It Can Be Worse - Just Not By Much...

Yesterday was like any other fall day in Northeast Philly, except that around 8AM at the Roosevelt Mall in that part of town, a lone gunman quietly donned his gloves, and then strolled 700 feet to an ATM machine where two former PPD officers (working in the employ of Loomis Armored Carriers) were removing the deposits from the machine that were made the previous night.

After that, everything changed for two families...forever.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_left_story/20071005_Killer_gave_ATM_crew_no_chance.html

The robber approached the truck from behind shortly before 8AM, shot one guard in the chest, then went around the other side of the truck and shot the 2nd guard three times, killing them both. The robber (seen here emptying the ATM right after the murders) was driving a black Acura TL and got away with an undisclosed amount of cash. Both guards never even had a chance to unholster their sidearms.

A third guard was injured by flying glass when the robber tried to shoot through the armored truck. He at least went home to his family after being treated at a local hospital.

The mall was closed, and several schools in the area were locked down. Motorists leaving the area were stopped as police searched for the gunman. The schools and mall reopened by midday.

At least the ATM camera got a good picture of the robber, as did another business surveillance camera. The brazen perp was listed as being in his early 20s and black (big surprise, eh?) in a relatively white neighborhood (which is in a state of societal flux now with multiple ethnicities moving in...sound familiar?).

If the attack on the armored-car guards had happened just a few minutes earlier, the sidewalks would have been filled with children on their way to school, many people noted.

It's a subdued walking community of broad streets, with brick-and-stone twins with sloping front yards and off-street parking in back. My friends and I rode our bikes along the same streets ages ago. It was a neighborhood we would have loved to live in (the houses were not rowhouses like ours).

But that was a kinder, gentler time.

Kathy Paul, 44, who lives nearby, initially thought the shots were firecrackers, she said. She soon realized differently as sirens filled the air.

"In this neighborhood, anything can happen," she said

Like I said...a kinder, gentler time.

The media is being "kind" when it refers to this as a robbery. "He just came out and essentially assassinated them," Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson said.

My sympathies go out to the two former officers that were slain.

My heart goes out to the families & friends of these men as well.

And I know the whole PPD feels likewise, as they are always considered the "second" family" of ANY officer...even long after you retire.

Rest easy, men...we have you 10-42.

I suppose we in Fort Wayne can thank our lucky stars we're not living in a city that has several HUNDRED homicides PER YEAR. And Philly's murder stats make INDY look like a really NICE place to live by comparison (which any decent person would say is a lie from the git-go). Still, the heinousness of this crime will echo far after all is said and done. We in Fort Wayne can liken this to the Tasty Pizza man who was gunned down in the store late last year.

It's not about robbery, per se. It's about domestic terrorism...right here...right now.

I know this mall very well, as well as the neighborhoods surrounding it. It reminds you of many of our south side neighborhoods...before THEY succumbed to the criminal element. The mall was like a second home to my family, friends and me. (this strip mall had everything, and was as nice as Glenbrook, only outdoors) I know the armored car company in Pennsauken, NJ, and I know the 7th District police station (my father-in-law worked out of there), so this "hits home" for me on many levels, and only serves to reinforce all that I've been saying about crime not only HERE in THIS town, but around the nation in all of our major cities.

We need to get a helluva lot TOUGHER on these criminals, because they're having way too much "free reign" on our streets and taking too many lives along their merry way. If those in charge cannot dredge up the courage to make the hard decisions and make our streets safe, then we, as citizens need to step up and make OUR voices heard and invoke some changes ourselves, because it's OUR friends...OUR relatives...OUR children who are AT RISK, thanks to the status quo.

And no amount of political hand-holding "rehabilitative" rhetoric will change this picture anytime soon. We need to start making punishments EQUAL to the crime committed. It's not the best way to deal with this, but it IS the ONLY way (for now).

Like Kathy Paul stated: "In this neighborhood...anything can happen".

The difference is that here in my neighborhood, it usually DOES!

DO have a SAFE weekend.