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Give $ to candidate Jim DiVergilis, and you get police "courtesy cards" in return
If you give $500 to Common Pleas judge candidate Jim DiVergilis' campaign in an upcoming fundraiser, you'll get 15 police "courtesy cards" - also known as "get-out-of-jail-free" cards to some.
Give $ to candidate Jim DiVergilis, and you get police "courtesy cards" in return
If you give $500 to Common Pleas judge candidate Jim DiVergilis' campaign in an upcoming fundraiser, you'll get 15 police "courtesy cards" — also known as "get-out-of-jail-free" cards to some. Legend has it that if you flash a courtesy card after getting pulled over by police, you can avoid getting a ticket, so long as you didn't just run over a puppy or do something really egregious.
The courtesy cards are signed by Fraternal Order of Polce (FOP) president John McNesby, according to a letter recently sent out by the FOP, of which City Paper obtained a copy. (The FOP has endorsed DiVergilis.) $500 gets you 15 cards, which are tradtionally given to friends and family of police; $100 gets you 10; and $50 gets you five.
You can read the FOP's letter here.
Last year, the Inquirer ran an article in which McNesby claimed that the cards are basically worthless:
"I think, years ago, if you showed one you might get a free pass from a ticket," [McNesby] said. "But it's an antiquated tradition. These days I think officers use a lot of discretion with people in general. If you get pulled over for something, you have your license, registration, a clean record, the officer might let you go with a warning. That's a courtesy they show to a lot of folks."
But some claim otherwise. Police departments in other cities, like Toledo, Ohio, meanwhile, have done away with the cards because of scandals that broke out about them.
It turns out that DiVergilis isn't the only candidate whose campaign is giving out police courtesy cards: NakedPhilly recently reported that if you give $1,000 to City Council candidate Bobby Henon, you get 15 cards signed by the FOP's McNesby.
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