The post The Real Troubles are not in Northern Ireland appeared first on Strangely Perfect.
Bloody Sunday
The Saville Report, probably the longest and certainly the most expensive enquiry in the UK ever, is now out. The ramifications are continuing, despite the Prime Minister trying to draw a line under everything. See Bloody Sunday report published
History
On that day in 1972, 13 folks were killed, and overall, in what are called “The Troubles”, over 3,500 people were killed in Northern Ireland in the 30 years between 1968 and 1998. (see ref.) This is about 130 a year, or about 11 a month. ( Also, during the 30 years, >47,000 were injured!)
Bloody Philadelphia
But let’s stick with the dead for now.
I’ve been following the local 6ABC News in Philadelphia for a bit. It’s not happy reading. Most of the news headlines are murder related.
For Instance
Last year there was a ‘random’ shooting at a funeral. Afterwards, Taaqi Brown was caught and charged with killing Aaron Kearney, although apparently he was after one of Kearney’s friends, ( – so that makes it alright, then?)
These are black guys, and drugs and guns come into the story a lot. See storyline links below:
- http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=6807239
- http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/take_action&id=6797834
- http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7499300
- http://www.timesherald.com/articles/2009/05/09/obituaries/…txt (victim obituary)
Disturbing Philadelphia
Recently, Taaqi had been let out of custody accidentally, which is pretty bad for the law enforcement agencies. He later turned himself in. What is horrifically disturbing though, is the interactive map from the Philadelphia Police Department.
http://citymaps.phila.gov/CrimeMap/map….from=5%2f17%2f2010&to=6%2f16%2f2010
Click on it and you’ll see all the homicides in the city for the past one month. This is only one month, not a year or a decade….
27 people killed!
Most of these are from gunshot. Mostly, people have been murdered outside in the street. These are the cold statistics.
| Crime Category | Location | Date/Time | Premise Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| 114 – Homicide: Knife | 6100 BLOCK COTTAGE ST | 6/13/2010 8:58 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 500 BLOCK E ASHMEAD ST | 6/13/2010 0:23 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 6900 BLOCK N 19TH ST | 6/12/2010 2:36 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | S COLORADO ST & WOLF ST | 6/10/2010 6:04 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | N HOWARD ST & W HUNTINGDON ST | 6/9/2010 17:11 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | CHEW AV & E WOODLAWN ST | 6/6/2010 6:50 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 123 – Homicide: Non-Traffic | 1100 BLOCK S 6TH ST | 6/5/2010 0:52 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 400 BLOCK E SHARPNACK ST | 6/4/2010 5:14 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 112 – Homicide: Rifle | 1200 BLOCK S 21ST ST | 6/3/2010 8:18 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 1600 BLOCK W YORK ST | 6/3/2010 3:07 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 115 – Homicide: Beating | 1200 BLOCK N 4TH ST | 6/2/2010 14:54 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 114 – Homicide: Knife | 2600 BLOCK COLLINS ST | 6/2/2010 12:49 | 70. Private Residence |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 3000 BLOCK W DAKOTA ST | 6/1/2010 8:56 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | S 60TH ST & KINGSESSING | 5/31/2010 6:56 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 2100 BLOCK E CLEARFIELD | 5/31/2010 4:14 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 121 – Homicide: Auto | W LEHIGH AV & MASCHER ST | 5/30/2010 6:56 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 400 BLOCK W INDIANA AV | 5/30/2010 2:37 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 4800 BLOCK DEVEREAUX AV | 5/29/2010 3:56 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 5400 BLOCK BALTIMORE AV | 5/29/2010 2:11 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 3300 BLOCK W WESTMORELAND ST | 5/28/2010 4:21 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 123 – Homicide: Non-Traffic | 1200 BLOCK RHAWN ST | 5/26/2010 13:43 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 1200 BLOCK S BUCKNELL ST | 5/25/2010 3:30 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 117 – Homicide: felon by Police Officer | 1500 BLOCK W TIOGA ST | 5/22/2010 4:01 | 66. Apartment House/Condominium |
| 117 – Homicide: felon by Police Officer | 1500 BLOCK W TIOGA ST | 5/21/2010 23:21 | 66. Apartment House/Condominium |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | 900 BLOCK FILBERT ST | 5/21/2010 7:29 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 123 – Homicide: Non-Traffic | N 2ND ST & W OLNEY AV | 5/18/2010 20:32 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
| 111 – Homicide: Handgun | N 59TH ST & LANSDOWNE AV | 5/17/2010 6:20 | 53. Highway (Outside Structure) |
But remember, Northern Ireland, for the whole of The Troubles, averaged out at 11 murders per month….. This is just one month in Philadelphia!
Murderous, Troubled, Philadelphia
It means ol’ Philly is 3 times as bad as Northern Ireland.
- What can they do?
- Has it always been like this?
- Do they want it to change?
Q. So which makes the best holiday destination? N. Ireland or Philadelphia?
Q. Are they very similar?
Well, both Philadelphia and N.I. have similar populations of between 1.5 and 2 million souls. But there, I’m afraid the similarity ends.
My own internal image I have of Northern Ireland is of it’s troubled times, but in all likelihood I could walk the streets yet not feel very “brotherly” towards the place because I’d be haunted by it’s past. But I’d most likely be “safe”.
My image of Philadelphia is of the home of Benjamin Franklin and the Liberty Bell. It means “The City of Brotherly Love” from it’s Greek meaning. I also have a vision of a ‘tough’ place because of Will Smith’s signature tune from the Fresh Price of Bel Air.
But my new image is that it’s not somewhere that’s safe to walk the streets, or even drive. 27 murders a month is nearly one a day.
Northern Ireland was never, ever, as bad as Philadelphia now.
War On ??
The continuing “War on Terror” looks to be a misguided distraction from these figures. The true war should be being fought on the streets of cities like Philadelphia and in the minds of it’s inhabitants.
Because, you see, what happens is that if these same “poor kids” involved in a society like this, decide that the only way out of their mess of a life, is to join the Army in it’s war on terror, then their poor grasp of right and wrong leads to the continuing atrocities that we see in Iraq, Afghanistan etc. Things like the gunship turkey shoot below where American heroes heroically shoot unarmed civilians on the ground from afar… (We only know of this because of the great Wikileaks. As usual, the government tried to cover it up.)
This action and the continuing slaughter on America’s own streets by Americans is inexcusable.
- Why is America like this?
- Why do they put up with such shit?
The post The Real Troubles are not in Northern Ireland appeared first on Strangely Perfect.