Growing calls for accountability of Philly’s taxpayer-funded antiviolence programs giving me hope

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 06/25/2021 | Helen Ubiñas

[Kid Shelleen]

Scene: The Managing Director’s Office inside Philadelphia’s Municipal Services Building in the Year of our Lord 2017.

Seated around a conference table are a handful of city officials touting the first Office of Violence Prevention, and its mission to evaluate the effectiveness of tens of millions in taxpayer-funded violence prevention programs.

A grand endeavor, they boast. Long overdue, sniffs the salty columnist seated among them.

And so it shall be done! declares the bullish band of bureaucrats.

Fast-forward four-plus years, three managing directors, a revolving roster of six-figure violence prevention experts, 1,787 homicides and counting — and a drumbeat of columns calling for promised accountability, and here we are: Another city budget and another vote for millions in new spending for violence preventio

[Kid Shelleen]

After 4 years and millions for violence prevention no one can figure out where the money went. So now the city is forming a new committee (Violence Prevention and Opportunity) to audit the auditors (Office of Violence Prevention).

[lightman]

Pennsylvania Ping!

Please ping me with articles of interest.

FReepmail me to be added to the list.

[butlerweave]

The Elites get their walled off safe areas with our tax dollars while we’re thrown to the wolves to fend for ourselves

[Pennsyltucky Boy]

When the audit of the anti-violence program is complete, we will see that all the money was spent on T- shirts, placards, posters and a large number of salaries and expenses for unidentifiable employees without any record of working hours or attendance. All of these “employees” will be tangentially connected in one way or another to city council members, politically aligned community groups and Democrat ward leaders.