We need to know why police can search people's houses, and the Reading Eagle should tell us

One great thing about America is that we have the right to say “No!” when government agents want to, or are ordered to, search our houses and vehicles.

In 2014, Pennsylvania’s top judges decided that cops don’t need to convince a judge to sign a warrant to search your car.

But as far as I know they still need a warrant to get around the Fourth Amendment and search your house without your permission.

And because we rely on the news media to be the watchdog for our rights, reporters who write about police searching homes should always find out why the police were allowed to do the search.

On June 16, the Reading Eagle had a story about Spring Township police arresting two 20-something brothers after finding 2 pounds of marijuana, guns and $3,000 in their home.

“Detective Steve Brock said the search of the residence was conducted June 2 after investigators responded to complaints from residents about suspected illegal drug activity.”

We’re all glad these pot dealers were busted, because their guns were really dangerous. Though now their disappointed customers might have to turn to smoking bath salts or toxic synthetic "marijuana," or alcohol or other Establishment-approved anti-depressants.

But this is where the rubber hits the road with respect to the Big Question of government: How to balance the rights of the individual with the good of society?

This is the exact spot where I want my local media to shine their lights upon, for us all to see exactly how public-safety policy is working. No need to remind you that police behavior is generally under scrutiny lately.

The Eagle reporter should have reported:
• Did the suspects give permission to search?
• Did the police get a search warrant?
• If they did, who was the judge?
• What was the “probable cause,” the reasons why the police believe a crime was probably committed?
• Are reports by suspicious neighbors enough to get a search warrant? The story suggests it is.

In an e-mail, Detective Brock told me: “The incident was based off citizen complaints about drug activity at the residence. The search of the residence was consensual.”

I bet he would have explained it to the Eagle reporter.

Of course, most of us are very law-abiding and never have contraband. So what’s the big fuss? An editor, Dave Warner, once told me it’s the oozing stories – where something slowly, apparently innocently creeps into the world – that are more important than the breaking-news stories.

By publicizing the oozing signs of the erosion of human rights, better journalism could have benefited many societies in the world that are in trouble now. But of course the Establishment leaders always get control of the media and use them for their agendas, not to publish truth.

In the New World Order, when I am appointed editor of the Reading Eagle, I will insist that reporters always ask police chiefs the reasons their officers search pockets, homes and vehicles.

Once I went, as the managing editor of bctv.org, to the state police headquarters for a forum on trooper-journalist relations. I told the room full of troopers and mostly TV reporters that news releases about vehicle stops should always include the probable cause.

I was quickly surrounded by in-leaning troopers decrying my attack on their ability to do their job. Later, one trooper more gently told me that frankly, people are ignorant of their rights and will quickly consent to a search of their vehicle, and that police depend on this to save themselves a lot of trouble.

I don’t really think the police in Berks are doing anything wrong. They are doing their jobs.

But the Reading Eagle newspaper is not doing its job.

Reading Eagle’s coverage of young man's death is disgraceful

By Steve Reinbrecht

I'm sorry to ask you to imagine something horrible for a moment. Imagine that a 20-year-old Wyomissing High School graduate, a former field hockey player, was found dead at 8 a.m. in a West Reading alley after being shot about five hours earlier.

Do you think the Reading Eagle, Berks County's primary news-gathering institution, would cover the story? What page do you think the editors would run it on?

Do you remember the stories about Saxxon Lee Hopkins a year ago? The Exeter High School graduate, a football player, was found dead about 8 a.m. in a breezeway in Reading after he was shot about 3:30 on a Monday morning. Really.

What could be more horrible for a community to suffer than the murder of a 20-year-old man?

But a year later, the Reading Eagle has barely covered it. The story about Hopkins' death was published June 2, 2014, on Page B3. The next day, a story with little new ran on Page B2. On July 13, his name was listed in a Page B1 wrap-up of city homicides.

