In a bit of a surprise move, Allegheny County DA and Attorney General candidate Stephen Zappala, is choosing to emphasize his work keeping police officers accountable in his first TV ad.
“He didn’t need a traffic stop in Texas, a shooting in South Carolina or an elevator in Atlantic City,” the narrator begins as the commercial transitions to video of prominent incidents involving Sandra Bland, Walter Scott and Ray Rice.
The thirty-second spot goes on to highlight Zappala’s work for victims of domestic violence and police brutality.
“The only DA in our state to convict an on-duty police officer of criminal homicide,” the narrator continues. “And Zappala pioneered videotaping traffic stops to improve trust.”
An embrace of the Black Lives Matter movement may not seem strange, particularly for a Democratic candidate, except that Attorney General campaigns typically involve candidates seeking as much approval as possible from law enforcement.
To see an AG hopeful launch his first commercial by citing Bland and Scott, however, suggests Zappala intends to make this issue a central focus in the last month of the primary campaign.
Zappala is running against Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro and Northampton DA John Morganelli in the April 26th Democratic primary.
Note: This ad is currently running on PoliticsPA.
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8 Responses
This is from the article I mentioned yesterday:
[A]ccording to a previously withheld internal police memo, only released under threat of sanctions, the opposite is true. “In its conclusion, (the report) says the incident could have been entirely avoided,” said Rabner.
Rabner said the 2012 memo from the police bureau’s critical incident review board criticized officer David Derbish’s actions and said he violated multiple procedures. The review board is comprised of command staff and looks at incidents like the Ford arrest to see what lessons can be applied to improve future outcomes.
The memo was part of discovery evidence only released by county prosecutors after Machen threatened to dismiss the case. The memo could turn the case in Ford’s favor, Rabner said.
Ford, 21, was shot multiple times by police during a November 2012 traffic stop after officers from Pittsburgh’s Zone 5 station misidentified him as a Lamont Ford, with whom they’d had previous contact.
Saying he was satisfied at a July 1 hearing that everything had [now] been turned over, Machen declined to sanction Assistant District Attorney Robert Shupansky for withholding evidence. Rabner said he was “disgusted” that he had to ask for sanctions to get a report that was written a year ago.
He said he would file another motion to have the charges dismissed in light of the new evidence.
As a result of the shooting Ford was left paralyzed. Police [and DA Zappala’s Office, who approved] then charged him with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest. He has since filed a federal lawsuit against Derbish, the city, former Chief Nate Harper, current Chief Regina McDonald and two other officers.
The jury in the criminal case returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
He’ll have to make arrests in that slaughter where the 6 blacks where gunned down at the “party” [some party!] by the black thugs who shot all the victims in the head at point blank range! Good luck with that, because, despite the surviving witnesses, the “no snitch” culture among blacks, means nobody saw nuffins and there won’t be any arrests, because they are too afraide to testify! He has NO chance of being elected. Just another lib from another liberal hellhole where they tax the crap out of you.
This is funny considering Jim J’s earlier comments. It is undisputed that Zappala arrested a paralyzed kid the police shot for no good reason.
And the article I found seems to indicate that Zappala did, in fact, try to “bury” a report that was critical of the police.
Is he an idiot? Couldn’t he pick a different issue? Blacks aren’t gonna buy this …
It’s saying something to say that this may be the most disingenuous political ad I’ve ever seen, but this may take the cake. Anyone who knows anything about his history should be appalled by this ad.
Ghastly! The only black lives that matter to the Bazzano-Zappala-Porter mafia are the “uncle Tom’s” that they buy for a pittance then dress up and parade as part of their all inclusive and politically correct La Cosa Nostra. Leon Ford’s life didn’t matter when the Pittsburgh cops shot him and Zappala hid information from Leon’s lawyers. Remember when little Zap got Mary Beth “loose” Buchanen to indict Cyril? It was because Cyril refused Zappala’s demand to stop doing coroner inquests when white cops killed black men. For doing his job and the right thing, it cost Cyril millions in legal fees. Now, because he is losing the election and black voters will decide the winner, suddenly, black lives matter to the Zappala mob. Try another publicity stunt like the last one you did at the Wilkensburg massacre scene.People aren’t buying into your grandstanding either, paisano. For you, the jig is up.
Zappala just spit in every African America faces. Killings in his town of African Americans everyday. Unless he can get PR out of the murders he never even learns their names. Zappala is evil
This is pretty brazen considering this racist clown was content to let off the group of rednecks that almost killed that poor African American man in Pittsburgh with nothing more than probation. Who the hell thought this was an angle for the Zapalla campaign to play? Jesus.
John Morganelli & Steve Zappala are running against Josh Shapiro.
Black lives Matter LOL LOL LOL LOL tell that to the 1 Black guy that 5 white guys that kicked the shit out of him. White guys got a jaywalking ticket for that beating. They were union buddies of the union that just endorsed Zappala.
You can run Steve but the Truth will catch you.