State of Emergency In The City

Tagged under: District 12, News

Anthony Franklin | September 29, 2022

In the words of Hip Hop Great Shawn Carter aka Jay Z, there’s a war going on outside nobody’s safe from. The Philadelphia Public League has produced some great players for decades players who have gone on to play in the NFL from schools such as Northeast, Germantown, Central, South Philly, George Washington, Simon Gratz, John Bartram, Imhotep, Overbrook, Mastbaum, Ben Franklin, Lincoln & Dobbins. Those schools cover the entire are of Philadelphia, some parts nicer than others. The unique thing is kids aren’t restricted to only attending their neighborhood school, they’re blessed to be able to attend schools in areas deemed safer, with more resources for them to obtain a better education. Unfortunately way too many times in the last few years athletes are now being gunned down before practice, after practice and now after games. Simon Gratz in the last few years have lost numerous athletes to gun violence, same for Northeast & Frankford. The shock and concern hits for a day or so then things go back to normal. In the Summer of 2021 just a week before the season began Northeast would be Senior WR Kyrie Isaac who had just left practice was in a shopping center parking lot with a female friend when he was ambushed, gunned down and ultimately killed. The young woman with him would also be wounded and pass away. The city was in shock and awe for a few days then the news went away.

The players and coaches on that team dealt with the trauma of losing a friend, a brother, a teammate the entire year. In the Summer of 2020 a Frankford player was gunned down in Overbrook, Angelo Walker was riding his bicycle when he was approached and gunned down. There are other examples of kids in the city who have been athletes yet fallen to the streets. Many were innocent victims who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time while others were targeted for association with people who are in the middle of beefs. Where does the issue lie? Some will blame the rap culture, others blame violent video games, some place the blame at lack of police, others blame the District Attorney for lack of prosecuting criminals, some say the Mayor has given up and is riding his last year out allowing chaos to erupt in the city. The common theme is blame is placed all around, finger pointing is at an all time high and guess who is suffering and bleeding tremendously, our children. There’s a time to point fingers and blame and right now we are in a STATE OF EMERGENCY with our youth being gunned down damn near daily. We can agree to disagree on politics, what candidate to elect into office, but one thing we must agree on is that our kids need to be safe and protected. Now as harsh as this may sound I believe athletes need to become stern in their positions. We all have friends who aren’t doing the right thing but as an athlete if you’re going to play ball you must be an athlete and leave those folks behind. In some cases athletes have been in music videos where there have been instances of rappers dissing other rappers and those words have been taken into street battles many times with gun violence. As Coach Prime has stated choose a side the streets or ball, you can’t have both or you risk putting your “brothers/coaches” at risk when the streets come looking for you. While you may not be in the streets being affiliated with street members makes you an equal target.

On Monday a 14 year old young boy was murdered just feet from a field where he was playing game we all love. A game that should be a safe haven from the outside world problems. Many of us learned the game to deter us from the street violence, the drugs, the bad influences and yet there was an empty seat at a dinner table, parents had to see their child breathless and lifeless on a table in a hospital. When is enough enough? Coaches are underpaid yet are responsible for running practices, sometimes come out of their pockets to pay for kids to eat, get a stipend for coaching the 4 months yet work all year long with coordinating non league games for the upcoming season, fundraising for new equipment/jerseys/uniforms, finding funding to take players on college recruiting trips during the offseason, networking with college coaches to build relationships so they have places for their players to continue their education/athletic careers. Now they have to police after practice to make sure their kids can get on SEPTA or to their vehicles and make it safely off school grounds after a SCRIMMAGE. 

I won’t touch on the issues in politics other than to say both parties share equal blame, but no blame is greater than the actual perpetrators who daily have no regards for human life. The humanity in humans has dwindled, there are no neighborhoods anymore. Just 20-25 years ago when I was a teenager we had actual neighborhoods that was supervised by neighbors, if you were short on something in your house you could knock on the door and a neighbor would give whatever you needed to complete a meal or an outfit. In today’s time there are no more neighborhoods we live in stranger-hoods where there aren’t relationships between neighbors.

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