Since then, the Eagle newsroom has given no more attention to Saxxon Hopkins. Ignoring Hopkins’ death leaves the Reading Eagle open to charges of insensitivity at best and a “no human involved” mentality at worst.

In 2013, the Eagle proudly organized a Crime Summit, to which the ex-governor came. The event was so important and secret that reporters weren't allowed to know even who was in the closed meetings, much less cover the discussion.

But in Hopkins' case the award-winning pseudo-newspaper provides the most tepid, meager, formulaic coverage of -- a murder! -- the most horrible of crimes! -- the loss of a young man by violence! -- one of 11 homicides in Berks last year.

The problem of marginalizing the deaths of young men of color is not just Berks’, of course. But it is something that good journalism can address and help solve. The Eagle's current attitude mirrors the racism of America's bad old days.

“Homicide had ravaged the country’s black population for a century or more," writes Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy in Ghettocide. [Her 2015 book about crime in Los Angeles is available at a Berks library near you.]

"But it [homicide of black people] was at best a curiosity to the mainstream. The raw agony it visited on thousands of ordinary people was mostly invisible. The consequences were only superficially discussed, the costs seldom tallied.

“Very few murders were covered in the media. Television stations covered more than the papers, but without any particularly particular consistency, and many, many deaths received no mention by any media outlet, especially if the victims were black. It rankled deeply. … ‘Nothing on the news!’ a mother cried, weeping, at the site of a journalist the day after her son was murdered. ‘Please write about it! Please!’ "

On July 15, 2009, Hopkins's mom ran a “Happy 16th Birthday” wish for him in the Eagle.

On July 15, 2014, his parents ran a “Happy 21st Birthday” wish for him in the newspaper, five weeks after he was killed.

Hopkins left behind his parents, a daughter, five brothers and four grandparents.

Friends left obituary messages, which I've edited lightly:

"I remember when Saxxon first came to Northeast Middle School; he was a cool friend to have. I remember the last time I saw him in ... summer school. Every time I look at my diploma it reminds me of Saxxon because me and him went through summer school together in order for us to graduate ... . Prayers to his family and friends."

"I knew this young man several years ago. ... Some people don't know the level of their potential. Hope that whoever is responsible is prosecuted to the fullest extent. Very sad to see something like this."

"Yes, I knew him and all the three families who are in mourning over this. My three grandchildren are cousins to Saxxon. My prayers and heartfelt thoughts and love are with everyone. Very very sad."

The Reading Eagle editors might say, "The police say they have nothing to report."

Would the public accept that response from the police in the death of my hypothetical Wyomissing woman? Isn't it the job of the newspaper to challenge the police on such a refusal to provide information about such an atrocity? I think it is, no matter the truth. And there are always other sources.

In any case, I truly have no doubt the Reading Police Department works hard on every serious crime. Reading Chief Bill Heim recently answered my inquiry saying, " This case is being investigated. There is no media update at this point." But I lack the juice of a reporter from the mighty Eagle.

The Reading Eagle published stories about people on Death Row for murder. It compares the numbers of homicides in Reading and Berks from year to year. 

What is the attitude of the people in the newsroom who decide what to shine the light on? Is the attitude, just let the police do their jobs? We’re not going to look at crime very hard because advertisers don’t like that sort of content? That no humans are involved?

We know about Saxxon's death. Neighbors found his body in a breezeway in the 1100 block of Mulberry Street near Robeson Street. Hopkins was shot several times in the "upper torso." Residents had heard gunshots about 3:30 a.m. but did not see anything.

I want to know more about his life. I want what I think is a too-comfortable public to see something about the loss and grief such atrocities create. Berks needs better journalism.

Reading voters made a bad decision choosing Wally Scott as mayor

by Steve Reinbrecht

The Democratic primary election May 19 was important for Reading.

The wrong guy won.

The Democrats had a sensible candidate -- Tim Daley.

Voters chose Wally Scott.

