A Crime-writer's view on Crime

Editor — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:33:34 +0000

The Crime Line: A writer of crime novels blogs on real crime. Why not? Fiction is merely the tribute art pays to the ineffably fissured weirdness of reality.

The developing story here in Pennsylvania is that the Philadelphia police force is getting shot up like the French Navy. Five cops shot since September, with one fatality, but that being a particularly gruesome one caught on security tape.
   Spates of gun violence in Philly are nothing new…the town had the highest murder rate among big cities in the nation in 2006 and is on a pace to outdo that this year, but since most of that violence is what local quarterback Donovan McNabb would describe as "black on black crime," the Pennsylvania Legislature, dominated by representatives from white, upstate PA (sometimes described as "Baja West Virginia") are not inclined to do much about it, being much more concerned about the National Rifle Association's election endorsements than they are about bullets flying around the hood.
   With cops getting shot, however, the politicians are being galvanized into action. Four bills were introduced that might have an effect on gun violence in the Big Cheesesteak. One would force people to report lost or stolen handguns, another would allow local municipalities to enact their own gun laws, a third would prohibit Pennsylvanians from purchasing more than one handgun a month, and the final one would impose a mandatory twenty-year sentence on anyone who shoots at a police officer.
   Our own beloved Governor Ed Rendell, a former mayor in Philly and the nation's most popular slightly obese state politician (Actual observed bumper sticker-"Our Governor Can Eat More Than Your Governor") went to the Legislature himself to plead for these bills to be released from committee, with mixed results. PA's politicos wrapped themselves in the Second Amendment and declared that:

   Forcing people to actually report lost or stolen handguns would place an unconstitutional burden on them, so that when a gun you bought turns up in a crack house in North Philly, you can still declare comfortably "Jeez, Your Honor, I must have misplaced that gol-durn thing."

   Letting Philadelphia enact its own gun legislation, so that Philadelphia police could actually start confiscating the thousands of illegal handguns in the city would be an impermissible intrusion on the rights of state politicians to not pass such laws.

   Limiting Pennsylvanians to the purchase of one handgun each month, or twelve per year, or six for each hand, if you want to put it that way, would seriously infringe on the self-defense rights of the citizens of the state, which can only apparently be assured by unrestricted handgun purchases on every day of the year except Christmas and the Fourth of July.

The last bill, mandating a twenty-year sentence for anyone shooting at a cop, assumes that someone pointing a weapon at a police officer, an individual in what could minimally be described as a high-stress mindset, will (1) pause to think about the extra twenty years in prison shooting at the cop will earn him and (2) plan to miss, in order to just get the twenty years instead of the life sentence hitting the cop will get him. It doesn't take a psychic to predict that this law will not prevent a single cop from being shot at. It will however, someday earn a twenty-year sentence for some guy whose door gets broken down in the middle of the night by a SWAT team with the wrong address and who is dumb or disoriented enough to take a shot at them, and lucky enough to live afterwards.

This useless legislation will be passed with alacrity. Big Ed will sign it (what other choice does he have? To be in favor of shooting cops?) and the members of the Legislature will congratulate themselves for addressing the problem of cop shootings with such fervor that an impartial observer might think that prior to their acting, it was legal to shoot at police officers in Pennsylvania.

Richard Cahill is the author of the extraordinarily fresh new "crime novel" Truth or Bare, from Kunati Books (9781601640161).

"Cahill has introduced an enticing character in Speed; he’s flawed, funny, and apparently hell-bent on making sure his life never goes completely right. Let’s hope this debut novel isn’t the last we hear from him." — Booklist Magazine, Mary Frances Wilkens

Copyright, Richard Cahill.

Guest Posted by Derek Armstrong, Author of The Game and The Last Troubadour.

Author Richard Cahill's Official Blog, Author of the sensational "Truth or Bare" ISBN 9781601640161

A Crime-writer's view on Crime