Nobody's Fault But Mine
Another Philly cop was killed about a week and a half ago. It's gotten to the point where Philly just feels like Gotham City, like you're not surprised by any act of violence, corruption, or lack of human decency anymore. Anything could happen and it wouldn't faze me at this point. (I'm not sure if this is related, but I've had a couple dreams where I was Batman in the past few months. Just sayin'.)
The craziest thing about this, though, is that people's attitudes toward this violence have seemed to change. It's like Philadelphians' brains are so fried by what's happened that they can't properly process the awful level our city has sunk to, morally, politically or economically. Today, as a couple friends and I made fun of the "Even works on drug addicts!" testimonial on a package of Mace in a Chinese convenience store, I read off the next quip, "Because the streets just aren't safe anymore!" The weird-looking lady(?) in front of me, who was excessively excited about her lottery tickets, responded to no one in particular, "Ain't that the truth." I kind of thought that was a little harsh, since I safely travel through some rough neighborhoods on the car ride home from work everyday without incident.
But it's that kind of attitude that's run rampant across this city's society, the feeling that "you'd be crazy to go outside after dusk." In Coatesville, there's now a citywide curfew because stupid-ass teenagers can't stop setting people's houses on fucking fire. You know how you stop kids from setting houses on fire? Tell parents to stop letting their asshole kids leave the house on a goddamn school night. Is that so hard?
And yet, it is, for some reason. Everyone wants to pass the buck on this societal disorder right now, like we're all victims and have nothing to do with the cause. But when that officer was killed not two weeks ago, you know what people were saying? They were talking about how he probably fucked up and put himself in the position to get shot.
Really? We've come to the point where we're blaming a police officer for getting shot by some crazy fuck with a gun and a death wish?
Yeah, sometimes cops make mistakes. They're humans, just like us. But there's a difference between an asshole who writes you a bullshit ticket because he's having a bad day and a guy who's responding to a 911 call from a frantic taxi driver who thinks he's about to die.
I don't know, call me crazy on this one, but I'd rather blame the dude who committed murder. And, maybe, the guy in charge of the city who's talking about laying off police personnel. Great plan there, Nutter. Wasn't crime supposed to be the main focus of your mayorship?
It's funny, about that Batman/Gotham City thing. You know when Batman was created? 1939, on the heels of the Great Depression. Seems like we could use a superhero right now.
The craziest thing about this, though, is that people's attitudes toward this violence have seemed to change. It's like Philadelphians' brains are so fried by what's happened that they can't properly process the awful level our city has sunk to, morally, politically or economically. Today, as a couple friends and I made fun of the "Even works on drug addicts!" testimonial on a package of Mace in a Chinese convenience store, I read off the next quip, "Because the streets just aren't safe anymore!" The weird-looking lady(?) in front of me, who was excessively excited about her lottery tickets, responded to no one in particular, "Ain't that the truth." I kind of thought that was a little harsh, since I safely travel through some rough neighborhoods on the car ride home from work everyday without incident.
But it's that kind of attitude that's run rampant across this city's society, the feeling that "you'd be crazy to go outside after dusk." In Coatesville, there's now a citywide curfew because stupid-ass teenagers can't stop setting people's houses on fucking fire. You know how you stop kids from setting houses on fire? Tell parents to stop letting their asshole kids leave the house on a goddamn school night. Is that so hard?
And yet, it is, for some reason. Everyone wants to pass the buck on this societal disorder right now, like we're all victims and have nothing to do with the cause. But when that officer was killed not two weeks ago, you know what people were saying? They were talking about how he probably fucked up and put himself in the position to get shot.
Really? We've come to the point where we're blaming a police officer for getting shot by some crazy fuck with a gun and a death wish?
Yeah, sometimes cops make mistakes. They're humans, just like us. But there's a difference between an asshole who writes you a bullshit ticket because he's having a bad day and a guy who's responding to a 911 call from a frantic taxi driver who thinks he's about to die.
I don't know, call me crazy on this one, but I'd rather blame the dude who committed murder. And, maybe, the guy in charge of the city who's talking about laying off police personnel. Great plan there, Nutter. Wasn't crime supposed to be the main focus of your mayorship?
It's funny, about that Batman/Gotham City thing. You know when Batman was created? 1939, on the heels of the Great Depression. Seems like we could use a superhero right now.
posted by Kevin A. Doran at 8:59 PM
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