Scott's becoming mayor [he's certain to beat Republican Jim McHale in November] will set Reading back at a time when cities small and large are finding opportunities to develop into fun, prosperous places -- visit Lancaster or Allentown or Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or New York ....

City leaders must not scare off investors. In Berks County, I've heard business leaders dismiss prospective projects in Reading, citing perceived corruption and incompetence.

Scott, 63, is a great politician -- a charismatic strongman whose promises soothe basic fears among Reading's poor, uneducated residents. You won't get your water turned off if you don't pay the bill, or go to jail if your kid skips school.

Scott is a populist caudillo who has entered the power vacuum of Reading politics and I'm afraid will rule so that everything hangs on the web of how leaders grant favors to supporters.

Reading will suffer under Scott as it suffered under mayors Joe Eppihimer [2000-2004] and Vaughn Spencer -- old-school mediocrities driven by what they felt the job entitled them to rather than the long-term good of the city.

I'm worried Scott, who served more than 30 years as a [elected] city district judge [and whose $1 million bails got headlines] will have a system where his buddies can disregard the formal rules of government and use personal clout to gain advantages.

He'll get a $72,600 salary, the chance to hand out some plum jobs, and an inside position to protect his personal assets in the city. County records show Scott owns 10 city properties, commercial and residential.

Scott is a career elected official who probably learned the angles from the earlier generation of corrupt politicians in Reading.

In 1987, Scott was found guilty of crimes related to trying to cover up a car wreck involving a city councilman. "After a grand jury investigation, he was charged with perjury, tampering with evidence, hindering an apprehension, obstructing justice and four counts of conspiracy. Investigators say he aided in an attempt to cover up a March 13, 1987, accident by former city Councilman Thomas A. Loeper," according to the Allentown Morning Call.

His supporters properly point out that the decision was overturned on appeal. 

Does that mean he didn't do it?

In 1999, Wally Scott worked to get Eppihimer elected mayor. Eppihimer, a career school-district plumber, quickly settled into the old-school model of petty tyrant, firing enemies, demanding a specifically decked-out SUV as his mayoral ride and hiring a top supporter's brother as human-resource director, who rarely was in City Hall.

About the same time, Scott aligned himself with trash haulers who successfully defeated a proposal to have the city manage trash collection. He supported letting residents hire their own hauler, a system that led to tall piles of stinking household waste in alleys, abandoned houses stuffed with garbage from basement to attic, and loaded garbage trucks parked for the weekend in neighborhoods.

I was the Eagle's City Hall reporter at that time. Once, when I was leaving a meeting about trash legislation as Scott was entering, he told me, "You'd better be careful. You're hurting a lot of people."

Scott's long-ago scandal hardly prevented him from getting a 38 percent margin and more votes than the next two candidates combined -- incumbent Vaughn Spencer and Daley, a former city cop who runs the local Habitat for Humanity.

Still, that's not much of a mandate. About 6,875 people voted for a mayoral candidate, a turnout of about 16 percent of the city's 42,500 or so registered voters.

Spencer also adopted a strongman role, according to one insider.

"He [Vaughn Spencer] made Council's life hell, he made Council's staff lives a living hell," former city councilman Randy Corcoran wrote recently on Facebook.

"The managing director, the solicitor, the admin services director and basically everyone who worked at City Hall. His staff ruled by intimidation. If you didn't agree, you would be eliminated. ... He listened to the wrong people. ... You have no idea the games his administration played. ... I was threatened by one of his staffers, I was lied to, he surrounded himself with bad people, and that cost him dearly."

Scott's family members add weight to the idea that he lives in a culture where intimidation is acceptable and impunity can be expected.

In March, Scott's brother, Mallory, was suspended as a constable [also an elected position] after he was charged with DUI and assaulting two Muhlenberg Township cops who allegedly found him slumped in his car. Police said Mallory asked for a break and then fought them and spit at them when they refused him special treatment.

