City Residents Doing Bang-Up Job So Far This Year

Well, we’re only about three-and-a-half days into 2007 so far, and already the city is continuing to attempt to increase its homicide total.

The Inquirer’s Lloylita Prout writes that four homicides last night and this morning moves the total to five already this year.

The four men were ages 18, 21, 25 and 25. The killings happened in SW Philly, North Philly and Port Richmond.

And Jan. 4 just started! Sigh.

4 young men dead in separate city shootings [Inquirer]

Keystone Cops: Drug War Addicts

Keystone Cops is a look at police, crime, drug and public safety news.

• The Daily News has a big drugs package today. There’s David Gambacorta’s story about how futile the War on Drugs is — okay, it reads like that unintentionally — and Simone Weichselbaum’s story of Mickey the crack dealer, who made tons o’money selling drugs but ended up getting busted. [Daily News]

• Meanwhile, in Cherry Hill, the war on sex offenders bans one man from living in the township altogether, pretty much, and he’s at a low risk of re-offending, etc. It’s one of those laws meant to protect the public, and it screws people who were convicted of a crime even if they’ve served a sentence. C.H.’s response is nice, though: “They should blame themselves and not elected officials who are trying to protect the community.” Thanks, Cherry Hill Councilman Frank Falcone! [Camden Courier-Post]

• The number five story of the year from the Doylestown Intelligencer: Doylestown Borough’s crackdown on teens. “I’m not declaring victory yet, but it’s been pretty good lately,” Police Chief James Donnelly. Another unwinnable war. [Doylestown Intelligencer]

• Murder count climbs at year end: We’re at 403 now. [Daily News]

Keystone Cops: The 400 Blows

Keystone Cops is a look at police, crime, drug and public safety news.

• Over the Christmas weekend the homicide rate surged past 400, hitting 402 by the end of Christmas Day. [Daily News]

• Oh wait: Number 403 this morning. Sigh. [Inquirer]

• New movie: NJ Weedman shows off the “420 Raffle” he held to support his U.S. Senate bid. Alas, Mr. Weedman did not win the election. [YouTube]

• A toll collector on the New Jersey Turnpike was held up by a driver. The car’s license plate was covered with a plastic bag, and the man got away with coins and cash. He, unfortunately, spent it all at the next rest stop. [AP/NBC 10]

Keystone Cops: Foot Fetish Assaulter Moves South

Keystone Cops is a look at police, crime and public safety news.

• The foot fetish attacker has struck again, this time just before 5 a.m. in South Philly at 19th and Federal. Crazy sexual assaulter on the loose, be careful, etc. Be extra careful because police say he’s getting more bold and because, uh, hello, he has a foot fetish. [Daily News]

• Fifteen people — johns and hookers — were arrested in a prostitution sting in Camden and charged with either prostitution or loitering. Also recovered: A baby, who was in a car while a man and woman solicited an undercover cop posing as a prostitute. [Camden Courier-Post]

• An airman slated to go to Iraq stationed at McGwire Air Force Base was stabbed to death at a Northeast Philly bar early Sunday morning. A comment about his pregnant wife apparently started the melee, with a suspect still on the loose. Ahh, Northeast Philadelphians: Don’t know when to keep their mouths shut. [NBC 10]

• And, hey, the brawl ex-Temple player Mardy Collins started Saturday night in New York has landed him a seven-game suspension, among a ton of others handed out by the league today. NBA leading scorer Carmelo Anthony got 15 games for his part. [AP/CBS 3]

Leftovers: Averaging .87 Homicides A Day A Big Victory For Philadelphia

• Only 27 people were killed this August, putting the city only 2 percent higher than last year’s homicide total. Whoo! Hip, hip, hooray! Let’s go Philly! Way to not kill a person a day last month! Somebody ought to give out an award! [Inquirer]

• Upper Pottsgrove Township had one (1) man vehemently opposed to expanding the township’s open space initiative as well as it’s 1/4 percent income tax increase to help fund it. Gasp! Rather than some nice trails and parks, of course, he’d rather use his, say, $150 to buy a totally kickin’ giant American flag. [I've Made A Huge Tiny Mistake]

• It’s football season starting at 8:30 tonight. Hooray.

He Didn’t Win The Preakness, But He Won Our Hearts

Number of articles using to “tragedy” or “tragic” to describe Barbaro’s race on Saturday (minus duplicates) in the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com: Four

Number of articles using “tragedy” or “tragic” to describe homicides over the past week (minus duplicates) in the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com: Two

Please note that the usage of “tragic” and “tragedy” in the Barbaro stories are not part of a quote; in the homicide stories, both uses are in quotes from sources

A Horse Is A Horse, Of Course

Stories in the Inquirer and Daily News on Barbaro: 5 articles, 4,612 words.
Stories in the Inquirer and Daily News on a triple homicide in Port Richmond: 2 articles, 1,559 words.

‘Action News’ turns homicide into sunshine

Depressed that today’s not as warm or happy or fuzzy as yesterday? Me too. It’s still sunny, but nothing like the splendor of an 80-degree day in mid-March.

It’s all okay, though, as the Action News team is here to make every situation just a little brighter:

TRENTON, NJ-March 14, 2006 - An attempt to hold up a corner grocery in Trenton turned deadly… for one of the people who wanted to rob the place.

You can almost hear the faux dramatic pause. Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

Store Defended with Deadly Force [6 ABC]

Correction of the Week

Okay, so nobody reads the Saturday Daily News, so nobody probably saw this correction. On Friday the DN ran photos of homicide victims in the city in 2005 on Page 1. Okay, a nice gesture, and obviously the homicide rate in this city is out of control.

Only problem was, one of them wasn’t a homicide victim:

The Daily News on Friday ran a panel of pictures on Page 1 of homicide victims in the city in 2005. Inadvertently included was a picture of Richard Dawson, 21, who wasn’t a murder victim but who stabbed to death one of seven youths who attacked him on Oct. 29 near his East Mount Airy home. Police released Dawson after concluding he acted in self-defense after being attacked by a group of gay bashers.

So, not only did they run a photo of someone who’s alive, they ran a photo of someone who killed someone in self-defense. Fantastic!

Correction [DN]