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A U.S. senator doesn\u2019t have much authority over a city police department but it\u2019s good to have its endorsement, especially in an election cycle where crime is a top issue with voters. In this case, it is the Philadelphia Police Department that endorsed Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania senate race. The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 split its ticket and also endorsed Democrat Josh Shapiro for governor.<\/p>\n
Oz\u2019s campaign has been tying the city\u2019s gun violence crisis to his Democratic opponent, the current Lt. Governor, John Fetterman. During the press conference for the endorsement Monday, Oz used medical metaphors<\/a> to describe criminal lawlessness \u201clike a cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat makes cancer cancer is that you have cells that are sociopathic, that don\u2019t pay attention to the cells around them,\u201d Oz said while speaking in the Northeast Philadelphia headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5. \u201cThey suck up the blood supply. They release toxic chemicals. They don\u2019t just destroy themselves through their criminal behavior. They destroy everything around them. That\u2019s the real risk here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Oz has made several campaign stops in Philadelphia casting Fetterman as soft on crime and highlighting Fetterman\u2019s work to commute sentences as a member of the Board of Pardons. Fetterman chairs the Board of Pardons. Last year he appeared to call for the release of all second-degree murderers from Pennsylvania\u2019s prisons. Now Fetterman has walked back<\/a> that opinion.<\/p>\n An interesting part of today\u2019s press conference was that Philadelphia lawyer George Bochetto, who lost to Oz in the GOP primary, emceed it. He called Oz \u201cremarkably intelligent\u201d and has \u201cmore energy than I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d Those words, however, did not take away from some ugly remarks Bochetto made earlier in the campaign.<\/p>\n But Bochetto had less-kind things to say about Oz during the GOP primary, when the Philly police union endorsed Bochetto. At that event in March, Bochetto said Oz \u201csells magic coffee beans to little old ladies on daytime TV,\u201d a reference to the controversial weight loss treatments that the celebrity physician hawked on his eponymous TV show.<\/p>\n Bochetto said Monday that while his view of Oz hasn\u2019t changed, his comments in March were merely pointed barbs that come along campaigning.<\/p>\n \u201cLook, when you\u2019re a candidate in the United States Senate primary, you engage in emphasis, and sometimes your emphasis rises to the level of extreme,\u201d Bochetto said. \u201cThe comment that I made during the primary was nothing more than a political comment, an extreme political comment. And it\u2019s the type of thing that happens, but I can assure you, this is the real deal with Dr. Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That\u2019s why regular people don\u2019t like politicians. Bochetto passes his behavior off as ordinary campaign behavior and then he turns around and praises the man during an endorsement event.<\/p>\n Oz didn\u2019t offer much in the way of specifics on how he would help to bring crime levels down, or what he thinks the role of a U.S. senator could play in fighting crime in Philadelphia. He did say he is in favor of increased use of police body cameras and he supports community policing. Community policing is a catch-all phrase popular with politicians which usually means more police officers in neighborhoods and establishing rapport with residents.<\/p>\n Oz cautioned the audience <\/a>that Fetterman is \u201cway outside the norms\u201d of both parties and the people of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s clearly way outside the norms of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the people of Pennsylvania,\u201d Oz said.<\/p>\n Oz implored that police departments \u201cbe allowed to do their jobs,\u201d and stressed the need for more officers on the streets of cities like Philadelphia.<\/p>\n He went on to warn against voters choosing to support Fetterman.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a transformative election. We have to get this right. We cannot send someone to Washington who is disrespectful of the rules of society. who thinks they\u2019re better than those rules, no more than the people around them, and will make arrogant decisions that could compromise all of us,\u201d Oz said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need thoughtful, measured individuals who know how to make difficult decisions,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Fetterman is up by 4.2 points in the Real Clear Politics<\/a> aggregate averaging. Oz may be able to pull off a victory if things continue, like concerns over Fetterman\u2019s health and voters focused on issues like crime, not abortion as Democrats want the focus to be on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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