It’s Settled: John Street Truly Does Not Care If You Die Today As Long As ‘National Geographic’ Offshoot Magazines Keep Praising The City

Now that John Street has signed the smoking ban, he can turn his attention to more pressing issues, like water slides and such.

If you’ll remember, Street’s primetime TV address on the city’s escalating homicide rate was basically “take a deep breath and count to 10 before pulling the trigger.” While some others have suggest, oh, hiring more cops, Street balks at the idea:

Street, though, noted that there were 400 or more murders in nine of the 11 years before he took office in 2000. In 2002, the city saw a 17-year low of 288 homicides.

This decade, the city has averaged about 6,800 police officers. The number was about 8,100 in the 1970s when Frank L. Rizzo — a former police commissioner — was mayor. Philadelphia averaged about 390 murders in the 1970s, a number that has been cut to about 329 since 2000.

“Less police, fewer homicides,” Street said, though he did not take into account that the city was more heavily populated 30 years ago.

Oh, okay. Well how about bringing in the National Guard?

The city will not bring in the National Guard or declare a state of emergency, Street said, because that would lead to negative stories in out-of-town newspapers and on cable TV broadcasts, hurting Philadelphia’s image and economy.

God forbid someone in Omaha reads that the National Guard is in Philly. That’s so much worse than, y’know, a story about the escalating murder rate or a story about how our mayor is a fucking jackass.

More cops no cure for homicide rate, says Street [Northeast Times]
Sept. 1: Philly To Wildwood-ify Fairmount Park