Now this is an interesting news tidbit du jour: according to the news, a flyer is circulating about Aaron McKie who is planning to move to Gladwyne. Now it is a crying shame the McMansion he is building is super unattractive, but the rest of this? This flyer basically encourages Gladwyne residents to rally up the townfolk and pitchforks and bar him from entry to Gladwyne...So, is the issue that generated the flyer the fact that he lied when trying to get a gun permit (which in itself involves purported domestic violence issues), or is it race related? Gladwyne might be like 90210 (well, it's 19035), but ummm, the only prerequisite for residence these days is if you can afford to live there...not your skin color, right? That's right, right?
So news reports talk about when Iverson lived on Monk Road (then he moved to Villanova somewhere?) in Gladwyne. Well you know what? A.I.'s gawkers/turistas were an annoying fact of life an a bother...and when A.I. would heat up in the news for his screwed up entourage/family/personal behavior he did turn Gladwyne into a zoo, and the taxpayers surely funded the LMPD babysitting that was needed, right?
The funny thing is that while people seem to go right to the race card on this issue, there are things really not so good with him (see 2nd Inquirer article). Is this about racism, or is it about lying to buy a gun, whispers of PFAs? Because now the entire zip code of 19035 is being branded as racist and is that right, either?
So peeps, what is this? It's not like the Main Line or even Gladwyne has never had celebrities in it's midst...it just seems that today the celebrities have to be rather ostentatious and loud about it like they are all Paris Hilton on the bus, eh?
Here are the articles:
Posted on Wed, Jul. 2, 2008
Anti-McKie flyer angers Gladwyne neighbors
By Kathy Boccella
Inquirer Staff Writer
In the small, exclusive community of Gladwyne, wealthier even than Beverly Hills or Scarsdale, neighbors recently were stunned to discover a flyer, ugly in tone, in their mailboxes.
Where it came from no one knows. Its target, however, was unmistakable: Aaron McKie, the former Temple and 76ers star arrested last week on charges that he tried to buy guns while under a protection-from-abuse order.
It read: "Attention please, read if you care about your neighborhood!!! How can we prevent Aaron McKie from moving into our safe and peaceful neighborhood. His house is almost complete on Youngsford Road. Let's prevent another Iverson from moving in!"
"It was a disgrace," said Joe Brown, who lives a few doors down from McKie's nearly finished stone mansion on Youngs Ford Road and got one of the two-page flyers Saturday. "I have no idea what they were thinking."
Gladwyne residents said they were angry that someone would try to run the player, who was arrested June 23, out of town......"The consensus of opinion is how pathetic that some coward feels that they have to send something around like that. We're all trying to find out who it is," said Wally Heppenstall, a Realtor and flower-store owner who has lived in Gladwyne for more than 50 years....
McKie, who was released by the Memphis Grizzlies in May and may rejoin the Sixers as a coach, brushed off the controversy.
"What's new? You know how that stuff goes. They want to try to convict you before you even go on trial," he said. "I have to look into it. I have a family. I'll see what happens."
McKie is accused of trying to buy two guns despite being under a protection-from-abuse order filed on behalf of former girlfriend Kianna Williams, who alleged he threw her to the ground and threatened to kill her in September....McKie "is a very nice, very mannerly, very polite guy," he said, adding that the gun problem "was just a mistake."
....Gladwyne is one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country, with an aristocratic country ambiance that many other suburban communities have lost. Its elegantly embellished houses sell, on average, for seven figures.
The community is the home of many local celebrities as well as the merely wealthy and those with venerable Main Line surnames, and many were miffed when helicopters and hordes of reporters interrupted their well-padded peace and quiet every time basketball bad boy Allen Iverson, who lived in a Monk Road manse, ran afoul of the law.
Michele Seidman, who was filling up at the station, said she had known McKie when she worked in public relations.... "He's the nicest guy," she said..... "It's not like he's a sex offender."....But one longtime resident, Bobbie Willoughby, who was secretary of the Gladwyne Civic Association for 22 years before moving to Bryn Mawr last year, said she wouldn't want to live next to McKie.
"It's a little scary. He totes a gun, and his behavior is a little excessive, like he's out of control. I wouldn't care if an African American moved in next to me, but if he's carrying a gun and he's abusive, I really don't want it," she said.
Aaron McKie's charged with lying on gun paperwork
By CHRISTINE OLLEY & DAVID GAMBACORTA
Philadelphia Daily News
215-854-5184
COMING OFF the bench as both a point guard and shooting guard, Aaron McKie was such a big gun for the 76ers in the 2000-01 season that he was named the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year.
Yesterday, the former Temple University court star, recently released by the Memphis Grizzlies, found himself in a different kind of court after he was arrested on charges that he had lied on application forms to purchase a gun in Pennsylvania.
