Throughout 2024, I’ve felt good about the steady decline of shootings and firearm related fatalities in our city. But the violent weekend that began on Friday, December 13 — exactly 12 days before Christmas — left me feeling disheartened. At least 25 people were shot, four fatally, over the course of those three days, starting with a shooting near the Christmas Village at City Hall’s Dilworth Park. My colleague Mensah M. Dean went to a news conference on Monday, December 16, where officials insisted this was not the new normal, that the level of bloodshed would not define a year in which homicides were significantly down.
And then there was the sting I felt in my body later that day, as I watched the breaking news about a school shooting in Madison, Wisconsin. These events were reminders that, even as things began to feel less grim last year, we are still in the thick of a national gun violence crisis.
Last month, Mensah released a three-part series about the root causes of gun violence in the African American community. In his reporting, he found that “no matter how bad gun violence spikes or how much it declines in Philadelphia, African Americans lead all other racial groups among those who’ve been shot and those who’ve done the shooting.” That dose of reality also gave me pause. To know that this particular type of violence is ongoing in the communities I love and was raised in, I can’t help but ask myself, what more can I do?
Though I’m fully aware and constantly reminded that we’re facing devastation at the hands of gun violence, I believe that better days are ahead. I met a woman, Michelle, three days after the Center City shooting at Dilworth Park. She told me that she was at the Christmas Village when shots rang out. “I knew a vendor there, and I knocked on their booth to ask if I could come in,” she said. Michelle and her friend took cover until things seemed safe again. “It’s a scary thing,” she said, “but what are we going to do? We still have to live our lives.”
The gun violence that weekend came amid what should feel like good news: Police data shows that homicides and nonfatal shootings are the lowest they’ve been in years.
Despite Philly seeing a sharp drop in gun violence, Mayor Cherelle Parker has said there’s still too much of it — echoing the community members I’ve spoken with over the past year, as well as my own feelings. At the news conference, according to Mensah’s reporting, Parker spoke of the people shot just before Christmas, telling those gathered that: “our city grieves their loss and it should not have to be this way. People should not have to live this way. Yes, you do know what the stats are. They affirm that even despite this weekend’s gun violence, we are making some progress, but it’s not enough. The numbers don’t mean a damn thing. … We cannot and will not rest until every resident and every neighborhood feels safe in their homes, going to school, and walking in their community.”
During the same conference, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel and District Attorney Larry Krasner said that the violence won’t deter them from their mission. “This weekend does not define who we are as a city,” Bethel said.
To his point, I don’t believe it defines who we are. Rather, it’s a reminder that there is still much more work to be done. And Philadelphians have some ideas for what, exactly, that work should look like. “We need to get resources into the communities, we need jobs that pay liveable wages, and we also need to get guns off the streets,” said Eric Marsh, a Nicetown resident and co-founder and executive director of the Fathering Circle. “Then, I think that a sense of relief will be able to set in.”
