Sadness surrounds memorial for Sgt. Simpson

A cruel wind blew yesterday at the intersection of Allegheny and Aramingo Avenues, where skid marks, broken glass, and a makeshift tribute - all overshadowed by the sadness etched on faces - memorialized the death of another Philadelphia police officer.

It was here that Sgt. Timothy Simpson was killed Monday night when, police said, a car driven by a career criminal carrying packets of heroin slammed into his cruiser. Simpson, 46, a decorated 20-year veteran, was the fourth officer killed in the line of duty in less than seven months.

Throughout the day, the memorial grew - with candles, balloons, flowers and stuffed animals - as somber visitors paid their respects.

An elderly woman walked up gingerly, made the sign of the cross, and read a note tacked above a teddy bear:

Sergeant Simpson is the best
He is better than the rest
Why did he have to go so quick
I wish I could fix it.

A man parked his cart of aluminum cans and lit a candle pulled from his pocket.

A mail carrier dropped off a dozen roses.

A uniformed officer closed his eyes and bowed his head.

As cars and buses rolled by and people waited at bus stops, police stood in the middle of the intersection to piece together what happened.

"We're crushed," said Officer Mike Wilson, leaning over his police bike. Wilson, on the force for 12 years, once worked with Simpson in the 24th District's Two Squad. "Any time it happens, it's terrible," Wilson said. "And tragedy has hit us twice in the last six months."

In May, fleeing bank robbers gunned down Simpson's partner, Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. Simpson then took over Liczbinski's command of the Two Squad.

"This poor police district, and what they're going through," said Donna Hess, 55, who lives nearby and took a picture of the memorial for her coworkers. "I hope the officers are getting counseling. They're losing so many of their buddies. It's so sad. It's a shame. I guess a lot of them hate to leave the house in the morning."

Officer Roosevelt Gibbs of the Accident Investigation District looked at it this way:

"We've all been there, responding to a call. You just never know what's around the bend. It could have been any of us."

At one small afternoon gathering outside the memorial, visitors mostly just stood and stared in silence.

"I feel like I had to come here," said Guido Delozier, 48, holding a worn Bible in his hand. "I know what it's like to lose your mind to drugs. You don't think what you can do to other people. I just pray for the fallen officer."

Meanwhile, outside the 24th District station, Officer Ruben Santiago said officers were dealing with their recent losses day by day. He described the department as "a big friendship and a big family."

"You feel a sense of guilt," said Santiago. "You ask yourself: 'Where was I, and why wasn't I there?' It's a shame. He was a great guy."


(Kia Gregory, Philadelphia Inquirer; Photo credit: Elizabeth Robertson, Inquirer)

In a tough city school, a wellspring of leadership

The air is muggy inside the auditorium of Daniel Boone disciplinary school, as a line of students, boys from grades 9 to 12, file in past a giant fan for an assembly titled Building the Leaders of Tomorrow.

Generally, students are transferred to this North Philadelphia school for violating level-two offenses in the district's code of student conduct, including stealing, damaging school property, selling drugs, or bringing a gun to school.

Today, change is the overarching theme.

"The greatest thing in our lives happened," Eric Ward, a speaker with the Keepin' It Real Tour, tells the students about Barack Obama's victory last week.

"Everybody told him he couldn't do it, that no black man could win. But this man continued and didn't give up, and now we have the first black president."

Repeat after me, Ward continues.

Yes, I can.
I am somebody
I am successful.
I'm a proud young man.

For two years, the Keepin' It Real Tour - founded by Ward, a former admissions director at Lincoln University, and his son Shareef - has journeyed into the city's public schools. The mission is to inspire what Ward calls "under-motivated" youth and to build a bond with students that could change their lives.

Boone is the second stop on this year's 60-school tour.

"When we leave, we try to leave a permanent program behind," Ward said, namely a mentoring program.

The audience at Boone is about 60 boys, mostly African American, who are divided almost equally between white shirts and black shirts. Students in black shirts have earned the status as "leaders" - students who come to school on time, complete their assignments, don't talk back to their teachers, and encourage their white-shirt peers to earn black shirts.

All of the students are attentive and responsive.

