On November 26, the day after Thanksgiving, a young man was shot and killed in Philadelphia. The murder was typical: five shots, no witnesses, no arrest, no suspects. But for Philly, this was an especially significant homicide—the city’s 501st murder for the year, its most ever.
No demographic, social, or economic shift caused this spike in violence. In 2014, Philadelphia recorded only 248 homicides. Since then, the city’s population has remained stable. Its median household income increased slightly. The Democratic Party continues to control all the levers of government. The city remains composed of economically and ethnically diverse neighborhoods. “Root cause” problems such as poverty or racism couldn’t have caused this massive increase in homicides, because whatever root causes exist have been around for a long while.
Read Full Article »