It’s that time of year again. With summer’s arrival, people flow into the
streets of America’s poorest urban neighborhoods. Temperatures rise and
tempers get shorter. Old beefs between corner drug crews start to
simmer again as warm weather brings more addicts to the neighborhood,
sparking territorial disputes over the swelling black market. Violence
can come to the city in many ways, but it comes, like clockwork, when
the weather warms up.
In the past month alone, Philadelphia has seen an 86 percent spike
in homicides, bringing the year’s tally to 173. Nearly thirty people
were shot in the city over Memorial Day weekend alone. In Chicago, a
rash of summer gang violence has the city in a state of emergency, as
its homicide total soars 50 percent over last year’s. Some in the press
have labeled it “worse than Afghanistan.”
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