Really Philly?

[ptmmatssc]

PHILADELPHIA -- -- The city's beleaguered police chief, acknowledging that police alone cannot quell a run of deadly violence, on Thursday called on 10,000 men to patrol the streets.

Sylvester Johnson, who is black, said that black men in particular had a duty to protect residents.

Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city, has nearly 1.5 million residents, 44% of them black. It has recorded 294 homicides this year, most of them involving black men.

Johnson wants each volunteer to pledge to work three hours a day for at least 90 days.

"We are definitely encouraging black men to be involved in it," he said. "We have an obligation to give back. We have an obligation to protect our women, our children, our elderly."

Johnson said he wouldn't turn away men of other races: "We have to put the tourniquet where we're bleeding."

The program's backers include Dennis Muhammad, a former Nation of Islam official who has been hired by police departments in cities including Detroit and Syracuse, N.Y., to conduct community-sensitivity training.

Johnson plans to introduce the "Call to Action: 10,000 Men, It's a New Day" program on Oct. 21, three months before his planned retirement.

Mayor John F. Street, who is also black has voiced support for the program, but it was not clear whether he would be involved. His term is expires in January.

Volunteers will not carry weapons or make arrests but will emphasize conflict resolution.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...ep14,1,2780474.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

I prefer my "conflict resolution" in the form of a fire arm . This sounds more like a feel good measure rather than a real solution to the problem .

 

[Jeff White]

Guns aren't the solution to every problem. If an effort like this can start putting responsible males back into inner city society and start rolling back the damage The Great Society has done to our inner cities it might be a good start.

Nothing, not the most draconian gun control you could imagine, nor the issuing of a 1911 and 50 rounds of ammo to every inner city resident and requiring them to carry it at all times will change what goes on in the inner cities.

Our inner cities are third world cesspools because we adopted policies that encouraged them to become third world cesspools. Until the Great Society is eliminated and replaced with policies that reflect and encourage traditional families and work, the inner cities will continue to be more like Zimbabwe then the USA.

It's not guns, it's not drugs...they are just the symptoms of the underlying disease that is corrupt socialism.

Jeff

 

[Mainsail]

It almost sounds like he’s calling out the militia! I would be willing to do it but I would definitely be carrying a handgun at minimum. If they told me I couldn’t then I’d go home.

 

[Regolith]

While Jeff White is correct in that guns don't solve every problem, these volunteers will be patrolling the worst of the crime ridden neighborhoods (if they want to be effective, anyway), and so having some means of protection would seem like a good idea. Not everyone wants to clean up the streets, and they (gangs, drug dealers, etc) may violently resist such an effort, which puts those volunteers at risk.

 

[jamz]

Interesting idea, and I like the homegrown type of solution. But I think this

will present a problem. A fault of any crime ridden culture, but also backed up by the fact that the legal system will very often hang people out to dry. (Note: Not the criminals).