Editorial for November 8, 2007 edition:


Let justice be swift

America has John R. Lewis, civil rights leader and congressman from Georgia. Then there was John L. Lewis, longtime head of the United Mine Workers of America.
Now, the City of Brotherly Love has its own John Lewis, who stands accused of slaughtering one of Philly’s Finest.
Like folks throughout the city, the men and women of the Philadelphia Police Department and their families, many of whom call Northeast Philly home, are breathing a humongous sigh of relief since police captured the 21-year-old Lewis at a homeless shelter in Miami, Fla., on Tuesday.
The brutal murder of Officer Charles Cassidy at a Dunkin’ Donuts in West Oak Lane on Halloween shook not only the officer’s family and neighbors in his Northeast neighborhood but the entire city.
Surveillance videotape immediately before and after Officer Cassidy was shot in the head when he walked in on a robbery drew eerie parallels with nationally televised surveillance footage of the cold-blooded murders last month of two armored-car guards at an ATM in Rhawnhurst.
Lewis is no choir boy; he has an arrest record for drug offenses and attempted theft. Any of his family members or friends who aided and abetted his attempt to flee the area have harbored a fugitive and should be thrown into prison for 50 years. And hopefully, District Attorney Lynne Abraham will resist any urge to make a deal with Lewis that would spare his life in exchange for a guilty plea.
If Lewis is convicted of Officer Cassidy’s murder and, while he is being transported from court back to prison, an accompanying police officer’s gun just happens to go off and strikes Lewis in the head, oh well, that’s life.
After all, accidents happen. ••

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