At the time he filled out the forms, he was the subject of a protection-from-abuse order filed by the mother of one of his children, which prohibited him from possessing, transferring, or acquiring any weapons during the time it was in effect.
McKie, 35, accompanied by his attorney, Brian McMonagle, turned himself in to Pennsylvania State Police yesterday morning and was arraigned during the afternoon before Montgomery County District Judge Christopher Cerski in Oreland, Pa.
He was charged with a felony count of violating the Uniform Firearms Act by making a false written statement in the purchase of a firearm, and with a misdemeanor count of making a false statement to authorities.
The felony charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
McKie was released on $50,000 unsecured bail and returned to his Narberth home, McMonagle said.
Following the court hearing, McMonagle told reporters that McKie's alleged wrongdoing had resulted from an "honest mistake."
Now for how others perceive the Main Line:
Philebrity: The Evil That Men Do
IT STAYS WHITER OUT HERE LATER: Someone in Gladwyne is handing out Anti-Aaron McKie flyers in Gladwyne trying to stop “Another Iverson” from moving in to the wealthy suburb. The former 6th Man of The Year was recently arrested for lying on a gun permit application while trying to buy 2 guns while being under a restraining order. The flyer reads:
“Attention please, read if you care about your neighborhood!!! How can we prevent Aaron McKie from moving into our safe and peaceful neighborhood. His house is almost complete on Youngsford Road. Let’s prevent another Iverson from moving in!”
But let us not mince words: McKie has to go a long way before he can be considered “another Iverson.” This is just an insult to Iverson. He worked hard on his thug image and to have it attached to someone as bland as Aaron McKie is just a slap in the face. Whoever is handing out these flyers must have entirely too much time on their hands. Obviously, it has nothing to do with the fact that McKie is being charged with falsifying a gun application and everything to do with a Gladwyne resident who can’t bear the idea of another successful black man moving in to their elitist suburban sanctuary.
NBA Legal Kerfluffles:Ritzy Town's Attempt To Keep Aaron McKie From Endangering Them Falls Short
Former NBA player Aaron McKie was nabbed for minor gun charges a couple of weeks ago, which prompted some of his soon-to-be Gladwyne, Pa. neighbors to start their own pamphleteering club in an attempt to warn others about his impending arrival.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, anonymous flyers were found in the mailboxes of many residents in the upper class neighborhood where Mckie is having a mansion built. The person behind it hasn't been caught, but their message was clear...
July 02, 2008
Excessive Exclamation Points? Sounds Like a Racist Note.
The hatin' is deplorable, but Aaron McKie hardly resembles the ideal neighbor
Residents in Gladwyne are shocked -- shocked! -- that one of their neighbors in the lily-white Main Line enclave might not be overly pleased about the impending move to the 'hood by former 76er Aaron McKie. As the Inquirer's Kathy Bocella reports today, in the wake of McKie's arrest last week on gun charges, this flyer recently showed up in people's mailboxes:
Attention please, read if you care about your neighborhood!!! How can we prevent Aaron McKie from moving into our safe and peaceful neighborhood. His house is almost complete on Youngsford Road. Let's prevent another Iverson from moving in!
There is, of course, the unmistakable whiff of racism in the overheated copy, which means there is, of course, near-unanimous decrying of the flyer among those whom Bocella interviewed. However, the not insignificant matter of McKie's anger-management issues must be accounted for
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Aaron McKie Prepares for Armageddon, Tries to Buy Guns While Under a "Protection from Abuse" Order
We all remember McKie from his days with the Sixers when he was the only player other than Iverson who could play. He is also well-known recently for being part of the Pau Gasol trade- he had to come out of retirement to suit up for the Grizzles for the trade to go through. What a league! However, McKie had some very good years with the Sixers before pulling a Robert Parish and staying in the league way too long collecting paychecks. Unfortunately, his outside-of-the-NBA career appears to be a little too Robert Parish-ey for comfort. McKie got busted for allegedly smacking his ex-woman around, then tried to buy himself some firearms. No dice, says the law, which apparently frowns upon people with violent criminal histories buying small concealable killing machines. Now McKie has a felony to deal with. Of course, here comes the lawyer with the "innocent mistake" case...
Gladwyne Resident Trying to Keep McKie Out
After former Sixer and Temple hoops star Aaron McKie was arrested on for falsifying information while trying to purchase a handgun, a resident (or a small group of residents) in Gladwyne is trying to keep McKie from moving into the upscale suburb. McKie is having a mansion built on Youngs Ford Road, where according to the Inquirer's Kathy Boccella, neighbors received a flyer with the following horseshit printed on it....Another example of life imitating South Park. True you don't want to see your new neighbor on the news in handcuffs, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that the characteristic AI and McKie share that is bothering the pamphleteer isn't that they're both professional athletes or possessors of criminal records. However, if they're concerned with McKie's legal issues, they might want to look into the federal statutes regarding tampering with the mail and mailboxes.
