for BigTrial.net
Mayor Jim Kenney should make a bet with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
Kenney could offer a couple of Philly cheesesteaks to Chicago's mayor, who could counter with a couple of Chicago hot dogs.
The bet: which city will deserve bragging rights this year for being America's murder capital?
The exact murder count in Chicago depends on who's doing the math. Today, the Chicago Tribune reported that as of March 15th, Chicago has 107 murders so far this year, leading the nation, while the rival Chicago Sun-Times put the total body count for that same day at 109.
The national runner-up for most murders committed in America -- the city of Brotherly Love. As of March 15th, according to the official tally kept by the Philadelphia Police Department, Philly has hit 102 murders so far this year. That's despite Chicago having more than 5 1/2 times our population.
It's a competition that Mayor Kenney probably doesn't want to talk about, much less win. So today on Twitter, instead of discussing the record murder rate, Mayor Jim "MaskUp/LockDown" Kenney instead marked the one-year anniversary of Philadelphia's "first restrictions on non-essential activity," which as Kenney defines it, includes restaurants, bars, churches and schools.
"Philly, we want to pause with you today to reflect and look to the future," Kenney wrote about the 3,200 lives lost to COVID-19. He didn't mention when, if ever, does he plan to give up his emergency powers and end his unconstitutional lockdown.
Naturally, critics flocked to the mayor's Twitter account.
"How will you be celebrating this milestone," Bill Anthony Rosier asked, above a photo of the Philadelphia Police Department's official body count. "Amazing job!"
"How many kids will get shot today, Jimbo," chimed in Nick@PhillyRepub90.
More than a few cops also noticed that while Kenney took the time to reflect on the people who died of COVID, a few days earlier, he apparently forgot that March 13th was the one-year anniversary of the murder of Corporal James O'Connor.
O'Connor was shot to death while attempting to serve an arrest warrant for murder on a gun-toting, drug-dealing gang member who got multiple passes out of jail from District Attorney Larry Krasner.
That's one thing Philadelphia and Chicago have in common along with their sky-high murder rates -- their top prosecutors, D.A. Krasner and Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, were both elected thanks to a total cash outlay from George Soros of nearly $4 million.
Meanwhile, on Twitter today, D.A. Krasner, the great reformer, was touting his Worker Protection Unit, and inviting workers around the city to report to the D.A.'s office any alleged crimes against employees.
"All workers deserve to have their rights and dignity protected," Krasner tweeted. "And employers need to understand . . . that the [D.A.'s office Worker Protection Unit takes crimes against workers very seriously."
"I would like to report the 100 murders that have occurred under your utterly failed watch," responded TheWeekDay," before posting "#Vega2020."
And over at the Philadelphia Police Department, the Special Projects Unit was announcing a sneaker give-away on March 23rd, from 2 to 6 p.m.
"I look forward to seeing you, family, friends and community members 'strolling in your new kicks,'" wrote Staff Inspector Jacqueline L. Bailey Davis in an email to all police personnel.
Philadelphia, which had 499 murders last year, is up 29% over that rate this year. That puts the city on a record pace for nearly 644 murders in 2021.
Chicago had 774 murders last year, but this year, but Philadelphia is giving them a run for their money. In January, Chicago had 51 murders while Philadelphia was right behind with 50 murders, an all-time record for January.
In racking up 499 murders last year Philadelphia had the highest homicide total since 1990, the height of the crack epidemic, when 500 people were murdered.
And if it wasn't for the slow pace of the Montgomery County Coroner's Office, Philadelphia would have surely tied the all-time record for murders last year.
On Nov. 7, 2020, Philadelphia police found Benjamin Brown, 43, lying on the highway at 3100 Custer Street. Brown, who had facial lacerations and stab wounds, was transported to Abington Hospital, where he died from his wounds on Nov. 26, 2020.
A post-mortem examination by the Montgomery County Coroner's office found the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and a stab wound to the left thigh.
Brown would have been Homicide No. 500 for 2020 but the Montgomery County Coroner didn't issue a final death certificate until Feb. 5th of this year. On Feb. 23rd, the Montgomery County coroner formally notified the Philadelphia Police Department's Homicide Unit about Brown's death.
Kelley Cofrancisco, a spokesperson for Montgomery County, explained that 8 to 12 weeks is standard for reporting "a pending to final cause of death."
"In this case, the coroner issued a pending death certificate so they could gather the information regarding the assault," Cofrandisco said. "More importantly, they [the coroner's office] had to connect the death to the assault by means of autopsy, histological examination (microscope slides) and neuropathology examination (brain and central nervous system)."
At the Philadelphia Police Department's Homicide Unit, Captain Jason Smith said that Brown's death has already been included in this year's homicide total, not last year's.
"It's classified [as a homicide] when it's received" according to FBI guidelines, Captain Smith said. "There is no going back in time. When we get it [the report of a homicide] we assign it, and we investigate it," Smith said about Brown's death.
That's the way they always do it in homicide, Smith said. In 2020, a total of 13 of those 499 homicides reported last year actually occurred in previous years.
I asked Captain Smith about how Chicago reports homicides. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, their homicide rate is higher because the newspaper includes homicides committed on expressways and killings in self-defense.
The Chicago Tribune, however, apparently doesn't count either category in their official homicide totals.
Captain Smith explained how the Philly P.D. does it.
Any homicide committed within the city's limits, including all highways and interstates, are included in the city's homicide totals, Smith said. But Philadelphia doesn't include killings in self-defense in their homicide totals.