Bang. Bang. Bang. Pop. Pop. Pop.
I bet you thought this would be a post about the sound of seagulls at the shore. Nope. This is the Burning Platform where we deal with the reality of our downward spiral into the abyss. While you were enjoying your weekend puttering around the house or tending to your garden, the ignorant masses were killing each other all over the City of Philadelphia.
There is a total disregard for human life in the City of Philadelphia. I actually think it might be safer walking the streets of Bahgdad. The summer has just begun. Sorry to be politically incorrect (not really), but I can absolutely fucking guarantee you that every person gunned down was black and every shooter was black. What’s the point?
It seems to me that we’ve reached a boiling point and this sucker is about to explode.
Philadelphia’s New Flag
32 people shot in 3 days of Philly violence
It was a weekend of violence and mayhem – brutal even by Philadelphia standards. From Friday through Sunday, 32 people were wounded, six fatally, in about 20 shootings across the city, police said, and a seventh person died in a stabbing.
Police had not yet determined if the 33 victims represented the worst three-day span of violence in the department’s recent history. But Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said the onslaught stood out as one of the worst in his 31/2-year Philadelphia tenure.
“I don’t know if we’ve ever had any more over a three-day period,” he said of the shootings during a news conference Monday at Police Headquarters. “This certainly ranks right at the top, if not the top. It shows just how violent it can become on the streets of our city.”
“We are lucky we did not have more homicides,” Ramsey said, referring to two shootings in which 10 people were injured and in which police recovered more than 20 shell casings.
Police released security footage of one of those shootings Monday, an altercation early Sunday at a Nicetown bar, startling in its randomness.
About 12:45, a man returned to the Genesis Bar a minute after he was thrown out by a bouncer for smoking. Angry over being tossed, police said, the patron retrieved a handgun from his car.
He opened fire from the doorway, striking six people in six seconds, police said. Among the victims was Carl Sharper, 43, of Germantown, a Water Department employee who happened to be enjoying a few beers with a cousin, according to his family. He was shot once in the head and died at the scene, police said.
The footage shows the shooter arriving alone at the crowded bar about 11:30 p.m.
He sat alone at the corner of the bar and drank five or six beers, Homicide Capt. James Clark said. He became unruly and lit a cigarette. A bouncer can be seen grabbing him from behind and pushing him out the door.
The man can be seen jumping up and down in the street and yelling at the bouncer. He returns a minute later and fires through a glass door.
The victims were all patrons, Clark said.
“They were just inside laughing, joking, and just having a good time,” he said. “This shooter had a blatant disregard for human life. He could have killed 11 people.”
A 33-year-old man was shot twice in the back and a 44-year-old woman was shot twice in the stomach. Both were in critical condition Monday.
Sharper’s family gathered Monday on the porch of his parents’ home on the 200 block of Queen Lane, the same block where Sharper lived with his fiancée.
The family immigrated to the United States from Guyana when Sharper was 3, said his father, Simon.
Relatives described Carl Sharper as hardworking, respectful, and a loyal friend.
“When I think of his kindness and his beautifulness as a son, it becomes too much,” said Simon Sharper, sitting near his wife, Prudence.
Sharper and Drexie Charles were to be married in August. Charles said she had spoken to him by phone not long before the attack. He told her he was having a few beers and then would come home.
“I still am in shock,” Charles said. “I keep waiting for someone to tell me it was a mistake – to see him coming walking down the street.”
Police asked for the public’s help in reviewing the footage and identifying the shooter.
“We have witnesses,” Clark said. “We just need a name and we should be able to arrest this individual and bring him to justice.”
Police were also searching for five teenagers involved in a Sunday night shooting outside a Strawberry Mansion recreation center. Nyeme Taylor, 30, was killed and three others injured, including a 6-year-old girl who was shot twice in the face. She was in critical condition Monday.
“It was a savage thing to do,” Ramsey said of the shooting.
Also killed in four shootings, spread out over the weekend and the city, were Edwin Smith, 21; Edward Scarborough, 23; Duane Isaacs, 48; and Raymond Butts, 22. A 19-year-old man has been arrested in Smith’s death.
Rodney Seabrook, 58, of North Philadelphia, died after being stabbed in the chest Friday morning, police said.
“There are people out there who know exactly who the people are responsible for these crimes,” Ramsey said. “Those people need to speak up.”
flash says:
Yep…..Schools out for summer.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110627_Woman_s_leg_broken__others_hurt_in_Spring_Garden_mob_attack.html
http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhafNEnJmHv3Sr08EL
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28th June 2011 at 8:58 am
Avalon says:
The Nyeme Taylor death saddened me when I read about it. It was a Dad whose son had just been jumped by 5 kids and he had gone to the playground to try to stop the harassment. The kids ganged up on the dad and then someone started shooting. The kid’s sister was shot and injured as well.
I think anyone with kids can identify with this man who was trying to protect his son.
