... Or rather, people I am not sick of, specifically three of them (Link:)

After learning that battered women in Philadelphia are largely responsible for serving their attackers with court stay-away orders, aghast City Council members yesterday called upon the Committee on Public Safety to explore alternatives to a process they deemed dangerous for abuse victims.

"The current system . . . is absolutely preposterous and untenable," Councilman Bill Green said in a statement. "Not only are we causing the abuse victim additional mental anguish, but we are placing the victim in additional danger of physical harm."

Green, along with Council members Maria Quinones Sanchez, Curtis Jones Jr. and Blondell Reynolds Brown, introduced a resolution authorizing the safety committee to hold hearings on the service of protection-from-abuse orders, or PFAs.

Yesterday's resolution was prompted by a Daily News series on domestic violence that ran in late December.

The series followed one victim's exhausting and frightening quest to serve her alleged attacker with a temporary PFA issued by Family Court.

Quinones Sanchez, Green, and Jones, Jr. To paraphrase my hero, Ronald Reagan, there they go again.

Basically, we have a stupid, asinine law that women who get protective orders against their abusers must... actually serve those orders themselves. If women felt like they were in danger, they could call 911 and get police to accompany them, which about half do.

I am sure calling 911 is a barrier for some women in the first place. And, even if the police do a good job of accompanying them whenever they are asked, it is ridiculous that we are putting abused women in the position where they have to unnecessarily confront their alleged abuser.

We have some good Councilpeople who have served for a while (Kenney, Tasco, Goode, etc.), but sometimes bringing in new people is simply helpful because they can look at stupid things that have gone for a long time, and simply say "WTF?"

My BFF, Donna Miller, is chair of the Public Safety Committee, and yet to set hearings. Hopefully this happens soon.

Nice job, Daily News. This is just another example of how important local print media can be.

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Update: Please see the comments below from Seth Levi, from Councilman Green's office, who clarifies (and corrects me, on) what exactly happens when woman get protective orders.

Check out this article in the DN.

Green is trying to roll-back an agreement Mayor Street made with casino developers to allow them a property tax abatement in exchange for an investment in infrastructure--water pipes and stuff. Green says:

I can't see a public policy rationale for providing casinos a tax abatement.

I leave it to someone else to get into the meat of this matter (and it is an intriguing one: it was my memory that Street himself had originally not wanted abatements for casinos either, and somewhere along the way he changed his mind, but Green's point is solid).

But what is UP with Bill Green? Remember last week when he proposed eliminating DROP for elected officials. And the Inky reported this:

[Councilwoman and Majority Leader] Tasco said she liked Green and tried to "help" him Thursday with a resolution that dulled the sting from Green's DROP bill. She called for hearings to examine the larger impact of DROP before considering his action. Some saw that as putting Green in his place.

When you're new, there are a lot of nuances that you're not familiar with, and sometimes it's a wise move to get the lay of the land, get a feel for your colleagues, and get some history of the Council," Tasco said. "So what happened yesterday certainly was not an effort to spank him, but to help him understand that he should get the lay of the land first.

That's a nice way of saying she doesn't really like him.

The Inky already wrote an article in the 1/28/08 Inky article about zany Councilman Green, and how his colleagues are not cazy about him, so I am not so much writing about that.

It's more like I am wondering why this image--this notion of what Green would be like--didn't seem to get communicated during the campaign. I had no idea he would be like quite like this as a Councilman (and it doesn't hurt that he comes to every Liberty City meeting even though the election is over--Councilman Kenney never did that ;). He seems pretty cool so far.

Was I just out of it? Did anyone expect..all this...from him?