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Romney T-shirt girl's dad flirts with armed survivalist neighborhood watch group
Richard Pawlucy, dad of girl allegedly mocked for Romney T-shirt, leads a guns and racial complaints-charged life on Facebook.
Romney T-shirt girl's dad flirts with armed survivalist neighborhood watch group
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Philadelphia Public School sophomore Samantha Pawlucy has received nationwide and even global attention after a teacher allegedly mocked her for wearing a Mitt Romney T-shirt to class. This, if proven true, clearly merits some outrage.
Samantha's father, Richard Pawlucy, has been eager to take the outrage a step further, turning the incident into an indictment of a liberal, and even un-American, school. " Sometimes they don't fly their flags," Pawlucy told the Philadelphia Daily News. "There's nothing in the school, nothing patriotic, at least, though there probably is now. I asked my daughter about the Pledge of Allegiance and she said, 'What's that?'"
Pawlucy has portrayed himself to the media as an apolitical dad pushed into the election-year fracas by his daughter's tormenters. According to The Inquirer's Karen Heller, "he has never voted before, which makes him an improbable participant in a political fight." Indeed, he says that he would have voted for Obama in 2008.
But a quick perusal of Pawlucy's Facebook page makes his involvement seem not so improbable. He is one of the most active members of a Facebook group for a "survivalist" organization called Port Richmond Preparedness that is stockpiling "small arms, munitions hordes, protective gear, reconnaisance [sic] equipment, combat rations, and field communications equipment."
One video on his personal page shows him teaching someone how to shoot an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon.
The group's page does emphasize that the "survialism [sic] and neighborhood patrol aspects of this group are completely separate," and that "NO ONE WILL BE PATROLLING WITH GUNS. I SAY AGAIN, NO ONE WILL BE PATROLLING WITH GUNS." But that's hard to square with their mission to "help to arm, train, outfit, and educate those willing to defend the neighborhood against whatever threat may arise."
Reached by phone, Pawlucy says the group was a "joke thing" that someone "started ... a few months ago and it just kind of died off." He says no meetings have occurred. But in an Aug. 25 post, he was clamoring for one to take place. "So what is happening here. Any meetings or events? I am just sick of the self serving PORT RICH TOWN WATCH and would like to see a new group emerge."
Port Richmond Preparedness founder Chris Bolduc tells City Paper that the organization's first meeting took place Wednesday night. Pawlucy, he says, was not invited. "He's made enemies in my group. He's made enemies in Port Richmond Town Watch," Bolduc tells me. "As tight-knit as this neighborhood is, Facebook has juiced up the grapevine a bit."
Indeed. Bolduc says the group's mission statement could be easily misinterpreted. "I gotta work on the language a little bit for the Facebook page there. I didn't really intend to go the survivalist route. What I wanted to convey was just to teach general preparedness. Keep first aid kits in the house. Bottled water. Stuff like that." They are not, he says, dangerous gun nuts. "Not like an armed militia. But a band of people, band of concerned parties, who are interested in keeping their neighborhood safe. Not AR-15s or anything. Just eyes and ears."
Neighborhood leader Patty-Pat Kozlowski, however, does not approve.
"It's caused a lot of problems in the neighborhood," says Kozlowski. "I think this group preys on people's fears. And everybody wants revenge when something happens to them. Very defensive, eye-for-an-eye ... 'Don't call the cops, let us take care of it.'"
On his own Facebook wall this past July 31, Pawlucy complained about "multiculturalism." He recounts being "out last Sunday patrolling on my own" when he "stumbled accross [sic] a improvised memorial service on Tulip and Cambria. The scum bags closed of the street with their cars, loud gangsta rap playing and filth surrounding them. I never thought the other side of richmond would turn into this shit hole. What gets me is that some people call it Multiculturalism and they live in this shit. I dont grt [sic] the liberal mindset. Their neighborhood is being destroyed and if someone questions the Multiculturalism they call you a racist. What nonsense."
Pawluci tells City Paper that he "was out on my own for our own patrol" that day, and doesn't remember his comment about multiculturalism. "I'll have to look at the post."
On Facebook, Balduc suggested "that [the] 'memorial service' should've been greeted with an RPG." Pawlucy responds, "Or a flame thrower." Pawluci does, however, tell Bolduc that "u can't beat people." In another post, Pawluci complains about a neighborhood Applebee's having "Gangsters and hoods coming in and out of the place."
One poster who identifies himself as a former Marine, Patrick McManis, warned the group to be careful of violent rhetoric. "I want to remind you on the rules regarding the use of deadly force. Be careful what you post on here as it may be misconstrued as 'instigating violence' in the event that you and your group do get involved in an incident."
A black resident also complaind that the group was "racist," to which Bolduc replied that "the problem in Port Richmond is mostly due to some white trash."
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