Recently I was contacted by my school newspaper regarding a recent report that was published by the Violence Policy Center,. The Violence Policy Center (VPC) is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC that works to stop the annual death and injury toll on humans due to gun violence through research, advocacy and education.
To make a long story short VPC did a study on black homicide rates across America using 2007 crime data. As I began to read the report I came to the realization that Pennsylvania was ranked number 1 in the nation for Black homicides rates with 485 black homicides occurred in Pennsylvania in 2007 and that was 36.36 homicides per 100,000 people. What was even more alarming was the rate of black homicide across America, with an alarming 7,387 black homicides in 2007 with a rate of 20 homicides per 100,000 with an average age of 30 years old. In addition, where 674 homicides of the 7,387 homicides that took place nationwide were victims under the age of 18 years of age. THIS HAS TO STOP!!!! When I think of my hometown Philadelphia I began to wonder who is addressing the issues? There are groups in Philadelphia like the Philadelphia Anti- Drug and Anti Violence Network ( PAAN) who run, truancy programs, gang intervention, parenting classes in addition to many young adult and teen violence reduction programs across the city of Philadelphia. Although programs like these are doing great jobs in impacting the youth of America, they seem to be hindered or crippled by the recent economic downfall so foundation and governmental funding has lessened. If we began to increase our support for these organizations that are working across the nation, then states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, who ranked in the top 4 in nation to black homicide would have the ability to make an even greater impact in their communities. I say that we work to provide the necessary resources to work at the grassroots level. In addition we can then work on the root causes in conjunction with gun violence whether it be mental health, access to healthy foods, decreases in environmental toxins that impact human behavior. We can all collectively form a education, health and law enforcement perspective, really begin to help impact the lives of young black men and women who are using gun violence as a way to address the overarching social issues within society.
To best describe my feelings on gun violence I have decided to add the video of a young activist in Chester Pennsylvania named Desire Grover of GhettoPrint.com. Ms. Grover in this video talks about her reactions to the increases in gun violence within her community of Chester which is located 25 minutes outside of Philadelphia. The video of a young women killed in her sleep is Kathy Stewart, who was taking care of her bedridden mother and in the middle of the night was struck in the head by a stray bullet. This is what many may call a stupid and unnecessary death, all because some young cats in the City of Chester did not know how to handle their beef. ( for more information on here story please click the link below)
Story of Kath Stewart- Chester Pennsylvania- Killed in bed by a Stray Bullet
http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2009/11/17/news/doc4b02cb24efa73501541596.txt
Please watch the video and reflect on the comments of this blog.
Phila. Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network
The Campaign against Violence
