Stephen Zappala runs for re-election as Allegheny County District Attorney on a record of failure

benfell

In this issue:

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Unauthorized violence


Fig. 1. “Ed Gainey poses with CeaseFirePA during the 2020 Women’s March in Downtown Pittsburgh.” Photograph by Megan Gloeckler, undated, via Pittsburgh City Paper,[1] fair use.

Oh yay. The violence in Pittsburgh is now a campaign issue.[2] This, from a guy, Stephen Zappala, who is very much part[3] of the problem; advocates a criminal injustice “solution” that is a known failure;[4] and directs largely against a guy, Ed Gainey, who mostly just needs to fulfill his campaign promises.[5]

It’s fine to talk about listening, Zappala. You talk about listening to business people downtown.[6] But how about listening to people in the neighborhoods where the violence is happening?[7] But I guess that would mean listening to someone besides white Christian nationalists.

Paula Reed Ward, “Zappala criticizes Gainey administration, Pittsburgh police over response to city violence,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 16, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/zappala-criticizes-gainey-administration-pittsburgh-police-over-response-to-city-violence/

Education

Our bottom should look like the middle class right now. You should have safe housing, transportation, and children should have access to quality education. All those things that allow people to thrive, that should be the floor, and we treat them like luxuries. They’re not. They’re fundamental rights.[8]

Eric Jankiewicz, “The new Pittsburgh Scholar House seeks to replace cycle of poverty with ‘virtuous cycle,’” Public Source, December 15, 2022, https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-scholar-house-generational-wealth-higher-ed-diamonte-walker/

Gilead

Twitter


Fig. 1. “Elon Musk shared a video of his entrance on his Twitter account.” Photograph attributed to Elon Musk, October 26, 2022, via the New York Post,[9] fair use.

This is an ugly problem. On the one hand, news organizations feel compelled to remain on Twitter to combat disinformation, which they can only do there, if they are in fact, there.[10]

On the other hand, by remaining on Twitter, they help support an increasingly fascist organization and gain relatively little readership for doing so.[11]

Laura Forman, “Twitter’s Advertising Truth Hurts,” Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitters-advertising-truth-hurts-11670706720

Keith Olbermann, “Hey look what they found in the ‘Twitter Files&rsquo,;” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1601983506070081536

Elon Musk, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Twitter, December 11, 2022, https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1601894132573605888

Charlie Warzel, “Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist,” Atlantic, December 11, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/

Joseph Menn, “Elon Musk uses QAnon tactic in criticizing former Twitter safety chief,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-child-porn-qanon/

Stephen Wilmot, “Half-Price Tesla Stock Is Still No Bargain,” Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/half-price-tesla-stock-is-still-no-bargain-11670851513

Cat Zakrzewski, Joseph Menn, and Naomi Nix, “Twitter dissolves Trust and Safety Council,” Washington Post, December 12, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/12/musk-twitter-harass-yoel-roth/

Zoë Schiffer and Casey Newton, “Twitter’s risky plan to save its ads business,” Platformer, December 13, 2022, https://www.platformer.news/p/twitters-risky-plan-to-save-its-ads

Steve Burgess, “Please Advise! Is Elon Musk Really That Vile?” Tyee, December 14, 2022, https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2022/12/14/Please-Advise-Elon-Musk-Really-Vile/

Joseph De Avila, “Twitter Suspends Account That Tracked Elon Musk’s Private Jet,” Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-suspends-account-that-tracked-elon-musks-private-jet-11671036887

Rebecca Elliott, “Elon Musk Sold More Than $3.5 Billion Worth of Tesla Shares,” Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-sold-more-than-3-5-billion-worth-of-tesla-shares-11671071099

Nicholas Gordon, “Twitter is reportedly not paying rent for its offices as Musk warns users to ‘beware of debt,’” Fortune, December 14, 2022, https://fortune.com/2022/12/14/twitter-not-paying-office-rent-elon-musk-cut-costs/

Drew Harwell, “QAnon, adrift after Trump’s defeat, finds new life in Elon Musk’s Twitter,” Washington Post, December 14, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/14/qanon-musk-revival-twitter/

Paul Farhi, “Musk suspends journalists from Twitter, claims ‘assassination’ danger,” Washington Post, December 15, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/15/twitter-journalists-suspended-musk/

Dana Hull and Bloomberg, “Elon Musk just unloaded $3.6 billion in Tesla stock, his 4th huge sale this year,” Fortune, December 15, 2022, https://fortune.com/2022/12/15/elon-musk-unloaded-billion-tesla-stock-fourth-huge-sale-this-year/

Jordan Pearson, “Elon Musk Had His Most Absurd, Disturbing 24 Hours at Twitter Yet,” Vice, December 15, 2022, https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjk5yx/elon-musk-had-his-most-absurd-disturbing-24-hours-at-twitter-yet

