TURNING OUR BACKS ON THE CITY'S VIOLENCE IS CRIMINAL

Outside the Miami Rescue Mission, a crowded homeless shelter, a dozen
men slept on the sidewalk in the sun. An army of cops rushed past
them and into the Mission's chapel, where they confronted a fugitive
from Philadelphia named John Jordan Lewis. He was suspected of
murdering veteran Police Officer Chuck Cassidy a week ago today.

Holding a picture in his right hand, one police officer questioned
Lewis: "Is this you?" The 21-year-old suspect put down his Bible,
pushed his arms forward and answered softly: "Yes, it's me." He was
handcuffed and taken off to jail to wait for detectives to escort him back.

Lewis is only a suspect. No matter the outcome of his questioning, no
one should conclude that the gunning down of Officer Cassidy during a
robbery is one of a kind; it is simply a template for many others out
there, a testament to the enslavement to violence as a survival tool.

Violence is not a race problem, a class problem, a city problem or a
Philly problem. It is an American problem. If anything is clear, it
is that the police cannot succeed without community support. If the
public continues to believe that crime is "something that happens to
someone else," the entire community will continue to be victimized.

Home invasions, drive-bys, holdups, burglaries, attacks on college
campuses - we greet these daily atrocities with only muted rage. Much
more must be done.

Drugs are an important element in the violence culture, not all of it
by any means. But the lost "war on drugs" is a good yardstick for the
degree of our larger failures. Wherever illegal drugs are peddled or
distributed, police and public remain at risk. Much more must be done
to stifle demand, shut down importation of drugs, lock away kingpins.
Jailing junkies and pushers is for public consumption; it'll never be
enough. But it's all the police can do. Their hands are tied by
politicians and judges, in turn immobilized by community
intransigence. Inured to crime and corruption, we make few demands on
government, on leaders, on students who routinely cheat, on athletes
who repeatedly father children out of wedlock and quickly abandon them.

The late Common Pleas Court Judge Lisa Richette warned us nearly two
generations ago that we are manufacturing an army of "throwaway
children." Many of our children fail simply because they - and what's
left of their families - choose irresponsibility.

What is really at work is our stubborn refusal to adequately support
those sworn to protect us. Philadelphia has suffered nearly 350
murders so far this year, and the count continues. We have resigned
ourselves to the inevitability of widespread criminality, and that
perpetuates and guarantees its growth. By our inertia, we are
creating some of the most dangerous people on earth: individuals
whose lives are so wretched they become convinced they have
absolutely nothing at all to lose. We must do better.

So now we are on the eve of new leadership in the mayor's office and
in the office of the police commissioner. If each of us does not
change, the community cannot be changed. If we do not mend our ways,
I see a future marked by inescapable and abject failure.

Michael Nutter has few answers beyond a program of "stop and frisk,"
which may increase community hostility and youthful alienation. Think
again. We are swiftly running out of time.

If we truly want to honor the memory of Chuck Cassidy, whose funeral
is today, we all must assume greater roles in the war on drugs, the
war on poverty, and, most of all, the war on hopelessness. If we
don't, future historians will conclude that Philadelphia lacked the
will to succeed and simply acquiesced to its own extinction.