Crime is so bad in Philly, gas station owners started using private armed security patrols
Christopher Tremoglie
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It’s a scene that more resembles a third-world country than a U.S. metropolis. Armed guards with AR-15s, patroling a gas station in Philadelphia to protect customers and deter the criminals that have been terrorizing the location.
By now, Philadelphia’s incessant crime problem is well known. The city has set records in recent years for homicides, carjackings, and other violent crimes. The situation is so dire that one gas station owner was forced to take security measures into his own hands and hired private armed security to protect his customers and business.
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Neil Patel, the owner of a KARCO gas station near Temple University in Philadelphia, told local news affiliates that crime was so rampant in the area, it was destroying his business. Over the past few months, his customers and his gas station have been victimized by multiple incidents of violent crime.
Last Easter, there was a shooting at his gas station. Just a few weeks ago, someone stole an ATM. And, if criminals weren’t shooting people, they were regularly stealing from his store, vandalizing cars or conducting drug deals in and around his store. Police failed to respond quickly enough and ultimately did nothing once they arrived. Patel was alone and had to fend for himself.
“Selling their drugs openly. Cops here, they don’t do anything. Robberies, stealings, vandalizing my car,” Patel told Philadelphia’s 6abc.
Faced with no other choice, Patel hired a private security firm, Pennsylvania State Agents, to protect his business and customers. As part of the agreement, PSA sends at least two armed agents daily to Patel’s station, typically in the evenings, according to reports. Seeing armed guards patrolling a gas station has shocked many of his patrons. Yet it’s a necessary step in a city where leadership continues to fail to protect its residents from uncontrollable criminal behavior.
The situation at Patel’s KARCO gas station is indicative of how out-of-control crime has become in Philadelphia. While Larry Krasner, the city’s Soros-backed-DA continues to let criminals skate — even as he is being impeached — Philadelphia’s government remains lost on crime. It has tried every manner of silly, left-wing, liberal initiatives to curb crime, all of which have miserably failed. It turns out that policing and prosecution stops crime — not community outreach.
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Ultimately, Philadelphia’s Democrats need to get serious about this issue and start taking action. The city went “woke” and it created a monster. Now, innocent people suffer as criminals thrive on the indulgence of the city’s weak criminal justice system. All of these hippie, kumbaya, radical left-wing policies do nothing to stop violent crime or protect people. And now, as Patel has demonstrated, the city is coming close to a breaking point.
Left with no other options, Philadelphians realize they must rely on themselves to do what the Democrats who run the city failed to do — protect them.