"I don't care if you've been in trouble, in jail, on drugs," Ward continues.

Ward, 55, grew up in "the mean streets of North Philly," he often says, "to parents who didn't have nothing." After graduating from college and becoming an entrepreneur, he says his mantra is "Your past is no excuse."

"Today, you are going to change your lives. There's help for you."

Ward calls up two students, both in black shirts, and asks them what they want to be. Luron Bailey, 17, isn't sure, but he's applied to Lincoln University, Ward's alma mater.

"Have they given you any money?" Ward asks.

Bailey shakes his head no. Ward promises to help him secure financial aid, even if it means donating $1,000 of his own money toward Bailey's first semester.

The other student wants to be a lawyer. Ward, nicknamed E-Money, gives them each $20.

The tour is funded by both Ward and area businesses.

Ward then calls up another group of students and gives them an assignment, a one-page book report on a prominent African American of their choosing: Dr. Ben Carver; Magic Johnson; Ephren Taylor, who became rich as a teenager designing his own Web site; Tyler Perry ("This man was homeless 10 years ago," Ward exclaimed); or Earl Graves, founder of Black Enterprise magazine.

The students have a month to finish, and the promise of $100 for each completed report. Ward gives them $20 for added motivation.

The assembly continues with words of self-determination, mixed with a level of common sense. Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge John Milton Younge tells the boys how in his 13 years on the bench, he's seen three common themes in criminal defendants: no education, no skills, and an addiction to alcohol or drugs.

"What does that tell you?" Younge asks. If you want to stay out of jail, he continues, you must do three things: "expect to succeed, develop good habits, and always make good decisions."

Shareef Ward, 27, marvels at how the boys had already tucked in their shirts and pulled up their pants. "Y'all heard of stop-and-frisk?" he asks. When it comes to dress, he says, "perception is key."

"Who knows how to tie a tie?" he asks.

A few hesitant hands float in midair.

Ward, who designs and sells his own ties by appointment, picks six students for a tie-tying contest. The prize: a suit, shirt, tie, and pair of shoes.

The tie-tying produces a tie: Two boys win; both will be outfitted.

Next, Philadelphia poet and author Will Little tells how he went from shy kid to convicted murderer to entrepreneur.

"Going to jail is corny, a waste of time," Little cautioned. "Hustlin'? It's nothing, nowhere."

Little then reads a poem about seeing his old self in the eyes of a young boy.

The one-hour program ends in promises. In an effort to keep in touch with the students, Ward and his son will return next month, and they hope to see more black shirts. There are the book reports. Ward plans to have breakfast with the black shirts at Center City's Pyramid Club sometime soon. Every student here will get a free tie. And Ward vows to find a mentor for each student who wants one.

"How many of you have mentors?" he asks.

Three hands shoot up.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of to need someone," Ward says. "We all need people in our life, and we got to talk. Don't be out here struggling with stuff you can't handle."

As the students file out, a few come over to Ward with questions about the book report. Many more come up to shake his hand and say thank you. And about 20 students sign up for a mentor.

"I think it was something we need to hear," says one student, as he adds his name to the list.

(Kia Gregory, Philadelphia Inquirer; Photo credit: Charles Fox, Inquirer photographer)

For North Philadelphia, cheers

At Dowling’s Palace, at Broad and Thompson Streets, the crowd erupted into cheers when news flashed across the television screen: Barack Obama elected president. They jumped, clapped and screamed “Obama! Obama!” as they ran out into the street, where they were met by blaring car horns from passerby.

“I feel amazing,” said Nicole Dowling, 38, whose family owns the popular venue for jazz, food and spoken word. “You know how your parents talk about Martin Luther King? I feel like we’re in a new phase -- Barack Obama!”

Her husband, Stacey, 40, could only muster a few words: "I feel elated ... satisfied ... fulfilled," he said, as he hugged his wife.

Clean and Voting

In the evening rush, a small crowd gathers around a live jazz band playing outside of Cecil B. Moore recreation center, where Erwin Warfield, 48, has just voted, he said, for the first time in a long time.

“I know it’s time for a change,” said Warfield, wearing a T-shirt that reads: “The Dream,” above a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama, “It’s time for us to get our lives back on track with this new administration. Obama sounds like he’s gonna do it.”

