By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

PHILADELPHIA – In pro-union cities like Philadelphia, labor leaders and their allies can apparently do no wrong.

That’s the only possible reason why a Municipal Court judge acquitted 16 union protesters Thursday who allegedly blocked three entrances to the city school headquarters in March prior to a meeting of the School Reform Commission.

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A total of 19 protesters were charged with disorderly conduct. Three defendants – including American Federation of Teachers President Rhonda Weingarten – did not challenge the charges and voluntarily entered a program which will eventually lead to the dismissal of their cases, according to Philly.com.

The protesters were upset about a school district plan to close 23 schools, which would likely cost any number of union teachers their jobs.

Judge T. Francis Shields ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that any of the 16 defendants in the courtroom were the people who blocked three sets of doors to the building, according to Philly.com.

But the same news report said that Lt. Joseph O’Brien of the Philadelphia Police Department was able to identify 11 of the 16 defendants. And Shields told the defendants, “I really do believe you went a little too far, locking arms and standing in front of a door like that.”

Yet Shields dismissed the charges against all 16.

Perhaps the judge offered a clue about his motivation when he told the defendants that he sympathized with their cause.

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“I’m a resident of Philadelphia, and I have children in school,” the judge told them. “I’m frightened about what is happening.”

Maybe this sort of coddling by the courts is the reason so many union activists have been knee-deep in criminal behavior for so long. They pretty much do what they want, because there is a good chance they will get a slap on the wrist, or no punishment at all.