Democratic Boxing Tournament

Yesterday,  this blog featured one of my posts from the Joe Louis boxing era. During that period people would sit around the radio and listen to the event. I do not get CNN on my limited television package, so I ended up listening to some of it on my computer.

I mostly heard people interrupting each other, with Elizabeth Warren being the main interrupter. I did hear Bernie Sanders say that He wrote the damn bill. This morning I read that it was the knockout line of the debate. Before I fell asleep, I also heard him say that under his plan I could get a hearing aid with my medicare. I could use that.

I understand that the rest of the tournament is tonight. Because I keep baker's hours, I couldn't stay up that late even if my TV received CNN. But, I figure if Joe Biden can stay up and stand on the stage, I should be able to stay awake long enough to listen to some of it.  Anyway, who knows what I'll get promised tonight?

Boxing 1930's, Primo Carnera

When Abe Simon fought Joe Louis in 1942, Abe was the biggest heavyweight* fighting. That wasn't the case when Abe began his career in 1935. Primo Carnera was an Italian strongman on the European circus circuit. He fought his first fight in Paris in 1928. It is pretty well known that he was brought to N.Y.C. by mobsters who arranged and managed his fights. The 6'6" giant upset Jack Sharkey in 1933, and held the title for a year until Max Baer had a go at him.

In 1935 Carnera fought the up and coming Joe Louis, who pulverized him into a bloody mess. Primo would return to Europe. Shown in the ring with him in 1933 is Jean Harlow, promoting her movie classic Bombshell.

* 6'7" Buddy Baer, brother of Max, had retired after a beating from Louis earlier in 1942.

reprinted from November 2012

Shooting At Iron Pigs Game

Over the weekend, a 10-year-old was shot inside Coca-Cola Park – on the actual ballfield – just prior to an Iron Pigs game. While nobody initially knew the boy was shot, an x-ray at the hospital revealed a bullet in the boy's leg.

The discovery that the boy had been shot came an inning or two into the ball game. Amazingly, neither the Iron Pigs nor the Allentown Police Department did anything to lockdown and/or clear the stadium.

In a hastily-revised article by the Morning Call, Iron Pigs GM Kurt Landes and co-owner Joe Finley were quick to state that the bullet most likely came from outside the stadium by someone indiscriminately shooting into the air.

This raises a few questions/observations:

1) Why wasn't the stadium evacuated once it was discovered that the boy was a victim of a shooting. Doesn't the safety of the other spectators (and the players) matter as much as making sure the Iron Pigs generate maximum revenue on a game night?

2) Who made the decision to continue with the game? Surely the APD could not have already completed their investigation, and likely couldn't even begin it since a baseball game was being played on the crime scene. Yet somehow both the Iron Pigs and the APD allowed the game to continue. This is an amazing contrast to the response a few weeks ago in Bethlehem, when an UNARMED man climbed into unauthorized areas on the Steel Stacks property and Bethlehem police canceled events and cordoned off the area out of concerns for the patrons there.

3) Why does the Morning Call accept the word of people with a vested interest in the narrative (Landes and Finley) dictate the facts of the story? The revised story had a lot of quotes from Finley and Landes about what the APD said it could be, but virtually nothing from the APD itself. The Iron Pigs advertise in the Call and the Call has been a big cheerleader for the team. Given the role the Call had (and the results it lead to) after being a decade-long cheerleader for Ed Pawlowski and slanting stories in his favor, it would appear that the Morning Call has learned nothing from how that experience turned out.

 4) Even if the investigation concludes that the bullet did come from outside the stadium, there is the far larger question of whether it was just random or deliberately fired. I am not a great believer in random events, and think it is far more likely that (if the shot indeed came from outside the stadium) somebody shot at the stadium deliberately. I’m not saying they were aiming at the boy who got shot, but that the stadium and ANY of its patrons would have been the target.

I know that’s a narrative that the Iron Pigs won’t want to discuss. But I’d like to believe that City Hall, the APD, and the Morning Call will put the public’s safety first in this case, or at least on an equal footing with the team’s profits.

We deserve honest answers about what happened on Saturday night. So far, we’re not getting them. 

The above was a comment submitted to the previous post by UNKNOWN.


ADDENDUM: The IronPigs have issued the following statement, "The police have concluded that someone discharged a gun in the air within a three-mile radius outside the ballpark. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing the IronPigs could have done differently to prevent this type of incident from occurring." 

Certainly the team and police could not have prevented the incident from occurring, but they could have stopped the game and evacuated the stadium, while they determined that what actually happened presented no danger to anyone else.

According to the most recent Morning Call article, about 77% of falling bullets shootings hit the victim in the head, and about 1/3 die. Thankfully, the boy was very lucky. However, the stadium owners and police failed to protect the public by ending the game.  Currently, the coverup continues.

