Last night...

900 Orthodox Street, 8:30 pm.
Police responded to the Kmart at that location. When they arrived they found the victim, a black male, lying face down at the entrance of the store. He had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his torso. He was pronounced dead at 8:45 pm. The victim was 21-year-old Robert Overton from the 5000 block of Ditman Street.

4600 Griscomb Street, 1:18 am.
Police received a radio call about a person with a gun. Upon arrival, police officers found a white female lying on the street suffering from a gunshot wound to the back. She was transported to Temple University hospital where she was pronounced dead. She was 28 weeks pregnant. Doctors delivered her baby, who is listed in critical condition. The second victim sustained gunshot wounds to chest and arms. He was transported to Temple University hospital and is in critical condition.

The city's body count for 2008: 23

UPDATE: 2/1/08
The female victim has been identified as Emine Hajredinaj from 1500 Overton Street. Her baby is a girl. The male victim is believed to be her husband. Sources say the woman is from Albania and her brother is headed to Philadelphia from New York to identify her body

(Photo credit: Jeff Fusco)

Finally ... A Crime Plan

At a press conference today, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey lamented on his one flaw: he hates bullshit. So in releasing his crime plan today, he admits that, “it’s nothing fancy.” And he’s right. Because most of this long-awaited crime-fighting strategy is basic common sense: redeployment, community policing, and other things we could have and should have done 500 murders ago.

Among Ramsey’s goals are to:

• Reduce homicides by 25%
• Reduce the number of shooting victims by 20%
• Increase the number of guns taken off the street by 5%
• Increase the homicide clearance rate to 65%
• Reduce the backlog of 6,000 pieces of ballistic evidence waiting testing
• Reduce the backlog of outstanding warrants.
  

And “the how" includes more of the obvious:

• Focusing on areas where crime occurs: specifically the city’s nine most violent police districts, which cover parts of Southwest Philly, North Philly, West Philly, Southwest Philly, Germantown, Port Richmond and Kensington.
• More cops: 200 more officers on the street by May 1.
• Surveillance cameras: expand the existing surveillance camera program from 26 to 250 cameras by Dec. 31
• And using that pesky stop and frisk to get illegal guns off the street.
  

Such basics worked for Ramsey in Chicago and D.C. And as he points out, his plan isn’t some cute little initiative. It’s basic policing.

Gee, imagine that.

(Photo credit: Jeff Fusco)

Three Police Shootings and Counting...

In the city’s war against violence, there have been three police shootings in less than two weeks.

The first shooting rang in 2008, when shortly after midnight a police officer fired 11 shots at a man who’d been standing on a porch in East Germantown, shooting his gun into the air to celebrate the New Year.

The officer’s bullets cut through the home’s front door. Inside, the 30 or so partygoers ran for cover.

One of them, 33-year-old Abede Wallace was shot five times. Wallace had been trying to save his girlfriend's son, Nyger Page, 9, by pushing him up the stairs. Page suffered a graze wound. Two other men were wounded by the gunfire. Wallace later died of his wounds

Then last night, around 9:30, police shot and killed Timothy Goode, 24, believed to be a relative of former mayor W. Wilson Goode.

Being chased by police in Germantown, Goode apparently turned his gun on plain clothes narcotics officers. News reports say a 9mm semi automatic handgun and a bag containing 45 crack vials were recovered from the scene.

That same night, police shot and killed 21-year-old Trevar Cephas. According to news reports, two officers were attempting to remove a large crowd from a North Philadelphia street corner. Cephas, talking to one of the officers, pulled a gun from his waistband. One officer ordered him to drop the weapon. Instead Cephas raised his gun and was shot once in the stomach. He was pronounced dead around 1am at Temple University Hospital.

Cop Out

In his final press conference, where he chastised the media for its fear mongering, and tooted his own thank- God -I’m -finally -out -of -here -party favor, soon-to-be retired Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson recently announced that violent crime in Philadelphia is down.

