Nineteen days into the new year might be a touch early to draw conclusions from the numbers, so this can be taken with a large grain of coarse kosher salt.^[1]This is what we use in the Pico household, which is why I put it that way. There is no additional meaning implied by that.

As of 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, January 18^th, the Philadelphia Police Department reported that there have been 32 homicides in the City of Brotherly Love so far in 2022. That compares to ‘just’ 27 on the same date in 2021, a year which saw a record-shattering 562 murders in the city.

As both of my regular readers know, I’m kind of a numbers geek, so I did the math: 32 killings in 18 days works out to 1.7778 per day.

There was a bit of a lull in city murders in late July and August of 2021, but the killing rate picked up after Labor Day. Beginning the Tuesday after Labor day, September 7, 2021, there were 199 killings in the city, in 116 days, which works out to 1.7155 per day. The homicide rate in the city has actually picked up slightly this year. We can only hope that this year’s current murder rate is an early aberration, because it projects out to 649 homicides in the city!

I noted, just a few days ago, that The Philadelphia Inquirer had a positive story on Oliver Neal, the retired postman, who defended himself against a carjacker using his legally licensed firearm. I noted that I expected an Inquirer OpEd piece, or even a main editorial, telling us that Mr Neal’s actions, though legal, were unwise, but at least thus far, such hasn’t been posted on the newspaper’s website.

Now comes another story:

Police: Southwest Philly homeowner fatally shot a man trying to steal his car or parts from it

Police say a homeowner fatally shot a thief who was tampering with his car in the 5800 block of Cobbs Creek Parkway Tuesday morning.

by Mensah M Dean | Wednesday, January 18, 2022

For the second time in as many weeks, a Philadelphia citizen licensed to carry a gun shot a would-be thief, police said Tuesday.

The 8:15 a.m. shooting in the 5800 block of Cobbs Creek Parkway happened when a neighborhood resident discovered three men trying to steal his car or its catalytic converter, police said.

The owner stepped out of his front door and fired at least one shot at the three men, who tried to flee in a gray Honda Accord but ended up crashing into the side of a yellow Radnor Township school bus. Medics transported the wounded man to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just after 9 a.m.

Relatives who gathered at the crime scene, crying and embracing one another, said the shooting victim’s name was Satario Natividad, 51. The two other men who were with him fled on foot and remained at large.

Chief Inspector Frank Vanore said that homicide detectives are heading up the investigation and that it is too early to make a decision on if the shooting was justified or not. They did not identify the car owner.

This is the kind of case in which I could see social justice District Attorney Larry Krasner wanting to charge the owner with something. We’ll probably find out — if the media report it — that Mr Natividad already had a criminal record; people don’t normally enter a life of crime at age 51.

Of course, the relatives of the dead criminal demand justice!

“He did not have to come out and shoot him,” she said. “It was a car! All he had to do is call the police. Once someone turns their back, they are no longer a threat. He still has his car, but we do not have [Natividad]. It’s a material thing. They need to charge him. He’s in his doorway. You don’t shoot someone out in the street over a car.”

Actually, in a city like Philadelphia, where the police have no control over crime, and the District Attorney doesn’t like to prosecute the criminals who do get caught, yeah, you do shoot someone out in the street over a car. Inspector Vanore said, “Just from vision you could see catalytic converters, some tools, and what appears to be a firearm.” Robert Stacy McCain would say, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes,” and Mr Natividad played a stupid game. Naturally, Mr Natividad’s relatives have been defending him, but the simple fact is that he was a criminal, caught in the act, and he won’t be stealing any more catalytic converters.

In my attempt to see if the Inquirer had written something to criticize Mr Neal’s actions, I found this main editorial:

A new year requires a better plan to tackle gun violence crisis

One of this board’s resolutions for the new year is to remain vigilant in our coverage to ensure that city efforts to reduce gun violence are working.

by The Editorial Board | Monday, January 3, 2022

It took about 90 minutes for Philadelphia to experience its first homicide of 2022.

By 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 1, a 33-year-old had been fatally shot in Feltonville. Less than 20 minutes later, four miles away near Temple University, a 16-year-old was shot and killed. The first two homicide victims of 2022 were among 14 people who were shot on the first day of the new year.

The grim statistics hardly do justice to the mounting toll of gun violence in our city: 562 lives lost last year and another roughly 1,800 people who were shot and survived.

In 2021, the city reached a bleak milestone in notching a record number of homicides. Now, the question city officials should be asking themselves is: How do we keep it from happening again in 2022?

Of course, the Editorial Board blame all sorts of things: the coronavirus pandemic, burned out streetlights, not enough public libraries, no new gun control legislation by the state government, really on everything but the criminals themselves.

One of this board’s resolutions for the new year is to remain vigilant in our coverage to ensure that the city’s efforts to reduce gun violence are working. We propose a new year’s resolution for every entity in city government: Before every action, decision, or new program, ask how it contributes to reducing gun violence — and communicate the answer. That’s the kind of commitment a crisis of this magnitude requires.

No, what a crisis of this magnitude requires is correctly identifying the problem, requires telling the truth about what the problem really is, and this an “anti racist news organization” like the Inquirer will not do. The Editorial Board want to blame everything but the criminals themselves, because to blame the criminals is to say aloud the part everyone knows: the homicide problem in Philadelphia, and in all of our major cities, is a black homicide problem!

Of course, it’s raaaaacist to point that out, but until that is pointed out, until that is addressed, the problem can never be solved.