Sides spar over crime statistics (Hazleton Standard-Speaker)

By KENT JACKSON
Staff Writer

A tally of violent crimes presented Thursday in federal court corresponded with what Mayor Louis Barletta said he saw in Hazleton before proposing the Illegal Immigration Relief Act.

Taking the stand for the second consecutive day in the trial about the act’s constitutionality, Barletta described crimes that jarred his community the past six years:

o A murder on a Friday night in October 2001 as students went for pizza after a high school football game.

o A young woman staggering onto the street with a knife in her stomach after her boyfriend stabbed her and jumped out a window onto a police officer in 2003.

o A 14-year-old boy arrested for drugs after a shooting last year at a playground.

All three incidents involved illegal immigrants.

“I knew we had a problem. I didn’t need statistics,” Barletta said.

But the city’s lead attorney, Harry “Hank” Mahoney, presented tallies for murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault as evidence.

Fifty-two of those crimes occurred during 2003. The total exceeded 80 each of the next three years.

The crimes occurred as the city’s population increased and the ranks of police fluctuated from 24 to 32 officers.

Barletta said the force was, and remains, below the recommended level of two officers for every 1,000 residents because the budget didn’t allow him to hire more.

He didn’t pin the rise in violent crime to police because the fewest crimes occurred in 2003 when the force had the fewest members.

Plaintiff’s attorney Vic Walczak, however, questioned Barletta’s decision to say crime by illegal immigrants justified adoption of the act.

As Barletta looked a table of figures provided to the plaintiffs by the Hazleton police, Walczak said 8,571 crimes occurred in Hazleton from 2001 to 2006.

Twenty apparently involved illegal immigrants, Walczak said.

Of the 428 violent crimes during that span, how many were committed by illegal immigrants? He asked.

“I don’t know,” Barletta said.

“Two or three,” Walczak said.

Barletta said earlier in the decade the city didn’t keep tabs on crime by illegal immigrants. Later, officials noticed the difficulties that illegal immigrants were causing for police, schools, the hospital and city services.

In 2005, Hazleton police arrested five illegal immigrants, but they charged 19 last year, Barletta said.

He attributed the numbers to Police Chief Robert Ferdinand, who is scheduled to testify later and might be asked to explain the discrepancy between the numbers used by Barletta and Walczak.

Barletta said about one-third of drug arrests made the past two years involved illegal immigrants. Drug cases cost thousands of dollars and take months to complete, and the city can’t afford them, Barletta said.

Police overtime accounts for $70,000 of the $200,000 deficit that he expects auditors will find when they finish the report for last year.

“If we do not control illegal immigration, it won’t be long until this city is bankrupt,” Barletta said.

On Wednesday when Barletta took the stand for the first time, Walczak asked about the $523,000 deficit he inherited as mayor.

To make matters worse, Walczak said, the outgoing mayor proposed a budget with a $700,000 deficit.

“I might add, he’s running for mayor again,” Barletta said of Michael Marsicano, his likely challenger in the general election.

After Barletta trimmed the police force and made other cuts that he called unpopular in the ensuing years, the budget posted a surplus as high as $250,0000.

Investors launched major projects downtown, and Latinos opened businesses with the mayor’s support.

Barletta first encountered illegal immigrants as city inspectors learned of fire hazards and overcrowding in apartments converted to rooming houses. Bedrooms had separate locks and occupants shared a kitchen. On one call, they found nine mattresses and a refrigerator crawling with cockroaches.

“As it turned out, all nine men were illegal aliens,” Barletta said.

The city enacted an absentee landlord ordinance without legal opposition.

But a new version that requires tenants to show that they are citizens or legal residents of the country before obtaining an occupancy permit is contested in the trial along with the immigration act.

After proposing the immigration act, Barletta said his relations deteriorated with two leaders of the city’s Latino community.

When the shooting involving the 14-year-old boy occurred at the Pine Street Playground last summer, Barletta approached Dr. Agapito Lopez, who testified Monday in opposition to the act.

“I told him to stand with me because this isn’t what the Latino community is about,” Barletta said.

He realized Lopez would remain opposed but instructed the police to do everything possible to ensure the safety of Lopez and his supporters at a candlelight vigil at City Hall last July and a rally at Memorial Park last September.

Walczak thanked Barletta for protecting the right of the opponents to protest. Walczak is Pennsylvania legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is noted for its defense of free speech.

On Wednesday Walczak told Barletta it was unfortunate that gangs had come to Hazleton, but said it also is unfortunate that they have set up in other American towns and cities.

Walczak said there is no way to eliminate all crime.

“Especially if when you’re trying to do it, you’re sued,” Barletta said.