Longtime blog buddy Dana Pico is usually our go-to source for all Philadelphia-related news, but for some reason he had no comment on the Eagles winning the Super Bowl and the subsequent riot. Therefore, belatedly, I’ll supply the necessary update. ABC News:
Dozens of people were arrested in Philadelphia after fans took to the streets to celebrate the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory, police said. Philadelphia police reported nearly 50 arrests following the Eagles’ win against the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans on Sunday.
Among those, five people were arrested for assault on police, authorities said. There were also two arrests for aggravated assault, one for recklessly endangering another person and one for misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the third degree, police said.
Additionally, police said 29 people were arrested for disorderly conduct and issued code violation notices.
There were eight arrests for vandalism incidents, including against four city sanitation trucks, two banks and two retail stores, police said. The businesses were all in Center City on Walnut Street.
Amid the raucous celebrations, fans were captured passing a downed traffic light pole on a packed street, and a large fire was seen near an intersection.
Police similarly reported disorderly conduct and other incidents after the Eagles won the NFC championship game in Philadelphia on Jan. 26, which sent them to the Super Bowl.
Thirty-one people were issued citations for disorderly conduct or failure to disperse, police said at the time.
Two shootings, a stabbing and a car crash that injured multiple pedestrians were also among several “significant” incidents reported amid the NFC championship celebrations, police said. Tragically, an 18-year-old Temple University student died after he fell from a light pole while celebrating the [NFC championship game] win, officials said.
The adverb “tragically” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, but rather than digress on that topic — the intersection where FAFO meets the Darwin Awards — permit me to note the location of Sunday night’s “celebration” (by which I mean, riot) in Philadelphia:
Philadelphia police are seeking the people responsible for tearing down Center City traffic light poles during the celebrations that took place following the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory.
On Sunday night, when thousands took to the streets, three poles located at Juniper and Market streets were taken down by a “large group of people” and “damaged beyond repair,” police said Tuesday.
OK, so the intersection of Juniper and Market streets (i.e., the east side of Penn Square) can serve to pinpoint this destructive chaos. This is in the Second Congressional District, represented in Congress by Democratic Rep. Brendan Doyle. However, the district line running north-south bisects Penn Square, so that the violent rioters could easily be residents of the neighboring Third District, represented in Congress by Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans. Using the New York Times interactive map of the 2024 presidential election, which allows you to search results down to the precinct level, I can report that the precincts around Penn Square in Philadelphia went for Kamala Harris with between 81% and 88% of the vote. Nowhere in the vicinity did Trump get as much as 20% of the vote.
This is deep blue territory, in other words, which means that the criminals arrested there are almost certainly Democrat voters:
As thousands took the streets of Philly to celebrate the Eagles victory Sunday night, police say several fans took the festivities too far, ending with their arrest.
Philadelphia police released the mugshots and new details about the arrest of 8 suspects, including two women and six men:
— Terry Kinard, 26, is charged with resisting arrest and harassment for spitting on and hitting a medic
— John Kasianczuk, 44, is charged with simple assault, resisting arrest and defiant trespass for assaulting a police officer.
— Paul Aguilera, 28, is charged with PIC [possessing instruments of crime], REAP [recklessly endangering another person], evading arrest and disorderly conduct for swinging a flag pole, and trying to knock down electrical wires
— Tyler Roach, 30, is charged with harassment, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness
— Destiney Paramore, 18, is charged with REAP, fleeing a police officer, yielding to a pedestrian sidewalk and reckless driving for nearly striking several pedestrians with her vehicle and performing donuts
— Anonio Kizzia, 21, is charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and disorderly conduct for trying to punch a police officer
— Teairah Tate, 33, is charged with simple assault, resisting arrest and harassment for hitting a police officer
— Brandon Thompson is charged with aggravated assault, PIC, simple assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct for throwing liquid into an officer’s face
‘Eagles fans,’ IYKWIMAITYD
“Diversity is our strength!” Crime in Philadelphia is just part of the local culture. Black, white, Hispanic, male, female — everyone in Philly is a dangerous criminal. A propensity for violent mayhem unites the city.
Our friend Dana Pico refers to the city as “Killadelphia,” but actually homicide trends in Philadelphia are down. Last year, there were only 266 murders in Philadelphia, the lowest number in a decade, and down more than 50% from the 559 murders in Philadelphia in 2021. In terms of per capita homicide rates, Philadelphia now ranks 12th among major U.S. cities, with the top five spots held by St. Louis, Baltimore, New Orleans, Detroit and Cleveland. So an Eagles fan was actually more likely to be murdered in New Orleans, where the Super Bowl was played, than in his hometown — a marginal improvement, perhaps, but a potential source of local civic pride: “Philadelphia: Not as Bad as New Orleans.”
“With a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of D+27, it is the most Democratic district in Texas.” If your employer relocated you to Dallas, and you were looking to purchase a residence in the area, I’d advise you to stay as far away from the 30th District as possible. Nothing good ever happens inside a D+27 congressional district.
