Wednesday, September 16, 2009

How we live today

A former federal prosecutor, George Parry, has an interesting Op-Ed in the Inquirer this morning, noting that Philadelphia has fallen on hard times indeed - even the Mob is moving out.

Up from a high of 80 members, the small but once-feared Mob is now down to a mere 10 or so guys on the street, with another 10 or so cooling their heels in prison. Far from being a triumph of police work, the author argues, it is a mark of how big a mess the city has become.

"It means that we have so little going for us that we can't even attract and keep a decent-sized organized-crime family. Things have deteriorated so badly that not even these bums want to live and commit crimes here."

Hooray for us.

Of course, on the up side, the Inquirer also reports that the top selling item at a local pet boutique chain is a woolly Michael Vick chew toy for your dog to nibble on while you watch the Eagles.

At least that's something.

1 comment:

dogimo said...

My goodness. What the.

I've never remotely heard of a news item with that sort of...angle to it.

Do they mean to say that the greatest number of mobsters at any given time in Philly was about 80 dudes?

That seems crazy low!