Eddie Polec was a Cardinal Dougherty high school student from Northeast Philadelphia who died violently on Nov. 11, 1994, alone.
Alone, that is, in that he must have felt very alone.
The last people he most likely saw were the vicious, misguided teens who chased him down to vindicate an imaginary slight grown grotesquely skewed, venting their misplaced rage with baseball bats, and boots.
A nightmare death.
The 911 calls that night were plentiful from Fox Chase. There were dozens early on. Fifty-some youth were “yelling at each other” according to published accounts, and things had not yet escalated to their bitter end. If dispatchers had given higher priority to those first calls other than logging them as “disturbances,” Eddie Polec, some speculate, might be alive today.
But, instead, police weren’t dispatched until things were reeling out of control and the result was that Eddie died on the steps of St. Cecelia’s Church in Fox Chase, beaten to death with a baseball bat.
His last moments were frightening and confusing, uncertain and dark, no doubt.
Any loving parent shudders to imagine it.
This is a story that pained a family, neighborhood, city and nation in 1994. It prompted an overhaul of the Philadelphia 911 system – including removing civilian dispatchers and replacing them with trained officers.
Among its bitter reminders: prevention is one of law enforcement’s most effective tools.
Which is why it’s difficult to fathom anyone would seriously question the response by Lower Township police to Vermont and Congress Avenues in the Villas the night of April 9 at approximately 9 p.m.
“We got multiple 911 calls,” said Lower Township Police Chief Ed Donohue, “a few that said kids were brandishing or displaying knives or bats.”
This story ends, thankfully, without the nightmare.
When police arrived, they reported at least 30-plus juveniles on scene.
The shift commander, Sgt. Tom Beebee, asked for mutual aid from Middle Township and Cape May Police Departments. The Sheriff’s Department also responded.
“When you say ‘weapons,’ that includes guns, also,” Donohue said, stating what should be obvious to anyone. Police did not know until they arrived exactly how many kids were involved, whether there were indeed weapons, and if so, what they were.
The police response April 9 was completely appropriate.
As the majority of police arrived, Donohue continued, the kids split, scattering in different directions.
Police eventually discovered that many there were spectators.
It all started at the high school. It was known by kids that “there was going to be a big fight,” Donohue said.
For the next hour after the calls and response, police questioned juveniles, including stopping several vehicles.
“We didn’t find any weapons. That doesn’t mean there weren’t any,” he said.
Police were updated continually, as the first on scene assessed the situation.
“It was an appropriate level of response,” Donohue said. “We deescalated it just as fast (as we responded),” once police ascertained there were no weapons. “We told units to slow the response. We still had those units come in until we ascertained what the real story was. We’ve done the same for Middle Township; they’ve had some big fights in gravel pits and such.”
It is just these types of situations, meanwhile, says Donohue, which point to the need for additional police manpower. At least four more officers are needed on Lower’s force; he has lost officers to attrition. Where Middle has 52, Lower has 46, and Middle has fewer year ’round residents. Additionally, said Donohue, the summer population in Lower explodes to 100,000 on a busy weekend summer, not counting campgrounds and marinas.
Donohue’s been pushing for years to bring his force up to 50.
While there are similarities between the Polec tragedy in 1994 and what happened last week in Villas there is one stark difference: there was no tragic outcome here, and no serious injuries. Police response was quick and effective.
No funerals before their time.
As Donohue said, “It all comes down to public safety.”
Yet, there are still those few who insist on characterizing this incident as “boys being boys” — dismissing it and criticizing Lower police for “overreacting” by calling for mutual aid — a viewpoint I find impossible to understand and difficult to stomach.
I lived down the street and around the corner from St. Cecelia’s when Eddie Polec died that day on the church’s steps.
Call me crazy, but I don’t like funerals for 16-year-olds.