[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Is it any wonder voices like that below are heard from
campus as local university grads vote with their feet and
leave Philly, election cycle after election cycle:
*let's just give up* posted 04/03/07 @ 5:28 PM EST
Philadelphia sucks. When I graduate, I'm taking my Ivy
League degree and trust fund somewhere that doesn't look
like a third world country. We should all just give up on
Philly, and build a giant 200 foot tall concrete wall
around the city. http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/
and is it any wonder that penn, having the problems, also
has the solutions?
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/features/042607-1.html
Looking for answers By Judy Hill
Already this year, more than 100 people have been killed
on the streets of Philadelphia, outpacing last year’s
grim toll and bringing the city national attention as a
hotbed of urban violence. Eighty percent of these murders
were carried out with handguns, and many of the shooters,
as well as the victims, have criminal records.
As the city's mayoral race heats up, all five candidates
are proposing measures to curb the gun violence, from
Michael Nutter's "stop, question and frisk" approach to
Chaka Fattah's "carrot and a stick" tactic. We turned to
some of Penn's own violence and urban environment experts
to find out why this epidemic is happening and what can
be done to stop it.
Susan Sorenson Professor of social policy
The problem: "Beware of the politician--or professor, or
community advocate--who claims to have the answer for
Philadelphia. If there were one or two causes of
violence, we likely would have figured that out a long
time ago, but it's not that simple. Many smart people
have tried, with little success, to identify what drives
fluctuations in violence."
The solution: "In addition to short-term fixes focusing
on law enforcement intervention, Philadelphia needs to
create more opportunities for meaningful work,
dramatically improve the public schools and focus on
adults who are making handguns available to adolescents
and others who are prohibited from having them. To build
healthy and safe neighborhoods, Philadelphia leaders need
to be able to bring communities together--they need to be
able to articulate a positive vision of life in the city
that can unite Philadelphia."
Lawrence Sherman Director, Jerry Lee Center of
Criminology and professor of criminology and sociology
The problem: "No one knows why homicide rates rise and
fall in short time frames. But homicide has been rising
steadily for 5 years in Philadelphia, with ever more guns
seized by police every year."
The solution: "What we are doing about it at Penn
Criminology is to hire new faculty who have been helping
to forecast which convicted offenders on probation will
kill or be killed. We are also using these analyses to
help the probation department set priorities among its
52,000 offenders, and to test a new prevention program
stressing better psychological services and
rehabilitation for those probationers most at-risk. We
will know in another year or so how the test turns out.
Meanwhile I have proposed to the city and the U.S.
Congress that they increase funding for probation
officers, so the caseload of 185 offenders per probation
officer can be substantially reduced."
Amy Hillier Assistant professor, city and regional
planning
The solution: "Environment is part of the answer–-not the
whole answer, but part of the answer. Young people in
Philadelphia are growing up in neighborhoods saturated
with messages that say they don't matter. Every day, they
are exposed to inadequate schools, run-down housing,
trash-strewn lots, alcohol billboards and poor quality
food. They look around them and perceive that society
doesn't care about them or expect much from them.
We need to offer these young people real alternatives to
life on the street. We need to give them access to the
best schools and to jobs that will allow them to earn
enough money to support a family some day. And we need to
saturate them with messages that their lives are
precious. Would we expect anything less for our own
children or our Penn students?"
Charles Baras Assistant professor of epidemiology and
lead epidemiologist in Penn's Firearm and Injury Center
The problem: "It's always difficult to pinpoint specific
factors that carry the lion's share of the blame for gun
violence in Philadelphia, but a few generally seem to
rise to the top. Illegal drugs likely relate to violence
brought about by trafficking and, to some degree, actual
usage of illegal drugs. Trafficking of "Philly heroin," a
very potent brand of heroin that is also an unfortunate
source of pride for some in the city, has seen a recent
resurgence and may be part of the trend in gun violence.
Alcohol is also possibly related and some think that
"stop-and-go" outlets where alcohol is purchased but
consumed illegally off premises are also likely
important."
The solution: "A great many efforts are now underway in
Philadelphia to reduce gun violence. We are overdue for
these and, truth be told, we are far behind other cities
in having such programs in place. Our current NIH-funded
studies of gun violence in Philadelphia are specifically
designed to test the competing effects of many of the
environmental factors I just mentioned. Stay tuned for
our first research papers and reports to the City of
Philadelphia in the next several months."
Originally published April 26, 2007.
..................
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
[aka laserbeam®]
[aka ray]
SERIAL LIAR. CALL FOR RATES.
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