A police officer patrols the block near a house as they investigate an active shooting situation, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019, in the Nicetown neighborhood of Philadelphia.
Matt Rourke / AP Photo
Will shooting of 6 officers spur action on guns?
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Russ Walker
Matt Rourke / AP Photo
A police officer patrols the block near a house as they investigate an active shooting situation, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019, in the Nicetown neighborhood of Philadelphia.
Slavery: It’s the original sin of European colonialism and of the United States itself. That’s the takeaway from The New York Times’s 1619 Project, an ongoing series of reports and essays about how the institution of slavery continues to define the entire fabric of our nation. The pieces published by The Times on Sunday are damning.
I imagine many readers — white readers like myself — will struggle with the underlying 1619 Project’s thesis that chattel slavery – technically eliminated more than 150 years ago – lies at the heart of 20th and 21st century transportation policy, the criminal justice system and the very structure of our democratic institutions. Interestingly, the current New Yorker has a powerful piece about racism and what it requires to be antiracist. Reading it helped me process the 1619 pieces.
If you take the time to read these works, I’d love to hear your thoughts. For me, it underscores the importance of knowing history to understand the present. —Russ Walker, PA Post editor
‘This is a stain on humanity’
Matt Rourke / AP Photo
A police officer patrols the block near a house as they investigate an active shooting situation, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019, in the Nicetown neighborhood of Philadelphia.
Gov. Tom Wolf gathered a large group of state agency leaders and legislators on Friday to tout an executive order on gun violence. WITF’s Brett Sholtis and PA Post‘s Ed Mahon filed this report. Here’s a video of the Wolf signing. The “stain” quote above was in remarks by state Sen. Anthony Williams, a Philadelphia Democrat.
The shooting in Philly that left six police officers wounded was cited by Wolf and others as an example for the need to ban military-style firearms. WHYY took a look at whether any of the gun control measures being discussed would have actually stopped the 36-year-old man who fired at police from obtaining his arsenal of weapons. Meanwhile, the Inky obtained a surveillance camera’s video of the police raid and subsequent stand-off, helping the paper craft a minute-by-minute account.
WURD radio’s Charles D. Ellison took to the pages of the Philadelphia Citizen to remind readers that gun control means more than banning certain weapons or pumping more money into the police budget. The neighborhood where the shooting happened – Nicetown – has high rates of poverty, food insecurity and public health problems. City leaders, Ellison writes, need to recognize that gun violence can’t be eliminated without addressing the totality of Nicetown’s problems.
Best of the rest
Reid R. Frazier / StateImpact Pennsylvania
President Donald Trump speaking to workers at Shell’s Beaver County ethane cracker August 13, 2019.
- Credit to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for digging up this nugget about President Trump’s visit last week to the Shell “cracker” plant in Beaver County. The large crowd of union workers who turned out for the president had a very important reason to be there: They were told that attending the Trump event was voluntary, but they would only be paid for the day if they showed up.
- LNP has a deeply reported piece on the network of surveillance cameras quietly built up in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Currently used to read license plates, the story notes that the technology could be used to recognize human faces. That’s not science fiction fantasy, it turns out, as this Guardian story about Detroit makes clear.
- India’s efforts to exert even more control over Jammu and Kashmir prompted a protest over the weekend in Philadelphia. Billy Penn has a photo essay on the rally, which it said drew 150 people to Penn’s Landing on Saturday.
- Give Pa. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman some social media props. A Huntingdon woman tweeted a question: How could she get Fetterman to officiate at her wedding? He saw the tweet, and the rest is history … or will be on Sept. 30 when the wedding bells ring. KDKA has a short piece.
- Editor’s Note: The subject line of Friday’s Context used some tabloid newspaper shorthand that might have looked like a typo to some readers. “Pols,” in this case, was short for “politicians,” and referred to the many Pennsylvania politicians who urged action on gun reform in the wake of a shootout that injured 6 Philadelphia police officers last Tuesday. The author of the headline (yours truly) apologizes for any confusion.
