When I heard Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey say this...I had to just shake my head...This has got to be a record....A dubious one at that....but this past weekend in Philadelphia, 32 people got shot in a series of incidents.....I'm still shaking my head in disgust!
Five people were killed, and 27 others were wounded this past weekend , in a rash of senseless violence that Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey described as a “blatant disregard for human life.”
There were a total of 9 incidents of gunfire, including one incident where a gunman targeted random patrons inside a bar.He had been asked to leave because he was drunk and being a pain in the ass and nothing for him to do, but to return and open fire on the patrons.
“They were all patrons inside, laughing , joking , dancing just having a really good time and this is tragic that this individual just fires randomly into the bar,” Ramsey said. Tragic and stupid. Police Cheif Ramsey is now worried that this weekend’s violence will spark retaliation.
It may or it may not...The thing is..This is crazy, just plain insanity and we have got to stop just accepting this as the rites of Philadelphia summers, the rites of St. Louis summers, the rites of Camden, Chester,Baltimore, Atlanta, New Orleans summers...People are getting killed....and it's over non-sense...If I dare say strengthen the gun laws...The Ghost of Charlton Heston and the N.R.A. will come after me....But something has got to be done...
In London, Montreal,Toronto and Amsterdam, Private citizens aren't allowed to own handguns...Their Homicide rate is much lower than Philadelphia's....and London is a larger city with a much larger population than Philadelphia...They average like 60 murders a year....Hell, Philly had 62 murders by the end of January!
When I was a child, Former Mayor, Frank Rizzo boasted ,and it was backed by the FBI's national crime statistics that Philadelphia Pa. was the safest of the Nation's ten largest city's....No way we can state that now! We simply have got to do better!
2 comments:
Yes we must do a whole lot better for ourselves and our children, but folks in my age group would not hold up Frank Rizzo as an example of a time when Philly was safer. Yes it was safer because every one was afraid of the police! We ran when we saw the "red car" coming. The police would beat black people and poor looking white people in the street. What are the stats on police abuse from that era??
I'd also like to explore the thought that the violence of the "police state" begat the violence in today's youth. Maybe some of these wild kids were raised (or not raised)by parents who were beaten or abused by police and have no "love" for anyone especially cops. We're not even safe on our porches or inside our homes.
P.S. I saw Teefer last night on the many times repeated season finale of "The Wire." He was the cop arresting Boody.
I know the frustration, Keith. You know how it used to be down here. It may take a while to get the nonsense straightened out, but you're in good hands with Chief Ramsey :-)
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