Murder doesn't take a vacation

There were six more murders in Philadelphia over the weekend. Murder is so routine that the city's biggest newspaper doesn't even bother to write about many of the killings.

The Philadelphia murder rate now stands at 233 deaths on the 204th day of 2007.

Thirty-seven people were shot in Philadelphia from Friday through Sunday. Why is Gov. Rendell more concerned about subsidizing train rides for rich suburbanites than he is with the carnage in Philadelpia?

Three people were gunned down in a crowded bar. Nobody saw a thing. Police are helpless to stop the violence. Nobody feels safe in Philadelphia.

More than 2,000 people have been shot in Philadelphia this year. Keep that number in mind the next time your favorite liberal newspapers runs the death toll from Iraq.

That's more than one murder a day for the City of Brotherly Love, which is now ranked as the most dangerous big city in the United States. The city's murder rate is running far ahead of last year, when 406 people were murdered.

Philadelphia didn't become the murder capital of the U.S. overnight. But the murder rate has been rising for years. Politicians, from the incompetent mayor of Philadelphia, John F. Street, to the indifferent governor of Pennsylvania, have been unable or unwilling to address the murders in the past five years.

Gov. Edward G. Rendell, former two-term mayor of Philadelphia, doesn't appear to be too concerned with the death toll in Philadelphia. His only answer to the problem is to back a gun control measure that would restrict gun sales in the city to one per month.

Here's a news flash for the governor. The guns being used to kill so many Philadelphia residents are not being purchased from gun stores. The Legislature tabled the proposed bill and also failed to take action on another measure to hired 10,000 new police officers in Pennsylvania, many of whom would be assigned to Philadelphia. The Legislature is now on a 10-week summer vacation.

The governor has found money to subsidize inefficient mass transit systems, money to build a hockey rink for the Pittsburgh Penguins and money to expand the convention center in Philadelphia, but has done nothing in five years to stem the violence in Philadelphia.

There are 161 days left in the year. Do the math. At the very least, 161 more people will die a violent death in Philadelphia before the end of the year.