Warfield, a recovering drug addict, clean more than 15 years, is founder of Stop and Surrender, a drug treatment program, located nearby in what he calls “the heart of North Philly.”

“This is my neighborhood where I messed up, and now I’m trying to clean it up,” said Warfield,

Earlier in the day, Warfield bought about 100 of his clients here to vote, most of them for the first time.

“One time in their life they didn’t exist,” said Warfield. “Now that they’re in the program, it’s mandatory that they become apart of the community and create opportunities to do better, and that means voting.”

A reminder from mom overseas: Vote!

First time voter Kazeem Animasaun, 18, stands in a long line with hundreds of other voters at North Philadelphia’s Penrose Recreation Center, where workers say at 5 pm more than a thousand people have voted today.

De La Soul’s "Me Myself and I" blares from the loud speaker. Kids play with balloon animals. Stacks of bottled water sit on a table. Earlier under a steady ran, poll workers handed on ponchos to voters, some of whom waited in line for three hours.

Animasaun has been here for about 30 minutes ... and counting.

“I feel real good,” said the Temple University freshman and a native of Nigeria. “It’s the first time you have an African American that can win.”

This morning, his mother called him from Nigeria warning him: don’t forget to vote today.

Estimates predict he has about two hours before he does.

“I don’t mind,” he says about the wait, adding a warm grin. "I got a chance to make change.”

Voter remembers: Not like segregation

As Ron Dobbins stood in line to vote this morning in Laverock, Montgomery county, he traveled back to the late 1950s when he was stationed on an Army base in Columbia, South Carolina.

“There were signs all over place,” Dobbins remembered. “They said: ‘No Colored.’ Then to go and vote for that colored guy,” Dobbins said with a chuckle. “It is a very warm kind of feeling.”

In his 73 years, Ron Dobbins never thought he’d see the day.

Growing up in West Philadelphia, Dobbins said he “lived segregation,” in an era “where you didn’t have any African Americans driving taxi cabs, needless to say doing much of anything else.”

“So it’s a great deal of pride,” said Dobbins, a registered Republican, of casting his vote for Obama. “I didn’t think I would live to see the chance, an African-American as president of the United States. I just did not think it was possible.”

In many ways, Obama is confirmation of Dobbins’ life lessons, centered on education and hard work in the face of overwhelming odds.

As a child sitting on his mother’s lap, Dobbins remembers how his mother, a domestic worker, would read the newspaper and ask him, ‘What’s this word?’

Then there was his father.

“My father was not a man who smiled a lot,” he said. “He was very demanding and he expected that you would get good grades.”

Dobbins’ father worked the night shift at the post office, but he also managed to own two businesses: a mom-and-pop grocery store and a construction company.

“His position was make your own way, do it for yourself,” Dobbins said of his father. “If somebody else can do it, you can do it too.”

It is a sentiment that helped Dobbins become successful as well, a married father of three children, who ran his own business until he retired.

Still, Dobbins called Obama's race “incidental to what I think is his ability. If Obama was white and McCain was black, I would be voting for Obama still."

West Poplar crowd vows to fight violence

The meeting began with a solemn prayer.

Led by Bishop Ethan Thornton, a crowd of about 40 in Greater Harvest Evangelistic Church asked God for strength in battling an outbreak of violence in the city's West Poplar neighborhood.

In the last 6 1/2 weeks, there have been a rape, a murder and four shootings, one involving two teenagers arguing over a girl.

"We're having this meeting to issue a call to action that can't be put off another day," State Rep. W. Curtis Thomas (D., Phila.) said from the lectern.

The attendants last week - community leaders, police officials, pastors, New Black Panther Party members, and a young teen chased by gunfire outside his home - were racially diverse, reflecting the demographics of a changing neighborhood.

The violence began Sept. 16 when bullets cut through an elderly resident's window at 13th Street and Fairmount Avenue, Thomas said. The next day, a man was shot in a leg at 12th and Wallace Streets. On Sept. 28, a bullet-riddled body was found at 13th and Fairmount. On Oct. 13, a woman was raped and robbed at knifepoint at Sixth Street and Girard Avenue. And on Oct. 18, a 15-year-old was shot multiple times at 12th and Wallace. The alleged assailant was 14.

