In the City of Brotherly Love gas station owners may have trouble getting gas at a price their customers want to pay, but they have no trouble attracting criminals and other lowlifes their customers definitely don't want to encounter.
6ABC reports that firearm robberies at gas stations have tripled in the past few years.
One local lawyer "currently has nine clients who are suing gas station owners after his clients were shot on their premises." Which shows we’ve come a long way from complaining about messy restrooms and no hi-test.
Fox News found one gas station owner who has had enough.
He’s hired a private law enforcement group to do the crime prevention work the City of Philadelphia can no longer be bothered with.
Service station owner Neil Patel hired an organization "to protect his employees and customers after his store had been repeatedly ransacked."
"They are forcing us to hire the security, high-level security, state level," Patel told the outlet. "We are tired of this nonsense; robbery, drug trafficking, hanging around, gangs."
In another interview with 6ABC Patel added, "Cops here, they don’t do anything. Robberies, stealings, vandalizing my car."
The firm he hired is called Pennsylvania S.I.T.E. State Agents.
They are different from the mall cops you find at your local shopping center. (Not that there is anything wrong with them.)
This group features highly-trained employees who are authorized to make arrests and use force during an arrest or while preventing a crime.
In other words, they don’t call 9–1–1.
They are 9–1–1.
Patel can afford to do what the City of Philadelphia refuses to do because he owns a total of 22 gas stations regionally and he obviously has the revenue necessary to foot the bill.
Patel hired S.I.T.E. three weeks ago and now has at least two armed agents at work every night. And these agents aren’t dressed in sloppy, wrinkled blue shirts and polyester pants.
Each member of the security team is wearing a black uniform, ballistic vest and carries a rifle or shotgun.
For customers the sight of the S.I.T.E. folks may be startling at first, but reassuring later.
The security team is also a visible deterrent to crime. "Neil Patel said incidents at his gas station have stopped since he deployed armed guards to protect it.
"Patel added that his business has stopped experiencing any incidents of loitering or other crimes since he beefed up security."
The fact that deterrence deters crime is no news to anyone not blinded by ideology and possessing an above room temperature IQ.
It's a fact yet to penetrate the local district attorney's office.
Individuals made a bargain with civilization long ago. The government would handle crime and punishment. In return the citizenry would give up vendettas, vigilantism, and private punishment.
The bargain has been broken in Philadelphia and the authorities could care less.
We wonder how long business owners are going to continue to pay property taxes and fees to a city that has abandoned them to the wolves?
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker's bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.