During my early years in Philadelphia, there was a Cabal of individuals who controlled nearly everything. And when I say everything, I am referring to the police, the courts, the utility companies, the contractors who handled municipal construction and remodeling, the unions, the streets departments, the welfare department, The law firms, the hospitals at the highest levels, the universities, and all of the city departments such as taxation, licenses and inspections, the fire department, and a great number of other institutions and agencies .
If you were regarded as a difficult person who would not play their game, you had problems Involving anything you tried to do as a citizen. There was pressure exerted at many levels, and I was privy to some stories, which even I, who am now jaded, to this day find remarkable.
Now the names of the influential people were not necessarily those published in our papers on a daily basis: they were people who shied from the limelight, but behind the scenes, could destroy a career with a single phone call . Or, conversely, they could save someone who was headed for a complete destruction due to their own behaviors, and resurrect their careers again with a single phone call. In this city, judges are elected, not appointed, and needless to say you can only imagine what kind of treatment the contributing establishment class received , in many cases surreptitiously. We were considered the last of the “machine cities“ where the political aspects of situations and bbc the powerful determine their outcome no matter what the law stipulates and no matter of “right and wrong”. Our organized crime families at one time were extremely powerful, and not pursued as criminal organizations until the violence and shake down spread without regard for the usual norms, which had been tolerated for generations.
Interestingly, however, virtually all of these people from the old days or deceased, or in extreme advanced age and ineffective. I was speaking with a very well put together individual who holds a fairly high position in the city, and used one of these powerbroker’s names, and she stared at me in absolute unknowing ignorance of the existence of this gentleman. I told her that this individual was one of the most feared people in the city, who passed away about 20 years ago, and the name has not been mentioned since in the public sphere. There is no institutional memory of this among the powerful and the good news is that one day, this will be the case with the former President or whatever he was .
Time is a great healer and the powerful persona eventually vanishes. Once they are removed or disappear from the scene, and although you may certainly stipulate that others may take their place, that particular era of personality is over. My concern of course is what faces us next, but the Days of Infamy of Trump will be behind us. I very much look forward to that time which cannot happen fast enough.
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