Frankford Community Blog | Local News, Events, Community Resources
Number 12 for this year. Tell us violent crime is down. From kyw1060.com:
Then, around 4:30am Monday morning, an unknown gunman shot a 27-year-old man in the chest in the 1400 block of Unity Street in the city’s Northeast. He died an hour later at Temple University Hospital.
We updated the crime map page to include the most recent month. You can find it here. I compile these things myself and can’t help but notice the spreading menace as it moves into areas previously thought of as “safe”. This is almost like the chickens coming home to roost. As the police tighten things up in our area, the vermin are forced to move into other areas to ply their trade.
I heard from a citizen last week that since the cameras have been installed in McDonald’s on Frankford Avenue and outside at Bridge and Pratt on the Avenue, the outdoor drug salesmen have been forced to move around up there. So now they have to get creative and move away from the cameras.
This is number 10 for this year. 2008 in Frankford was more violent than 2007 so far and it’s only October. From Philly.com:
A 39-year-old man was found fatally shot in the Frankford section of Philadelphia yesterday afternoon, police said.
The man, who was not identified, was discovered with a gunshot wound to the head about 1 p.m. in a rear alley in the 2000 block of Bridge Street, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
This is the link.
I attended the Town Hall meeting last night at the Frankford Group Ministry at Orthodox and Griscom Streets. The meeting started promptly at 7 with the arrival of Captain Bachmayer and Community Relations Officer Krause.
The captain explained that this meeting rotates throughout the 15th district and comes back to Frankford about every 4 months. The community has the opportunity to talk about the crime issues in the neighborhood. the main topic was drugs and the problems that come with them. Several hot spots were discussed and some new ones were brought up to the captain.
He emphasized that these issues are ongoing in nature and even though arrests may be made the problem may not go away. The arrest is only the first part of the process with the District Attorney then prosecuting the suspect and the courst then sending the criminal away.
The most important part of this situation, which most of us understand, is that we need to remove the criminals from our midst. Remove the criminals and the crime problem is much easier to deal with. Several residents pointed out that the criminals on their block are renters and want to know what can be done to have them evicted from the residences that they are using as a base of operation for criminal activities.
The captain replied that when drug activity is linked to a house, the DA can start proceedings to take the house from the owner. This does take time but it certainly should be an incentive for the owner to refrain from renting to these bottom feeders who plague our community. In the case of Section 8 renters, they can lose their Section 8 voucher. It all sounds good so why are we still trying to get rid of these bums.
I was present at a meeting earlier this year where our councilperson (Maria Quinones Sanchez) said that she wanted to take a comprehensive approach to dealing with prisoner reentry, half way houses, rehab houses and drug treatment facilities. Seems like enough time has passed to ask her if that comprehensive approach has taken form yet. So far it does not show.
The community continues to be plagued by these problems and the police at best can play catch up. We need something better. We need leadership.
