City Of Brotherly Love losing battle against rising murder rate
Byron Pitts
In North Philadelphia, life is often short …
“This is the block that we had a triple shooting,” points out Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson. “She was 18 years old.”
… and illegal guns are cheap.
“This is something to keep me going everyday,” says one gun-toting teen. “This is just a little something to keep them off me.”
The kids call it ‘strappin. Social scientists call it urban genocide — where children run the street and adults have run out of answers.
Since 2001, there have been 10,000 shooting victims in Philadelphia. Most of the gunmen are under the age of 25.North Philadelphia is where most of this city’s murders have occurred. Unemployment and the school dropout rate there are the highest; residents, community activists and even the police commissioner claim they are waging a war and they are losing badly.
“I believe this is a war,” says community activist Mel Wells. “Two weeks ago we had a grandma who was going to church, a brother walking out of a bar and we had a lady going to temple. All of them are dead today. … Yes, I call that a war.”
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