Feature Article |
The Dead of Night
By Gregory Gilderman
AROUND 6 A.M. IN North Philadelphia, the sky becomes a dull gray, the streetlights flicker out, and it almost feels calm. But calm in this part of the city is usually an illusion.
"Burglary in progress, 29th and Dauphin," the dispatcher says.
The address he gives is a store called One + One Bargains. It's on the same block as the Hollywood Chinese American Food Take Out and the storefront Fort Hill Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas.
We can hear a burglar alarm, but it's muffled by the garage-door-style metal gate that's closed over the entrance. Stephens pulls the gate up to reveal broken glass. His gun comes out. More squad cars pull up. After a few minutes, the officers exit the store. The perpetrators are long gone.
"Cigarettes," Stephens says. "They stole some cigarettes. Maybe they'll sell them, maybe they just wanted a smoke. They didn't even open the cash register."
It's our last call of the night. Stephens remains at the store. I ride back to the station house with a Sergeant Ortiz. I will later learn three people were shot dead that night.
In his July 27th address, Mayor Street seemed strangely emotionless, except when he came to this passage: "Let me take a moment to personally appeal to our young people. Please take a deep breath before resorting to the use of guns to settle minor conflicts or perceived personal snubs which are inevitable. ... There really are better ways to resolve these disputes. For starters, avoid at all cost the possession of a lethal weapon, the use of which will likely ruin your life. You are the future of this city. Lay your weapons down — now."
As of the printing of this issue, we have more than 320 homicides for 2006, most of them concentrated in a handful of police districts. There may be, as Street said, better ways to solve disputes than with a gun. The question may be this: Without substantial, preventative intervention from the police — intervention that is based on the success and innovation of other urban police forces — how likely is it that the armed young men of Philadelphia will find them?
A Philadelphia native, Gregory Gilderman is a New York-based writer and documentary film producer. E-mail: mail@phillymag.com
"Burglary in progress, 29th and Dauphin," the dispatcher says.
The address he gives is a store called One + One Bargains. It's on the same block as the Hollywood Chinese American Food Take Out and the storefront Fort Hill Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God of the Americas.
We can hear a burglar alarm, but it's muffled by the garage-door-style metal gate that's closed over the entrance. Stephens pulls the gate up to reveal broken glass. His gun comes out. More squad cars pull up. After a few minutes, the officers exit the store. The perpetrators are long gone.
"Cigarettes," Stephens says. "They stole some cigarettes. Maybe they'll sell them, maybe they just wanted a smoke. They didn't even open the cash register."
It's our last call of the night. Stephens remains at the store. I ride back to the station house with a Sergeant Ortiz. I will later learn three people were shot dead that night.
In his July 27th address, Mayor Street seemed strangely emotionless, except when he came to this passage: "Let me take a moment to personally appeal to our young people. Please take a deep breath before resorting to the use of guns to settle minor conflicts or perceived personal snubs which are inevitable. ... There really are better ways to resolve these disputes. For starters, avoid at all cost the possession of a lethal weapon, the use of which will likely ruin your life. You are the future of this city. Lay your weapons down — now."
As of the printing of this issue, we have more than 320 homicides for 2006, most of them concentrated in a handful of police districts. There may be, as Street said, better ways to solve disputes than with a gun. The question may be this: Without substantial, preventative intervention from the police — intervention that is based on the success and innovation of other urban police forces — how likely is it that the armed young men of Philadelphia will find them?
A Philadelphia native, Gregory Gilderman is a New York-based writer and documentary film producer. E-mail: mail@phillymag.com
Originally published in Philadelphia magazine, November 2006
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