FTA:

"The cops weren’t the only ones making money from the Guns Down Gloves Up program."

"Epiphany received $45,000, which included a 10% administrative fee for “overhead, copying, etc."

"Also, $6,000 went to cleaning services at the church. One invoice listed “bio cleaning” the pastor’s closet."

"Villanova received $45,000 for research and evaluation — plus its own 10% administrative fee."

"Boxing participants received more than $13,000 in prepaid debit cards and $350 if they completed four weeks of the program."

"In all, Guns Down Gloves Up blew through $200,000 in less than a year. In November, the city suspended the program as investigations were launched by the police and the city’s inspector general."

Jesus fucking Christ!

I've said from the beginning that these anti-violence programs are a giant scam, I just can't believe the scale of graft.

$13,000 in prepaid debit cards to go to a boxing class?

I went to a boxing gym for a year in my early 20's, and it was like $90 a month, that was like 10 years ago.

I just can't fucking believe how bad this is.

Nobody was giving me $13,000 when I was a teenager. Also, nobody was giving me free boxing classes. I worked in my teens because my family was poor.

These kids made out like bandits.

$13,000 and free boxing classes for a month, not a bad deal for everyone involved in this scam.

I never had $13,000 together at one time until my mid to late 20's, and nobody just gave it to me either. I had been working for like a decade at that point.

That's how I amassed $13,000.

No one just handed me taxpayer money.

End these programs, because they're all fraudulent.

Synopsis:

Philly pols shouldn't be corrupt.

Rhetorical question:

Or what?

Wow what thought provoking editorial commentary

Anti-violence efforts means spending money on grift.

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I'm all for youth programs, but, I'm not sure how this addresses pre-existing problems - nor am I sure how it will provide long term solutions for youth.

I agree with your viewpoint.

117k to run a police precinct? Holy shit that has to be a joke… that’s terrible.

Also, with all due respect to the sport. Is teaching kids to fist fight each other exactly the best recourse to stopping violence.

I know, I know, if they just fought they wouldn’t have to shoot each other, that’s more naive than what I’m saying. People lose fights and still use guns.

All in all anyone with half a brain knew exactly what would happen with this money. I just hope the “I’d rather pay more taxes for better things” crowd is paying attention. The city has always and will always light money on fire

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Non profits must not be given public funds

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I swear they run this editorial once a quarter lol. But really, people who support alternative crime prevention programs need to understand they're almost all run by incredibly incompetent if not corrupt nonprofits. "Youth anti violence programming" sounds great till you talk to the people responsible.

I think the 13,000 was total, not per kid.

Lol calm down a bit. This program was poorly run, it's the governments fault for not auditing them properly, and they shouldn't be given money ever again.

But there are plenty of youth programs in Philly doing amazing work that DESPERATELY need money to function because they serve low income populations and the only way to feasibly make enough money to run/pay staff is through grants.

$13k is also the total, not per kid. Not defending the program but at least get the facts right. Usually programs like this give 50-100 to the kids for completing as an incentive, maybe more. If it were 13k per kid that'd be like the entire budget for 15 kids alone no programming costs or admin.

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Ya you'd think directing that energy into a more traditional sport like football, basketball, basketball, soccer, etc, would be a better idea.

The violence prevention grants to non-profits with zero oversight is the new envelope full of cash corruption Philly politics is known for. The lack of oversight is intentional, it's not a fluke.

Money should not be sent to non profits to provide government services. If the government is going to run a program it should be through the city government, and subject to oversight and audits.

If governments didn't provide grants, you'd have a massive, massive expansion of the state and far less policy and operating flexibility. We need to think about where government itself should be a service provider, and where the government should simply fund a service (a difficult line to draw), but it's not feasible for the government to never hire or pay non profits or other service providers.

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Everyone keeps focusing on the 76,000 for the 10 cops to run it for a year. Which honestly is basically a coaches salary for running a high school team when you split it up between them. I guess the one guy wasn't suppose to be paid but this seems very minor.

The insane costs going to Villanova, cleaning, etc seems like a bigger issue.

We need a massive, massive expansion of the state. These grants have lead to the decline of the government’s ability to provide social services, while being forced to shell more and more non-functional non-profits to provide a shadow of what they should be doing.