With big charts, Johnson promoted the city’s decrease in crime. He even went as far as to say: “We are not ‘Killadelphia’.”

In 2007, Johnson says, violent crime, which includes homicides, rapes, robbery and aggravated assault, declined by 8 percent. Shootings dropped by 13.4 percent; and homicides fell by 3.21 percent.

A friend of mine, who works extensively with the city’s gunshot victims, describes Johnson’s logic as: “It’s like me gaining 10 pounds every year for the past five years, then this year saying I only gained 8. I’m still fat as hell.”

What’s missing from Johnson’s news is reality. His touted decrease in crime is virtually invisible.

In 2007, there were 270 less shootings in Philadelphia, which means that the number of shootings was a ridiculous 1,730 instead of a ridiculous 2,000. The city still suffered a startling average, four shootings for every murder.

In 2007, there were 14 less murders than 2006, the city’s highest number in a decade at 406. But in 2007, the city still averaged more than one murder a day, a total of 392.

Despite Johnson’s obvious loathing of the media, he should know that it’s not reporters who keep Philadelphians fearful of getting shot. It’s the free flow of illegal guns. It’s the wayward gunshots that crack outside their windows. It’s the young man who was shot and killed nearby. It’s his killer who still runs the street.

It’s also his feeble leadership and his shoulder-shrug attitude that crime is winning and resistance is futile.

And after 43 years on the police force, the last five as police commissioner, Johnson’s not the only one looking forward to his retirement.

(Photo credit: Jeff Fusco)

Nutter-1. FOP-0

In Philadelphia, not only is politics local, it’s also very petty.

The Fraternal Order of Police is apparently livid over Mayor-Elect Nutter's appointment for Deputy Mayor of Public Safety, Everett Gillison, a longtime public defender.

On Wednesday Nutter choose Gillison for the newly created post, which is responsible for developing policy, as well as bringing desperately needed coordination between the police officers who arrest criminals and the criminal justice system that prosecutes them..

At the press conference, Gillison said:

“We have an immense challenge before us,” referring to the city’s crime epidemic, and used Nutter's campaign motto to declare it's "a new day and a new way."

Gillison, a public defender for some 22 years, is a senior trial lawyer for the Defender Association of Philadelphia.

In 2006, he was one of two public defenders who represented Solomon Montgomery in the shooting death of Officer Gary Skerski.

Gillison's role was perfunctory; Montgomery pleaded guilty.

“We believe this appointment sends the wrong message to the citizens of this city,” said FOP president John McNesby in a statement the day after Gillison's appointment, “especially in the climate that exists today, that our Police Officers witness first hand on a daily basis.”

“The Fraternal Order of Police on behalf of every Philadelphia Police Officer condemns this appointment, and would ask the Mayor-Elect to reconsider.”

Nutter won't. And he shouldn't.

It's obvious that the FOP is feeling the chill of Nutter's promised "new day."

The mayor-elect went outside the police department's ranks to pick a commissioner. He even created a cabinet post to develop public safety policy and watch the police department's money.

But this morning Nutter chose the high road and publicly apologized to McNesby for not giving him a heads up, and perhaps, in McNesby's mind, for believing that every person has a constitutional right to a defense, and for believing that a public servant like Gillison shouldn’t be penalized for simply doing is job.

(Photo credit: Everett Gillison by the Philadelphia Inquirer)

Holiday Spirit

It is early afternoon in Center City, a few days after Christmas. Shoppers mill about, looking to redeem missed and unwanted presents.

Inside a tiny, dim boutique on South 17th Street, the owner rings up the only customer in the store, a small, attractive, 30-something woman with long, dark hair, dressed casually in jeans, a cashmere coat and trendy flats. Her daughter stands at her side, wide eyed with soft brown curls. They just got their nails done. It’s mother-daughter day, and mom's buying pajamas.

“Did you see these?” mom asks the owner. She’s holds her hair back, flashing the flawless diamonds adorning her ears.

“Wow,” says the owner.

