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Stigall Column: 2016 Week 1

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The first full week of 2016 was all it took to understand who and what we're dealing with in Philadelphia.

A new mayor and police commissioner were sworn in. Commissioner Richard Ross' first act was to thank his "Lord and Savior." Mayor Jim Kenney's first act was to take executive action designating Philadelphia a "sanctuary city."

By week's end, an officer was shot three times in his cruiser – the victim of an attempted assassination by a confessed Islamic radical. The news and events to follow this crime crystallized the state of Philadelphia, and really our Republic.

Officer Jesse Hartnett was on patrol in West Philadelphia the first Thursday night of the New Year. Around 11:30 PM while parked in his patrol car, Edward Archer rushed to the drivers side of Hartnett's car and fired inside thirteen times.

The shooting just a few hours after President Obama's televised town hall on guns had concluded, ironically. A broadcast that featured our president telling a rape victim that it was debatable her owning a gun at home would keep her safe.

Twelve or so hours would pass before the media and public would learn the chilling and heroic details of that night. The newly minted mayor and his police commissioner called a press conference.

Commissioner Ross was first to address the specifics of the shooting.

Unbelievably, Officer Hartnett was struck only three times in the arm. But it was this 33-year-old Coast Guard veteran's quick action that's the stuff of action film heroes. Hartnett exited his car, radioed for back up while bleeding severely, and most remarkably, returned fire at his would-be assassin. His training would not only stop Archer from fleeing, but also inflict only minor wounds. Textbook police excellence.

Hartnett's quick thinking and poise spared Archer and preserved a treasure trove of insight into the motivations and history of a murderous mind. The motivation, Commissioner Ross confirmed, was Islam and an allegiance to the international terrorist group ISIS.

Archer gave a full confession of his crime to police not long after his arrest. "According to him, police bend laws that are contrary to the teachings of the Quran" stated Ross. The gun used in the attempted murder was a stolen police weapon taken from a Philadelphia police officer's home during a 2013 robbery.

After some easy digging, local media began to piece together a full account of Archer's international travels and substantial criminal past. A trip to Saudi Arabia in 2011, and Egypt in 2012 – the same year he would be found guilty on six counts, including forgery, careless driving, and driving on a suspended license.

By 2013, he had been arrested in Philadelphia for terrorist threats and gun charges. He pleaded guilty to assault and carrying a gun without a license – a felony that usually carries with it a nine to twenty-three month prison sentence.

Archer was paroled for time served and was never required to receive any medical assessments for mental illness.

The background of this reprobate is important to understanding just how alarming and embarrassing this now national story has become. Enter Philadelphia's 99th mayor, Jim Kenney.

After Commissioner Ross delivered full details of Archer's confession, Mayor Kenney stepped up to the press conference microphone. He gave an appropriate and customary statement of concern for Officer Hartnett and his family and police work generally.

With that out of the way, perhaps the most liberal mayor Philadelphia has ever known showed his true self. Kenney gave a full-throated defense of Islam and told the nation watching that we were not to believe the gunman's own words.

"In no way shape or form does anyone in this room believe that Islam or the teaching of Islam has anything to do with what you've seen" said Kenney.

Of the shooting itself, he continued, "It is abhorrent. It is terrible and it does not represent the religion in any way, shape or form or any of its teachings. This is a criminal with a stolen gun…it has nothing to do with being a Muslim or following the Islamic faith."

Kenney's explanation and solution for this and future attempted assassinations by the likes of Edward Archer? "There are too many guns on our streets and I think our national government needs to do something about that."

It's not difficult determining to whom these delusional, sloppy, wet, liberal kisses from the podium are blown.

After all, Kenney's Democrats are hosting their big convention in his city this year. He'll be center-stage with all of his liberal national heroes. Namely President Obama and Mrs. Clinton. Certainly every public statement this new mayor makes between now and that convention will be met with the question, "How will this make me look in front of my pals this summer?"

Kenney is simply parroting what the nation has been hearing from his political hero in the White House for the last seven years. Just a month ago (almost to the day) of Officer Hartnett's shooting, Islamic radicals in San Bernadino, California, gunned down fourteen Americans.

Obama's televised response to the nation demanded we Americans not allow the assassinations to be defined as a war between Islam and us. Sound familiar?

The only solace Philadelphia and our nation can take with dangerous, dishonest, and delusional office holders like Obama and Kenney is to know in our midst and on our streets are fine, brave, honest, and selfless men like Police Commissioner Richard Ross and Officer Hartnett.

One week is all it took to understand who we're dealing with in Philadelphia. It comes down to who's got your back, and who guarantees you'll have to watch it.

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