Philadelphia: declaring a cease-fire

The city of brotherly love is at war. The enemy is a spiking homicide rate.

Hat tip Drudge (linked to this article):

What are they doing to fight this war?

They are going to the public on bended knee, saying what amounts to "please tell us where the bad people are hiding. We'll even cart you out of the state away from all these bad people who don't want you to testify; we'll keep you safely away from it all (including your job, your livelihood, your home, your church, your friends...your life)."

District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham vowed that her office will protect witnesses, even if it means sending a moving van to their home to take them to safety the day they come forward.

“...we can move you out of the state; we can move you across the country,” Abraham said.

What else are they up to?

Mayor Street said under certain circumstances he would consider help from the Pennsylvania State Police and even the National Guard.

Street has declared the violence throughout the city a crisis and as a result has ordered the full review of police department policies and has suggested a full moratorium on the issuing of gun permits.

Is there something wrong with this picture? I would dearly love to understand how a moratorium on the issuing of gun permits could possibly slow down the homicide rate. Does anyone think that Philadelphia has leniant gun laws? I would hazard to guess that if the people with permits were responsible for the homicide problem, most all of them would be aprehended at a moment's notice.

I think it's time they woke up and started issuing MORE permits for safe and legal carry of firearms. This is just another case of citezenphobia. It's a government who treats the people as if every one of them is a criminal.

On a side note:
Does anyone remember Project Exile from 2000?

That was a program implimented first in Richmond, VA with tremendous effect (cutting the murder rate by over half) and in a number of other cities till Congress finally passed a bill to those standards (I don't know if it passed the Senate). Project Exile was conceived to turn up the heat for felons in posession of firearms. Arbitrary prison time was mandated if a felon was found to be carrying a gun.

Philadelphia was one of the cities to use impliment Project Exile. Considering the fact they have a different mayor since then, I can only assume that enforcement has slacked off. Unless someone actually believes that tougher sentences lead to more crime.

I don't think Project Exile has been implimented nationwide. I think the Senate version may have run into some trouble. I had trouble finding info on it.