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Nutter expletive for shooters gets on TV

Mayor Michael Nutter speaks to the assembled press about the creation of the Office of Innovation and named Adel Ebeid to head the new office. He refused to comment on Arlene Ackerman. ( Michael Bryant / Staff photographer )
Mayor Michael Nutter speaks to the assembled press about the creation of the Office of Innovation and named Adel Ebeid to head the new office. He refused to comment on Arlene Ackerman. ( Michael Bryant / Staff photographer )Read more
    by By Peter Mucha, Inquirer Staff Writer
    Published 

Note: Contains possibly offensive language

After a Tuesday night shooting that killed three teens, an outraged Mayor Nutter had a few choice words to share outside City Hall.

Some viewers of Fox29 Wednesday night were surprised to hear one of those words on TV.

Here's the mayor's quote as captured on a YouTube video (www.philly.com/philly/video/137177578.html):

"The first way for young people to stop this stuff is for young people to be home, where they're supposed to be home, and for adults not to act like idiots and assholes out in the streets of our city shooting at kids in a car."

The mayor has no regrets or apologies, said Nutter spokesman Mark McDonald.

"He said what he said. He was clear about it, and he meant it," McDonald said. "He said what everybody else was thinking."

It's not the first time the mayor has used the "a" word publically.

In August, furious about two shootings at rec centers in less than a week, the mayor said: "It literally violates almost a code in our communities. . . . While there should be no violence on the streets of Philadelphia . . . it takes a complete asshole to do these kinds of things at a city facility."

Last January, the taking into custody of a Kensington Strangler suspect prompted the mayor to remark, "We got the mother------."

It's usually when the mayor's red with rage that his language gets a little blue.

In 2008, Nutter spoke of being "pissed off" by the failure of DHS to protect innocent children, and said that if his daughter had been affected, he would "kick their ass" himself.

Some objected after those remarks aired on 6ABC.

"I'm personally pissed off about this kind of behavior," the mayor said in July 2010 after three police officers were arrested on drug-peddling charges.

"On rare occasions, the mayor will assume a somewhat earthy tone," McDonald said. ". . . It is never an accident. He knows what he's saying and why."

The spokesman also recalled that October 2008, after the Phillies won the World Series, the mayor warned fans, "You can be joyous, you cannot be a jackass."

Requests for comment were also made to Fox29.

For more about the murders of the three teens in Juniata, go to http://bit.ly/zJDlrD.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.