As of 11:59 PM EDT on Thursday, June 2^nd, the Current Crime Statistics page of the Philadelphia Police Department reported that there had been 211 homicides in the City of Brotherly Love. That page, which is not updated on the weekend, finally shows that as of 11:59 PM EDT on Sunday, June 5^th, the number of murders had soared to 218.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, our nation’s third oldest continuously published daily newspaper, had told us about the killing of a pregnant woman in her early twenties in Port Richmond, and how doctors at Temple University Hospital had managed to save her unborn child. And the gang gunfight that left three people dead being described as a “mass shooting” was all over the newspaper’s website, but that’s ‘only’ four homicides reported, four out of the seven the police department has now totaled. A search of the newpaper’s website main page and crime page on Monday morning at 8:09 AM EDT found nothing on those other three homicides.

Perhaps previously wounded people expired since early Friday morning; we just don’t know from the Inky. But we do know that the same failed and tired leaders of the city are making the same failed and tired statements:

“I know this shooting has shaken many people in our community,” (Mayor Jim) Kenney said. “The safety of our residents and visitors is our top priority. We cannot accept continued violence as a way of life in our country.”

He said the shooting was a “horrendous, brazen and despicable act of gun violence” and called for stronger laws regulating gun purchases and possession.

Has anyone, anywhere, stated that the weapons recovered from the South Street shootings were legally purchased and possessed?

George Soros’ stooge District Attorney, Larry Krasner, tweeted:

The terrible crimes last night on South Street tell our Pennsylvania legislators it’s time for real action. Boycott NRA lobbyists, boycott NRA donations, and bring real common sense gun regulation to Pennsylvania. Now.

That would be the same Larry Krasner who has reduced prosecutions for illegal firearms possession when the police have made the arrests, saying^[1]100 Shooting Review Committee Report, page 30 of the document, page 32 of the .pdf file.:

The urgency of Philadelphia’s crisis of fatal and non-fatal shootings will not be met by looking away from shootings. As noted above, City Council has led a valuable “100 Shooter Review,” a title that makes clear what we already know: that shootings are the primary issue. Our efforts must be focused on preventing shootings and holding people who commit shootings accountable, and we should not accept arrests for gun possession as a substitute.

And:

This office believes that reform is necessary to focus on the most serious and most violent crime, so that people can be properly held accountable for doing things that are violent, that are vicious, and that tear apart society. We cannot continue to waste resources and time on things that matter less than the truly terrible crisis that we are facing.

And^[2]100 Shooting Review Committee Report, page 30-31 of the document, page 32-33 of the .pdf file.:

Gun possession arrests that involve no violent acts present a secondary and important frontier in curbing gun violence, but must be targeted to distinguish between drivers of gun violence who possess firearms illegally and otherwise law-abiding people who are not involved in gun violence. On the one hand, the cases of people charged with 6105^[3]There are two main categories of illegal gun possession cases in Philadelphia: Possession of a firearm by a person who has been prohibited from carrying gun due to a past serious conviction or other … Continue reading (prohibited person in possession of a firearm) are carefully scrutinized to do individual justice, which will usually look like vigorous prosecution. On the other hand, another criminal charge that applies to people who have no felony conviction (carrying a gun in Philadelphia without having obtained a permit in Philadelphia) is only a felony in Philadelphia. The exact same offense in every other county in Pennsylvania (carrying a firearm without a permit to carry) is only a misdemeanor offense.

Messrs Kenney and Krasner want to further criminalize firearms possession, but Mr Krasner won’t seriously enforce the gun control laws already on the books because he does not want to increase the number of Philadelphians — and, by that, he means black Philadelphians — with criminal records. But if they don’t have criminal records, you cannot legally bar them from owning a firearm!

Of course, I’m guessing that the guys who started the whole event, two guys who attacked and murdered a third, don’t care very much about possessing and using a firearm illegally. A guy who shoots someone who’s already at a 2 to 1 disadvantage in a fistfight, someone who fires into a crowd hoping to hit opposing gang members, doesn’t seem like anyone who cares about the law, other than caring about not getting caught.

For the left, it is just so much easier to blame the gun, rather than the bad guy who uses it illegally. To blame the bad people who commit crimes is to admit generations of failure of liberal, Democratic policies, and that just can’t happen!