And it's happening again, in our own backyard.

Faheem Thomas-Childs was a 10-year-old boy who deserved, as all children do, to have a safe and uneventful childhood. Instead, he lost his life in a rain of gunfire while walking to school two years ago, another casualty of drug violence. After the murder, people marched in solidarity with his mother, lit candles, sang songs. They rallied for stricter gun laws, decried the cycle of poverty that forced Faheem to live in a battle zone, vilified the subhuman dealers that infested the city. They did all the things that land you on the cover of newspapers and make the world think you actually care.

But then, they killed him all over again. With their silence. Recently, Faheem's "official" killers went on trial. The lawyers provided their clients with a solid defense, but their task became much easier when cowards entered the courtroom.

Witnesses who originally swore under oath that they had seen the shooting that took Faheem's life and issued unequivocal statements implicating the defendants inexplicably contracted a collective case of amnesia. They "didn't see anything," wink, wink. They "couldn't remember." They weren't "snitches." They "lied." So sorry, Your Honor.

It's true that these were fearful people. They live side by side with the drug dealers, and worry about exposing themselves to retaliation if they identify the criminals. It's also true that I live in a safe neighborhood where a walk to the corner store doesn't place me in the line of fire. I don't know the cold-blooded fear that grips the parent of a child in the crosshairs, and I wake in the morning with the feeling of invincibility bred in my suburban cocoon. The chaos doesn't touch my zip code.

But a look into the eyes of Faheem's mother made all of this irrelevant. Her son was killed by animals who placed money above humanity. The crime was compounded by Faheem's neighbors, slaves to intimidation. These men and women told the drug dealers that they will continue to have free rein in the dying neighborhoods, because no one will be there to stop them. The righteous voices are stilled, and the silence is poisoning the future for children like Faheem.

The fact that a judge found the killers guilty of first degree murder based on the witnesses' prior sworn declarations doesn't change the fact that there was no one from the community willing to stand up for Faheem.

So, what do we do? The easiest and most obvious thing would be to improve the witness protection program, encouraging citizens to testify by providing a safe haven for them. If this involves increased funding, so be it. Preserving a person's peace of mind is as important as restoring municipal infrastructures or attracting new businesses, and significantly more important in the short run.

But what good is it to assure people of their safety if we can't change their hearts and minds? There is an ugly, unspoken element to this story that virtually ensures that the tragedy of Faheem will continue and be multiplied until the deaths outnumber the precious lives among us. It is the tolerance of evil, the attraction of the criminal element, the "cool" factor. Witnesses who "go south," as they say, are emblematic of a deeper problem that money and assurances of safety can't resolve. They think that a child's life is expendable, and look up to those who manipulate the system as role models. And though it may be invisible, the blood on their hands is all too real.

I have a message for those who choose silence over truth, and do nothing to confront the evil: You deserve the hell you inhabit. But Faheem didn't.

Christine Flowers is a lawyer in Center City.