One of the movies that frequently shows up on television is 300, the very much fictionalized account of King Leonidas and a band of 300 Spartan warriors, at the Battle of Thermopylae, and yeah, I frequently tune in.

Well today in the City of Brotherly Love, the 300^th homicide victim lost his life, and the movie’s bloody logo seems pretty appropriate. The Philadelphia Inquirer actually took notice of the milestone:

Philly just hit 300 killings this year, as its record pace continues

This is the earliest in the year that the city has even approached 300 killings since at least the early 1990s. And shootings have topped 1,200.

by Chris Palmer and Mensah M. Dean | July 16, 2021

Late Thursday night, someone opened fire on a North Philadelphia street and shot three people. One died: the city’s 300th homicide victim of 2021.

Police did not identify the man who died, and released few details about the crime, which they said happened on the 1800 block of West Susquehanna Avenue around 11:30 p.m. The other victims, authorities said, were a 14-year-old girl shot in the chest and a 24-year-old man struck in the shoulder. Both were hospitalized Friday, the girl in critical condition.

The fatal shooting meant that the city had reached 300 killings more quickly in a single year than any since at least the 1970s. And it kept Philadelphia on pace to top not only last year’s 499 homicides, but also its all-time record of 500 slayings in a year, set in 1990.

Top the record? How about smash it, smash it to smithereens? Assuming the 300^th killing is counted among yesterday’s totals — it wasn’t as of the 8:00 AM revision by the Philadelphia Police Department — that’s 1.5306 homicides per day in Philadelphia, on pace for 559 for the entire year.

Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a statement that “the brazenness with which these assaults are carried out is appalling. The lack of regard for human life is affecting innocent bystanders and our children are being caught in the cross fire.”

Outlaw said that officers were continuing to seize illegal guns in record numbers, and that police remained “laser-focused on enforcing the law while deterring crime,” while pledging that police would continue to seek partnerships with other agencies and community members “to effect long-term and sustainable change.”

Further down:

Leroy Muhammad, an activist with the Black Male Community Council,^[1]Hyperlink added by DRP; the Inquirer couldn’t be bothered. was among those speaking out Friday. He told those listening that they as community members needed to step up to help stop the violence and help the authorities catch those committing violent acts.

“We don’t come out here as a follow-up response. We’re out here every day, this is what we do. We’re out in the streets every day and we’re looking for others to come out with us,” Muhammad said. “I woke up this morning, only to find that there had been 300 homicides in Philadelphia. Totally ridiculous. Unacceptable.”

Heaven forfend! It’s almost as though the local community, and the Inquirer, are realizing that the tremendous homicide rate in Philly isn’t a “gun violence” problem, but an inner city black culture issue.^[2]Also see: Robert Stacy McCain on The Other McCain: Yet Another Aspiring Rapper Update. When a city has a substantial portion of its teenaged to thirty-something population glamorizing killing their … Continue reading The BMCC website even has a slogan, “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” -James Baldwin, on its main page, and perhaps, just perhaps, a few Philadelphians are actually facing the problem.

Those 300 homicide victims? They weren’t like King Leonidas and the brave Spartans fighting heroically to the death. They have been mostly thugs killed by other thugs, though there have been some innocent victims, primarily among the bystanders.