"I challenge anyone to tell me where that 14-year-old could buy a gun," Thomas boomed. "He couldn't buy it from a gun shop or gun show. Somebody put that gun in that young man's hand."

Thomas, a single father of twin boys, earned his street cred in the '70s working to quell juvenile gangs. He has lived in West Poplar for almost 40 years, and remembers when blight consumed the area. But through a wave of public and private investment, the neighborhood is changing, as one resident noted, "at warp speed."

The number of homeowners and the average annual family income have skyrocketed. There are new businesses and better schools. And as one community organizer pointed out with pride, condos are coming.

"As a member of this community, I'm not going to let it go back," Thomas told the crowd. "People will do things differently when they know the community is fed up."

Thomas then issued a five-part crime-prevention plan.

One: Call the police.

"We can pay them as much as we want, and have as many as we want, but at the end of the day, we have to share information," he said.

An inspector from the district nodded.

"If you don't want to call out of fear," Thomas continued, "then call my office."

He noted how tips from the community had helped lead to the arrest of the 14-year-old.

Next: "Parents, parents, parents," Thomas chanted. "You've got to do things a little differently."

"Mmm-hmm," a few responded.

Parents must know where their children are, what they are doing, and whom they are with at all times, Thomas said.

"These kids are bringing these guns in and out of our homes," he said.

He asked frustrated parents to "put their pride to the side" and ask for help.

"If your child can't handle the freedom that's out on the street, there are residential programs that can have a positive influence, that can lead to Yale rather than jail," he said.

Thomas said he aimed to put a directory of community programs such as day-care centers, after-school programs and job services into every West Poplar home.

He asked the community to try again to organize a town watch and join the police district advisory committee. Last, he recommended a crime reward fund, promising he'd write the first check.

After the meeting, many committed to the call.

"The key here is education," said Margie Pierce of the West Poplar Action Council. "It seems our moral fiber is just gone. We have to learn to respect each other, and until we get back to the basics, we're going to have these kinds of problems."

Thomas said he planned to hold community meetings quarterly to gauge progress.

"We're putting criminals on notice that we're not having it in this community," he said. "We've come too far to turn the clock back now."

(Kia Gregory, Philadelphia Inquirer)

Phillies on Parade

As the horse-drawn Budweiser wagon moves along Broad Street at Washington Avenue, someone asks lifelong Phillies fan Bob Taylor: Who’s that passenger waving from the bench?

“Nobody,” Taylor deadpans.

Taylor finally admits it’s Pat Burrell.

But today all is forgiven.

Taylor, 54, cut out of his job dealing cards in Atlantic City early, and drove an hour to get to this moment.

He’s been following the Phils since Connie Mack stadium, back when he said a ticket cost a nickel and admission 25 cents. “And those were the good seats,” he says.

Taylor predicts the next parade won’t take 25 years.

“They’re keeping all the tools in the shed,” he says, nodding his head.

“Pat-the-Bat is the only one who isn’t signed. Once he does, I think they will repeat.”

********

Decked in red-and-white, Keith Smith, 46, and his 11-year-old son, Keith, Jr. trekked seven miles on Broad Street from North Philly to South to witness history.

But first: two sodas from a nearby gas station.

“It’s like really fun and everything because it’s like the first championship in 25 years, and it’s the first I get to see,” said Keith, Jr, 11, wearing a “From Cursed to First,” T-shirt, and flashing a toothy grin.

Dad echoed the sentiment.

“It’s priceless,” Smith said. “It’s good for the city. But it’s does nothing for the Eagles.”

“He’s a Cowboys fan,” said junior, outting his father.

But when it comes to baseball, the two have cheered for the Phillies, and attended a handful of games. Keith Jr.’s favorite player is Ryan Howard.

For Keith, Jr. especially the parade is a source of pride. His little league team, where he plays pitcher and first base, lost in the championship game in overtime. “But I didn’t blow a save
Bruntlett,” he said.

After the parade, father and son will walk another three miles to the stadium, to which Keith, Jr. shouts: “Thank you!”