..sounds like the beginning stages of gentrification.
You don't know.
Philly is where gentrification was invented. The "Reform" Democrats came into power in the 1950's, on a platform based on "revitalizing" the city: Richardson Dilworth, Joe Clark, Edmund Bacon, Albert M Greenfield, etc.
They started with the Independence Mall and Society Hill projects. That area was nothing but waterfront dives and skid row before that. They progressed from there to the Penn Center and Market Street East projects.
The city built concentration camps like the infamous East Falls Housing Project to housed displaced families in an Amerikkkan version of Ethnic Cleansing.
Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania was gobbling up West Philly. Temple University cloned that act in North Philly. Drexel Institute got squeezed to the North by Penn toward East Powelton.
The problem was that East Village wasn't a slum; for that matter, neither were some parts of West Philly around U. of P. So crime had to be "promoted" to devalue the properties.
.........
In case you are wondering, NO! Black people did not take this lying down. Every one from Cecil B. Moore and Rev. Leon Sullivan to the Black Muslims, the Black Panthers, and John Africa organized for self determination in the Black Community. The cities response was to appoint fascist bigot Frank Rizzo as the new Police Commissioner. He went to war against the Black Panthers and MOVE, while honing police corruption into an art form. Yes, before Rizzo, police in Philadelphia drove red cars, walked beats, and rode horses downtown. Rizzo brought SWAT to Philly, invited Huey Newton to a "Showdown" at high noon on Broad Street, etc.
The scroll bar has started shrinking - that's the Colin Powell warning. I gotta cut this rant off.
Fact is, Philly isn't as bad as some people in this thread would like you to believe. They are just buying into and re-amplifying the media hype. Before some Simp mentions 400+, let me just say that the situation was worse in the sixties, and there were more cop killings in Philly in 1777 than there were in 2007.
Main Liners have always hated the townies, and Philly is a Democratic ghetto surrounded by the Republican 'burbs.
The odds is they're a straw purchaser and all the ATF/FBI has to do is send that person a letter in the mail stating that they're under investigation for gun trafficking.I can guaranteed you that would scare the straw purchaser silly because they see buying guns and selling them on the street as extra money and not worth serving a very long time in prison.Add cameras in high crime areas that actually work.Add more cops on the street(make the block hot).Execute warrants etc.These pigs are just lazy and don't give a fuck about black people(the majority of the murder victims).Like I said....Fuck the Police!
