Philadelphia, Pa. (YC) — One would think armed robbers are lobbying Philadelphia politicians after a controversial bill passes a committee, sending it off to City Council to make their final decision on Thursday, December 14.
The Public Health and Human Services Committee has passed a bill which enables the city’s Licenses and Inspections department to regulate the bullet-resistant barricade that stands between customers and cash registers in many neighborhood corner stores.
It’s called the ‘Stop and Go’ bill and is being offered by City Councilwoman Cindy Bass.
The bill moving through city council reads: “No establishment shall erect or maintain a physical barrier.”
“We want to make sure that there isn’t this sort of indignity, in my opinion, to serving food through a Plexiglas only in certain neighborhoods,” Councilwoman Bass said.
Broad Deli owner Rich Kim resents the charge stores like his attract loiters and argues that calls to police are often met with a slow response.
Kim’s family has run the deli, which sells soda, snacks, meals and beer by the can, for 20 years. He says the glass went up after a shooting and claims it saved his mother-in-law from a knife attack. Now, he may be forced to take some of the barrier down.
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Bulletproof Barriers Save Lives
Here are just a handful of articles outlining how the bulletproof barrier saved the lives of several people when armed gunmen attempted to kill clerks, employees or store owners in the commission of a robbery.
• Bulletproof glass saves gas station worker’s life as armed robber shoots at him
• A store clerk spoke to ABC News following an armed robbery stating had the bullet-proof glass not been there her life most likely would have been over.
• “Thank God the glass saved me today,” said Sandeep Singh after a man shot at him, unannounced, but failing to hit him due to the glass.
• Shots fired: As the man leaves, he fires off at least one round at the counter, which is caught by the bulletproof glass partition.