Posted on 07/18/2006 9:20:43 PM PDT by LdSentinal
IS IT FINALLY TIME to declare a state of emergency in the city of Philadelphia - including calling in the National Guard?
The bloody evidence is mounting that yes, it finally might be time.
Yesterday, within 21 minutes - less time than it would take to watch your average sitcom - three people were shot dead in the streets of Philadelphia, including a cabbie who wanted nothing more than to fill his tank with gas.
This, after a weekend of carnage that included at least six homicides. We are well past matching last year's killing numbers at this point.
How did we reach this crisis? Because for too long this town's private and public leadership have been asleep.
Just last week, Mayor Street announced a new crackdown on curfew violations in South Philadelphia. Kids under 18 caught on the streets after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and 10:30 p.m. the rest of the week will be sent home or to a curfew center manned by volunteers.
Good idea. While Philadelphia teens are not as heavily involved in gun violence as kids in some other cities, getting them off the streets will likely save their lives from random shootings.
Thing is, this kind of initiative almost never lasts. Remember when the city passed the Parental Responsibility Act, which gave cops, prosecutors and judges the ability to fine parents $300 if their kids busted curfew or property? Judges tell us that tough sanction has almost never been imposed.
No one wants to make the hard decision. Or he takes too long making it.
Take cops, for example. There aren't enough on the street. After some dithering among the mayor, Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson and City Council,100 more are being hired, but will take time to train. Meanwhile, roughly 60 city officers continue to be assigned to patrol the state highways that run through Philadelphia, a job that anywhere else in the commonwealth would fall on state troopers.
After years of arm-twisting, Gov. Rendell has finally cleared the way so that Philadelphia cops can go back to patrolling the streets. But that took nearly a decade of advocacy through the usual channels.
Back in May, the Philadelphia legislative delegation pleaded with the governor to send at least 50 state police officers to help stem the gun violence.
They are still waiting for a response.
Maybe it's time to aim higher and get the National Guard, and by extension the federal government, involved.
If President Bush can request the Pennsylvania National Guard be sent to patrol the Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants out, how about using them to curtail illegal activity here?
If keeping cheap labor out of the U.S. is an emergency worthy of the Guard, why isn't it an emergency that life is now cheap in Philadelphia?
Is calling for the Guard too extreme? Maybe.
Too bad we can't ask the dead of Philadelphia what they think
Maybe governmetn should fess up to the poverty and crime they've created. Instead of trying to 'do more', they should undo what they've already done.
We already know, they voted for Kerry in droves..
Just another Culture of Corruption Dem run city....
Pa. would be a red state if not for Puke-adelphia.
I used to work in north Philly. When I'd close up shop at night there would be youngs gentlemen on their way "somewhere" carrying guns openly. Needless to say I got out. The only reason for me to visit Philly now is for a cheese steak.
Well, the article didn't say a word about whose doing all the killing. I guess I'm safe in assuming it was gangs of Jews and Chinese guys. Or maybe Russians. Or Irish. Or..well, it could be anybody! Right? Hello?
And the City Council is worried about tobacco smoking in private businesses.............go figger.
Gee, at the end of the editorial it seems President Bush was referred to several times. The editorial board seems to have forgotten the police department and Mayor of Philly and the Governor of Pennsylvania.
Oh, those wacky guns....leaping off the shelves all by themselves and committing all that violence.... /sarc
Okay, volunteers? Not all at once, please.
......Bill Cosby would know........
That is a heartbreaking story.
My comment was to0tally sarcastic and not meant in anyway to belittle what is becoming a problem in many places.
But neither more gun laws or smoking bans are goig to solve the problems .... the only people that pay heed to them were law abiding citizens to begin with. Criminals don't care.
Hated it about 95% of the time. I do miss my Sunday breakfast scrapple though.
Philly's a city "of the libtards, by the libtards, for the libtards," and deserves to perish from the earth.
I think the scenes of a devastated, post-apocalyptic Philly City Hall are part of the reason I love the movie 12 Monkeys so much.
Note to admin moderator: scrapple is not the in spell check dictionary. Given what it's made of, I'm not sure it should be either.
Probably those 2000 volenteer Hezbollahs getting the green light.
Pinging from the wild wild west
I do miss my Sunday breakfast scrapple though
Yack!
LOL
Welcome to FR, racist. Now, go back to DU, where you belong.
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