Swarms of police will scatter in South Philadelphia today in a 30-day effort to slow violence in a neighborhood where violent crime is up 30 percent this year, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The initiative will begin spreading citywide as police hope to stem the rising homicide rate and violent crime plaguing some city neighborhoods. “I would advise you not to jaywalk. It will be zero tolerance,” said police Capt. Jerrold Bates. “It’s going to be pretty intense.”
Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson warned that police alone cannot solve the problems. “We’ll never arrest our way out of the problem today,” he added. Yesterday, nearly 30 community leaders flanked Johnson during a news conference to reassure him they would help the crime-fighting effort and would pressure others to do the same. As of yesterday, 344 homicides have been recorded in 2005, compared with 298 for the same period last year. There were 330 homicides all of last year. Three state legislators called for new limits on gun sales. “If we can’t change the law, then we’re going to find more money to get more money on the street to help with this problem,” said Sen. Vincent Hughes, calling his colleagues “knuckleheads.”