It really wasn’t an unsafe prediction. I wrote, at 10:53 AM on Saturday morning, “There were nine total paragraphs about (Tiffany) Fletcher in (Robert) Moran’s story, and I would not be surprised if there’s another about her later today in the newspaper.” And here it is:
Two Philadelphians in two days were shot and killed just going about their routine
One of the dead was a mother of three, shot while sweeping outside the Mill Creek Recreation Center, where she worked. The other was believed to be a husband and father carrying home groceries.
by Kasturi Pananjady, Robert Moran, and Stephanie Farr | Saturday, September 10, 2022
On the job at a recreation center. Out getting groceries. Everyday activities turned fatal for two Philadelphians who lost their lives in senseless shootings on back-to-back days this past week.Tiffany Fletcher (center, yellow tank top) was photographed with lifeguard Robin Borlandoe (left) and assistant recreation leader Charles McKnight (top) at the Mill Creek Recreation Center pool in West Philadelphia on Aug. 14.
Elizabeth Robertson | Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Photographer. Click to enlarge.Tiffany Fletcher was killed by a stray bullet Friday afternoon while working for the city at the Mill Creek Recreation Center, in the 4700 block of Brown Street in West Philadelphia, police said. The 41-year-old mother of three was sweeping outside the center when a gun battle erupted and she was struck in the stomach, police said.
She was rushed by police to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead Friday evening.
When I opened the story, at around 10:10 PM EDT, all it said was that the story was “published an hour ago,” because The Philadelphia Inquirer somehow sees that as new wave, or cool, or edgy. Why not just tell us the time?
The Inky included a photo of Miss Fletcher, and some tributes to her, but there wasn’t actually a lot more information about her.
Rather, the story started to tell us about another Philadelphian gunned down for seemingly no reason:
On Thursday night in Overbrook, police said that a man identified on social media as Quenzell Bradley, or Quenzell Bradley Brown, described as being in his mid-30s, was shot in the head multiple times just before 9 p.m. on the 6200 block of Lebanon Avenue, where he was believed to have lived. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Those who knew him said in an Instagram post that he was carrying groceries home to his wife and kids at the time. Police provided no motive for the killing.
While police had not released the man’s name as of late Saturday, saying they had not yet notified his next of kin, relatives appear to be posting about his shooting on a Facebook page belonging to “Quenzell Bradleybrown.” A flier was posted on the page Saturday afternoon, identifying him as Quenzell Bradley Brown, aka “QQQQ.”
A Friday post on the Facebook page read: “… let it be known my brother was a innocent man was not n the streets was a family man married man with four kids just started his new job ln and was bringing in groceries unfortunately he was gunned down before he could even make it to the steps of his home died over senseless gun violence that had nothing to do with him mistaken identity I love you quenzell n we won’t rest until u get JUSTICE NO JUSTICE NO PEACE.”
A vigil will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday for the victim at 1101 N. 63rd St., according to a flier on the Facebook page. Attendees are encouraged to bring blue balloons in his honor.
Once again, we get to hear about the “innocents” who get killed in the City of Brotherly Love, but there are never any stories about the vast majority of people murdered in Philly. The police and the media tally up the numbers — at least 380 through mid-afternoon on Saturday — but, in the end, that’s all they are: numbers.
“Senseless gun violence,” eh? I ran that through my BS to English transmogrifier and it came out, “More black-on-black violence.” But I’m pretty sure there will be an effort to blame this on whitey. I suppose in a technical sense, that could be true, since they wouldn’t be here unless some European slave trader hadn’t bought one of his ancient ancestors off some black or Arab African slave trader and shipped him or her over to pick cotton, tobacco or some other plantation-raised cash crop. But, like someone already mentioned, I never owned any slaves and they never picked any cotton, so no personal responsibility for me.
Philadelphia is our nation’s most internally segregated major city, and that has two effects when it comes to crime:
As for blaming it on white people, The Philadelphia Inquirer tries that all the time, blaming it on “redlining,” the policies of mortgage lenders to not make mortgage loans to black applicants in neighborhoods “redlined” against them.
Of course, “redlining” was outlawed in 1968, 54 years ago. The city reported, in 2014, that 46% of Philadelphia families are renters rather than homeowners, and that percentage has been steadily increasing, which means that even if mortgage companies were surreptitiously practicing “redlining” today, it would actually affect a much smaller percentage of the population. Today, it’s simply a matter of whether people can afford the rent, and whether they pass a credit check.