Philadelphia’s Murder Rate Climbing Rapidly: 1 Killing a Day

This past weekend was a particularly bloody weekend in Philadelphia, where 11 people were killed. As of Monday afternoon, 127 people had been killed in the city this year—more than one killing per day—giving Philadelphia a higher murder rate than Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago, all cities with much higher populations.

Police in Philadelphia say that there are chronic problems causing the higher murder rates, and they’re at a loss as to how things can be reversed. Ineffective gun laws, poverty, drug abuse, and gang intimidation tactics prevent witnesses from stepping forward, while making it easier for killers to walk the streets unabated.

Mayor John Street has come under fire for not responding assertively to the growing violence in the City of Brotherly Love. Last year 406 people were killed in Philadelphia—a nine-year high. At one news conference, District Attorney Lynne Abraham spoke for many city residents by telling Street, "Do something!"

Most of the killings in the city involve young black men and guns, sometimes due to arguments, sometimes over trivial insults or offenses, and often due to drugs. The community is at the end of its rope trying to make sense of the violence. There have been numerous candlelight vigils, community meetings, and anti-violence rallies, but the murder rate continues to climb and is now 17% higher than it was last year at this time.

"It’s the community’s decision right now," said police Capt. Benjamin Naish. "They are the people that must stand up and get angry and say, ‘Enough is enough.’"

Last month officials announced a plan to place an additional 80 police officers in a particularly violent neighborhood in southwest Philadelphia. Yet despite the increased police presence, 28-year old Joveonne Stelly died on March 25 as she was trying to keep her children out of the crossfire. The following day, police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson told the media that high-ranking police officials would start working in uniform, highly visible, in high-crime areas, for four hours one night each week. But there were two murders that day.

Capt. Naish said that although tougher gun laws might help, other issues are just as important, such as lowering truancy rates, lowering poverty, and increasing employment. "The commissioner has said a thousand jobs could go further than a thousand police officers," Naish said.

Street has promised to have 1,000 community activists trained in conflict resolution, and he has created tougher juvenile curfew laws. Joe Grace, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said that the mayor’s push for stricter enforcement of the curfew has reduced shootings by teens in one particularly dangerous area. The city is spending $3 million to hire 400 parents and train them as truancy officers. But juvenile crime is a very small part of the problem.

Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams used the occasion of Stelly’s funeral to make a fervent plea to the city to start healing itself from within. "The question is, to the politicians of America: What do they do? What can they do? The answer, truthfully, is: I’m not sure." Then Williams asked the black men in the group of mourners to stand up, and he asked them to repeat a promise to protect the women and children of their neighborhoods. "I will be an example that these babies can look up to," the men repeated. "I will no longer be a predator in my own back yard."