More local politics.

A nearby community, Narberth, Pennsylvania, is seeming more and more like Berkeley, California, and it is tearing the place apart. Today's Philadelphia Inquirer featured an article -- "Narberth tempest pits old residents vs. new" -- which focuses on a local man named Angus Love who was recently appointed to Narberth's Civil Service Commission (which oversees police hiring and discipline).

The article describes Mr. Love as:

just another Cub Scout dad until early last month, when someone discovered his name on a 1997 Internet petition in support of an event titled "The People's International Tribunal for Justice for Mumia abu-Jamal.

Most Cub Scout dads didn't work as Events Chair of the Philadelphia National Lawyers Guild to assist the illegal demonstrators who ran amok at the Republican Convention in 2000.

Illegal demonstrations, activists said, require a different kind of preparation. The practitioners engage in what is called direct action, such as linking arms to block entry to a building. Often, such demonstrators may tussle with police and land in jail, meaning they will need help from special legal, medical and logistical teams.

To that end, the direct action group has both a "legal team" and a "medical team." The National Lawyers Guild will field more than 100 pro-bono "legal observers" during the demonstrations, said Angus Love, the Philadelphia chapter's events chair.

Love said the legal observers would wear bright yellow hats and would carry checklists to ensure police do not use excessive force when confronting protesters.

UPDATE: Angus Love has RESIGNED:

NARBERTH - Call it "The Mumia Effect," a political force strong enough to pit neighbor against neighbor, even in this friendly Main Line borough.

And now call it victorious:

After a monthlong battle to hold on to his appointed position in borough government, lawyer Angus Love resigned the post on Sunday, saying the "Mumia Effect" was simply too destructive.

Love, 54, was accused of signing a 1997 Internet petition in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981.

Police, the GOP mayor, and the weekly Main Line Times went on the warpath. Love denies signing the petition, but after making a stand, he and the Democrats behind him decided to fold.

"Folks that we have known for 10, 20, 30 years have been going door to door spreading hateful literature and speaking out against us," Love wrote in his resignation letter.

But hey, who asked me? I'm just a lowly blogger.