After three years of stalwart service in the snows of Reno and the deserts of Las Vegas, my Samsung died right after I checked into my room at the Stratosphere tonight. Contributions to my tip jar would be greatly appreciated. The Spring Based Book Sale starts today! Silicon Valley et Hamas delenda sunt.
I posted a video about stuff.
The Senators started the week getting mauled by the Twins as Spaceman Lee self-destructed on the mound en route to a 14-2 blowout, but we managed to salvage the final game with Jim Kaat and the bullpen holding on for a 9-5 win. Things likewise started badly in Montreal; Joe Coleman picked up his fourth loss against Paul Splittorff, but then Spaceman Lee came back for a close 3-2 win and Carl Morton won another squeaker in Game 3. We’re still in the cellar, two games behind Oakland, but only five games behind the Red Sox. No surrender! Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.
The intersection of Flatlands Avenue and East 80th Street is probably not the worst part of Brooklyn, but it’s also not the best part of Brooklyn.
Far be it from me to pretend to have any expert knowledge of Brooklyn neighborhoods. All I know on the subject, I learned via Google searches, which tells me that this vicinity is part of what’s known as Carnasie:
Canarsie was initially a fishing community, but became a popular summer resort in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the late 1930s and early 1940, the resorts had been destroyed, and Canarsie was developed as a largely Italian American and Jewish suburb. In the 1970s, racial tensions developed around an argument over the zoning of the area’s schools, and in the aftermath, Canarsie became a mainly black neighborhood with a high West Indian population in the late 1990s.
The intersection of Flatlands Avenue and East 80th Street is in ZIP Code 11236, where the population is 82% black and 4% white. You may wonder why I’m sharing this information, or how it might be relevant to any current political discussion, but I became interested in this because of a video I watched on the Police Activity channel on YouTube:
Suspect Points Gun at NYPD Sergeant Before Being Shot and Arrested
On Friday, January 10, 2025, at approximately 9:43 p.m., Sergeant Salzman, Police Officer Okafor, Police Officer Wilson, Police Officer Zaheer, and additional officers assigned to the 69th Precinct, were transporting a prisoner to the 69th Precinct following an unrelated arrest. While at the intersection of East 80th Street and Flatlands Avenue, the officers heard a gunshot in the vicinity and observed, 50-year-old Moonra Durham fleeing northbound on East 80th Street. Sergeant Salzman and Police Officer Zaheer pursued Durham on foot while Police Officer Wilson and Police Officer Okafor pursued him in their vehicle. While the officers pursued him, they shouted commands for Durham to stop. Once in front of 754 East 80th Street, Durham positioned himself behind a tree and pointed a firearm at Police Officer Zaheer.
Durham then turned to his left and pointed the firearm at Sergeant Salzman. As a result, Sergeant Salzman discharged three shots, Police Officer Okafor discharged four shots, Police Officer Wilson discharged two shots, and Police Officer Zaheer discharged four shots, from their service firearms at Durham. Durham was struck by the gunfire and taken into custody without further incident. Durham was transported from the scene via ambulance to Brookdale University Medical Center where he was treated for his injuries. For his actions, Durham was arrested and charged with Attempted Murder in the First Degree (police officer), Attempted Murder in the Second Degree, Criminal Use of a Firearm in the First and Second Degree, Attempted Aggravated Assault Upon a Police Officer, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, and related charges.
We do not know why the initial gunshot was fired — robbery? assault? just another Friday night in Canarsie? — but it so happened that at least four cops were within earshot of this incident, and considering how it played out, the suspect is lucky he didn’t get shot dead. Where I come from, you point a gun at a cop, let alone four cops, and you’re likely to die in the proverbial “hail of police gunfire.” What kind of place is this, where gunfire goes off randomly on a Friday night and the perp thinks it’s a smart idea to point his gun at cops? That’s how my curiosity about Canarsie got started; the description included a street address — 754 East 80th Street — and I was able to do a Google “street view,” which showed a pleasant-looking tree-lined street, with brick apartments or rowhouses.
Just looking at it, you wouldn’t think of East 80th Street as “ghetto,” and in terms of its physical appearance, this Canarsie neighborhood probably hasn’t changed much since the days when, as Wikipedia says, it was “a largely Italian American and Jewish suburb.” Alas, the Jews and Italians cleared out decades ago because of a school-zone dispute, and the more recent “gentrification” that turned neighborhoods like Park Slope into hot spots for yuppies never got as far east as 80th Street. OK, so who is this suspect walking around with a pistol? “Moonra Durham” is a sufficiently unique name that I figured it was worth a Google search.
Readers will recall that on Thursday, I took note of Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who had proclaimed on CNN that “the people that commit 80% of the most violent crimes in this country are white supremacists.” And I pointed out that Crockett represents the 30th District of Texas:
“With a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of D+27, it is the most Democratic district in Texas.” If your employer relocated you to Dallas, and you were looking to purchase a residence in the area, I’d advise you to stay as far away from the 30th District as possible. Nothing good ever happens inside a D+27 congressional district.
The Eighth District of New York is rated D+26. Just sayin’ . . .
