As former President Donald Trump once said, bad things really do happen in Philadelphia — really bad things. The string of bad things continued this past week. Already in the midst of record-setting homicide rates, with a district attorney who cares more about criminals than innocent victims, Philadelphia now has the dubious distinction of adding a corrupt City Council to its list of shame. Earlier this week, powerful Philadelphia IBEW Local 98 union boss John Dougherty and City Councilman Bobby Henon were both found guilty of conspiracy and fraud.
The revelation that a Philadelphia union boss and a Democratic city councilman are corrupt is perhaps not so shocking, but the sinful greed and egregious acts involved here are. These scumbags were trying to “wet their beak” at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, preventing the hospital from using nonunion employees to install MRI machines.
This week’s verdict is the conclusion of a long process that started back in 2016, when the FBI raided offices and properties connected to Henon and Dougherty. Dougherty was the alleged kingpin, and Henon was the local government official who did the grunt work and carried out Dougherty’s demands, according to the evidence presented at the trial.
Prosecutors alleged that Dougherty, a South Philadelphia resident, had effectively bought Henon’s vote by supplying him with a salary, benefits, tickets to Eagles games, and other perks. Henon was accused of carrying out Dougherty’s personal, professional, and financial agenda in the public sphere, especially to help steer construction contracts to allies and friends.
Pete Smith ran against Bobby Henon in the 2019 City Council elections. During his campaign, he warned his district of Henon’s corruption. He warned that Henon would be indicted by the FBI on bribery charges. He warned that he played a role in trying to exploit a hospital dedicated to children with serious illnesses. The majority of his district did not care.
“Monday’s convictions of Councilman Bobby Henon serve as just another example of the magnitude of political corruption that is harming our community,” Smith told me in an email. “It’s disheartening that another elected official has let down the people he was elected to serve. Too often, we accept this corruption and label it this ‘business as usual,’ but that should not ever be the case.”
I asked Pete if he would take up the mantle of trying to save his community and run again. He said he could not answer at the moment but would tell me why he ran in the first place.
“In 2019, I ran on a platform that was pro-police, sought to end political corruption, enhance the quality of life for my neighbors, and fight the opioid crisis,” Smith told me in an email. “Since then, what has Bobby Henon or any Democrat in the city done to help our community? Nothing but look out for his own self-interests.”
Philadelphia was once the beacon of liberty in the world. Given its significance to the founding of the United States, it is one of the most important cities in the history of Western civilization. Yet, it has morphed into a despotic den of corruption, the antithesis of what our Founding Fathers sought to achieve.