In June 2010, Scott's three daughters were charged with assault after an attack on a woman in a diner in West Reading. They pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

As any populist will, Scott goes for religious hyperbole, deftly weaving together even God and zoning.

His website states: "I was saddened, as a Christian, that in 2011 the Zoning Ordnance restricted churches in R1-R2-R3 districts (R means residential). Linda Kelleher, the Chief of Staff, for city council was asked, by Christian Ministers, which would you rather have, a bar on every corner or a church; her reply, she said “That’s easy – bars; they pay taxes you people don’t”. God left City Hall that day – remember, God is in all our lives." [sic]

In 2006, Scott's website says, he earned a bachelor's degree from Mountain State University in West Virginia. Muckraker that I am, I tried to confirm this with the school, only to learn it had lost its accreditation and closed down “after years of failing to correct major problems in leadership, program evaluations, and campus-wide governance."

Scott raised $48,000 for his primary campaign, compared with Tim Daley's $46,000 or so. Mayor Spencer raised the most -- $132,000 -- with a whopping $70,000 contribution-loan from retailer and ersatz city planner Al Boscov.

Beside Boscov, Spencer's donors comprised mostly unions and Philadelphia organizations. Daley's centered on local business people.

Scott's included doctors, nurses, and many city small-businesspeople -- for examples:

• ·        Nelson E. Espinal, Reading, grocer
• ·        Felipe Fana, Reading, self-employed
• ·        El Gallito Mexican Bakery II LLC, Reading
• ·        Jose O. Delacruz, Reading, self-employed
• ·        Reinaldo Antonio Jimenez, Reading, restaurateur
• ·        Sunilda D. Tejada, Reading, multi-service operator
• ·        Clemencia Reyes, Wyomissing, landlord

Reading needs government based on planning and expert advice, as I bet Allentown and Lancaster have.

Allentown's Ed Pawlowski has a master’s degree in urban planning and public policy from the University of Illinois. Lancaster's Rick Gray was president of his Dickinson law school class.

Good mayors choose the best people for the top jobs. Eppihimer and Spencer hired supporters and friends of supporters for jobs in City Hall. Spencer even created positions for them.

Good mayors would seek and consider the best advice and help from people in county and state government. Eppihimer thought he knew best and listened to people like Scott and Eugene LaManna.

Good mayors are a mouthpiece to tell the world about how cool their cities are, the good things that are happening, and successful outcomes. Philly's Mayor Michael Nutter [University of Pennsylvania] talks, talks, talks to the media. Reading's PR has sucked.

Reading leaders had better work hard to achieve state tax-rule benefits

by Steve Reinbrecht

Are Lancaster and Allentown thriving because crime is down, as claimed in two recent stories in the award-winning Reading Eagle, Berks County's primary news source?

I bet those cities are reviving not only because of police strategy but more because the state has granted them new tax rules to spur development. In the simplest way I can put it, they can create NIZes and CRIZes -- Something Something Investment Zones. [excruciating details here]

Bethlehem has a similar designation, and millions of dollars of investment are pouring in there.

The state rejected Reading's application in 2013. Reading's application was pathetic compared to Lancaster's and Bethlehem's.

The Bethlehem application detailed 11 projects calling for more than $587 million in investment.

Lancaster had eight projects listed, with investment topping $210 million.

Reading's had three projects calling for $27 million in investment: the Callowhill Building at Fifth and Penn, which Al Boscov's Our City Reading owns; the Abe Lincoln Hotel at Fifth and Washington streets, which developer Alan Shuman owns; and an industrial site, though which one was "unclear at this point."



The state will choose the next two cities to get CRIZes in 2016.

From the Eagle on May 8: "Peter Rye, chairman of the Reading CRIZ, said projects and developers are urgently needed. 'Anything we can do to help accelerate the process would be welcome," Rye said.' "

I hope the Eagle follows this process to see how Berks County leaders are putting together a better application, because they're all in this together, right?