Whitney on Siegel's State House Race

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.”