Adam Clark, “Musk’s Twitter Suspends Accounts of Some Journalists and Rival Mastodon,” Barron’s, December 16, 2022, https://www.barrons.com/articles/elon-musk-twitter-suspends-accounts-journalists-mastodon-tesla-51671178816

Alexa Corse, “Elon Musk Seeks Additional Funds for Twitter,” Wall Street Journal, December 16, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-seeks-additional-funds-for-twitter-11671247325

Jillian Deutsch and Aggi Cantrill, “Musk Faces European Anger Over Twitter Ban of Journalists,” Bloomberg, December 16, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-16/musk-faces-threats-from-european-lawmakers-over-twitter-bans

Kevin T. Dugan, “Is Elon Musk Setting Himself Up to Lose Tesla?” New York, December 16, 2022, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/12/why-elon-musks-twitter-affair-could-cots-him-tesla.html

Gali, “the mainstream media can't stop talking about @twitter drama because it fuels the clickbait model . . .” Twitter, December 16, 2022, https://twitter.com/Gfilche/status/1603644570679803904

Jeremy Barr and Sarah Ellison, “Musk unsuspends some reporters on Twitter. But their companies never left,” Washington Post, December 17, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/17/musk-twitter-journalist-suspension-media-react/

  1. [1]Charlie Wolfson, “Neighborhood groups try to curb shootings as Pittsburgh’s mayoral campaign puts political focus on gun violence,” Pittsburgh City Paper, October 20, 2021, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/neighborhood-groups-try-to-curb-shootings-as-pittsburghs-mayoral-campaign-puts-political-focus-on-gun-violence/Content?oid=20401296↩
  2. [2]Paula Reed Ward, “Zappala criticizes Gainey administration, Pittsburgh police over response to city violence,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 16, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/zappala-criticizes-gainey-administration-pittsburgh-police-over-response-to-city-violence/↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “Stephen Zappala’s resignation would be nowhere near enough,” Not Housebroken, January 4, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/06/03/stephen-zappalas-resignation-would-be-nowhere-near-enough/↩
  4. [4]David Benfell, “The question should not be ‘Why Are Police So Bad at Their Jobs,’ but why is the criminal injustice system so bad at its job?” Not Housebroken, June 5, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/06/05/the-question-should-not-be-why-are-police-so-bad-at-their-jobs-but-why-is-the-criminal-injustice-system-so-bad-at-its-job/↩
  5. [5]Tom Avril, “Renovating abandoned houses reduces the rate of gun violence, Penn study finds,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 14, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/health/gun-violence-philly-abandoned-houses-penn-study-20221214.html; David Benfell, “To Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey,” Not Housebroken, October 30, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/10/30/to-pittsburgh-mayor-ed-gainey/; David Benfell, “The rent is too damn high. But politicians wonder why violence is increasing,” Not Housebroken, November 23, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/11/23/the-rent-is-too-damn-high-but-politicians-wonder-why-violence-is-increasing/; Ellie Rushing, “Can widespread trauma therapy prevent gun violence? This community leader says yes,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 13, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/philadelphia-trauma-therapy-gun-violence-prevention-will-little-personal-development-20221213.html↩
  6. [6]Paula Reed Ward, “Zappala criticizes Gainey administration, Pittsburgh police over response to city violence,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 16, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/zappala-criticizes-gainey-administration-pittsburgh-police-over-response-to-city-violence/↩
  7. [7]Jon Moss, “Allegheny County homicides concentrated in small number of neighborhoods, report says,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 28, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2022/07/28/allegheny-county-homicides-concentrated-small-number-neighborhoods-report-says-black-men-pittsburgh/stories/202207270111↩
  8. [8]Diamonte Walker, quoted in Eric Jankiewicz, “The new Pittsburgh Scholar House seeks to replace cycle of poverty with ‘virtuous cycle,’” Public Source, December 15, 2022, https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-scholar-house-generational-wealth-higher-ed-diamonte-walker/↩
  9. [9]Thomas Barrabi, “Elon Musk barges into Twitter HQ as deal nears: ‘Let that sink in,’” New York Post, October 26, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/elon-musk-barges-into-twitter-headquarters-as-deal-nears/↩
  10. [10]Jeremy Barr and Sarah Ellison, “Musk unsuspends some reporters on Twitter. But their companies never left,” Washington Post, December 17, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/17/musk-twitter-journalist-suspension-media-react/↩
  11. [11]Jeremy Barr and Sarah Ellison, “Musk unsuspends some reporters on Twitter. But their companies never left,” Washington Post, December 17, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/17/musk-twitter-journalist-suspension-media-react/↩

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.