"HOPE"....through violence.

CONTENT WARNING :

THE FOLLOWING TAXPAYER-CITIZEN RANT MAY CONTAIN MATERIAL UNSETTLING TO THE DELICATE SENSIBILITIES OF DELAWARE WAYERS.

The disgraceful wasteful arrogant Wilmington city government has certainly been, at best, ineffectual at dealing with the rising tide of violent crime in our fair city.

In typical Delaware/Wilmington Democrat fashion, the thinking goes : it is better to throw millions of taxpayer dollars at a bunch of random political cronies and assorted flunkies looking for political patronage than, say for example...hire more patrolman or how about just fully and properly deploy those you have.

Thus...the "HOPE Commisssion"....Democrat stalwart Jim Baker's multi-million dollar boondoggle to have his political patronage hogs "fix the inner soul of people", as he once phrased it.

[No kidding...Baker said this in his speech at one of many 'pander-to-the-little-people-with-a-cheap-plaque-and-a-pat-on-the-head' awards ceremonies. He should consider dismounting his gas-guzzling taxpayer-funded Dodge Durango SUV and start fixing sidewalks and streets before fixing our "inner souls".]

Anyway, now we come to find that two of the top teat-suckers...er "HOPE commissioners"...got into a "physical altercation" at a commission meeting, as the excellent roving News Journal city beat reporter Adam Taylor described it.

This ridiculous little imbroglio was between the infamous 'Reverend' Derrick "Pastor D" Johnson and Mike "King of the River(front)" Purzycki - "executive director of the Riverfront Development Corp., a state-funded agency that has overseen more than a decade of work along the banks of the Christina in Wilmington". (Yeah, how's that been working out over the last decade, for the umpteen millions thrown down the river rat hole?).

"Purzycki and Johnson raised their voices...Purzycki then walked across the conference table and stood very close to Johnson as the argument continued. Eventually, Johnson slapped Purzycki, then other board members separated them."

Notably, Taylor writes of Johnson, who sounds like a real stand-up (in your face) guy :

"[Johnson] was convicted of manslaughter in 1978 for shooting a 27-year-old Wilmington man to death during a fight over a woman at a motel. After getting out of prison, he was convicted of robbery in 1992."

Johnson

There is no shortage of HOPE commission associates who have established taxpayer-funded sinecures for themselves....Purzycki to the tune of a serious 6-figure annual paycheck.

Purzycki

This whole thing would he hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic and expensive (City Council has given the commission $ 1,500,000 (1.5 million dollars) to date to do its work.)

Really, is this the kind of unbridled idiocy for which we are being constantly fleeced by the French Street bullies?

I ask my fellow Wilmington (and state) taxpayers, should even a nickel of your hard-earned dollars be lining the pockets of this ilk?

To the useless self-serving buffoon(s) who perpetuate(s) scams like the HOPE commission I ask : is this what you call leading by example?

There are actually good and well-meaning people who have associated themselves with this incredible waste of tax dollars. They should think better of being involved with such a misappropriation of public funds.

The HOPE Commission amounts to yet another totally-speculative and demonstrably-failed attempt at more social engineering by politically-connected establishment types. No two ways about it.

Eventually it will be righteously tossed on the dung heap of failure (joining Ruth Ann Minner's myriad of do-nothing commissions, study groups, task forces, round tables, etc etc etc)....of course by then our money will be long gone....and bet your booty it will be more than $1.5 million before all is said, slapped, and done.

It shouldn't be lost on anyone that those who would palm off such a serious problem (onto a high-priced politicized "blue ribbon panel" of so-and-so's) are the same government careerists who have been around so long pressing the levers of power that they are now as much a "root cause" of the crime and decay metastasizing in Wilmington as any other.

The ongoing negligence and lurching nonfeasance of many entrenched public officials only exacerbate our public safety challenges. To wit...

His Highness - Chief Executive Soul Fixer Extraordinaire

Call his holiness James Baker (302) 576-2100 and let him know you are fed up with his high-priced political payoff schemes, especially this particularly-disgusting travesty that has made 'HOPE' a dirty word and the credibility of crime prevention into a laughing stock.