At PHA-Owned Crack House, Cops Find Two Bullet-Riddled Bodies

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Is the Philadelphia Housing Authority allowing one of its abandoned properties in West Philadelphia to operate as a crack house; a place where two weeks ago, the cops found two bullet-riddled bodies inside?

Police and neighbors say yes, but the mayor's office says no. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for PHA isn't talking.

On June 24th at 3:33 a.m., police officers in the 16th District responded to a radio call for a "person with a gun" and found two bullet-riddled bodies inside 4951 Hoopes Street. 

Tiyaine Kent, a 28 year-old black female, was found lying face up in the living room. She had suffered gunshot wounds to the head, abdomen and back. Eight minutes later, a fire department medic at the scene pronounced her dead.

The other victim, Kent Blake, a 34 year-old black male, suffered a gunshot wound in the chest. Medics transported Blake to Penn-Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was admitted in critical condition. Less than two hours later, at 5:22 a.m., he was pronounced dead.

The boarded-up, two-story brick row house on Hoopes Street is owned by PHA. It looks like an abandoned property, but three "residents" of that crack house told police that "they were placed there under an agreement from the homeless encampment from the summer of 2020."

Ever wonder what happened to those homeless "protesters" who formerly resided on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway? The cops say a trio of them have been holed up in a row house on Hoopes Street for months now, where they are sharing the space with a bunch of local drug addicts. The upshot is every day on Hoopes Street, it's party time.

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Woman Dies Of Overdose At Homeless Camp On Parkway

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

A homeless woman was found dead in the Tent City on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway last night with a needle in her arm.

Police said identity of the victim, who had overdosed, was unknown, and that records recording her death listed her as Jane Doe, age unknown. 

The homeless camp at 22nd and the Parkway has been the site of numerous overdoses. The city, in its legal filings in U.S. District Court seeking to clear the Parkway, has claimed there have been as many as 21 emergency calls for drug overdoses in one month at the camps, which the city said were overrun with the synthetic drug K2.

The camp at 22nd and the Parkway, home to some 150 "activists," was previously the site of a fatal crash on Sept. 25th that left one 20-year-old man dead and a woman injured. Cops told CBS Philly that the driver of a speeding Volkswagen swerved to avoid cones in the road that led to the camp. The camp's alleged leaders subsequently told reporters that as a "good will" gesture, they had voluntarily removed two homemade barriers of wooden pallets that had previously blocked all four lanes of 22nd Street to all traffic.

Camp leaders on Saturday also announced that the Kenney administration had allegedly struck a deal with the activists to supposedly turn over 50 vacant properties previously slated to be sold to developers to a community land trust to be managed by the activists. Talk about having your cake and eating it too. But WHYY quoted a city spokesman on Sunday declining to confirm the deal, saying that many details remained to be worked out. And that as part of the deal, the activists would have to leave the Parkway where they've been allowed by the Kenney administration to illegally squat on public land and litter it with hypodermic needles and all kinds of trash for the past four months.

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Vince Fumo Challenges Former Protege Kenney To A Street Fight

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

Former state Senator Vince Fumo is so pissed at his  onetime protege, Mayor Jim Kenney, that he's publicly challenged Kenney to a back-alley fight.

"You are the dumbest and biggest pussy in the city," Fumo wrote Kenney on Facebook. "You set a deadline for the scum that has taken over our streets and made a mockery of our city and its laws. And then what do you do, what any pussy would do. You back off again. Get that shit off of that street NOW!"

Fumo was raging about Kenney's complete incompetence in dealing with the various Tent City camps that for the past four months have been a blight on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Since June, Kenney has set three supposedly final deadlines for the camps to be cleared, and then three times, Kenney has caved, and done nothing. 

"Not only do they live in my neighborhood, but they make a mockery of the real homeless people that Sister Mary [Scullion] and others help every day," Fumo wrote about the anarchists and professional provocateurs posing as peaceful protesters on the Parkway. "And yes, PLEASE, PLEASE do NOT give those people on the Parkway another deadline. Admit that they made a total fool and asshole out of you," Fumo wrote, and then he urged Kenney to resign in disgrace.

In his Facebook rant, Fumo, who is 77, and has survived cancer and a few heart attacks, challenged Kenney, who is 62, to a street fight, like in Rocky V, when Rocky took on Tommy Gunn.

"Jimbo, I am challenging you to meet me in a back alley of your choosing," Fumo wrote. "Send Ms. [Police Commissioner Danielle] Outlaw to let me know the details. In fact, she can act as your second! She can hold your jacket and bring a First Aid kit to mend your wounds."

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Laughing Stock Kenney Caves Again To Tent City Anarchists

By Ralph Cipriano
for BigTrial.net

To the surprise of virtually no one, Mayor Jim Kenney has surrendered a third time to the homeless anarchists who have taken over the formerly scenic Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Within the past hour, according to police sources, Kenney called off a secret plan to have police raid the filthy Tent City homeless encampments at 3 a.m. tomorrow and clear them out.

The Philadelphia Police Department, under the direction of First Deputy Commissioner Melvin Singleton, had cancelled days off for more than 800 uniformed cops beginning tonight and stretching throughout the weekend. Plans called for the cops to show up in riot gear, with some 300 cops on bicycles. The state police were scheduled to participate, as were cops from several surrounding counties.

But word of the impending raid leaked out on social media and a frightened Kenney chickened out. It was Kenney who previously set the supposedly final deadline of 9 a.m. this morning for more than 150 homeless protesters to evacuate the Parkway, as well as nearby camps in the Azalea Garden, and outside the PHA headquarters on Ridge Avenue.

But once again, Kenney didn't have the balls to go through with it. Said one cop who was scheduled to participate in the raid, "I've seen a McDonald's drive-through run better than this."

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Tent City Lawsuit Seeks Injunction To Extend Lawless Behavior

By Ralph Cipriano

for BigTrial.net

For three months, a hapless Mayor Jim Kenney has allowed an illegal, unsafe and unsanitary Tent City to flourish on the formerly scenic Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

It started on June 11th, when Kenney ordered the cops to stand down as homeless "activists" invaded the Von Colln Memorial Field, at 22nd and the Parkway, where kids in the Fairmount neighborhood used to play baseball and soccer. While the city wasted months trying to negotiate with unruly protesters and their pie-in-the-sky and often conflicting demands, more tents sprouted on the grounds of the nearby Rodin Museum, and the Azalea Garden bordering the Philadelphia Art Museum, which is scheduled to re-open next month.

This lawlessness was all supposed to end at 9 a.m. Tuesday, when the weak-kneed and easily played Kenney had supposedly set a final deadline for the Tent City protesters to evacuate. Police were ordered to gather at 3 a.m. that morning to plan the dirty work of clearing the encampments. But on Monday, a pro bono lawyer for the homeless activists beat the city to the punch by going into U.S. District Court to request a temporary restraining order and an injunction against the city. 

In his lawsuit, attorney Michael Huff is basically asking a federal judge to uphold the protesters' imaginary rights to continue to break the law. Huff's lawsuit also seeks to prevent the city from enforcing the law, which they've failed to do for the past three months. 

And what was Kenney's reaction to the lawsuit? Why our spineless mayor immediately caved again, and called off the cops. 

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