Philadelphia and the culture of lawlessness

For a Democrat, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s chief editorial board writer Daniel Pearson is one of the not-so-bad guys. He’s actually a (mostly) moderate guy who wants to see the laws enforced, though perhaps less so when it comes to our immigration laws and serious criminal laws in general; you can’t endorse the George Soros-sponsored, criminal-loving and police hating District Attorney Larry Krasner and be too serious about law enforcement!

But, a commuter using the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, SEPTA, himself, he sure wants to see a crackdown on the turnstile jumpers and fare evaders! I guess that’s something.

SEPTA’s fare evasion crackdown is no joke. Ask the more than 3,200 people criminally charged this year.

SEPTA says far too many Philadelphians aren’t paying to ride the transit system. It costs the agency about $50 million yearly in lost revenue.

by Ellie Rushing and Thomas Fitzgerald | Tuesday, July 1, 2025 | 5:00 AM EDT

SEPTA has criminally charged thousands of Philadelphians with fare evasion over the last year, sending a flood of cases through the courts and a message to riders that the days of jumping turnstiles without consequence are numbered.

Since last June, more than 7,400 people have been charged with theft of services, a summary offense that requires people to go to court, and can carry a fine of up to $300, according to data from SEPTA. This year alone, more than 3,200 riders have been charged with the crime, the vast majority this spring — a staggering jump compared to the 312 people charged within the same time frame last year, according to data from the district attorney’s office.

The crackdown officially began last summer before tapering off in the winter, but data show that since March, police have started taking an even more stringent approach, with officers fanning out across subways, trolleys, and even buses, charging more riders, and creating a backlog of cases in the courts.

Transit Police Chief Charles Lawson said the agency has learned so far that the majority of fare evaders are everyday working residents — nurses, lawyers, even city employees with free passes, who, in a rush to catch the train, or out of habit after not paying in recent years, step over the turnstiles.

Nurses, who see the effects of crime in Philadelphia first hand, can easily make $100,000 a year in the City of Brotherly Love. Lawyers? Well, who knows? Some of them can make mid-to-high six figures, though there are some drones who don’t really do all that well. City employees with free passes? That’s just totally ridiculous! Is it actually faster to jump the gate than put the pass for which you don’t even have to pay, in?

I’ll point out here that Philadelphia hasn’t had a Republican mayor since Harry Truman was President, and voters there gave 82.30% of their ballots to Hillary Clinton in 2016, 81.21% to Joe Biden in 2020, and 78.57% to Kamala Harris Emhoff last November.

The 17-member City Council consists of 14 Democrats, two members of the far-left, socialist Working Families Party, and just one Republican.

I’d say that it’s fair to call Philadelphia a completely and thoroughly Democrat-ruled, and just plain Democrat city!

And that city has a huge culture of lawlessness! How else can you explain “nurses, lawyers, even city employees with free passes,” people who can easily afford SEPTA fares, if they have to pay them at all, “professionals with plenty of resources” to use the formulation Mr Pearson used in his posting on Twitter — I refuse to call it 𝕏 — choosing to skip out on a $2.90 fare?

“This isn’t just criminal rule breakers. It’s being committed by everyone,” Lawson said.

And, he said, it costs the transit agency more than $50 million a year.

Lawson said the goal of the crackdown is not “to hang a charge on someone’s record” but to change the culture for riders — and, as SEPTA faces an acute financial crisis and a $213 million budget deficit, restore a critical source of income.

“We need to inconvenience our customers enough to make them want to pay the fare,” he said.

That might be the saddest statement of all. SEPTA needs to “inconvenience (their) customers enough to make them want to pay the fare”? Shouldn’t being decent citizens who respect the law be enough to do that?

Think about that! Philadelphians twice elected a chief prosecutor who doesn’t want to enforce the laws, and just renominated him for a third term he will almost certainly win, because too many residents would rather see the city wracked with crime so that their friends and family members don’t go to jail. That’s really it: too many Philadelphians don’t want to see the laws enforced because they don’t have any respect for the laws themselves.

Some people might see this as a little thing, but I do not. How can you expect a law-abiding and civilized culture when the people who benefit from it the most, those “nurses, lawyers, and city employees,” don’t obey the laws in the simplest of things?