Philadelphia has become the murder capital of the U.S. [View all]

[PCIntern]

I wrote this early this morning but the DU Server was down and I had to leave and then my office building system wouldn't let me in, probably due to something Newt that POS said to someone, and by the time I got in I had to start work so finally I can post this:


We've got some nasty stuff going on here...I'm getting ready to go to
work at 5 A.M. on Saturday morning and we are just inundated with
senseless murders including, but not limited to, four young miscreants
calling for a pizza to be delivered to an abandoned house, where they
murdered the deliveryman in order to STEAL THE PIZZA; three or four
individuals who thought that a student was screaming at them, when he
was just trying to hail a cab in the historic district of the city, and
so of course they beat him to death in front of the two women he was
escorting at the time; a murder of a female shop owner who would chase
away drug dealers from her store's doorstep; a witness to a crime,
also female, and a host of murders in various neighborhoods, and one
attempt in particular which is fairly frightening:

A professional student at one of the Universities was walking home when
he was accosted by a group of young people who demanded money. He was
wearing scrubs and said that he didn't have any but it turned out that
he had $40 in a jacket pocket that he'd forgotten about. They beat him
without mercy and THEN said, "We're gonna waste you." One individual
put the gun to the kid's head and pulled the trigger but the gun did
not fire. They then left and the student did not know if they were
just "kidding" or that the gun actually jammed. The police informed
him that they think that this particular group MAY be involved in some
homicides.

Our Mayor, the bean counter, ineffective leader of our city, has
offered a $20,000 bounty for murderers. But upon his inauguration four
years ago, he cut the police department, witness protection services,
and other safety measures which have been in place for a long time
which were designed to serve the public's safety. He's not exactly
what the city needs but we have him for another four years.

So here I am getting dressed to go out in the pitch black darkness of a
winter morning and will have to walk two blocks from my parking space
to my building which I enter as the only person inside for more than
two hours while I set up for the day. All this gives one pause.