Open Letter to John Street (and to Michael Nutter)
Dear Mayor Street,
A few months ago I wrote about murder number 113, which happened directly across the street from my house in the Kingsessing neighborhood and was witnessed by my former housemate.
The neighbors were frightened and angry. We live across the street from a popular recreation center that attracts kids and adults from all over Southwest Philadelphia. The shooting occurred outside, where the bullets could have exited the victim, and entered any one of our homes and bodies.
We did not, however, cower and cringe like helpless children. We got together and formed a neighborhood town watch that works with the police district to report suspicious behavior. With the help of my neighbor, I mounted the signs just yesterday evening on the telephone poles at the east and west ends of our block.
Around 1:00 AM or so last night I got up to use the bathroom, and heard the familiar sound of a gunshot. Under your leadership (or lack thereof) the murder rate has skyrocketed, and so the sound wasn’t exactly unusual. What I didn’t know was that the gunshot I heard was most likely murder number 223. My girlfriend told me that soon after I left for work this morning the police showed up: they were asking all the neighbors if we’d seen or heard anything.
Mayor Street, around this time last year you and the hapless police commissioner delivered what had to be the most piss-poor response to gun violence in the city, delivered with glazed eyes and as much passion as one of those robot fortune teller machines on the boardwalk. And in the year since your pathetic teevee appearnce, I am hard pressed to identify what you’ve done since. A “Put It Down” ad campaign? Are you kidding me?
The Philadelphia Weekly’s Kia Gregory has quite accurately called you out for sitting down on the job, in the rain, next to a dumpster, waiting for a goddamn i-Phone while the murder rate crested 200.
As the city marked its 200th homicide for the year, Street sat in a lawn chair outside the AT&T store, starting at 3:30 a.m., and staying on-and-off in the intermittent rain for about 14 hours, waiting to get his hands on a new iPhone.
[snip]
I’ve been waiting for him to attend some of the funerals of the 2,500 murder victims since he took office. I’ve been waiting for him to preach from a drug-infested corner instead of a church pulpit. I’ve been waiting for him to lead the city in one of its darkest moments. I’ve been waiting in vain.When it comes to the city’s gun violence, Street has pointed his finger everywhere from here to Baghdad—everywhere but his own administration. I’ve been waiting for Street to say what he, as this city’s mayor, is going to do.
You sir, are a disgrace. You are a disgrace to the City and a disgrace to the nation, sitting idly by like an African American version of George Bush on vacation ignoring warnings that al Qaeda plans to strike in the United States. It would almost be better if you resigned now, because it’s more than clear that as a lame duck, you don’t care about the job, and you care even less for the most vulnerable and the poorest Philadelphians who are trapped in these neighborhoods, lacking the jobs and financial capability to escape. For that matter, your neglect makes it harder for Philadelphians like me to rationalize staying here: why should my taxes go to pay the salaries of public servants like you and your colleagues who have let the city fall into further disrepair and spiraling violence with no end in sight?
Mayor-elect Nutter (because let’s face it, Al Taubenberger has as much a chance of winning election as Squiddly Diddly does), I disagreed strenuously with your stop-and-frisk proposal during your primary campaign, and STILL feel the proposal is constitutionally shakey. Philadelphia desperately needs reforms at the DA’s office so that violent criminals may be effectively prosecuted and incarcerated. The City needs to put more cops on the street on bicycles and on foot so they can act as as allies and liaisons in the community, and I urge you to petition the state and the federal government to restore the COPS program that Mr. Bush unwisely defunded.
The City needs hope, Mr. Nutter, and hope can only come from policy, not band-aids and slogans. Reasons to stay in Philadelphia are absent, and shrinking every day. Every single one of us who voted for you, from the most enthusiastic supporter to people like me who hold most politicians at arm’s length, is looking for leadership to help us all dig out of this hole.
Do not let us down.
Sincerely,
Brendan Skwire
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July 17th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
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