Not much to say, really, but in Cumbria recently a man went berserk with a gun and killed a dozen people.  The nation beat it’s collective chest in anguish.

The other day, I posted about Northern Ireland and the US, comparing and contrasting the loss of life.  I ended by saying,

Why is America like this?

Why do they put up with such shit?

Well now, in some  news that in all probability no-one in the U.K. will know about at all, part of Philadelphia has had enough of the shit and been declared a State of Emergency by the mayor.  It’s a part of the big city called Chester where 11 people have been shot this month alone!  (Chester is about as big as Bridgwater here in the UK to put it in context). The full story is here and here’s the news report.

Quoting directly from the article,

Chester, Pa. – June 19, 2010 (WPVI) — In response to the ongoing deadly violence, the city of Chester is declaring a State of Emergency.

At a press conference Saturday afternoon, Mayor Wendell Butler declared he had enough and it is time to take action.

“We need law enforcement to step up, to vigorously go after any violator; our number one priority is to get guns off the street then drugs and try to make our neighborhoods as safe as we possibly can,” Butler said.

The State of Emergency took effect 9:00 p.m. Saturday.

From 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. each day in the five areas of the city, no person without a legitimate reason is allowed in any public street or place, no assembling of three or more people is allowed without a permit, and all vacation and personal days by members of the Chester Police Department have been cancelled immediately.

The State of Emergency is set to last five days.

Mayor Butler says he is going to City Council to ask for an extra 30 days.

Even in this tough economic time, he says money is no object.

“I’m not worried about money, if I have to break the bank, I’ll break the bank,” Butler said, “The residents and visitors to my town are just vitally important to me, you can’t put a dollar amount on that.”

The State of Emergency is being issued following another homicide that took place overnight.

One commenter on the story says,

WHY are the 5 sections of the city declared an State of Emergency, what about the areas in buck men villages: meadow lane, keystone road, pine lane, clover lane, 900 to the 1200 blocks, and highland ave. this is a war zone for violent’s and killings. I saw a man dead on a side walk with his brains all over. Does this sound normal to live like this? No but this is how people in buck men village live. If you pull up to your home and sit in car for a few minutes to say goodbye to your friend, you have guns put to your w…

..before he hit the 500 word limit.

But you get the gist of how bad it is, and how lucky we are in the UK not to have to put up with such continuous absolute shite in our lives.

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