In Philadelphia, on Monday, six people were shot and one killed. The man who lost his life was apparently shot at point blank range by at least three guns just four blocks east of Pat’s King of Steaks.
A 23 year old man was shot in the face just a few blocks east of Fairmount Park. He’s in critical condition.
There was a victim who was shot in the arm not far from the Philadelphia Zoo, in the Mantua section of the city. I did registration drives in that neighborhood back in 2004, and even my workers were terrified.
A 21 year old was shot twice at an intersection six blocks west and two blocks north of where I used to live in Philadelphia with my ex-wife. He’s in stable condition.
A 29 year old man is in critical condition after being shot in the East Germantown section of the city.
A 24 year old man shot at the intersection of 60th Street and Cobbs Creek Parkway, which is almost in Upper Darby. He’s in stable condition.
All of this occurred on the first day of the Mothers in Charge Stop the Violence Conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Center City.
Here’s a video that was played at the conference. It’s not about guns. It’s about spending all our money prisons instead of on at-risk youth.
What do you think?
Because spending money building prisons, and then paying low wages to the CO’s who are too stupid and violent to make it in the military or police, is much cheaper than nutrition and education, and drug awareness and counciling, youth – throughout the country – in cities, suburbs, and even meth-strewn rural areas.
LBJ had the right idea with his “War on Poverty” – it’s too bad the Vietnam War became what we spent money on.
I used to teach Russian, and helped other Professors teach English, in a Maximum Security prison in Upstate NY.
The program was designed to make prisoners more employable after their eventual release. Studies had shown that the recidivism rate for the guys who’d gotten an Associates or Bachelor’s Degree, was dramatically lower than for those who didn’t.
And, the minute he took office, Reagan took away the funding for that – “Hey, hard-working parents can’t afford to send THEIR kids to college, so why are we educating prisoners?”
All of this, as the costs for college were just starting to skyrocket.
And I’m sure that some of the guys in there, during the 3 1/2 years I taught there, upon release, either killed, or robbed, or ran drugs, again.
But we are a stupid society.
We’d rather take people who could/might be educated and reformed with the right programs and enough money – but we’d rather throw them in ever-more privatized jails, for the gangs to sort out who gets whom. And for the stupid and violent CO’s to keep themselves in shape by beating the living sh*t out of prisoners who dare to step out of line, or question their authority.
Because spending money building prisons, and then paying low wages to the CO’s who are too stupid and violent to make it in the military or police, is much cheaper than nutrition and education, and drug awareness and counseling, youth – throughout the country – in cities, suburbs, and even meth-strewn rural areas.
Actually, prisons are a lot more expensive.
Yeah, you’re right about that – but try explaining that to a Conservative.
And I’m sure now that we’re privatizing prisons, the corporations running them are saving the tax payers some money by keeping it in their pockets, while they lower the quality of the food that they serve, and hiring still stupider, even less qualified, people as CO’s.
Or, just basically letting the gangs in the prison handle “correction,” security, and safety.
As if government-run prisons, didn’t release enough more radicalized, more criminalized, more bestial, prisoners.
Anyone else as engrossed in this kidnapped women in Cleveland story.
It’s bizzarely sad, amazing and happy all at once isn’t it.
It’s frustrating comparing the element of the frog in the slow boiling water that is gun violence to the collective screams at a terrorist event.
Is it the prime time event, the sound of the explosion caught for tv, the screams and then the heroes? Have we become a nation where something has to play well on tv before we feel compelled to demand justice?
I don’t understand.
when writing about crime that one not mention that murders committed by firearms are down 49% since 1993?
The absolute refusal of people to write about crime without bothering to mention the trend absolutely blows me away – pun intended.
You’re right. None of these people really got shot because 1993.
why would I ever want to note the trend when discussing a subject?
I don’t mind you mentioning a trend. You criticized me for not mentioning a trend. Why the hell would I want to focus on a downward trend in gun violence when I am discussing an appalling level of gun violence? If I thought doing nothing would solve the problem over time, then maybe I’d have a reason to talk about the trend. Otherwise, it’s irrelevant.
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Because it really destroys your credibility.
And crime has been used to raise racial fears forever. The fact crime is declining essentially destroys the conservative idea that the country is in some moral decline.
It is basic social science to ask why deaths are declining: what policies have worked and what have not.
For the record, I would ban guns tomorrow. B
This must be the study you’re referring to.
Did I notice that the study ends in 2010? Let’s factor in the current years since in our discussion.
There’s nothing about the trends Pew reveals that make me satisfied America’s on the right track.
As Fact Check notes it’s important to understand that no single number or stat summarizes the story of gun violence in the US.
it went down in 2011. As the Washington Post noted:
“We’re at as low a place as we’ve been in the past 100 years,” says Randolph Roth, professor of history at Ohio State University and author of this year’s “American Homicide,” a landmark study of the history of killing in the United States. “The rate oscillates between about 5 and 9 [per 100,000], sometimes a little higher or lower, and we’re right at the bottom end of that oscillation.
Last year’s rate was the lowest of any year since 1963, when the rate was 4.6, according to the Uniform Crime Reports compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Don’t relax quite yet: Americans still kill one another at a much higher rate than do citizens of other wealthy nations”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/mass-killings-up-homicide-rate-down/2012/12/19/3a87b05
8-4a11-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story.html
No one wants to discuss this. Not the right: because how the hell can they argue that the morals in our country are going to hell if we are becoming LESS violent. The people arguing for gun control don’t want to mention it either.
so great gun murders are down but gun deaths are up, so what’s your point?
I think I can do better than Philly.
Philly cab driver freedomed to death last night.