Harrisburg Not A Warzone? Mayor and Police Chief Disagree

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Update: Ground Zero in the War on Police in Harrisburg, PA

Harrisburg, PA – Mayor Papenfuse has defended the City of Harrisburg against the label of being called a ‘warzone’.

This warzone description first was used to reference the Sinkhole Disaster block of S. 14th Street, in 2014, and more recently it was used by Trump after his visit to the city in 2016.

Of President Trump visiting the city, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse said: “I hope he will look around and understand that he needs to do more than rally his supporters. He needs to listen to and speak with those who didn’t vote for him.” – Washington Post

This statement was made as Mayor Papenfuse organized a counter-protest, specifically targeting the President of the United States of America.

It’s unfortunate that Mayor Papenfuse would make this stand against the President, at a time when the City of Harrisburg is still counting on the Federal Government for much needed disaster relief funding, as well as the fate of a proposed Federal Courthouse lingers under the hand of President Trump.

Now, Mayor Papenfuse has been referencing the statistics which he says support a reduction in reported crime. However it doesn’t feel that way in the streets, and does not align with the earlier sentiments of the Chief of Police in Harrisburg.

It is concerning that these statistics are complied based on data from a broken police computer system.

In fact, it was the Chief of Police who himself described Harrisburg when he said it “looks like Beirut.” That was his statement regarding a 30 round shots-fired incident, resulting in one man injured, on the 1400 block of Market Street.

Some time has passed since that event, and our hats go off to the great work of the Harrisburg Police Department, however crime is running rampant in our streets, and the constant shots-fired after dark, and daytime shooting events can feel commonplace.

Today, while campaigning around the area of 15th & Calder, it was Harrisburg city councilman Ben Allatt, who experienced first hand the violent fouls of the drug trade that has run rampant in our city.

It remains to be a discouraging fact that our police computer and reporting system is inadequate, as pointed out by Jennie Jenkins in the Mayoral Debate. This system was developed through a lowest bidder contract, and it has not satisfied the needs of the department.

Due to the shortcomings of this computer system, it is difficult to determine the accuracy of our city’s crime reporting.

In regards to the excessive neighborhood crime, Bruce P. Weber, Finance Director for The City of Harrisburg said: “Crime is down, but still too high, esp. as it relates to illegal drugs and guns.”

Bruce has recently become the most vocal supporter of Mayor Papenfuse and his ideologies.

He later attempted to clarify his crime facts by making a rather ambiguous statement about how the city hasn’t been able to find any solution the to the gun and drug problems that are plaguing our neighborhoods:

In follow up commentary regarding the inadequacies of our police computer system, Bruce Weber elaborated on his earlier remarks by saying that in his opinion, “All data reported is true. The slow data throughput has nothing to do with the actual data reported.”

We continue to received conflicting messages from our leaders in the City of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Today it was also Mayoral Candidate Anthony Harrell who was unhappy with recent public statements from the city Director.

Although we all have different perspectives, after the primary election we must come together for the common good of our city.

Update: It has since been reported that the shooting event, that was witnessed by Ben Allatt, was part of a larger domestic dispute incident.

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