Here we go again. Not satisfied with losing twice in the election cycle of 2021, former cop Tony Moreno is going to take another stab at running for the mayor of Pittsburgh.
At least this time he won’t be on Democratic ballots during the primary. He flipped his final flop and will be running as a Republican so he won’t be able to take advantage of a split vote between Ed Gainey and Corey O’Connor.
The scary part is that there are enough dumb, white bootlickers in Pittsburgh for him to pull off a win. The playbook has been written for how to scratch that primal white supremacist itch that runs deep in this town. It’ll be up to Moreno to see how far he goes with implementing it and getting the worst people this city has to offer to rally around him. Gathering together old white people into rooms does seem to be his only qualification to hold public office.
Back in 2021, I never saw too many of his yard signs while driving around different city neighborhoods. That is, until Ed Gainey won the primary and Moreno ran as a Republican in the general election. Those signs were all over the West End and uncomfortably close to my house in Beechview. I still find it odd that I saw those signs out in the suburbs where people couldn’t even vote for him. Sometimes the obvious answer is the best answer and I’m going to go ahead and say that Pittsburgh’s history of racism may have played some part in Moreno’s minor popularity.
This country is still dealing with the backlash of having its first Black president and I would not be surprised if the same thing happens on a local level after Pittsburgh elected its first Black mayor. The critical thinking skills of the city’s general populace leaves a lot to be desired and leaves open a giant window of opportunity if someone wanted to exploit that, which Moreno seems to.
He’s a run of the mill racist cop right out of a bad episode of a TV show that would have had multiple spin-offs on CBS. I would really love to know what the history of brutality looks like in his file. He epitomises every single reason why the phrase “Fuck the police” exists. Moreno speaks in code and dog whistles to cover his racism. He decries socialism and “progressivism” as if they were interchangeable and as if he could define either one.
We’ve already got heavy recruitment efforts by white power groups in the South Hills. There’s graffiti and stickers popping up all over town and groups of dipshits waving flags and threatening passersby on bridges damn near every weekend. These pinheads learned to vote and Moreno will tell them whatever they want to hear to curry their favor.
From what I can tell, the major local media outlets haven’t bothered reporting on the uptick in hate group activities because I guess it might harsh the tourism appeal and the bullshit image of Pittsburgh’s most livable city status. And with their false attempts at “fairness” they won’t bother treating Moreno like the piece of shit that he is.
Moreno has already stated that he wants to overinflate the police budget to hire more cops to sit around and do nothing. The city’s finances are already strained so this will be done to the detriment of the few public services that we have left. What’s a city full of cops going to do? Shoot the potholes after they beat them up?
I’m sure he’ll go after our houseless population with fervor and start arresting people in order to make their bad situations even worse. There won’t be any money leftover to provide services for the people that need it because all of the money will be spent on throwing away their last few possessions and making them disappear from sight for a nationally televised sporting event.
Without a doubt he’d welcome ICE into our city with open arms and they’d be free to hassle anyone that doesn’t look like they’re from ‘round here. ICE already has its foot in the door in my neighborhood and Moreno would only make it worse as mayor.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Gainey apologist whatsoever. He has been as disappointing as any other elected official this city has seen. He went soft on the cops and failed to tighten up on their leash even after a city referendum to do away with bullshit traffic stops was completely ignored. And he kept up on sweeps of homeless encampments instead of providing easy to access services that would actually help people in need.
Every time Gainey had to release a statement about something going on in the city he failed to take a stand. He would put out the most meaningless of statements in an attempt to placate both sides which would then fall flat and make everyone involved even angrier.
There has to be a way to counteract this faux populism that is put forth by power hungry charlatans with the intent of taking advantage of stupid people. Weak willed liberalism can’t stand up to it because it’s always afraid of offending people, especially the wealthy donor class. The most vulnerable among us always end up bearing the brunt of this nonsense and I see no end in sight.
Here’s to another year of voting in favor of fecklessness to stave off evil. No wonder we’re so fucked.
