Death Needs To Take Another Holiday

Philadelphia Homicides

On May 19, 2008 I wrote a post called "Death Takes a Holiday". I was being a little humorous about a phenomenon in Philadelphia of major proportions... From Thursday of that week until early Monday morning not one (read this again)... not one citizen was murdered in this city. Three people got shot on Saturday night but, all three people lived. The last time something like that happened was... well, never.

It's a sad state of affairs that in our city, we lose an average of two people a day to handgun violence. Anytime our mayor or any well-meaning politician tries to lobby for handgun control, all of the gun nuts and moose hunters from the central and northern part of the states grab their Bibles and apple pies and storm the capitol pooh-poohing it.

Our 319th citizen lost his life today. The fact that it was an African-American male, probably killed by another African-American male, is beside the point. We had five policemen lose their lives this year (four of the five cops who died were white!!!) and you would think that would move our lawmakers to regulate these guns but, that didn't even move them.

I've come to the conclusion that this is not a race thing... it's a Philly thing. The rest of the state views Philadelphia (it's largest city) as the outsider, the big intrusive outsider that is "draining " all of the resources from them. If you think that is so Pennsylvania, try existing without this city. I dare you! But, I digress.

Something has got to be done but, nobody wants to do anything. Nobody wants to regulate handguns, write stricter gun laws or even allow Philadelphia to make it's own gun laws that differ from the rest of the state. Nobody can improve the school system. I've heard that we are strapped for cash right now. And nobody, black or white, is going to get out in the streets and engage some of these guys who do the shooting so, in effect, I'm screaming angrily in the wind again. Tomorrow, another person(s) is going to die... you can make book on that.

I theorized that the only reason we had that calm weekend in May was because all of the criminals heard about a weekend buffet special in Atlantic City, NJ so, they all got on the buses and went to AC. It's almost Christmas and it's very doubtful that they will be going anywhere this weekend. (There is a sale at Sears on Ginsu knives...but damn O.J. you can't make that.)

Something else that saddens me is that all of the killing isn't being done by drug dealers or "criminals", so to speak. Everybody's got a gun so on Christmas Day, don't touch the big piece of Turkey, especially if you're a guest at somebody else's house. Pop might pull out his pistol and blow you away. Don't look at Shaniqua's man too hard... she might go in her purse, pull out some "heat", and drop you where you stand. If you're in the malls, don't jump in front of anyone or push anybody. Again, they might "bring the noise", shoot you, and you won't be celebrating Christmas anymore. And, this is definitely not the time to be breaking up with your significant other... we might be going to two funerals... Watch your back. Don't stay in the bathroom too long after you've enjoyed that great Christmas meal... somebody might really, really have to go bad and shoot through the door and blow you into the bathtub. (Hey, they had to go.)

You may laugh but, these are actual cases of homicides that occurred in this city over the holiday season last year. None of the shooters were what you would call "criminals" but, they all had some things in common. For one thing, they all had an illegal handgun purchased on the street and they all had bad tempers that got the best of them. Oh yeah, except for the murder-suicide couple, they're all behind bars with the "criminals."

Nobody in our halls of government cares about this senseless loss of life so, one thing is for sure. Tomorrow, somebody else is going to lose their life in Philadelphia unless there is a Pre-Christmas Buffet special in Atlantic City this weekend.