Searching for a solution in Chester
There was more than a little irony – and a ton of sadness – as hundreds of people gathered in Media Friday night.
They were there to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Hundreds rallied and marched to bring attention to the epidemic of gun violence that is sweeping the nation.
Included in the throng were members of several community organizations in Chester, as well as Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland.
No one had to remind them of the meaning of the day.
In Chester, most every day can be National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Earlier in the day Friday, Chester had another ugly episode in its long-running gun problem. The city is often rocked by gun violence. In some neighborhoods, it is described as nearly a part of everyday life.
But even by those standards, Friday was a bad day.
In a matter of just a few hours, the city was shaken by no less than four shootings, including one that took the life of a 16-yearold kid walking to school at Chester High.
Zion Abdullah was described as a “good kid.” It is not yet known why he was shot. All four shootings happened in broad daylight. In one of them, police fired shots at a suspect after he allegedly leveled a gun at them as they arrived on the scene.
Mayor Kirkland, who knows a little bit about violence and his city’s struggle to stem it, clearly was shaken by the events of the day.
“It was the most difficult day in my experience,” Kirkland said. The mayor lamented something taken for granted in many towns, but which is no longer the case in Chester.
Parents see their children off to school each morning, secure in the knowledge that they almost assuredly will return home safely that night.
Friday’s shooting in Chester belies that “given.”
“I take my own grandchildren to school with the expectation of picking them up and returning home,” Kirkland said. “It’s unfortunate how your child leaves the home to go to school and doesn’t return.”
There have been 13 homicides in Delaware County so far in 2017. All but one of them have occurred in Chester. There have been no less than 50 people shot in the city in the first five months and change this year.
Friday night, Kirkland and several community organizations joined those seeking an answer to gun violence in Media. It’s just a few miles from Chester. It might as well be another world.
What happened in Chester was much on the minds of those gathered. None more so than the city’s mayor.
“This has been a very, very difficult day for myself and the residents of the city of Chester,” Kirkland told the crowd. “It’s been a day that things happened so fast and so brief. A young person lost their life on their way to school in the way of gun violence. It was tough for me to go to that crime scene and witness what had happened.
“It was very painful taking into effect if it was my child on their way to school; going to school to be the very best individual that God made him or her to be. He or she is lying there cold dead … Four acts of gun violence acts between the periods of 7:45 a.m. and 1 p.m.
“It boggles me how officers work so hard to take 10 guns off the street and before nightfall 30 more guns are back on the street,” Kirkland continued. “Something has to be done. There is a movement going forth on the opioids epidemic. Folks from all walks of life said we are going to fight the scourge with all our might. Many of our young people are dying. My hope is to take it and understand there is another epidemic. We can fight them both at the same time. That epidemic is gun violence throughout the country. It’s easy for our younger people 14, 15, or 16 to get a gun. Something is terribly wrong.” He’s right about that. There is at least some help being considered in Harrisburg. State Rep. Jamie Santora, R-163, of Upper Darby, is sponsoring a bill to toughen background checks. State Sen. Tom Killion, R-9, of Edgmont, is attacking the problem of those facing protection from abuse orders being able to keep – or too easily gain access – to their firearms.
The truth is neither of those will quell the gun problem in Chester.
At Friday’s afternoon press conference in Chester to recap a violent day, Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan reiterated his pledge to fight gun violence in the city.
A week earlier he had been in the city to roll out “Operation Safe Streets,” announcing that Pennsylvania state police would be brought in to help the undermanned Chester police in patrolling city streets.
And he stressed another recurring theme as well, even as he noted the troopers are there to supplement city police. He again urged residents to step up and help police by reporting what they see and cooperating in investigations.
In Chester, they no longer need marches or rallies. They need a solution. And soon. Before another 16-year-old walking to school loses his life.