Clarke has eye on city's gun violence

The ages varied between 17 years old to age 32. Most recently, the funeral for a 28 year-old man was held at Green’s church.

“It’s sad when you have to see parents bury their children,” Green added. “The parents are not prepared.”

As of Thursday, there have been 196 homicide victims in Philadelphia, according to statistics provided by the Philadelphia Police Department. In 2016, 278 people were murdered; 230 died by guns in 2016.

“We’ve held the line at 300 murders a year,” said Council President Darrell Clarke. “But how is that OK that 300 people are murdered a year? These are the numbers of people getting shot every year.”

Clarke who represents the 5th district, which includes Strawberry Mansion, said gun violence is an issue he’s trying to attack vehemently by doing things he has direct control over. Clarke and Council Members Kenyatta Johnson and Curtis Jones and others traveled to a gun show a couple weeks ago to get a perspective on the proliferation of guns.

“It is a serious rude awakening in terms of the likelihood that we will stop the flow of guns to any reasonable degree,” Clarke said. “When you see how easily accessible these weapons are, it’s pretty scary. It let me understand that we really need to focus on this.”

Earlier this year, Clarke introduced legislation that requires guns in homes with children under age 18 to be unloaded and stored in a locked container.

Green said he thanks leaders like Clarke and others for lobbying for more gun control, but said it’s unfortunate when laws are stopped at the state level.

“It’s such a complicated problem,” said Green of the guns and gun laws. “It takes time to find a real solution.”

Clarke and Sheriff Jewell Williams and other entities have also been instrumental in promoting the use of gun locks.

“To date, we’ve distributed close to 5,000 gun locks,” Clarke said. “(People) are using them on their guns, because there’s nothing else you can use them for. You can’t use it on a bike or anything else. We’re excited about the level of support for that program.”

Williams said more than 500 people are transported daily between the courts and the prisons.

“Many are charged with crimes involving guns,” Williams said in an emailed statement to The Tribune. “Before anger gets to a point of reaching for a gun, if that gun is in a lock, it provides at least a few seconds an individual may change their mind about firing a weapon, and makes it almost impossible for it be fired by a child.”

Council has also enacted a Special Committee on Gun Violence Prevention earlier this year with leaders from different sectors across government, law enforcement, public health, social services, and community development, all coming together to analyze and help prevent gun violence.

Additionally, Clarke said the Philadelphia Anti-Violence Coalition was formed among groups to help reduce homicide numbers through intervention and it will be funded.

Community organizer Bilal Qayyum is helping to spearhead the coalition. He said although murders are up compared to this time last year, there are less murders compared to four weeks ago.

“Working together and advocating for unity around this issue of reducing violence will be a major solution,” said Qayyum. “With the more folks involved on a consistent level is when you see a change as it relates to violence.”

He noted having organizations out in the streets, passing out job applications and speaking to young men is key to making a difference. The unemployment rate in Philadelphia is 6 percent, compared to 4.3 percent nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Jobs is one of the crucial issues to reducing shootings in the city of Philadelphia,” Qayyum said. “Violence is a major result of not having jobs in the community.”

Green agrees, adding, “If our young people, had jobs, they wouldn’t be on the corner because they would be working. It also starts with the parents.”

More surveillance cameras is also something Clarke would like to see implemented, but that also means that more people would have to be willing to speak up when they see something. About only 51 percent of the city’s homicides are solved.

“I think we should run our technology,” he said. “If people knew there was a likelihood that there was some level of surveillance, then maybe they would think twice. That clearly relates to not just gun violence, but other types of violence.”

Overall, Clarke would like to see more of a collaboration among all the people and organizations doing good work in the community in order to help solve the city’s gun violence issue.

“I’m going to keep talking about this,” he said. “Every year there are 1,300 people are getting shot and people are somehow saying ‘well at least this is not Chicago.’ This is some serious stuff. This is the future of our community and these young people are our future.”