Delco Fire Chief Resigns After Trump Shooting Comments

Former President Donald Trump after Saturday’s shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania (Getty Images)

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Delco Fire Chief Resigns After Trump Shooting Comments

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. That’s an adage that was not evident on many social media feeds on Saturday night and into Sunday morning in the wake of the shooting of Donald Trump in Western Pennsylvania. Of course, people being how they are on social media and social media being social media, things don’t always work out the way that the person posting or making comments had intended.

In at least two cases in the Philadelphia area — I’m sure there are more, but it’s early in the aftermath of the Trump shooting — two officials are facing consequences they probably didn’t expect when they took to social media after the shooting.

Over in Prospect Park, in Delaware County, James Simmonds has resigned as fire chief.

“The Prospect Park Fire Company Board of Trustees met the evening of July 14th stemming from an incident where ill-mannered remarks were made on social media by former Chief James Simmonds regarding the tragic events in Western Pennsylvania,” reads a statement from the fire department. “The remarks made were personal in nature and were not an official statement, nor represents the views this Fire Company… ‘The Prospect Park Fire Company does not condone this type of behavior by our members or our leadership,’ said the fire company’s board chair. ‘We are deeply saddened by Chief Simmonds comments and agreed that it would be best if he stepped down in his role as Chief.”

I reached out to Joe Magee, the public information officer for the department, to learn more. According to Magee, Simmonds posted the words to a popular meme that was going around after the Trump shooting that suggested the shooter should have been more accurate. Magee says that someone saw the Simmonds post, took a screen shot, and then began circulating it in Delco. (I was unable to reach Simmonds for comment.)

“The chief said something stupid that he shouldn’t have said,” Magee admits. “He had a bad moment in judgment. But do we need to crucify him for it?”

Meanwhile, over on the Main Line, a similar situation played out in the Wayne Business Association, a non-profit organization made up of Wayne business owners. On Sunday, the organization announced that it had accepted the resignation of its executive board’s secretary over social media posts. A Wayne Business Association insider, who asked to remain anonymous, told me that the posts in question were about the Trump shooting but declined to elaborate.

In thinking about all of the above, two other social media posts I’ve seen in the last 24 hours come to mind. “Don’t be happy when bad things happen,” read one. “It’s not good for you.” And the other? “I have never once regretted NOT posting immediately after anything.”

It’s Take Yourself to Work Day In Philadelphia

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker is pretty good at getting her way. She came into the job with a get-shit-done approach. And she’s getting shit done. But when she decreed that all city workers had to give up their work-from-home status they’d enjoyed since COVID and get back to the office on July 15th (a.k.a. today), I wasn’t so sure that she’d get her way on this one. Well, the union that asked a Philadelphia judge for an emergency injunction to prevent Parker from getting what she wanted didn’t win that battle. And here it is, Monday, July 15th, and guess where city workers are headed? Yep. Back to the office. We’re sure some will not. And we’re sure more legal battles will ensue. But for now, Parker appears to have eked out another victory.

By the Numbers

1976: Year a Pennsylvania law was written that requires local governments to publish those paid “public notices” in local newspapers of record. Legislators in Harrisburg want to modernize that law to allow for digital notices. And those digital notices wouldn’t need to be published on a newspaper’s website. They could appear on a government agency’s own website. Naturally, the cash-strapped folks in the newspaper business are lobbying hard against the new proposal.

3rd: Placement of the Phillies on the list of MLB teams ranked by 2024 attendance. The Phillies have played 53 home games accounting for 2,178,956 total attendees, which averages out to 41,112 per game. The Dodgers came in first with 47,769 fans per game, followed by the Yankees at 41,433. The team at the bottom of the list? The Oakland Athletics, with an embarrassing 7,899 fans per game. Ironically, it was the Oakland Athletics who just positively trounced us on Sunday. 18 to 3. At home.

$2,000: What you could pay for a “wedding content creator” in Philadelphia. As you might have guessed, this is a person who takes hundreds if not thousands of photos and videos on your big day and then posts a bunch on TikTok in time for your hungover guests to wake up to them the next morning.

Local Talent

If you’re tired of the same-old, same-old Olympics coverage, I have some good news for you. Newtown born-and-raised podcast mogul Alexandra Cooper (she’s behind the wildly popular Call Her Daddy podcast) is taking to Peacock with her own form of live coverage, which looks like it’s going to be a whole lot of fun:

Reader Mail

Last week, I raised an eyebrow at the $100 million proposal to transform South Broad Street — I’m sorry, the “Avenue of the Arts.” I asked for reader feedback and, boy, did I get some. The most reasonable and least aggressive response came from South Jersey’s Dan Cirucci. Here’s what he writes:

Victor,

Philadelphians are creatures of habit and very set in their ways. So, to them, Broad Street will always be Broad Street notwithstanding the “Avenue of the Arts.”

Nonetheless, the problem with the aptly-named (and somewhat intimidating) Broad Street has always been how to make such a wide street more intimate and more welcoming to pedestrians. Right now, just crossing Broad Street can be daunting.

So, one of the challenges, obviously, is to calm traffic so that the street does not seem like a highway or, as we’ve seen lately, a drag strip for all-terrain vehicles.

With all due respect, the makeover seems like a good first step. They’re going to implement it one block at a time so the change, at first, won’t be too drastic or too overwhelming. Phasing it in is not only easier for Philadelphians but it will also give the originators of the concept a chance to see what works and improve things as they go along.

Bottom line: Sounds reasonable, Victor. Give it a chance.

And so I shall. Skeptically.

What Are You Doing This Week?

Need to unplug and decompress and turn off the TV news? Might I suggest Funny Girl at the Academy of Music? Free outdoor movies? The Big Ass Bitties comedy show at Tattooed Moms? You’ll find those and 147 other ideas for things to do this week in our comprehensive guide.

Where Are You Drinking This Week?

My advice: A great dive bar.