There's not a lot of polish to Darby Police Chief Bob Smythe.
Rough around the edges would be a good way to describe him, in a good way.
Smythe usually doesn't mince words.
I know, I've been on the end of some of those conversations.
It takes a tough guy to keep order - or at least try to - in a tough town. They've got the right guy for the job.
This week Smythe was incensed at another outbreak of street violence. This time it was gunfire that erupted after a brawl in a playground crowded with children. It came just days after a fatal shooting in the borough. Darby was jolted by four shootings in five days.
Smythe had seen enough.
"Morons," the top cop said of those responsible. "There's no other word for them - they're morons - that come in here and are shooting their guns and are shooting in the street, over what? We still don't know."
Smythe vowed a crackdown to restore order.
Yesterday he showed some results, arresting a 17-year-old in last Friday's fatal shooting.
Again Smythe made his feelings pretty clear.
"This guy at 17 is a cold-blooded murdered," the chief said of Rashon Sargent. "He shot and killed a 60-year-odl handicapped man."
Want to make trouble in Darby? You've been warned.
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