philadelphia magazine cover story on gun violence

[kyle]

i just read the philly mag cover article on gun violence which i found to be relatively well written. their proposal (and it's actually the proposal of a penn criminologist) boils down to this (as far as i'm best able to interpret it):

1) gun crime is LARGELY perpetrated by a small number of repeat offenders
2) gun crime LARGEY takes place in a very few localized areas
3) studies done in other cities show you can significantly reduce gun crime by taking a relatively small number of guns from a relative small number of people

how this has been done elsewhere:

1) use crime statistics to identify the highest areas of violent crime -- (often street corners surroundinging all-night deli's)
2) the people in these areas are far more likely to have illegally acquired and carried guns than anywhere else in the city
3) rigorously patrol and enforce laws in these areas -- stop people who run red lights, stop people who litter, stop people who are loitering illegally, stop people soliciting prostitutes. write tickets. check for warrents. if they have outstanding warrents, search them and take them in. philadelphia was able to successfully cut down on the number pedestrian deaths by enacting a rigorously enforced "no jaywalking" zone in center city, where once they started ticketing people, people started crossing at the light.
4) statistically, people litering in high crime areas, or soliciting prostitutes, or drinking in public are much more likely to be carrying an illegally acquired or carried gun and have outstanding warrents. these people are, stastically, also the people commiting gun crimes there and elsewhere.

the article attributed much of new york's plumet in violent crime not to (as i had always thought) unchecked vigilanti mob behavior by goon squads in the NYPD, but to enforcement of "quality of life" crime -- when police would ticket someone for spitting on the sidewalk, they'd find that the perp had an illegally owned gun and a warrent for burglary.

they also mentioned that 911 does not work for stopping crimes in progress -- there is an average delay of 41 minutes from the time a crime was comitted until the time it is called in and that too many cops are answering 911 calls when they can actually reduce crime by targeting seemingly less important crime elsewhere.

the magazine was pulled from the shelves of many center city hotels and visitor centers and accused of fearmongering -- i don't think this is true. it doesn't present philly as an unsafe shooting gallery. i recommend reading it.

this lengthy report brought to you by the flu.

kc

[GeorgeF]

Nice! I read this article on one of my trips to Border's - I wont buy that magazine, but couldnt pass by when I saw the Walther on the cover.

I think that policy sounds great - target the baddies and take away their guns. Of course it begs the question of why hasnt this been done here - considering that Kansas City did this over 10 years ago. The more paranoid side of me might believe that those in charge WANT it to boil over so they can propose more draconian gun laws.

[LittleRedToyota]

sounds good to me (as long as the officers don't cross the line and start harassing people just for being in that area if they aren't actually doing anything illegal).

as an added bonus, people start getting fined for littering. i'd love to see the police start really enforcing littering laws anyway.

[IceFire]

I agree with targeting the baddies. Of course, if it wasn't for the "revolving door" "justice" system, they wouldn't be out there any way. Time to stop letting them cop pleas for a misdemeanor offense instead of trying them for the felonies, then letting them off for "time served" in the hoosegow while waiting for their arraignment. Next thing, they're out committing even more crimes. Lock 'em up and if you're not going to throw the key away, at least HIDE it so it takes a while longer until you can find it!

[Suburban]

Wow!! I'm shocked!! A periodical published in Philly that seems to acknowledge that guns are not the root cause of violence.

Kudos to Philadelphia cops for cutting down the jaywalking. The two reasons I have been avoiding Philly were the maze of one-way streets, and being afraid of running down one of the many people that insist on walking out from between parked cars without any obvious care for personal safety.