Mark...As I write this email, I've just learned of another shooting in the city on West River near Acadamy. The shootings are happening closer and closer together and it is really starting to become a grave situation we have going on here. But, before I go off on that tangent, I'd like to address the comments made by the officers who responded to my email from the other night concerning the three hookers on Acadamy and South Franklin Streets. First of all, I must make myself perfectly clear about our police who patrol the city and risk their lives each and every time they go to work. I greatly respect them and truly appreciate the job they do to protect us, as do all of my neighbors who live in the "red light district". I will admit that my email the other night was quite sarcastic, but let me assure you, it is not because I'm "goofy" as the officer wrote, but rather because I am completely and utterly fed-up with the condition of our neighborhood and the city in general. It was not the officers on the street I was being critical of, but rather the administrative ones that the pathetic mayor has kissing his ass. The comments in the paper by the chief about the officers protecting their friends and family and city council members who solicit prostitutes was unprofessional and totally unacceptable to come from someone who is in charge of the forces of law and order in our city. He should hang his head in shame. Every one of my neighbors I spoke with was appalled at his remarks. Another example is when the chief made the statement in the press about the shooting at Sherman Hills...I believe he said something to the effect that perhaps the boy was not shot here in Wilkes-Barre, but rather shot somewhere else and then brought here. Does this man think we are all completely stupid and gullible? Several of our neighbors heard reports to 911 over the scanner of shots being fired at Sherman Hills at the time of the shooting. (We do have scanners.) Does that sound like the shooting occurred somewhere else as the chief would like us to believe? (More of McGroarty's dirty work.) Anyway, the officer who wrote in said that we should report the pertinant information to the authorities about the hookers,etc. Again, let me be perfectly clear...WE HAVE!!! During the past summer and fall, we kept a detailed log with accurate descriptions of all the hookers, pimps and drug dealers, countless license plate numbers and vehicle descriptions of the johns, and a detailed account of all the illicit activity going on in the neighborhood. Pages and pages and pages. (One of our group even handed in his 911 phone records to illustrate the frequency and seriousness of the problem.) Do you know what the administration did with it? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. We were criticized by the spokesperson of the police department in the press as being "vigilanties" and guilty of infringing upon these scumbag's constitutional rights. Let me ask the officer who wrote in the other night what else were we to do since we tried going through the proper channels by calling 911, sometimes several times a night, and NO POLICE ASSISTANCE EVER CAME. (We later learned that sometimes there was only one officer on for all of South Wilkes-Barre.) At that point we felt we had no other alternative other than to invoke our second amendment rights to protect our families and our homes. We told the McGroarty administration that the city needed more police officers and that our officers needed help. HOW COULD THE MAYOR LET THE NUMBER OF POLICE OFFICERS DWINDLE DOWN SO LOW SO AS TO COMPROMISE THE SAFETY AND THE LIVES OF THE VERY PEOPLE WHO ELECTED HIM AND PAY HIS SALARY??? THIS IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY OUTRAGEOUS!!!! That was one of the reasons for the petition that we are circulating...to get help for our police department which is "dangerously understaffed." This tyrant will stop at nothing to save his political ass...even compromise the lives and safety of the very people he has a fiduciary responsibility to protect. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. These hookers are his hookers. These pimps are his pimps. These johns are his johns. These drug dealers are his drug dealers. These panhandlers are his panhandlers. These murderers are his murderers. Why? Because the buck stops with him. Because he is in charge. Because he has allowed this garbage to fester and grow and take root here by allowing the police force to dwindle to dangerously low levels thereby causing our police force to become a reactive force rather than a pro-active one. The criminals and inner-city perpetrators know that the lead time for police response is slow (because of lack of man power) and they have carte blanche in Wilkes-Barre City. (They have taken a firm hold in the city and are now starting to branch out to the surrounding towns like Kingston, Plymouth and Edwardsville,etc.) All we are asking for is to have law and order return to the streets of our city. But how can that happen when this administration lies to us and portrays a false sense of security to our citizens and tries to lead us to believe that all is well when nothing can be farther from the truth? A prime example is the graffiti which is reaching epidemic proportions in our city. We took pictures of the graffiti and presented them to city council and described how we feel about the gravity of the situation and what did the mayor do? He argued that there are no gangs in Wilkes-Barre at the Council meeting and then the next day issued a press release stopping just short of calling us liars and again saying there are no gangs in Wilkes-Barre, and he even got the polce chief to agree with him. COME ON ALREADY. THE MAYOR IS A TOTAL LIAR. His office applied for the grant for police in the schools and sited gang activity as the reason for the grant. Captain Riemensnyder told us there are gangs in Wilkes-Barre, even the officer that wrote that email the other night said there are gangs in WIlkes-Barre. I guess the bottom line is this: OFFICERS OF THE WILKES-BARRE POLICE DEPARTMENT, YOU ARE NOT TAKEN FOR GRANTED. WE VALUE YOUR SERVICE AND RESPECT YOU GREATLY. WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU GUYS (AND GALS) GET SOME HELP AND PROTECTION ALSO. WE WANT YOU TO HAVE MODERN AND SAFE EQUIPMENT TO WORK WITH. WE DO NOT WANT TO SEE ANY OF YOU (OR ANY OF US) GET HURT. WE WANT LAW AND ORDER TO RETURN TO THE STREETS OF OUR CITY BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. WE WANT MORE POLICE PRESENCE ON OUR STREETS. WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO WALK FROM OUR CARS AND INTO OUR HOMES WITHOUT LOOKING OVER OUR SHOULDERS WATCHING OUR BACKS, AND WITHOUT FINDING SYRINGES OR CRACK PIPES OR HEROIN BAGS OR USED CONDOMS ON OUR PROPERTIES. WE WANT OUR NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESS OWNERS AND WORKERS TO BE SAFE AND NOT HAVE NINE INCH BUTCHER KNIVES HELD TO THEM IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO LEAVE OUR HOMES AFTER DARK AND FEEL SAFE INSTEAD OF THREATENED, AND NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE BUILDING DOWN THE STREET WHERE A MURDER RECENTLY OCCURED. WE WANT A DOWNTOWN WITH ADEQUATE AND PROPER STREET LIGHTS. WE WANT A DOWNTOWN THAT IS CLEAN, SAFE, AND PROSPEROUS, AND NOT ONE WITH DRUG DEALER AFTER DRUG DEALER FLAGGING YOU OVER AS YOU DRIVE DOWN MAIN STREET. I hope I have clarified any misunderstandings that I may have unintentionally conveyed. I realize that this is way long, however I needed to clarify things and get it all out and into the open. The mayor is inept, childish, self-serving, abusive, and dishonest. He rules Wilkes-Barre the same way Saddam Hussein rules Iraq. Everyone who works for this tyrant is afraid of him, even the citizens. This is America for God's sake, not Iraq. Remember, there is safety in numbers. There's all of us and only one of him. We will still be here after he's gone. Bastille Day is almost upon us, AND THE DOWNTOWN ABSOLUTELY DOES VOTE!!! Peace to the WBPD...