To Coatesville City Council: Richie’s dead. Bitsy’s a film maker. The business ain’t gonna be “good again” in Coatesville.

I’ve seen police brutality. I lived and worked in Philly when “Hizzhonor” was commissioner & mayor. 

Maybe two blocks from my apartment at 22nd. & Green I was taking a photo of sneakers strung over a line with my Nikon F. Today it’s a $5,000 camera. Back then it was about a month’s salary. 

A skinny Puerto Rican guy showed up saying “Nice camera.” A second later he looked up and started running. 

A bigger Puerto Rican guy ran by me, cord dangling from a radio. A one eyed Black man was chasing him. One eye man stopped just in front of me and said “I got a gun.” About five guys in plain clothes showing badges and another ten in uniform just appeared. The Puerto Rican guys most likely got a “rough ride” to the Roundhouse. I went home shook up. 

A movie plays in my head as I write this. It ain’t pretty:

I got to know a Philly plain clothes cop, local drug dealers, Philly gangster’s sons, A former friend of Frank Rizzo, a guy with a luncheonette in Bridesburg who had mob hit men customers, lots of time on the street in Center City, Germantown, North Philly and so on. A well rounded street education. 

I rowed and ran along the Schuylkill. I could run fast and keep running. The street gangs carried knives back then. In 2018 you can’t outrun a bullet. 

I have a message to Coatesville residents complaining about our police. Coatesville Police are like pre-school teachers compared to the brutality I saw under “Hizzoner’s” reign in Philadelphia. 

Coatesville City Council, it’s like this:

Richard is dead. His extensive protection for drug business entrepreneurs in Chester County, PA died with him. 

You’re Wile E. Coyote walking on air. 

Detective Thompson is working on those 13 unsolved murders. If you try firing him along with Chief Jack Laufer the AG of Pennsylvania will be up your ass.