As horrific as the gun violence and other non-gun-related violence has become, I find Councilman Johnson’s op-ed article in the Dec. 1 issue just as disturbing and, quite frankly, stupid.
In his article, Philadelphia’s gun violence problem is a moral, economic, racial and human crisis, Councilman Johnson argues that community violence intervention programs are an essential component of any gun violence prevention strategy. He boasts that he and his City Council colleagues successfully advocated for a community violence prevention microgrants program that began two years ago, and it has distributed more than $3 million to community organizations. He goes on to write that, earlier this year, they allocated $20 million for larger grants (as if microgrants weren’t enough), with a $1 million award cap per organization.
Does anyone see a pattern here? Government is handing out free money (millions and millions of it) over the years to combat gun violence and yet the violence has increased significantly. Now how stupid is that. Obviously, Mr. Johnson and his colleagues have never heard of the saying … Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness. I respectfully submit that this initiative hasn’t worked in the past, it surely isn’t working now and nor will it work in years to come. Money cannot fix moral issues; Money cannot fix cultural and racial issues. That’s like arguing, let’s give the addict lots of money so they can get help. It won’t work unless the addict realizes they have a problem and secondly has made a conscientious decision to get better. The same argument applies to other human behavior such as gun violence and other related violence.
The people committing these killings are murderers/homicidal maniacs who don’t give a rat’s ass about anyone. Be it man, woman or child. The current criminal justice reform had no chance of succeeding from its onset. Having radical bail policies, a radical progressive initiative toward crime and how the police should do their job hasn’t worked and will never work. Under such radical policies, crime will continue to rise not only in the city but in the suburbs as well.
Although Mr. Johnson does not mention it in his article, I’m appalled at the ongoing argument that part of the problem is lack of financial resources and jobs in our city and elsewhere. Obviously, our so-called political leaders have failed to notice the thousands of “Hiring Now” signs plastered all over city businesses.
– Richard DiGiacomo Sr.
