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GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
GLENN: One of the
-- honestly one of the best cities in America -- I can't say
that. One of the, probably the city with the biggest
potential to be the best city in America is Philadelphia.
Why am I hearing -- am I hearing Kenny Loggins for some
strange reason in my -- I know. I couldn't get any more
bizarre than saying, Philadelphia is just going to be the
greatest city in America and just to prove how insane,
here's a little Kenny Loggins. I mean, I don't even know
what that is. The problem is the city is just rife with
corruption and it's just been let to go to pot and it's so
tragically sad. Michael Smerconish is the morning eye, WPHT,
good friend of the program, good friend of mine. He's got a
book out and coincidentally, Michael, I mean, how horrible
is this? The book that he has out is on Mumia, the guy who
-- the terrorist that killed a cop and it is such an
important story and now at the same time the book comes out,
there is just a rash of shootings in Philadelphia and two
more cops have been killed. Hello, Michael, how are you?
SMERCONISH: Hey, Glenn. Yeah, unfortunately at 9:40 this
morning life support was discontinued for Officer Charles
Cassidy, a Philadelphia police officer who yesterday walks
into a Dunkin' Donuts on North Broad Street and he's there
to get a tall cup of coffee, cream and sugar like he does
every other day and take a look around and some dirtbag is
there holding the place up and with just no words spoken,
turns and shoots and kills, assassinates the officer by
shooting him in the head and it represents the fourth
Philadelphia police officer shot this year, the third this
week, the second in twelve hours.
GLENN: Holy cow. Now, this is why this makes a difference to
you, America. You've got people in Philadelphia now saying
that we have a gun problem in Philadelphia. Michael, why
don't you help me out on the gun problem in Philadelphia. Do
you think you have a gun problem in Philadelphia? Or is it a
people problem in Philadelphia?
SMERCONISH: Oh, I think we have a family problem in
Philadelphia much like the rest of the nation but
particularly attenuated in Philadelphia and, you know, the
quote that you're making reference to is the current mayor.
The current mayor John Street said we've got a gun problem.
John Street leaves office at the end of the year. Come
Tuesday we have a new election and Michael Nutter will
become the new mayor. I moderated a mayoral debate three
weeks ago with the incoming mayor. I mean, he's got a 5:1
registration edge. So he will win. And I raised this issue.
I said, wouldn't you agree there's a relationship here
between the family dynamic, the disintegration of the family
dynamic. And if you'll pardon this, Glenn, not having, you
know, somebody in the house in a male role kicking ass and
taking names and, you know, he said to me essentially in a
flippant way that his job is not to do marital counseling,
and that's not a good sign of what's to come in the future.
GLENN: Is this guy another Democrat?
SMERCONISH: Yeah.
GLENN: Jeez. Democrats have been choking that city to death
for how long?
SMERCONISH: 50-plus years.
GLENN: I mean, you know, we have a book, I have a book
coming out here in about three, four weeks. America, just
read -- even if you stand in the bookstore when this thing
comes out, just read that one chapter on how the Democrats
have been choking the crap out of these cities. It's
amazing. The worst cities in America, the ones with the
highest crime rates, the worst problems in America, damn
near every one of them has not had a Republican in office
for 30, 40 years. It's incredible.
Here's an idea. That's not working; try something else! Try
empowering people. But they don't. They don't want to do it.
So Michael, what is, what is now going to happen, do you
foresee, in Philadelphia? What's the answer going to be,
that they are going to take?
SMERCONISH: Well, the answer that they will be offered been
the same old, same old, redeploy the police and do something
with the quote/unquote gun problem. And I don't think the
issue that you and I are talking about is going to get any
hefter discussion. We had a very Democratic primary for
mayor in the spring and the family component got zero
attention. I wrote about it in one of my columns. I read
everybody's platform and I monitored all that was being said
in a multitude of debates and nobody ever got into this
notion. And, you know, Glenn, it's not just the two of us
having this conversation. There's a guy who's the chairman
of the department of sociology at Harvard who has written on
this exact subject about when there's disintegration of the
family, there's a corresponding rise of crime.
GLENN: Of course there is.
SMERCONISH: So this is not a holier than thou family right
wing rich. It's just a fact that you can document.
GLENN: Here's the amazing thing. You know who needs to run
for mayor of Philadelphia? And I disagree with this guy's
policy. I mean, he thinks that Dennis Kucinich is a good
candidate. You know who I think should run Philadelphia?
Bill frickin' Cosby. Bill Cosby at least has a handle. He
may be screwed up on everything else, but he at least will
say, fix your families. Fix your families. And it's not
just, you know, to the black community. That's to the white
community, too. I mean, that's everybody. Fix your families.
SMERCONISH: May I give you one other aspect of this from
Philly?
GLENN: Sure.
SMERCONISH: So unfortunately in the 9:00 hour life support
was discontinued for police officer Charles Cassidy. Twelve
hours prior to him being shot, Officer Mariano Santiago was
wounded by some other dirtbag and they hauled the dirtbag's
body out of the Schuylkill River at 3:00 AM yesterday. He
jumped into the river literally being pursued by police.
What do we know about him? In 1994 he shot a 6-year-old girl
in Philadelphia. He served 11 years. So there's part of the
problem. You shoot and kill a 6-year-old girl, he said
accidentally. Frankly it doesn't matter to me. Eleven years
you are back on the street to commit more crime. 2006 he
gets released again. It's the same old, same old Glenn.
Michael, your book is out now. What is the name of it?
SMERCONISH: 30 days from now, the complete story of Mumia
Jamal who murdered Danny Faulkner 26 years ago.
GLENN: It is an incredible story and it -- I mean, do you
have things in there about Danny Glover and everybody, all
these leftists?
SMERCONISH: All the names are named and this is -- you know,
I'm simply the scribe. This is the widow telling her story
through me, the story of Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Tim
Robbins, the whole crew.
GLENN: All right. Thanks a lot, Michael, we'll talk to you
again. Bye-bye.
END TRANSCRIPT |
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