Friday, November 2, 2007

philly homicide count - 336

Philadelphia violence is out of control. Obviously. I'm not going to propose a solution, but I will mention what won't work. Creating more gun control laws won't stop criminals from breaking those laws and buying guns illegally. They will always find guns when they need them, and that's how they stay in power. Hiring more cops might work (Mayor John Street, mad genius that he is, cut the force by 500 several months ago). Nutter's "Stop and Frisk" plan might work. But really, I don't see how this can be solved. I don't mean to sound pessimistic, because I'm not. I'm a realist.

I've made it kind of a hobby to keep track of the murder rate. The Philly Inquirer publishes a brief murder count on their website every so often. Appropriately, the article is entitled "A City's Deadly Toll." My calculations show that the current murder rate is 1.1 murders per day -today is the 309th day of the year and there have been 336 murders. It's actually getting better though - a few months ago, the rate was about 1.2 per day. Last year's grand total was 406, and my guess for this year is 423, but that seems a little high at this time.

NBC10
gets credit for the Philly map at the top of this post. It's known as the "Safer City Map" and is updated at regular intervals. If you mouse over a blue or pink person, the details of the crime will show up:

It's important to realize that more than half of the crime victims are also criminals, while most of the murderers are out violating their parole. This makes for a great system. (End of sarcasm.) However, I am truly sickened when a 4 year old child playing outside is shot, when the mother of five children is shot, when a stray bullet kills a man inside his own home as he's getting dressed for work. It makes me angry and sad, and I wish I could execute the murderer myself. Someone's gotta do it.



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