the drug sales. But the people here are amazing and continue to work against the odds to make Coatesville a good place to live.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

If we did things like Spain does, most of Pennsylvania’s local government officials would be in the jailhouse.

How laws are enforced in Spain is different than in Pennsylvania. Most of our government officials would be indicted or doing time using Spain rules.

"Across this region, about 50 indicted politicians are hoping to win re-election on Sunday, even as they prepare to appear before courts in cases related mostly to the mishandling of public money, like taking kickbacks to award city contracts."

MORE AT:

New York Times

Spain’s Many Indicted Politicians Undercut ‘Red Line’ Against Graft

By RAPHAEL MINDERMAY 23, 2015

Here it is routine to enter the political process and run for local township office or local school board or even district magistrate judge for the sole purpose of sending municipal contracts to your brother in law or to make sure your cousin's construction company flies through zoning approval or some other approval.

It's one of the drawbacks of having all land use regulated at the local government level in Pennsylvania by more than 4000 separate government entities, including the more than 2000 local community governments and 500 local school districts. The actual number of government entities that regulates land use in Pennsylvania changes year to year.

One of Richard Legree’s axioms is:

“If they don't know it’s a law, the law ain't broken.”

Judges can utilize laws, but they can’t legally engage in writing them.

I even heard about a district magistrate judge who “approves” land development for the local municipality. Guess the local municipality officials don't know that’s illegal, and that the district magistrate judge can be removed from office because of it.

It's impossible to investigate corruption when there are so very many possibilities. Everyone in Pennsylvania local government eventually figures that out.