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.
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