Blogger's Note: Two candidates, Joshua Siegel and Saeed Georges, are seeking the Democratic nomination for State House in District 22. This covers much of Allentown's east side. James Whitney, who has penned several Allentown-related stories for this blog, fills you in on Siegel. I'll be doing that myself later this week.
According to multiple sources familiar with Joshua Siegel's campaign for State Rep, Mr. Siegel is poised to issue an apology to the Allentown Police Department. Community leader Tino Babayan, who’s spoken directly to Siegel, says that Siegel indicated that he’s ready to apologize. He believes Siegel is looking for the right time and place to make his apology and that he will not consider an endorsement until he does.
Joshua Siegel has a long history of advocating for the defunding of police and has repeatedly voted not to hire more officers. He most recently made the case in an August ‘21 op-ed published in the Morning Call. Siegel co-wrote that article with councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach who at the time had been arrested and indicted for child endangerment, but hadn’t yet entered the first-offender program she’s currently enrolled in.
Siegel's anti-police actions have at times been more direct and bordered on dangerous. During a 2020 protest in front of the Allentown Police Department, protesters were demanding the identities of two police officers. Josh Siegel didn’t have the names of the officers, but displayed a willingness to dox public officials, when he gave the protesters Mayor Ray McConnell’s personal phone number. Siegel’s dissemination of private information came at a time in which ambush style attacks against police officers were on the rise, a trend that hasn’t slowed down. Ambush attacks of police officers were up 103% in 2021 according to data collected by the National Fraternal Order of Police. On July 11th 2020, the same day that Josh Siegel was protesting the Allentown police and doxing public officials, two police officers were shot and killed in McAllen, Texas.
Their names were Edelmiro Garza and Ismael Chavez. They died as heroes, at the hands of a coward.
Siegel’s attacks against police took a turn for the bizarre on August 5th 2020 when he told a veteran police officer that he should “at least try” to understand the term “fuck the police” as a cultural reference before condemning the phrase. In April 2021 Siegel appeared in a satirical video in which he manically joked about dedicating a mural to police brutality in downtown Allentown. In the same video Josh Siegel joked about struggling downtown Allentown businesses, saying “sometimes you know, you gotta fail once or twice, before you fail that third time. It’s like they always say, the seventh time is the charm.” It’s unclear if Mr. Siegel will be offering an apology to the small business community who has been rocked by a worldwide pandemic, a national labor shortage, and supply chain issues.
If Siegel does issue an apology to the APD, and the past is prologue, there’s reason to believe his apology may not be an enduring one, or represent any meaningful change. After doxing Mayor O’Connell, Joshua apologized to his fellow City Council members , saying "I am not a hypocrite. ... I respect you as my colleagues. I respect you as professionals who I will work with. ...I want to be your friend.” Three days later, in an online meeting, Joshua again disparaged his colleagues, saying some members of council “clearly don't either have a conscience or frankly don't care and they're fine with continuing to have police officers put their knees on the necks of Allentown citizens. They're fine with continuing to maintain an institution of policing that at its very core is designed to oppress people of poverty and people of color and keep them silenced and on the streets and keep them from speaking their minds.”
21 comments:
any candidate expressing a desire to defund the police (apology or no apology) is unfit for public service and shouldn't be considered for a vote.
Since Whitney comments on Allentown, I would love to hear his opinion of the city's possible new state senator, Zrinzki. She also has me me Gerlach working for her, she also has called for defunding the police. People don't seem to understand that. She is at least as troubling as Siegel and maybe more so as one state rep is fairly inconsequential, but a state senator can swing a vote.
Interested in any take on this state senate race that has big implications for Allentown, not just part of Northampton County.
A typical Democrat. Move on shitbag.
Josh Siegel and his mentor Mark Pinsley will say anything to get elected to a government position where they can continue their anti-establishment, anti-police views. The only reason he will issue an apology is an attempt to overshadow his past past to gain votes. His voting record as an Allentown City Councilman, continued alliance with Cece Gerlach, and a review of bills and ordinances that he authored tells all what he is really about. HE does not even own a home. He is a puppet for Mark Pinsley now and will continue be a puppet for the progressive democratics in HArrisburg.
........ says that Siegel indicated that he’s ready to apologize. He believes Siegel is looking for the right time and place to make his apology and that he will not consider an endorsement until he does.
The statement above speaks a lot to what is really going on. It is showmanship and who knows if it is anything more then a photo op and spew. Just more visual for people to grab onto without sustenance behind it so they can garner votes..