“I got these for Christmas,” she says, her smile shining wide. “And I got a Birkin,” – a bag that has a waiting list of more than two years and a price tag starting at $7,500.

“Did he get you that?”

“Yep,” she says, nodding her head victoriously.

“Did he do that by himself?”

“Noooo,” she says. “It would be nice to be surprised, but if I didn’t tell him, he wouldn’t have a clue.”

She tucks her receipt in her wallet and takes her bag, decorated in a dark ribbon. As she heads for the door, she promises to return next week.

Minutes later, a block away, a young boy steps in front of a blind woman’s cane. His wide eyes appear hurried and lost. Several paces back his mother is being harassed by a security guard.

“I ain’t got nothin’,” she tells the guard, a thin, gray-haired man old enough to be her father. Her two small daughters stand at her side, looking up, pleading.

“Lift up the back of your shirt,” he orders her, as they walk down the street, in an odd little dance of him accusing her and her denying.

She lifts up her sweatshirt, revealing nothing but rolls of brown skin.

But he's undeterred. Their dance continues around the corner.

And her son, dressed in a fuzzy hat and worn coat, stares ahead, unable to defend her or leave.

(Photo credit: shopamericantours.com)

The Tale of Two Philadelphias

The Urban League of Philadelphia recently released a report titled the State of Black Philadelphia. Every Philadelphian should read this report. It offers shocking and saddening statistics that expose the social and economic chasm between the city's black and white residents, and paints a horrific picture of black life in some of the city's neighborhoods.

Here are some of the low lights:

• The median household income for blacks is $26,728, compared to $42,279 for whites—a difference of more than $15,000.
• The unemployment rate for blacks is 9.9 percent, more than twice that of whites.
• Only 53 percent of blacks own their homes, compared to 64 percent of whites, and their property values are less—a difference of almost $100,000.
• Thirty-two percent of blacks live in poverty, which is twice as many as whites.
• Only 14 percent of black high school students are proficient in reading and only 10 percent are proficient in math—less than half as many as white students.
• Twice as many blacks are uninsured.
• Blacks are five times more likely to be murdered.

The grim disparities go on and on...

But in addition to ringing the alarm, the report points to a laundry list of common sense solutions. Thing is, we've always known the who, what and where. It only thing perpetually missing is our collective will.

Many of the responses I received to my column about the report point to individual responsibility. Some readers dismissed the measures as a black problem. One person even wrote that black people are just plain lazy.

Such attitudes still find a way to amaze me, that somehow people use them to bolster racial stereotypes. In reality, these statistics represent a social phenomenon, fueled by racism, that withstands simply pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. For some of the city's residents every thing surrounding them points to failure: blighted neighborhoods, inferior schools, no jobs, random violence, no access to healthcare or healthy food.

When we look at our education system, a student can take responsibility for his education and go to school everyday, yet he will still come out with an inferior education. Statistics show that blacks graduate from high school with the same level of education as white 8th graders. That black high school student can graduate with honors and still not get accepted into college or find a meaningful job.

Until we see these conditions as a social phenomenon; until we talk openly and honestly about racism, which is at the heart of these statistics, and the damage it has done and continues to do; until we talk about individual responsibility, and empower individuals to be responsible; until we start investing in young, black men, beyond the millions we pour into the criminal justice system; until we see that racial equality is in everyone's self-interest; until our moral responsibility leads to action instead of apathy, because crime can only be contained in so-called bad neighborhoods for so long. And even though blacks are doing worse than whites in this city, whites, particularly white students aren't faring well either. Until we stop seeing this as a black problem or a neighborhood problem, things won't only not the same same, they'll get worse.

Related Stories:
A Black-and-White Issue.
by Kia Gregory. Philadelphia Weekly. 12/12/07

Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane.
With Patricia Coulter of the Urban League of Philadelphia, Kia Gregory who writes for the Philadelphia Weekly, and Phoebe Haddon, professor of law at Temple. 12/18/07

(Photo credit: Jeff Fusco)