The Killing Streets

 Hello readers, I will eschew my normal greeting of "good day."  The local Philadelphia area continues to be a sordid and unbelievable bloodbath of gun violence. While the violence is not driven by any one sole individual like Pol Pot did in 1970's in Cambodia it is astounding in it's relentless continuity.  In that era, the Khmer Rouge party killed over 16 million Cambodians, over two million of which were killed  by many means and left in multiple fields named the Killing Fields.  The party ruled for 45 months.  Over a similar period, all of calendar years 2020, 21, 22 and just 4 1/2  months of 2023 there has been 2,732 homicides in the city of Philadelphia, PA.  

Philadelphia, loosely translated is City of Brotherly Love.  Unfortunately, I and many others beg to differ.  You cannot watch a news report on any given day without reports of several shootings and various other homicides.  These are the Killing Streets.  The shame of this is that the numbers are not even accurate.  Sadly, I track the numbers.  The officially reported numbers never match what I see on the news and verified by a police officer at each scene.  Statistics are not updated from Friday to Monday, so any homicides the happened after Thursday is not reported until afternoon on Monday. 

 Last week, there was a total of 13 reported in the official statistics.  However, when verified each day by an officer on-site via TV news reports there were many more.  I lost count and I knew that by Thursday morning that the official stat was only 10 but on a single day (when none were recorded), there had been a minimum of three.  This has happened several times this year.  We are cheating at life, about lives and about deaths.  It is sad and angering.  Historically the months of June, July and August record the highest homicides of the year.

In a conversation with a retired Philly cop a few years ago he explained that it is related to the heat.  In communities where there are few trees, and even fewer air conditioners, houses trap heat.  As this happens, people come outside, usually as the sun sets, mix alcohol to agitation and guns then death is the result.  The statistics support the theory.  The gun-toting killers are getting younger.  Just this week a 14 and 15 year old were stopped by police for being out after the city curfew.  Both were also packing guns.  "Ghost Guns."

Ghost guns are built from a kit.  One that anyone can buy.  Due to the fact that they are not an assembled weapon they currently circumvent just about every firearms law.  No serial number needed, no background check, untraceable.  Anyone prohibited from owning a firearm can still buy a ghost gun kit because it is "not a gun."  It is really nothing more than a build-it-at-home gun kit that fires real bullets.  Kills real human beings, injures scores more.

Through just over 4 1/2 months this year there have been 684 shootings in Philadelphia.  136 fatal, 548 non-fatal.  All are life altering.  I look around the city and see those that survived and many so maimed that they wish they hadn't.  Most perpetrators are male (87%) and most between age 18 and 30 (47%).  This is awful.  I wrote not too long ago that we are the city of Not-so-Brotherly-Love...that was a generous statement.  The city has been dubbed Killadelphia both by locals and visitors. I don't like to go into the city, not even to any of my former neighborhoods.  It is too easy to accidentally catch a stray bullet.  The Killing Streets.  

The Answerman says "We need to think before we act.  As the perpetrators of gun violence get younger and younger they are not able to think through to consequences.  They don't know how to see how the results of their actions are their responsibility.  This starts with leadership- political leadership but more importantly, leadership at home.  Teach responsibility."

Be Good, Be Safe- love one another.

Anserman