This is so distressing to read:
A particularly violent 36 hours boosted the city's homicide rate when six people died, including an infant severely beaten earlier this week and a 17-year-old shot Monday, authorities said.
The infant, Jaysar Norville, 5 months old, died yesterday at 11 a.m. at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
His death took the city's murder rate to 300, compared to 286 people killed during the same period last year, and happened within 24 hours of three unrelated shootings that claimed four victims on Monday, authorities said.
The Philly homicide rate for 2006 has broken the 300 mark as of Wednesday, October 4th. I'm sure this weekend will contribute to the upwards spiral of this number.
Elsewhere in the world, oh say in Iraq, where the death toll of US troops for the same time period is 708 (January throughDecember 2006). The city of Philadelphia is not gripped in a war zone, yet our murder rate nearly matches that of US troop casualties in Iraq. Where is the outrage? Where are the shoe/coffin displays in front of the Constitution Center for these vicitms? Why do the area peace groups/bloggers meticulously count the 'cost' of freedom in Iraq, yet ignore the carnage right on their doorstep? According to some, Iraq has become a quagmire - I say so has the City of Brotherly Love.
UPDATE: The City's Homicide Death Toll has risen to 313. Still no word on any shoe or coffin display reflecting on the cost of freedom in Philly.
UPDATE: Philadelphia's homicide count hit 377 as of Monday, November 21, 2006. It's up 7% ahead of last year.
UPDATE: Philly's homicide rate hits 400 as of Sunday, December 24, 2006. The Rev. Robert. P. Shine noted: "We are beyond prayer rallies" - it is now a quagmire.
UPDATE 2: rate increase to 407
UPDATE: Tom Burner over at BizzyBlog spent some quality time researching and graphing violent crime rates of several US cities then comparing this data to the violent crime rate of Iraq published by the AP. What he found made him less depressed about Iraq and more concerned about the United States. I tend to agree with this conclusion after viewing this graphic:
Philadelphia's 2006 crime rate (murder only) based on the above count (407) and a population count (1,472,915) calculates out to 28.0 % per 100,000 people. If plotted on this graph, Philadelphia's rate falls nearly even with NYC's worst year on record for violent crime. The nation of Iraq on a whole is just under 2x's more dangerous than New York City circa 1990 and Philadelphia circa 2006. Taking a leaf from the Dems playbook for Iraq, Philadelphia's City Council should consider a phased redeployment of the Philadelphia police to..say....Okinawa .
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