Any cop who endorses or votes for this piece of garbage deserves what gets dumped on them. No apology for political purposes can erase a public career of outright hatred for cops, and tacit approval of their targeted killing by cowards this shitstain wants us to "understand." Where does Siegel live? What's his address and phone number? Perhaps those opposed to Siegel and the cop killers he seems to like should visit his yard and wife and children (if he was man enough to make any) and every single place any of them go, publicly or privately. He and they should not know peace until he apologizes and retires from public life. The kitchen is hot - especially for the family off hateful assholes who made it that way for their loved ones. You know Josh is smiling at the SCOTUS front yard protests. It's all good, right?
Josh made the rules. Let's play Josh! Be a man and state your address and phone number publicly. Is it Woodlawn Street? What's the number and apartment? Can't afford the down money for a house of your own? Are you financially compromised? What's up with that? Let's know EVERYTHING about Josh and anyone damaged enough to care about him.
Sincerely,
Everyone who hates this coward's guts and can't identify themselves for fear of Josh and his thugs coming to OUR houses and costing us our jobs for speaking truthfully about Josh
PS - I don't wish any of this. But Josh should read this in lieu of looking in a mirror to see his own miserable self.
Nothing wrong with defunding the police, it means reallocating money from policing to other agencies funded by local municipalities. Reallocating funds to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources
What is wrong is the paramilitary methods the police are using on the public. That needs to stop now. Gun laws need to change and Only police detectives will carry guns moving forward. How many innocent people have died because of overaggressive. policing? I’ll bet it would be higher than 103% yearly.
Regardless of how this inter-party nonsense goes, the district's police officers will be represented by someone hostile to them. That's the case currently. Nothing is about to change. I believe Allentown schools are the fifth or sixth worst of 600+ districts in PA. That's a special level of poor academic performance. The results are uneducated, ill-prepared voters who would elect either one of these Bozos. It's a vicious cycle of idiocy and incompetence in an a district that has enacted every single tenet of the progressive agenda, yet seems to be unhappy with the paradise they created for themselves. Enjoy your sty.
@7:48 clearly you are an uneducated, uninformed lowlife
7:48 am: I have no problem with the reallocation of funds, but not at the expense of public safety. Trim the fat, eliminate “thank you” jobs (Willie Reynolds and Bethlehem City Council, take note), and you will find there is money to be used for social service positions.
The focus on “defunding the police” should be secondary to showing that Siegel is narrow-minded and ill-equipped to be a thoughtful member of the legislature. If you say something, mean it; don’t back pedal for votes.
What will that say about the police union and the officers they represent if they accept an apology and then potentially endorse this guy.
The Allentown Police are so rotten to the core that what is required looks akin to the scene from "A Clockwork Orange" where the officer is strapped into a chair with eyes propped open while programming from the "radical left" is displayed in 12 hour chunks colostomy bags, feeding tubes and mandatory debriefings along with it.
Allentown is a "Chocolate City" therefore it's police force should reflect that and be one compromised primarily of BIPOC's led by BIPOC's and in certain instances white allies like Joshua Siegel who has shown unwavering solidarity with the historically opressed.
Nearby in Whitehall a latino brother was executed while out for a day of fun with his family at Dorney Park by a cracker who got off scot free, no more !
Eventually a large liberal municipality will take your advice, defund the police in favor of more "non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social services, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and other community resources." Then we will see if the result is the safe, secure, police-free paradise that the left imagines. I'm not holding my breathe . . .
This Siegle seems to be the perfect Progressive to send to the State house
@9:43 am - the Allentown Police union will not be endorsing Siegel. He is crazy to think that is even an option, even if he does apologize.
@1:32 pm - Dorney Park is in South Whitehall, not Whitehall. Whitehall has it's own problems. They certainly don't need this added to the list.
One word: bullshit.
I think Siegel will have a cell near Pawlowski one day soon. Tino whose that community leader….
Siegel is a political hack. Since moving into Congress Apartments, he has run for 3 different political positions in 6 short years - Allentown Mayor, Allentown City Council and now State Rep.
He hasn't even finished his term as Councilman and he is looking to be a State Rep. In 2020 he took office as a council person, only to change his mind (not even halfway through his term) and run for State Rep. At 28 years old, Siegel still can't decide what he wants to be when he grows up.
This guy is not in it for the people he is supposed to represent, Allentown is just another notch in his political belt.
Saeed Georges is brother to a criminal that defrauded people and was indited by the fbi. Do we really want the same to happen to our state? We are talking millions of dollars!
You sound worried, Josh. Maybe you should dox him
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