Michael Smerconish: Put a bounty on the bad guys
IN AN ALL-too- familiar scene, the city has paid its final respects to yet another fallen police officer, Patrick McDonald. Here's something else that's common: His killer was wanted at the time of the murder.
It's time to involve the public in clearing the streets of the known bad guys, and I want to share a friend's suggestion.
First, here's what we know about Officer McDonald's killer:
Daniel Giddings was a criminal for most of his life, committing his first crime - mugging a mentally disabled man - at 10. He was repeatedly charged with assaulting and injuring the staff during his correctional stints as a teen. He went to jail in 2000 after being convicted of robbery and shooting his victim in both kneecaps during the holdup.
Despite being charged with more than two dozen disciplinary violations in prison, and spending much of two years in solitary, Giddings was paroled last year. Just weeks ago, he fled his halfway house. It took him hardly a week to get into an altercation with police, who pulled him over in a stolen car.
He scuffled with officers and eluded arrest. Police later kicked down his mother's door looking for him. Too bad they missed him.
Giddings was already a wanted man when he executed McDonald. And Philadelphia has an epidemic of fugitives.
There are 61,969 warrants for 47,469 individuals outstanding - and that doesn't include arrest warrants or those issued by the state parole board or federal authorities.
Three days after McDonald was slain, police finally ended a 72-day manhunt for Donald Guy when they found the suspect hiding under his grandmother's bed. He was wanted for the July murder of two Feltonville shopkeepers.
When bad guys aren't taken off the street, they do more bad things. Andre Butler, 16, charged with killing Officer Isabel Nazario earlier this month, had been wanted since June after missing a Family Court hearing.
Eric Floyd, one of three men involved in the slaying of Officer Stephen Liczbinski last spring, was considered a fugitive at the time after escaping from a halfway house. John Lewis, Officer Chuck Cassidy's killer, was a suspect in a string of violent robberies leading up to his confrontation with Cassidy last year.
And how about Solomon Montgomery, who killed Officer Gary Skerski in 2006? Wanted in California on a robbery charge.
Last week, right after McDonald's murder, I had lunch with a former member of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission under Mayor Wilson Goode. He raised a good point: When the state has money that belongs to a taxpayer they can't find, they publish a list of names and seek the public's help in finding those people.
So when the city has a list of bad guys wanted for crimes, why isn't a similar list published?
The sheriff prints the addresses of properties headed into foreclosure. Why not a list of people who shouldn't be on the streets?
It's time to involve the public in taking bad guys off the street. And if it takes a system of financial rewards to get neighbors to drop a dime, so be it.
The Citizens Crime Commission offers rewards for help in solving murder cases and locating murder suspects. But what about fugitives linked to violent crimes other than murder? Why not make them headliners, too?
Some will call it vigilantism. I call it citizen involvement.
Of course, we all remember when the city asked the Daily News for help in apprehending murder suspects. On Aug. 22, 2002, the DN front-page headline read "Fugitives Among Us," accompanied by pictures of 18 perps wanted at the time. The program worked, but some beefed about the race of those displayed (all minorities), overlooking the fact that they were wanted for murder.
BOTTOM LINE: We've seen time and time again that recidivist thugs are the ones most likely to end up killing someone.
So, by involving the public
in a citywide dragnet - publicizing the names of wanted criminals (not just murderers), and paying people whose tips or information lead to their apprehension - we'd be targeting potential murders before they pull the trigger.
Not to mention doing what we can to give police the advantages they need to keep thugs like Giddings from wreaking their deadly havoc. *
Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.