LETTER: Some Facts

In response to the article "Sam's Place and White Gentrification" (DP 2/10/92), I would like to present some facts that Sarah Goldfine and Theresa Weir neglected to mention. First and foremost, this is not a racial incident. The clerk on duty the night of the robbery and shooting, Kevin Dales, is black. Fifty percent of the clientele at this "Yuppie mecca" are black and forty percent of the hours are worked by blacks. However unfortunate this incident was, it had little to do with color. Weir and Goldfine's statement that "police have readily taken [Dales'] word although there are no witnesses or concrete evidence" is simply untrue. Andre McNatte's accomplice, Antoice Thorne, adjudicated deliquent -- pleaded guilty -- of armed robbery on February 10 in family court. His testimony, as well as evidence gathered by the detectives, corroborates with Dales' account completely. As far as ideology "that holding on to our loot is more important than people's lives," let's not forget why the two teenagers came into Sam's Place January 20 -- to steal! Finally, regarding "the gentrification" of University City, the community is not being chased out. Rather, it has the opportunity to benefit from its proximity to the city's largest employer, Penn, not to mention the surrounding restaurants and businesses. If what Weir and Goldfine object to is the number of white students who lived in West Philly, maybe they are the ones who are "at best, rudely racist." I'd also like to point out that the Uhuru movement, an organization to which both Weir and Goldfine belong, flooded the area with flyers to raise awareness about their cause. If their cause is to stop racism, they have tried only to incite it. Fortunately, their inflammatory and inaccurate "reporting" doesn't fool anyone. The boycott was unsuccessful. Sam's Place will reopen before the end of the month. JUDITH ROSENBAUM