Gun Violence Doesn't Just Happen On Its Own

A Philadelphia resident's response to an oped about the city's war-zone violence rate urges local politicians to stop ignoring the systemic root causes

Guest Contributor | Hakim Fulmore

In the recent opinion piece entitled “Reducing gun violence should be the No. 1 priority for all Philadelphia leaders in 2022”, Philadelphia Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson (District 2) failed to mention the prevailing issue of racism/white supremacy in Philadelphia, how it operates and how it intersects with poverty in the city and throughout America. As recent data from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office illustrates, there’s clearly an overlap between the pockets of violence and the pockets of poverty …

Yet, Councilman Johnson failed to offer any tangible or practical solutions to help reduce gun violence. Nor did he offer any insight into how the Covid-19 pandemic has aided in the explosion of that gun violence over the past two years …

As founder and Chair of City Council’s Special Committee on Gun Violence and Vice-chair of Council’s Public Safety Committee, he and others in Philadelphia’s city hall would know more than anyone that gun violence is a symptom of a larger socio-economic problem. Unfortunately, as far as this recent op-ed is concerned, Johnson doesn’t appear to understand that.

Philadelphia, as we know, has the highest big city (over 1 million population) poverty rate in the United States.

Black people in Philadelphia own just 6 percent of businesses with employees in the city, and are 30 percent of non-employer businesses (despite being 44 percent of the overall city population), according to the most recent analysis from the Pew Charitable Trusts …

Philadelphia County has the highest poverty rate in Pennsylvania and it is surrounded by the wealthiest counties in the state: Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties, places that are not experiencing violence epidemics …

Philadelphia County is home to the most inmates serving life sentences without parole (slow death row) in the state and America. It is also home to the most inmates on death row. 

These facts and many others illustrate how much Philly is a crimogenic (“Black-on-Black violence”) factory that manufactures social disorder. Gun violence can’t be stopped unless it’s addressed - and cut off - at the root. That would consist of tackling the corporations, government agencies and systems which participate in the daily exploitation and oppression of the city’s Black community. 

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP), for example, is a multi-billion dollar operation that has totally handicapped the Black community especially under the regime of outgoing Superintendent William Hite. It continues to deny its majority-Black student population a quality education, as we see from the school district’s low reading and math proficiency rates …

During his 10-year tenure, he outsourced at least a third of the district’s operations to White-run charter schools. 

Large Fortune 500 companies based in Philadelphia like Comcast, and major global academic and research organizations such as the University of Pennsylvania continue to exploit the city and refuse to pay their fair share of taxes (despite Mayor Jim Kenney running for mayor in 2015 on a campaign to compel “PILOTs” or payments in lieu of taxes from those academic institutions).

Taxes in Philadelphia clearly discriminate based on race …

As the Washington Center for Equitable Growth notes …

Our central finding is that the average home’s assessment ratio (assessed value divided by market value) is 10 percent to 13 percent higher for a Black- or Hispanic-owned property than for a White-owned property. This means that Black and Hispanic residents receive higher property tax bills for homes of similar value, resulting in minority residents paying a higher property tax rate for the same set of public goods and services. Our assessment of this dynamic in Philadelphia captures this inequality in property taxes.

In addition, the Philadelphia wage tax since 1983 has operated on an apartheid scale. Since 1983 White suburban commuters have been subsidized by Black urban Philly residents. Black urban Philly residents are taxed at a higher rate than White suburban commuters while earning less than them. This continues to exacerbate the city’s wage gap, as captured by a 2020 report from the Economy League …

Given the scale of economic oppression experienced by Black people in Philadelphia, it is past time that so-called “leaders” like Johnson stop fooling the people. There are real issues that have led us to this very violent moment. Let’s address the real issues … and not just the smokescreen.