Less than half of the murderers who committed crimes in Philadelphia in 2020 were brought to justice. There are Instagram and YouTube accounts dedicated to unsolved murders in Philadelphia. The mothers of the victims are fed the hell up and they have taken to the streets to solve the murders on their own. They’ve had no choice but to switch into detective mode.
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Episode 6: The Golden Hour
The hours and days after a shooting are often called the golden hour for survivors of gun violence and for their families. This is a time when support, outreach and services can redirect anger and potentially stop a retaliatory shooting. In this podcast we have talked a lot about the number of homicides caused by gun violence. The number of people murdered by guns makes headlines. What isn’t talked about nearly as often are the survivors of violent crime and what happens to them.
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Episode 5: Killadelphia
One of the quotes that stayed with us the most while reporting Philly Under Fire came from Melany Nelson of Northwest Victim Services. “I've spoken to many youth and they said to me, ‘Ms. Nelson, either you're going to be the predator or the prey. So you have to pick one.’ So nine times out of 10, they're going to be the predator. They told me that they expect to die young.” But as we'll hear in this episode, Philadelphia’s youth are also choosing to fight back against the violence.
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Episode 4: A Fresh 24
A recent Temple study found that gun violence surged as the Covid-19 pandemic worsened poverty, unemployment, and structural racism. Poverty and a lack of jobs leads to desperation; desperation can lead to gun violence. Over the course of our reporting, we heard this over and over again, that a key part of driving down gun violence is increasing job opportunities for the men most likely to fall into the illegal economy. We spent the past year talking to one organization that is trying to do exactly that.
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Episode 3: Get in Front of the Beef
So, are there any proven solutions to gun violence? In this episode, Jo introduces listeners to organizations in Philly and elsewhere—Chicago, Oakland—that have made meaningful progress even if it isn’t easy. Underlying these programs are strategies like using data to identify who’s most likely to be shot—and to shoot; talking to shooters; mediating and de-escalating “beefs” before they get too hot.
Philadelphia experienced a tragic surge in gun violence in 2020, with 499 of our fellow residents killed and another 2,200 shot.
In February of last year, The Citizen started trying to understand the causes, effects and fixes for gun violence in Philadelphia and around the country. We spent the year reporting on the issue, while both Covid-19 and shootings devastated neighborhoods around the city.
The resulting seven-episode podcast is part of that reporting. In it we tell the stories of Philadelphians intimately affected by the city’s gun violence, those working to end it, those who have found solutions here and elsewhere—and those who have failed to step up to this moment when we most need them.
USA