There's blood in the streets (There is no Peace)

 Hello readers and followers.  I have to forgo my normal greeting.  The episodes of violence in the streets of Philadelphia is leaving them stained in blood.  The blood of both adults and children.  This brings me great sadness.  Just as I mentioned in my May post The Killing Streets, the number of homicides are not properly recorded, which is a crime in itself.  Officials are reducing the actual number of deaths by homicide released in official records vs. what is reported daily.

There is a song called Peace Frog (Morrison, J, Krieger, R. 1969) recorded by legendary band The Doors.  The lyrics have come to me as I read the daily reports of violent homicides, mostly by firearm.  Despite the irony of the song title, the lyrics speak of no peace. 

You could change the name of the city mentioned to Philadelphia and it would easily describe what is happening in Philly now.

" There's blood in the streets, it's up to my ankles, Blood in the streets it's up to my knees. Blood in the streets, the town of Chicago.  Blood on the rise, it's following me."

 I also stated in The Killing Streets, "Philadelphia has become the City of NO Brotherly love" despite it's documented literal meaning.  When I wrote in mid-May the grisly statistics through just over 4 1/2 months of 2023, there had been 684 shootings in Philadelphia.  136 fatal, 548 non-fatal.   Most perpetrators are male (87%) and most between ages 18 - 30 (47%). 

Now, a full eight months into 2023; 963 shootings in Philadelphia.  260 of which were fatal, 703 non-fatal.   This means that the gun violence has actually slowed down, from 152 per month in the first 4.5 months to 120.3 per month after 8 months. This is bucking the normal trend when violent behaviors increase with the temperatures outside.  Fatal shootings are actually up from 30.22 per month to 32.5 per month at the end of August. The other stats are almost identical;  mostly by males (86%) and between the ages of 18-30 (47%).  

The Philadelphia police website notes that shootings are down 22% from last year.  However, more victims are our youth, and more shooters are also.  Just yesterday, a 12-year old was found dead with a gunshot wound to their head.  The poor child's body had been dumped in the trash.  This is horrible, inhumane and disgusting.

"There's blood in the streets, it's up to my ankles, Blood in the streets it's up to my knees. 

Blood in the streets, in Philadelphia.  Blood on the rise, it's following me."

I said it in May and I will say it again: "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."  

Further, I will say that our legislators have failed us.  Any 18-21 year old can mail order gun components and assemble a "ghost gun,"  that is a gun that has no serial number because it was built with spare parts.  The "gun" is untraceable.  The ghost guns are being bought because they cannot be traced!  Our legislators have left the subject alone.  Psychological studies have shown that the human brain is not fully developed to think through to consequences for actions until age 25-- 26 in a newer study.  Our leaders are supposed to think for us, act for us.  The Answerman says We have a leadership problem.  There is too much blood in the streets.

Be Good, Be Safe- love one another.

Anserman