Jill Porter: No victory in these blue ribbons

AS THE SOLEMN funeral for Sgt. Timothy Simpson unfolds today in the majestic Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul, a simpler ritual for him is taking place in a neighborhood five miles away.

Here, Port Richmond residents are making pilgrimages to Jeans Crafts, on Allegheny Avenue, to buy blue ribbon corsages in honor of the fallen police officer.

It's a new and tragic addition to a neighborhood tradition.

Homeowners in this close-knit enclave decorate their rowhouses for any and every occasion, from births to graduations to weddings, from Halloween to Christmas to July 4. The meticulous streets were awash in yellow ribbons during Desert Storm.

It's a matter of pride.

There are wreaths and ribbons, garlands of leaves and lights, figurines and floral arrangements. They decorate porches, lamp posts, fences, railings, windows and doors.

But the newest decorations - the blue bows - are a matter of respect.

It started in May 2006, when Officer Gary Skerski was gunned down in the Northeast while trying to stop a robbery at a bar.

Skerski lived with his family in Port Richmond and his funeral was held there.

That was the first time that the family who owns Jeans Crafts made a memorial blue bow at the request of a customer.

Skerski was the first police officer murdered in the line of duty in 10 years.

No one could have imagined how many more bows there were to come.

Port Richmond is a well-kept place that defines the meaning of neighborhood - with family-owned businesses and working-class homeowners who still sweep their sidewalks.

It has borne the brunt of the police murders.

Skerski lived there. Officer Stephen Liczbinski was shot to death May 3 by a robber fleeing a holdup at a bank inside a local supermarket.

Officer Isabel Nazario, who was killed Sept. 5 in an accident in Mantua, was part of the 24th Police District, which covers Port Richmond.

And Sgt. Timothy Simpson was killed last week when a thug fleeing the police plowed into his squad car as Simpson was racing to a robbery. The accident happened literally across the street from Jean's Crafts, at the corner of Aramingo and Allegheny Avenues.

The impromptu memorial on the site is draped with a blue tarp, and among the candles, flowers and other mementoes are more than a dozen bows from Jeans.

"We try to do something different for each one," proprietor Jean Clayberger, 76, said of the memorial bows - using ribbons of different textures and hues of blue.

The family also puts up a donation jar and gives the money to the 24th District.

This time, though, they felt they had to do more.

"I said, 'Oh, my God, we have to make police bows again,' " said Bill Shiffler, 28, Jean's grandson and son of the shopowners, Helen and Bill Shiffler, who've run the business for 30 years. "You hate to have to do this. It's terrible."

This time, the family added $1.75 to the cost of the bows - they're $5 - and will donate the extra money to the police, too.

By Friday, they'd already sold 70 bows to people like Margie Conway, who came in while I was there.

"It's just to show respect for the policemen," said Conway, 67.

"They have a tough job. I've never seen anything like this and I've been around a long time."

One neighbor lamented that every time she gets ready to take the bows down, another police officer is killed.

The craft store is a reasurring place. Jean passes the time crocheting baby clothes that are for sale. Some customers call her "Mom."

The bows they sell are "a wonderful show of support which all the officers who protect us daily need to be shown," Charlene Rosenberg said in an e-mail to me.

Another customer who came into Jeans on Friday was a little girl, around 7, who was accompanied by her grandmother. The child asked Jean for a teddy bear and a blue bow to put on Sgt. Simpson's memorial, as her grandmother looked on tearily. Jean gave her both without charge.

Other neighbors will be coming into the store today - while Sgt. Simpson is buried across town - to buy the ribbons.

And everyone, including the shopowners, hopes the day will come when there will no longer be a need for them. *

E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns:

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