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28th June 2011 at 10:08 am
JIMSKI says:
With Americans killing Americans to the tune of 25k a year I ask you this:
When does OUR UN no fly zone begin? When do the blue helmets show up?
Libyan nut job kills what 400 and he gets invaded. Sounds a bit unfair and elitist to me.
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28th June 2011 at 10:16 am
Administrator says:
I love the google ads next to this story. They are all for lawyers and criminal background checks.
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28th June 2011 at 10:37 am
Muck About says:
Another happy bedtime story from the City of Brotherly Hate..
Almost all my sidebar ads are for expunging criminal records from your files, you felon, you! I clicked on them all just to show how interested I am in doing that.
MA
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28th June 2011 at 10:49 am
Colma Rising says:
Enter the curfews…
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28th June 2011 at 11:06 am
Centerfield says:
And this self-afflicted attrition is a problem, you say? Maybe (turn on the sarcasm filter) we should be throwing MORE guns at these deviants so that they can finish off each other faster!
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28th June 2011 at 11:33 am
ecliptix543 says:
Der Polizei Money Shot: “We are lucky we did not have more homicides,” Ramsey said, referring to two shootings in which 10 people were injured and in which police recovered more than 20 shell casings. (Ooooooohhhh… Wow! A whole twenty shell casings!! That many?!?! I’m impressed!! Hell, I like you! You can come over to my house and fuck my sister!!)
So you saps in PA pay ALL those taxes so the Polizei can wander around the city picking up shell casings from the weekend’s festivities? Jeezus… No wonder you’re fucked.. (sarc/off)
Admin & Avalon, Get out of there. Please. As this whole facade continues to crack and fall apart, they’re just going to rope off and nuke that shithole of a city and you both know it. They’ll box up the Bell and the statues, take some nice pictures of Independence Hall and the rest of that touristy stuff and LEAVE.
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28th June 2011 at 11:55 am
Centerfield says:
Philly = “Escape from New York – 21st Century Edition” ?
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28th June 2011 at 12:00 pm
thc0655 says:
Back when Ed Rendell became mayor, the City asked its citizens what they thought the City’s new slogan should be (you know, the cute little one liner designed to entice tourists to visit). My favorite and the favorite of many others was not chosen. However, I’ve clung to it all these years and wish we could start using it:
“WELCOME TO PHILADELPHIA: LOCK AND LOAD!’
But here’s a thought-provoking question: Our murder and violent crime rates are well below several peaks from this decade and the’90′s. Shoot! The Inquirer doesn’t even print every day the year to date murder tally like it used to love doing. Why does it all seem so much worse now?
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28th June 2011 at 12:52 pm
Thunderbird says:
Isn’t it illegal to carry a gun in Phily? Oh; I guess that only applies to law abiding citizens. Another place where the rule of law is going out the window. Looks like the old west is coming back. Looks like Phily needs a new sherrif.
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28th June 2011 at 1:06 pm
Persnickety says:
I’m not in Pennsylvania, but I was under the impression that the state has statewide preemption of local laws on guns, and that the city of Bothersome Love is not very good at observing this preemption. There was a video a couple weeks ago of a guy getting seriously harassed by Philly police for legally carrying.
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28th June 2011 at 1:13 pm
Colma Rising says:
Persnicks: Law enforcement tends not to like folks toting guns… legal or not, it will invoke a higher level of scrutiny…
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28th June 2011 at 1:19 pm
howard in nyc says:
so first chi-town. now philly. any other big cities seeing this ‘wilding’ or ‘flash mob’ stuff along with a big uptick in shootings?
my friends and family in cali report pretty much business as usual in sf, la, sd and sac-town, a bit more robbery and burglary, not a ton more violence. here in nyc, as long as it is black/brown on black/brown, media barely notices. maybe a touch more gun-related crime, but no epidemic or pattern. yet. most of the increased crime here is still on wallstreet and in the banks.
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28th June 2011 at 10:27 pm
thc0655 says:
Pennsylvania is a “must issue” state (law enforcement MUST issue a permit to carry unless the applicant has one of the objective disqualifications). The mayor and city council would like to deny it, but Philadelphia is part of Pennsylvania so applicants without disqualifications must be issued their permit regardless of the political opposition. Open carry (without a permit) is legal in Pennsylvania and is not by itself reasonable suspicion for a police stop or investigation. Pennsylvania law exempts Philadelphia from open carry without a permit. Someone who wants to carry openly (or concealed) in Philadelphia is bound by state law to obtain a concealed carry permit (yes, even for open carry in Philadelphia). Philadelphia police are duty bound to stop and investigate anyone they observe carrying openly (or concealed). If the armed person is cooperative, has a concealed carry permit and no warrants, the process usually takes less than 8 minutes. If the person refuses police orders then things get complicated and take longer. If the person carrying wants to be an internet hero, it will take even longer (but that’s ok, because he was looking to cause drama anyway).
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28th June 2011 at 12:52 am
Opinionated Bloviator says:
Just wait until the “free shit” gets turned off… fun times ahead…
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28th June 2011 at 12:58 am