What’s going on with murder in the City of Brotherly Love?
Four people killed Monday. A baby severely beaten Sunday, died Tuesday. Another five murder victims Tuesday and Wednesday. Two were high school students.
Where's the outrage?
Tuesday afternoon, Joyce White, a grandmother of three from New York took a bullet to the chest while she was trying to visit her son and grandchildren in South Philadelphia. Her family is hurting -- a son here, a sister in North Carolina, an aunt in Georgia.
The women spoke so eloquently about their loss of a woman who just loved life. How could this happen, they wanted to know.
The answer is disturbingly simple. That's what happens here in Philadelphia.
And, when the murders start coming at such as rapid pace as they have this week, innocent people die. Babies and grandmothers, like Ms. White. It's a sad story that repeats itself over and over.
As of sunrise, 306 murder victims have passed through the morgue this year compared to 288 during this time last year, up 6 percent. If October keeps going like this, it will look like the extremely deadly July that just passed with 49 murders and put the city on pace to be one of the worst years in the past decade.
Comments (1)
I don't know why there isn't outrage and anger. Although, after the results of last week's march on Harrisburg, maybe even that isn't enough.
When Lynn Swann and Ed Rendell were asked whether stronger gun control laws of the sort proposed would have saved those poor children in Lancaster County, they honestly had to answer "No." But why didn't either of them point out that they might have saved many other victims of violence, including children and other innocent bystanders here in Philadelphia?
Demographically, I'm not in a high risk group - unless I happen to be on the wrong street when the bullets go flying, as Joyce White was. The street she died on - at 5:30 in the afternoon, yet! - is on my route from University City, where I live, to the airport and 95 South.
I really believe that, to the legislatures in Harrisburg, those of us who live in the cities, and, particularly, those who are people of color, do not matter at all.
But they are being so stupid: if they really want to offer tax relief to their precious constituents, then having Philadelphia become the great city it can be (and pay a lot of taxes on its products, sales, employees, and development) is one sure way to redistribute the tax load. But how can Philadelphia do this while the bullets are flying and it's citizens terrified?
Posted by rms | October 6, 2006 12:48 PM
Posted on October 6, 2006 12:48