And just out of curiosity... as you so poorly punctuated-ly asked, how were you going to "prevent Aaron McKie from moving in"? By anonymously standing in front of his house when the moving vans arrived?
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Food for thought : Should PA people have to have a permit to BUY a gun?
This all provokes an interesting discussion on the right to bear arms, doesn't it? Should there be a better set of checks and balances?
However, what is most upsetting to people it seems is what many are terming the appearence of racism in a community that is in truth a melting pot...you just have to be able to afford to live in the pot, so to speak. This story is interesting, and updates will be posted as they are discovered.
Thanks
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permalinkThe U.S. Supreme Court has held that the government may not require a license or permit to exercise a right. For example, the government may not require people to have a license or permit to practice free speech, or to attend a church. Likewise the government may not require record keeping of those who practice a right or those who participate. Like the post-civil war era poll tax levied on blacks to prevent them from voting, the government may not require the people to pay any fees or taxes to exercise a right. This does not mean that any right is free from regulation or fees however. But the basic right must be unfettered. Claiming the government can't make you pay for a FCC license for a radio or TV station won't work, simply because the Court will remind you that you can retreat to a soap box or print up leaflets (or a blog!) and still exercise your right to free speech.
The first step in destroying a right is to control that right and make its use subject to government regulation and/or taxation. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan claimed that the government could tax guns and/or ammunition out of existence. No doubt that the Supreme Court, having recently ruled that the right to keep and bear arms is an unalienable right, would rule that plan an infringement on the exercise of that right, just as the poll tax infringed on the voting rights of the post civil war blacks. Imagine the outraged cry from the media if Moynihan proposed that people had to pay a $1500 tax each time they hired a lawyer - in essence, making you pay the government a royalty-fee for exercising your right to a lawyer for a criminal trial.
A license or permit is permission from an authority to do something otherwise restricted by law without said license or permit. A right is something you have, like breathing, that the government does not give you. According to historical reviews, religious texts and our founding fathers, the right to resist a tyrannical government exists in all free people, as well the right to arms for the purposes of survival, defense of self and of the state. Don't be fooled by the way gun-control people twist the meaning of things however. The Constitution does not grant a right to keep and bear arms because that right pre-dates the Constitution and all other laws. The Second Amendment limits the power of the government to restrict or infringe on the right of its people to keep and bear arms.
Once the government can require a license or permit for you to practice a "right", then that right can also be denied to you by regulations, created by non-elected bureaucrats, to restrict your rights until it is impossible to obtain a license or permit. Another way is to make the licensing procedure and paperwork so onerous that no one would want to obtain a license.
Imagine for a moment the hue and cry from the media if the government proposed that all journalists be licensed! Or that a journalist could only write one article per month. Or that a journalist who was an ex-felon had to find another line of work? Why not? We prohibit felons from holding office, don't we? Could the government require that anyone publishing any material reaching over 20 people to get a business license as a "publisher"? That would subject them to other bureaucratic laws and regulations.
What if the government required all clergy members to register their parishioners when they attended church? What if the government required you to get a permit to publish a web page? How about the government requiring publishers to turn over all subscription lists? Or having to register your purchase of a newspaper or magazine?
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permalinkShould people have to have a permit to own a gun? They tried that in 1998 in Canada - requiring all exisitng and new gun owners to get approved for a firearms license.
The initial cost estimate for 3.5 million Canadian gun owners was C$85 million over the five years it would take to license all gun owners.
One rule of government gleaned from several thousand years of human history is that actual implementation costs of a government program always exceed estimated costs. How did the experts in the Canadian Department of Justice fare?
The Fraser Institute's Gary Mauser estimates the final costs were C$1.8 billion by January 2003. That number doesn't include the estimated C$60 million additional dollars required each year just to keep the licensing scheme running.
All of this growth in Canadian gun bureaucrats to run the licensing scheme has come at the expense of other government agencies. During the same period the Canadian Firearms Center grew from nothing to nearly 2,000 employees, the total number of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers declined. The RCMP budget stayed roughly flat. RCMP salaries were frozen for seven years and training was reduced.
And how has gun registration and owner licensing helped Canada? Deputy Prime Minister Herb Gray admitted that the gun licensing system has never helped solve a single firearms crime.
Since Pennsylvania has about 5 million gun owners, one could expect this same scheme to cost Pennsylvania taxpayers U.S.$2.4 billion dollars since the exchange rates between the U.S. and Canadian dollar are roughly the same, while not doing anything to abate crime as criminals get their guns illegally, and while putting a huge financial strain on police forces.
But hey, if it makes you feel better, have at it.
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