For City Traffic Court: Anybody but This Guy

It would be a moving violation of sorts to walk into a polling place on Tuesday and cast a vote for Willie Singletary.

Singletary, 26, a pastor in Southwest Philadelphia, is a Democratic nominee for city Traffic Court. And while Singletary is intimately familiar with Traffic Court, it's from the wrong side of the bench.

A motorcycle enthusiast, Singletary has managed to get his license suspended through 2011. At one point he owed the court more than $11,000 for 55 violations, including reckless driving, driving without a license, and driving without insurance.

His father paid off the fines.

Equally disturbing was Singletary's pitch in April as he passed the hat to raise campaign money in a city park. He implored the audience to kick in $20 apiece.

"You're all going to need me in Traffic Court, am I right about that?" he asked the crowd.

That sounded like a promise to be a sympathetic judge. Singletary's lawyer said that he had done nothing wrong, and that he was just promising people they would receive a fair trial.

From the guy who can't drive, legally, for another four years.

Voters will elect three Traffic Court judges to the seven-member court. Judges don't need to be lawyers, but they must complete a certifying course and pass a test.

The history of the city's Traffic Court is not a proud one. President Judge Louis Vignola was convicted of taking bribes in 1978. After another corruption scandal in the mid-1980s, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert N.C. Nix Jr. had to come in and clean up the system.

Singletary has shown flagrant disregard for traffic laws. He has no business being the arbiter of these rules of the road, which other people obey every day. On Tuesday, vote for anyone other than Singletary for Traffic Court.