Hitting Home

Whenever I hear someone has been murdered, my first question is: Where?

by Duane Swierczynski

I don't know about you, but whenever I hear someone has been murdered, my first question is: Where?

Living in Philadelphia, I have the chance to ask this question a lot.

As I write this on Tue., Jan. 16, there have already been 25 murders since the start of the new year. That's well above a body a day. If we're going for a new homicide record, we're burning strong, Philadelphia.

With so many murders, it's hard to keep track of them all — to feel them all. So it's only natural that the killings that really ... well, hit home ... are the ones near where we live or work.

Maybe you caught the short Daily News piece a few days ago about the knife-wielding crazy man who begged to die and the cops — as the paper so tactfully pointed out — who "obliged" him.

This is interesting on its own, but the location of the suicide-by-cop was Market Street, near Ninth, right in front of the Robert N.C. Nix Federal Building. Apparently, the guy was trying to break in. The police officers tasered him twice, according to the Inquirer, but that didn't stop him from lunging.

"Kill me! Kill me!" he shouted, and then, as requested, they killed him.

Right there on Market Street, four blocks away from Independence Mall, where former President George H.W. Bush will be spending some time in his new role as the chair of the National Constitution Center.

I wonder if the ex-president read about this.

Anyway, I'm not the only one who thinks like this. Mayoral hopeful Michael Nutter recently revealed his plan for fighting crime: "Safety Now." He chose to do this at 5519 Larchwood Ave. — his childhood home in West Philadelphia

Why? Because a week before, a 21-year-old man named Christopher Freeny was shot and killed just two blocks away.

"As soon as I saw the location," Nutter told the Daily News, "that really hit home."

It's tempting to think that Nutter, like many political candidates, is merely posturing, using his childhood home to send a message to voters: Hey, I came from the same streets you did. I'm not an outsider. I grew up here.

Similarly, as Doron Taussig points out in the news section this week, mayoral hopefuls Chaka Fattah and Dwight Evans revealed that they know what it feels like to take a bullet (p. 12). Again, such a revelation presumably sends a message: Hey, I know what it's like to get shot.

But I think Nutter's choice came from an honest place. It really doesn't hit home until the bullets fly in close proximity. And I applaud Nutter, and every other candidate, who makes street violence a priority in the run-up to this year's primary. (Candidate Tom Knox, it should be noted, has been on the case for well over a year now.)

Because soon, I fear it will be too late. Philadelphia's already changing for me.

We're a city that trades on its history. Going to a particular corner or landmark in this town is supposed to evoke a story — sometimes of national proportions.

It's getting to the point, though, where I see certain places in this city and all that is evoked are the echoes of gunshots, the pools of blood. While I wait for the 59 bus at Arrott Street, I see the boarded-up bar across the street, which was the scene of a shoot-out last year. The bar, back when I was growing up, used to be called the Jolly Post and was named after the historical Jolly Post Tavern, where Revolutionary War-era types used to knock back their ales and plot the end of British rule in America.

I don't think about the history now. I think about the dead Philadelphians.

Same thing as the 59 winds its way up Oxford Avenue, rounding the circle toward Castor Avenue, not far from where officer Gary Skerski was gunned down in cold blood for trying to save innocent people. Too much of Oxford Circle, if you've been paying attention, has turned into a drug-infested shooting range lately.

All of this blood, after a while, washes away everything else.

Maybe the issue of gun violence hasn't hit home for you yet.

That's OK.

If things keep going at the current pace, it won't be long before it does.

(duane@citypaper.net)