Philly police, judge clash over slain officer's photo

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PHILADELPHIA - Court officials are reviewing the actions of a judge who angered many police officials when he objected to having memorial photos of a slain police officer displayed during hearings in his courtroom located in a police district headquarters.

Flowers and pictures of Officer John Pawlowski were displayed Tuesday in the 35th Police District roll call room in observance of Pawlowski's shooting death on Friday night. The room doubles as a courtroom where preliminary hearings are held.

Municipal Judge Craig Washington says the display is inappropriate when court is in session. When police district officials refused to remove the photos, Washington turned them face down.

President John McNesby of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 is asking that hearings in the station be suspended pending an investigation.

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Please keep in mind that Philly has become a police officer killing field. Lots of people here are outraged by this judge.

[Servonaut]

It gets worse

Officer John Pawlowski name sounded familar so I visited all the Web sites I was at this morning.

It was at LGF.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/32819_Jailhouse_Islam_Behind_Cop_Killings_in_Philadelphia

Jailhouse Islam Behind Cop Killing?

PHILADELPHIA - The fact that Rasheed Scrugs allegedly announced he was going to kill a cop and then shot Philadelphia Police Officer John Pawlowski with a gun hidden inside his coat pocket has detectives digging deeper on Scrugs.

They're still gathering evidence and trying to unravel why Friday night's senseless murder happened, Fox 29's Dave Schratwieser reported.

"Pawlowski didn't stand a chance," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said Monday, as Philadelphia continued to reel over the killing.

A key witness went public Monday with the chilling words he heard the gunman say before the shooting.

"If you call the cop, I'll kill you and kill the cop," said Manuel Dias, who works in a newsstand at Broad Street and Olney Avenue, repeating what he told detectives.

Police believe Scrugs planned to shoot officers when they answered a 911 call about a fight on the highway at Broad and Olney at 8:20 p.m.

"This individual was very violent and was bent on killing someone," Ramsey said.

Scrugs was shot by Pawlowski's partner and another officer. He's now awake and talking, but he refused to be interviewed by homicide detectives.

Sources say Scrugs told a hospital staffer he was high on drugs at the time of the shooting and allegedly said, "I can't believe I shot a cop."

"Well, he's a cold blooded killer is what he is, and he knew exactly what it is he wanted to do," Ramsey said.

Ramsey told Fox 29 News that police are now trying to determine if Scrugs -- who also goes by the alias Rasheed Abdulghaffer -- may have converted to a radical form of "jailhouse Islam" during his years in prison.

Ironically, Ramsey said he was briefed by FBI agents on Friday about this radical form of Islam. That was just hours before Pawlowski was shot.

Ramsey said there's a growing concern among law enforcement.

"This is a radical form where certainly committing crime and killing police officers and so forth is part of it," Ramsey said.

Police experts and the FBI are now researching whether Scrugs and Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski' accused killers -- Howard Cain and Levon Warner, who are accused of wearing Muslim clothing during that murder -- were schooled in jailhouse Islam.

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/021609_Pawlowski_Slaying_Investigation

[9outof10]

Sorry. I side with the judge on this one. The story has it backwards. It is not the roll call room that doubled as a courtroom. It is a courtroom that is used as a roll call room. The judge did what he was supposed to do. Order all personal photographs removed.

When we compromise one law, the door is opened to compromise them all. And those we entrust to uphold and enforce the laws should understand this.

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Nope. It is a roll call room first. At least, that what cops have told me.