Aftermath Of Shootings In Allentown

The recent wave of shootings in Allentown continues to generate response. Hasshan Batts, who recommends that government generously fund his Promise Neighborhood organization, led a march in center city.  Ed White, political strategist, recommends that the city start a new Department Of Youth. He claims that such a department could be funded by finding waste in the existing city budget, and grants. By coincidence, his favored candidate for city council has experience in the grant sector, and will look for the money, if he wins the seat or not. As mentioned in my previous post, councilman Courtney Robinson thinks that we should inventory our existing youth associated services. I would like to elaborate on that approach.

The last thing this city government needs is another department. Although the shootings evoke a woke reaction, and such violence is newish to Allentown, it's a long standing chronic urban condition. For a city which just assessed a 27% tax increase, I certainly hope that the budget was scrutinized for waste. I certainly hope that all city departments are seeking any available grants. Allentown already has extensive youth programs conducted by the department of Parks and Recreation. Under the previous administration, several new positions were created to assist the mayor.  Certainly one of these positions could be utilized to include outreach and coordination of available options for youth. 

Allentown cannot approach one problem by complicating another,  homeowners are maxed out already.

image from West Side Story

Mileage From The Violence

It seems that some are trying to get some funding or publicity from the current wave of carnage in Allentown. The Morning Call newspaper went to bat for Promise Neighborhoods, and got some funding restored for that organization.

Promoter Ed White recommended supporting a new organization he started.  By my standards, the most logical recommendation came from councilman Courtney Robinson...He recommends creating an inventory of existing activities available for young people. While little leagues for baseball and basketball have existed since my youth, there are also excellent existing facilities for after school activities. In addition to keeping school gyms open, there is the YMCA and Jewish Community Center. There are people like Pastor Jim Rivera, who has been engaging youth constructively for decades.

Realistically, those who engage in gangs and violence, resist partaking in such activities as enumerated above. While hopefully some kids will find alternatives to the street, we will also need beefed up police action.

The Legend Begins

On July 4th, 1934 Joe louis made his debut as a professional fighter. Eleven months and nineteen straight victories later, most by knockout, 62,000 fight fans would jam Yankee Stadium to watch the new sensation fight the giant, Primo Carnera.

New York, New York - Primo Carnera, giant Italian boxer and former heavyweight champion of the world, and Joe Louis, hard-hitting negro heavyweight from Detroit, Michigan, weighed-in this afternoon at the offices of the New York State Boxing Commission for their fifteen round bout tonight at the Yankee Stadium. - 6.25.1935

Although badly battered from the first round, Carnera would gamely stay in the fight till it was stopped in round six. The legend of the Brown Bomber was clearly established.
photo of Primo Carnera

This blog has produced 24 posts chronicling the Joe Louis boxing era, many featuring Abe Simon, a Jewish heavyweight of the era... Simon and my mother were cousins. Lately, Allentown violence has allowed me little time and space to visit Madison Square Garden in the early 1940's. During the next few weeks I will reprint some of these posts, while still assigning staff to the city beat. One of my attractions to the boxing world is the black and white photography produced during that era. The public would listen to the fights on the radio, and then see the photographs in the newspapers the following day. While reproducing these posts, I may in some instances substitute alternative photographs, all classic images from the age of film and flash bulbs.

reprinted from 2012

Allentown's Drive-By Shooting

Yesterday, Allentown officially joined the drive-by shooting strata. A woman was shot on her porch near 9th and Tilghman, and officially designated an unintended drive-by, according to Allentown police.

Recently, a retired west end lawyer told me that he and his wife do not go downtown because they fear being an unintentional victim of violence. Although I found his fears unwarranted, after he reads today's paper, his fears will only be confirmed.

In 2005, as a candidate, I told Allentown that they were becoming a poverty magnet, which would have later consequences. One of the agencies which concerned me at that time just stated that they earned their reputation of an outstanding service provider, an effective advocate for low-income residents of the Lehigh Valley. We will now be funding agencies which promise to deal with the violence previous agencies wrought us.

illustration by Mark Beyer

Facing Allentown's Problems

Although the recent shootings have certainly been distressful for Allentown, if you're a candidate running for office, or a youth program director, there is no shortage of talking points to be made about the violence.

Hasshan Batts from Promise Neighborhood took advantage of the chaos, addressing a rally, and with an editorial in the paper. He said and wrote that "This is a proven, tested framework that has decreased violence by up to 80% across the world in neighborhoods that boldly implemented these strategies with generous, long-term funding." 

I don't doubt that Hasshan is as qualified and experienced as any director in any city. But since the Hell's Kitchen movies of 1930 with James Cagney, youth gangs, almost by definition, resist the Father O'Brians and Hasshan Batts'. Large cities like Chicago and Los Angelos have no shortage of experienced youth directors, yet the problems persist. Our elected leaders should support programs such as Promise, but let's be realistic before going boldly with generous, long-term taxpayer funding. 

photocredit:Jane Therese/The Morning Call